New DVDs

Two very different TV series vie for most popular at your library in February.  JUSTIFIED (season 2; season 1 is also available) is the dramatic series about law enforcement set in both Harlan and Lexington, starring Timothy Oliphant.   

DOWNTON ABBEY is the recent darling of the BBC, an upstairs/downstairs sort of program showing life in a great manor house at the beginning of World War I.  The program, which won both Emmy awards and Golden Globes, is one of the most popular offerings of MASTERPIECE CLASSIC and continues with season 2 currently on PBS.

Homer the Library Cat / Reeve Lindberg

When a quietloving cat takes an unexpected tour of the neighborhood, he's in for some rude surprises--until he discovers the purrfect solution.
Homer is a very quiet cat. He lives in a very quiet house with a very quiet lady. But one day, while the lady is away, Homer hears a very loud sound, and out the window he goes Poor Homer just wants to find a spot where he can curl up and be quiet, but his hometown is a surprisingly loud place. Will Homer find a bit of calm in all the noise? And will he ever find his quiet lady? Reeve Lindbergh's cheerful, rhyming text pairs with Anne Wilsdorf's charming illustrations for a story-lover's ode to everyone's favorite quiet place.

Love, Mouserella / David Stein

Mouserella misses her grandmouse, so she writes her a letter. At first she can't think of anything to say, but once she starts, the news begins to flow - she found a cat whisker at the zoo, she taught her ladybug to fetch, she made shadow puppets with Dadmouse during a blackout - and just like that, the events of the past few days come to vivid life in her letter, as does her love for Grandmouse.

Children will enjoy reading the story from top to bottom, like a real letter, and Mouserella's funny drawings and lively adventures will spark their imaginations and just might inspire them to start a correspondence of their own.

(Editorial comment: This is one of the most charming new picture books we've received in months.)

The Queen of Kentucky / Alecia Whitaker (Young Adult)

Fourteen-year-old Kentucky girl Ricki Jo Winstead, who would preferred to be called Ericka, thank you very much, is eager to shed her farmer's daughter roots and become part of the popular crowd at her small town high school. She trades her Bible for Seventeen magazine, buys new "sophisticated" clothes and somehow manages to secure a tenuous spot at the cool kids table. She's on top of the world, even though her best friend and the boy next door Luke says he misses "plain old Ricki Jo."

Caught between being a country girl and wannabe country club girl, Ricki Jo begins to forget who she truly is: someone who doesn't care what people think and who wouldn't let a good-looking guy walk all over her. It takes a serious incident out on Luke's farm for Ricki Jo to realize that being a true friend is more important than being popular.