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HPL Kids

The Kidzone has programs galore as well as books, movies, and other cool stuff. Read our blog below for more information and check out our upcoming events to get an idea of what's happening at the Kidzone! Our main phone number is 205.444.7830.

Recent Book Reviews

Horten's Incredible Illusions: Magic, Mystery & Another Very Strange Adventure
Lula Bell on Geekdom, Freakdom & the Challenges of Bad Hair
A Mutiny in Time
Starry River of the Sky
Pickle: The (Formerly) Anonymous Prank Club of Fountain Point Middle School
Iron Hearted Violet
Jake and Lily
Paris Pan Takes the Dare
Me and the Pumpkin Queen
Read All About It!
The Boy on Cinnamon Street
Nerd Camp
The Classroom
Smells Like Dog
Mission Unstoppable
On the Road to Mr. Mineo's
The Mark of Athena
A Whole Lot of Lucky
Alien on a Rampage
One for the Murphys

More of our favorite books on GoodReads »

Kidzone Blog

The Sounds of Food

November is the month of delicious food.  Think about it.  There's football tailgate paties.  There's Thanksgiving.  There's Thanksgiving leftovers.  And there are plenty of yummy treats in the Kid Zone music collection, too!  

Perfect Pair #4

This month's pair is a couple of four-legged war heroes.  But they're just the front line.  Check the blog again on November 10, 2014 for more military canines.  Now let's meet November's Perfect Pair.  

Waiting for the New Elephant & Piggie Book Is Not Easy

Because you know it's going to be hilarious.  And, though you've read every single other book Mo Willems has ever written, you know you won't be able to predict the direction the story will take.  Plus the newest Elephant & Piggie title is actually called Waiting Is Not Easy!  Piggie has a surprise for Gerald, but he is going to have to wait for it. And wait. And wait some more.... Oh, the exquisite agony!

Find all of the Elephant & Piggie books in the Kid Zone.  The call number is E WIL.

Grim, Grinning Ghosts

When the crypt doors creak and the tombstones quake / Spooks come out for a screaming wake / Happy haunts materialize / and begin to vocalize / Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize.  Do you recognize those lyrics?  If you've ever been to The Haunted Mansion in Disney World, you should know it's theme song.  That place is jam-packed with spooks and specters.  And so is Hoover Public Library!  We have tons of ghost stories for every age.  Now don't close your eyes and don't try to hide.  Read!

PICTURE BOOKS
Five Little Ghosts by Patricia Hegarty
The Ghosts Go Haunting by Helen Ketteman
Ghosts in the House! by Kazuno Kohara
The Haunted Hamburger and Other Ghostly Stories by David LaRochelle
Hush, Baby Ghostling by Andrea Beaty
Three Little Ghosties by Pippa Goodhart
Whooo's Haunting the Teeny Tiny Ghost? by Kay Winters

ELEMENTARY
13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey by Kathryn Tucker Windham (in a series)
All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn
Famous Ghosts by Michael Teitelbaum
The Ghost of Graylock by Dan Poblocki
Ghosts!: Ghostly Tales from Folklore by Alvin Schwartz
The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing by Sheila Turnage
The Gloomy Ghost by David Lubar
A Good Night for Ghosts by Mary Pope Osborne
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
A Gust of Ghosts by Suzanne Harper
May Bird and the Ever After by Jodi Lynn Anderson
The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud
This Book Is Haunted by Joanne Rocklin
The Year of Shadows by Claire Legrand

TEENS
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol
Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender
A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts: A Collection of Deliciously Frightening Tales by Ying Change Compestine
A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb
Far Far Away by Tom McNeal
Give Up the Ghost by Megan Crewe
In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters
Morpheus Road: The Light by D.J. MacHale
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
On the Day I Died: Stories from the Grave by Candace Fleming
Ruined: A Ghost Story by Paula Morris
Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready

For the Love of Gelo!

I love a good sci-fi book.  Especially one with alien encounters and epic battles.  But what I love even more than that is a great sci-fi book.  What makes it great?  Humor and an unusual twist.  Space Rocks! by Tom O'Donnell can officially be classified as great.   The narrator is Chorkle, a five-eyed Xotonian who inhabits an asteroid called Gelo.  It has been invaded by four Earth children and their delicious Feeney's Original Astronaut Ice Cream Bars.  Chorkle couldn't resist!  Now it has to play alien babysitter and take on the role of interspecies diplomat.  Chorkle is hilarious!  Plus there are vicious thyss-cats lurking in the asteroid's cavern system and hostile aliens headed their way.  See?  This book has everything.  It even has a sequel!  For the Love of Gelo!  (That's the title, not just me being enthusastic.)  Find both in the Kid Zone at Hoover Public Library.

  1. Space Rocks!
  2. For the Love of Gelo! 

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