Searching For a Good Book? We Asked the Experts

In honor of National Read Across America Day, which was Wednesday and also doubles as the great Dr. Seuss' birthday, we tweaked our usual search for Patch Picks.

This week, we wanted to know, what are some of the best books out there? So, we asked the staff of the , for their favorites. So, without further adieu, here they are.

Patch Picks—Hillsborough Public Library's top reads.

Youth

"I Ain't Gonna Paint No More" by Karen Beaumont

Written to the tune of "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More", this funny story about a boy disobeying his mom can be read or sung to children from preschool up to grade 2. With rhymes that invite audience participation (since the last word of each verse comes on the following page, readers get the satisfaction of completing the anticipated rhyme), the story focuses on a young artist who begins to paint his various body parts and builds to a very humorous conclusion!

"The Three Silly Billies" by Margie Palatini
This story, based on the "The Three Billy Goats Gruff", is filled with hysterical puns and great illustrations to delight both preschoolers and older children. Three billy goats, unable to cross a bridge because they cannot pay the toll, form a car pool with Little Red Riding Hood, the Three Bears, and Jack of beanstalk fame to get past the rude troll. The hip and timely text bring the story up-to-date and is perfect for storytelling.

Teen

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

In 1888, twelve-year-old Will Henry chronicles his apprenticeship with Dr. Warthrop, a scientist who hunts and studies real-life monsters, as they discover and attempt to destroy a pod of Anthropophagi.

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron 

Eighteen-year-old James is living in New York City with his older sister and divorced mother and struggles to find a direction for his life.

Adult

Elizabeth Street by Laurie Fabiano

It's the first novel by the author and is based on her own family's Italian-American immigration experience, a facinating cross generational tale from late 1880's Italy until the present.

Hell Hound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King and the International Hunt for his Assassin by Hampton Sides 

Relates the story of James Earl Ray's pursuit of Martin Luther King, Jr., across the country until finally killing the civil rights leader in Memphis and describes the ensuing international manhunt for Ray against the backdrop of the nationwide riots that followed the assassination.

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

The idyllic lives of civic-minded environmentalists Patty and Walter Berglund come into question when their son moves in with aggressive Republican neighbors, green lawyer Walter takes a job in the coal industry, and go-getter Patty becomes increasingly unstable and enraged.

Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

The third and final book by the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author recounts the last decade of Theodore Roosevelt's amazing life.