Murphy and Mooser

Two slow moving titles (circulation-wise, that is)-- Claire Rudolph Murphy's Gold Star Sister (1994) and Steven Mooser's The Hitchhiking Vampire (1989). The first is about a girl whose grandmother moves in with her family because she is dying of cancer. The grandmother has a box of letters among her things, letters from her brother who was killed in WWII. With these letters is a letter to another man, and the girl tries to track down his family before her grandmother dies. An intriguing story, good for girls who like problem novels, because it will introduce a little history to them.

The vampire book is more problematic. It's more of a comedy of errors, which is not what students who want vampire books would like. And the boys who want comedy--- I don't know. I will try it on some of my more voracious readers and see what they think. It's only gone out about four times the whole time it has been here at Blendon. It is further handicapped by a less-than-appealing cover.

It's amazing to me that some books will not go out no matter how hard I sell them. I have a rounder of books that is depleted daily, but there are some books that will not circulate even when they are sitting on the very top. Sometimes it is condition-- I have an Ellen Conford book that I love staring at me now, but it's worn and faded. I've had some success recovering books, so maybe I will try that as an experiment. The McKiernan The Dark Tide (Fantasy, Fantasy, 4/18) did go out yesterday, and the student really liked it, which just goes to prove that whether I like a book or not can be irrelevant if I see other merits in the book.