Are we still doing passwords? asks Our Hero’s best friend. “It makes things more interesting, don’t you think?” I say.

“J just saw a ghost in the kitchen,” she tells me. “I think things are plenty interesting.”

With Halloween coming up, we must look at Karma Moon, Ghost Hunter. This chapter book by Melissa Savage is in the Pine Bush Area Public Library’s Children’s Section. Melissa wrote Lemons, which I reviewed in September.

Karma Moon’s father runs Totally Rad Productions which make films or documentaries and Karma is the kid who answers the yellow phone on the wall and tries to sound like a grown-up receptionist. They are working to get enough money to pay the rent on their dumpy New York City apartment when Netflix calls and wants them to do a documentary series on the ghosts in the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. Out they go, with the production team of Big John and the Faz and Karma’s best friend, Maggie, called “Mags.” They meet a whole lot of weird people out there, including Mr. Plum, the new hotel manager, Ruby Red the not-to-be-trusted hotel maid, and a psychic named Madam Drusilla. Then the paranormal research team shows up and things get interesting.

Somebody leaves the Ouija Board open and the ghosts flood in. But the ghost who has been there for years, hoping to talk to someone, is still trying. She’s the one that Mags sees in the kitchen. There are other things going on, too, but I won’t give them away. What drives me nuts is Karma’s endless list of irrational fears. She calls them “What Ifs”, and they are littered all over the book. Also littered all over are her pictures of a crystal ball called Crystal
Mystic which gives answers like “Your spirit guides are on a lunch break. Try again later.”

This book is not to be taken seriously. It is set in the hotel where Stephen King wrote The Shining, but Karma Moon, Ghost Hunter won’t keep you up all night, with terrible fears. Giggling helplessly, maybe, but not feeling wracked with fears. So, try it, just in time for Halloween and find out who that mysterious ghostly woman really is, and why she is important. Even password, you will be surprised.

I love Lemons. I mean, I love the children’s chapter book, Lemons by Melissa Savage, that we have at the Pine Bush Area Public Library. Our girl was named Lemonade Liberty Witt by her hippie mother. And her Mom told her, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” But Lemonade (or Lem) is having a hard time doing that.

Her mother has died of cancer, and Lemonade has had to leave San Francisco and go live with her grandfather in Willow Creek, California. “A tiny town with tall pines instead of skyscrapers.” To make it worse, “They say Willow Creek is the Bigfoot capital of the world.” (Makes you think of Pine Bush, which attracts so many flying saucers.)

Lemonade is miserable, angry and suffering from culture shock. Grandad says mostly “Mmmh-hhmmm” but then he buys a rainbow quilt for her, which looks a lot like the one she used to have at home. And he says, “One day at a time, Lem. Sometimes it’s one moment at a time.”

For a long time, the only friend Lemonade has is a nerdy 11-year-old named Tobin Sky. He hands out his crumpled “business card,” reading “Bigfoot Detectives Inc. Handling all your Bigfoot needs since 1974.” Of course he gets teased to within an inch of his life, by all the “normal” kids, but he has a MISSION. And Toby needs a mission, because his father was supposed to have come home from Vietnam, but he did not get off the plane. No one knows where he is.

Our Heroes are trying to track down Bigfoot. A neighbor thinks she saw a tall figure with reddish-brown hair. They find what looks like a “nest” in the woods. Then they find the person who has been living there. Just when you think you know who or what the “Bigfoot” is— something else happens. I cannot tell you what. Will things work out? Will Lemon make lemonade? Will Toby make more than one friend? Is it all just human stuff, or will Bigfoot come out of the woods right when he’s needed? Read Lemons and find out.

I wish I could go back to the Grand Canyon in Arizona. I visited there when I was five years old, stood on the rim of the canyon, and looked across and down. If I could go there again, I would want to visit down, deep inside it. I know my knees would never last long enough to take me there. I am grateful that Jason Chin has written and illustrated the superb picture book, Grand Canyon. Find it in the non-fiction section of the Children’s Department, Pine Bush Area Public Library. Be prepared to be swept away.

The illustrations include a father and young daughter who are camping near one of the streams which feed into the Colorado River. With daybreak, they start their long hike up from the bottom to the top rim of the canyon. The Grand Canyon is roughly one mile deep, but you do not just walk up one mile to get out of it. Only Superman could get out like that, zip! It is a long haul to walk and climb and go up another level and then zig zag around and go up and back and forth some more. You pass different levels, some are dry and some are a bit moister, and all have plants and animals in them. Birds are in every picture and I remember seeing the black squirrels with the white tails.

To make a canyon, first there must be layers of mud and sand and sediments which make different kinds of rocks when they are compressed. They were laid down by the seas that covered the region. Later, much later, what we now call the Colorado River started to eat into the layers and cut through them. It is still doing that today.

