(DLA Las Piñas GS LRC) May Author of the Month - Jenny Nimmo

Jenny Nimmo is a British author of children's books including many fantasy and adventure novels, chapter books, and picture books. Born 15 January 1944 in England, she has lived in Wales for most of forty years. She was an only child, her parents' unica hija, and her father was a scientist who died when she was only five. On the following year, Jenny was sent to a prep school.

It was cold, dark, and rather terrifying so she was moved to a more child-friendly boarding school when she was nine. A voracious reader as a child, this led to her writing her very own stories to share with friends.

After working for a time in theatre while being a student and a summer job in Italy as a governess to three boys, Nimmo worked for several years with the BBC, joining them firstly as a photographic researcher.

She then became an assistant floor manager who worked mainly on the news and finally, became a director slash editor for a children's programme. Part of that entire stint was spent adapting other writers' stories for television including 40 episodes (eight "stories"). Her first book called The Bronze Trumpeter began life as a television script.

It was published in January 1975, a few weeks before her daughter to husband, Welsh artist and illustrator David Wynn Milward, was born. In 1983, Jenny began writing again since when her children were still small, she could only produce short books every other year. Her time management got better eventually and was convinced that reading to her kids made her a better author.

Now that Jenny's children have all left home, she has been devoting all her time to writing. She has produced a Charlie Bone book every year since 2002. Her best-known work may be Children of the Red King, also known as the Charlie Bone series, in which the eponymous protagonist's magical talent embroils him in the sinister intrigues of his new school.

As of 2006, Charlie Bone titles had been published in nine foreign-language editions and translations into eleven other languages were in progress. The Grade School LRC Library has the complete 8 books of her Charlie Bone series. You may ask the librarians or staff present in case you can't find them! :)

Jenny currently lives in Wales, sharing her time between writing and helping her husband with a summer art school.

(DLA Las Piñas HS LRC) May Book of the Month - Looking for Alaska

Speaking of good old classic pranking, we're featuring a young adult novel this month that's supposed to be just fun but turns out to be not so much at the end. 36-year-old American writer John Green's Looking for Alaska was published in March 2005 by Dutton Juvenile. It broke into a New York Times best seller list sometime during the last week of July 2012, 385 weeks or more than 7 years after it was released.

The author's debut is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story, tracing the journey of skinny sixteen-year-old misfit Florida teenager Miles Halter who leaves the safety of home for a boarding school in Alabama and a chance to explore the "Great Perhaps."

He is fond of reading biographies, and particularly has a quirky unusual interest of memorizing the famous subjects' last words. Once settled at the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek, he befriends a couple of equally gifted outcasts: his five feet tall roommate Chip Martin -- commonly known as the Colonel -- who has a predilection for memorizing long, alphabetical lists for fun; and the beautiful yet emotionally unpredictable Alaska Young, whom the protagonist comes to adore.

Besides her, the Colonel also introduces him to Takumi, a student of Japanese descent who often feels left out of the trio's plans while Alaska acquaints her with Romanian immigrant Lara Buterskaya who later becomes Miles' girlfriend for a brief period. The kids grow closer as they make their way through a school year but chapter headings like "forty-six days before" and "the last day" portend a tragic event.

Green attended a boarding and day school outside of Birmingham in Alabama. A student died there under circumstances similar to the character of the title girl and he got the idea of the "fox hat" from a Filipino friend who wore a similar hat while playing pranks at the same institution. Looking for Alaska and other books by the same author can be found at the fREADom Hub of the High School Learning Resource Center.