Our girl sees “ripple marks preserved in the stone. Clues like these tell us what this place was like when the rock formed. They are like windows—into the past.” Turn the page and our girl is standing all alone on “mud from this tidal flat.” The moment passes and she and dad are still hiking through the canyon. She reaches towards a fossil trilobite. Suddenly she is holding her breath and floating in deep water.

Back on solid ground, she sees a fossil of a wing—and she is suddenly surrounded by “huge dragonflies with 8-inch wingspans.” She and dad hike up, up, up and she sees a clam shell in the rock, and she is once again holding her breath and floating in the sea, along with “up to forty species of sharks.” Not what I expect of the dry and rocky Grand Canyon!

This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever seen. The illustrations by Jason Chin are wonderful beyond my ability to tell you. See for yourself and use this book to Unearth A Story!

Finding Fire leaves me speechless. Well, almost. This picture book by Logan S. Kline is wonderful, and it has almost no words in it at all.

The first page reads, “Long before the secrets of fire had been discovered, people had to find fire. And if they lost it… if it went out…someone would need to search for more.”

The fire near the mouth of the cave has been put out by a terrible rainstorm. The cave family is arguing about who will go to search for new fire. The little boy with the wild red hair puts his hand up. When he crosses the river in front of their cave, you can tell which woman and man are his parents by their terrified faces.

Our hero has a bag, a piece of fur for warmth, and a spear. He trudges through a scary landscape complete with animals that want to eat him. He falls and hurts one leg, and then hears something. There is a baby wooly mammoth caught in a bog. Our boy holds out his spear, blunt end first, and the wooly mammoth wraps his trunk around it. Pull! Pull! Whew! Rescued!

They set off together. There is a thunderstorm and a wonderful picture of the lightning strike. Hurry to find something still burning next morning. Find it, go through a heck of a time getting it home. The picture of them in the river, swimming towards land has my heart in my throat. They win through, and there is fire in the hearth again. And the two friends, boy and baby mammoth, sit together in front of the blaze. Wonderful book! Find Finding Fire in the Children’s Department of the Pine Bush Area Public Library, in time for the Summer Reading Program called Unearth A Story.

Around New York State, Wooly Mammoth and Mastodon bones have been dug up. There was even a discovery, last year, in Scotchtown. See Mastodon bones in the local museums and in the New York State Museum in Albany. Dig deep and Unearth A Story.

An Irish Country Welcome by Patrick Taylor – June 2026

There is too much going on in Pine Bush Area Public Library’s copy of An Irish Country Welcome. There’s a talent show on July 5, 1969 in Ballybuckleboo. One of the characters in the book has a stroke, at the end of the show. Thank goodness there’s a doctor in the house.

Because this is in Northern Ireland, the “Troubles” really get going, that year, and they would go on for thirty years in real life. In the fiction books, Patrick Taylor downplayed the “troubles” until near the end of his series. He does not let them overwhelm Welcome.

Dr. Fingal O’Reilly and Dr. Barry Laverty hire a new man to join their medical practice. Dr. Sebastian Carson is always running off, as soon as work is over. Is he feckless and irresponsible, or does his family have a dark secret? Barry’s best friend, Jack Mills, want to marry a Catholic woman, and won’t that cause an explosion in the Protestant Mills family?

Dr. O’Reilly and his wife Kitty meet her unofficial niece to show her the Giant’s Causeway, on the Irish coast. Dr. Barry Laverty and his wife Sue are going to be parents but isn’t there always something going wrong?

Like I said, there is too much going on in An Irish Country Welcome. I read and reread it anyway, because I cannot look away. People in the book will tell you that “a baby brings its own welcome.” And this series of books is very welcoming. Come back to the village of Ballybucklebo in time for the talent show. You will be glad you did.

With all the shenanigans going on in the tiny village of Ballybucklebo, in Northern Ireland, I am surprised the doctors have any time to practice medicine. It is 1967 and the Grand National Horse Race is being televised from England. Mrs. Auchinleck, the doctor’s housekeeper, has second sight and knows which horse is going to win. She normally would not bet, using her power, but knows that someone in the village is going to need a large amount of money, very soon. (That second sight again.) She treats it as a duty, and puts her winnings away until needed. An Irish Country Practice by Patrick Taylor, is a very busy book.

Dr. Fingal O’Reilly keeps wondering, is the money needed by Eileen who is ill and is a single mother with three children? By Anne whose lung trouble may turn out to be cancer? By that arch-schemer Donal Donnelly who, in trying to support his growing family, has been caught poaching pheasants out of season? Dr. O’Reilly has to sew up Donal’s cut hand at 2 in the morning, after Donal is nabbed by the local constable.

Dr. O’Reilly’s brother Lars is allergic to the puppy that his girlfriend gave him. Lars is no fool. He invites O’Reilly and his wife Kitty to see the dog, and of course, Kitty says they will take the puppy. Fingal O’Reilly is stuck with a new dog. Fortunately, his old dog, Arthur Guinness, starts to train the pup immediately. That will be a happy ending.

We’re not sure there will be a happy ending when another doctor, Barry Laverty, lets it out that he isn’t sure about having children. His fiancée, Sue, does not appreciate hearing him blurt out ‘Why anybody, anybody in their right mind would have a brood of bloody rug rats is utterly beyond me.’ Although, he does have a good reason to say it. But is their engagement over?

Well, you’ll just have to go to Ireland to-woops, I mean you will have to pick up Pine Bush Library’s copy of An Irish Country Practice and find out. And keep an eye open for who gets that wad of cash, from the horse racing. And why it turns out to be a very good thing, indeed. Is it the luck of the Irish?

April is the right month for Dark Cloud Strong Breeze. April is the month for rain and wind. Susan Patron wrote the verses, and Peter Catalanotto painted the pictures in this children’s book from Pine Bush Area Public Library. Put on your raincoat, before you turn the pages. You’re going to get wet.

Daddy has locked his keys in the car, and there is a storm coming on. The background of the pictures is in black, white, gray and tan, and shows the line of businesses, including a drycleaners where Daddy and the little girl have been. Next are paint and wallpaper, the market and the important locksmith. Why Daddy does not go to the locksmith and offer to pay, I do not know. It is the little girl, in a red raincoat, who has to open negotiations.

Will the locksmith help her? “Yes, says Locksmith, clicka-me clong/ If you get a guard, both brave and strong.” Meanwhile, there is a German shepherd, getting into the neighbor’s garbage can. Dog will help if the girl provides a “shelter, dry and warm.” She goes to the market to get boxes to make a shelter, and asks help from the grocer who is having a mouse problem. She talks to a cat, and then a butterfly, and the only one who does not ask for something is the butterfly. The center of each picture, including the dancing butterfly, is in color. Then the rain comes down.

Everybody gets what they bargained for, grocer, cat, dog and locksmith, who ends up with the German shepherd guarding his store. The locksmith helps out, and “The car gets unlocked, jangle-me jome/ The car gets unlocked, and we drive home.” Just when you think it’s happily ever after, “Dark cloud strong breeze/Oops! Daddy’s looking for his other keys.”

Our girl is on top of the problem, because she has a house key on a string around her neck. Her father would really be in trouble without her! So read this dancing poem with pictures, and get out your umbrella.

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! There are several books about pirates in the Adult Services non-fiction section of the Pine Bush Area Library. The more I read of David Cordingly’s book, the more I want to read. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates flows right along. David Cordingly worked at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England for twelve years. He organized the exhibition, “Pirates: Fact and Fiction” which was terribly popular.

Cordingly’s first chapter is “Wooden Legs and Parrots.” He talks about R.L. Stevenson’s most famous book. “The effect of Treasure Island on our perception of pirates cannot be overestimated. Stevenson linked pirates forever with maps, schooners, tropical islands and one-legged seamen with parrots on their shoulders.”

The reality is not as much fun. In “Plundering the Treasure Forts” find “…the bands of privateers and adventurers who came to be known as the buccaneers. Driven out of their inland hunting grounds on Hispaniola by Spanish soldiers, the uncouth men who lived there… migrated to the north coast of Hispaniola. There they were joined by a mixed bunch of runaway slaves, deserters, escaped criminals, and religious refugees.”

Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, Henry Morgan, Calico Jack and the horrible Bartholomew Roberts and others are found throughout the book, and some have chapters all their own. Anne Bonny and Mary Read, and the Irish Grace O’Malley are written about in “Women Pirates and Pirates’ Women.” That chapter also talks about “the Chinese pirate Mrs. Cheng, whose fleets of ships ruled the South China Sea in the early years of the nineteenth century.” There’s more here than I expected.

Other chapters include “Into Action Under the Pirate Flag,” “Storms, Shipwrecks and Life at Sea,” “Pirate Islands and Other Haunts” and the gruesome “Torture, Violence and Marooning.” I could not finish that chapter. Eventually it comes to “Hunting Down the Pirates” and it grinds to a halt. It isn’t pretty and it isn’t fun.

David Cordingly writes in his “Afterword” that “The fact is that we want to believe in the world of the pirates as it has been portrayed in the adventure stories, the plays and the films over the years. We want the myths, the treasure maps, the buried treasure, the walking the plank, the resolute pirate captains with their cutlasses and earrings, and the seamen with their wooden legs and parrots. We prefer to forget…the desperate plight of men shipwrecked on hostile coasts. For most of us the pirates will always be romantic outlaws living far from civilization on some distant sunny shore.”

Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! Drink and the devil have done for the rest. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!