Lucy’s Mom and Grandma run a small town pharmacy. Lucy hangs out there a lot to help out. She straightens shelves and runs the cash register too, but her favorite part of the pharmacy is the beauty aisle. Lucy reads all the boxes and tries out the samples and even though she’s only twelve, she’s kind of an expert.

The problem with the pharmacy is that it is in trouble. There is a lunch counter and soda fountain that nobody is visiting anymore. Too many people are going to Wal-mart instead of their small main street pharmacy. Bills are not getting paid and there’s talk that the family may have to sell their house.

When the local homecoming queen comes in with a major hair disaster, Lucy is able to fix her up for the big night. The beauty queen and her friends become loyal customers.

You saved my friend from horrible hair humiliation at homecoming. You’re like a a hair-care prodigy.

Word gets around and Lucy is soon dishing out beauty tips, make-up lessons, doing nails and offering beauty advice. While kids are there for beauty tips, they begin ordering from the soda counter and buying things. When Lucy joins her school’s Earth Club, her plan really begins to come together, she’s determined to open an Eco-Spa right in her family pharmacy and save it from going out of business

While on the internet, Lucy discovers a grant application for businesses going green. With the help of her college age sister Lucy puts together the grant proposal to make her eco-beauty dreams come true. Will her Mom and Grandma stop bickering long enough to listen to her plan? Do they notice that Lucy has loyal customers of her own, returning for their beauty treatments before the prom and graduation? Do they realize that Lucy has a plan, a real business plan, even if she is just a kid? This is a story for any kid who has ever been frustrated by grownups that won’t take them seriously, just because of their age. Old people don’t want discriminated against because of their age - neither do kids!

Lisa Greenwald Official Website

Here are some books about other kids who take charge when there is something to fix or fight for. They also don’t like grownups not believing they are capable of big things.

Don’t miss World Origami Day tomorrow, Saturday, November 7 from 10:00am to 4:00pm. Drop in and try some paper folding with the Indianapolis Regional Origami Network (IRON) of Folders. This program will be held in The Learning Curve. Questions? Call Central Library 275-4100.

WATCH: The 39 Clues: Advanced Agent Training Webcast  

The webcast featured the first five author of The 39 Clues: Rick Riordan, Gordon Korman, Peter Lerangis, Jude Watson, and Patrick Carman. I watched the webcast live and it was really good! Click the link above and you can watch a video of the webcast. Each author revealed a puzzle to solve.  I could solve all of them but one. One was a math story problem - that one was hard. Even the kids on the panel didn’t get that one right, which made me feel slightly better. At the end of the webcast each author revealed a secret. One of the secrets was a surprise and one was shocking! The surprise is that the author of book seven, Peter Lerangis, revealed the book’s title: The Viper’s Nest and showed a picture of the book cover. Book 7 will come out February 7, 2010. The shocker is that Jude Law (the author of Book 6: In Too Deep that comes out tomorrow)…said that in her book, a character we are all familiar with…DIES! Who, who, who? I want to know! The 39 Clues Official Website

• 39 Clues Colorcross Game
• The 39 Clues Family Tree
• Grace Cahill’s Will

The 39 Clues Books so far…there will be 10 in all. The 39 Clues #6 In Too Deep comes out November 3, 2009.

The Exquisite Corpse Adventure is a story that is being written online by several different children’s book authors. A new chapter (episode) comes out every 2 weeks. The whole adventure will take one year to complete.

Jon Scieszka started off the crazy adventure on October 9. Today, Episode 3 came out written by Kate Dicamillo. Epidsode 4 will appear October 30 and it will be written by Susan Cooper.

Start at the beginning if you need to:

• Episode 1 by Jon Scieszka - A set of twins, Joe and Nancy, are on a train. They have run away from the circus and have in their possession a letter from parents they never new they had. The letter is mysterious and tells them to “follow the clues.” What they don’t know, is that there is a ticking bomb under one of the bridges their train will pass over in a very short amount of time.
• Episode 2: The Lost Clue by Katherine Paterson - Joe and Nancy are pursued by Boppo, a demented clown, and try to escape from the train and from Boppo, before the bomb explodes.
• Episode 3: The Found Clue by Kate DiCamillo. Boppo is in hot pursuit juggling meatballs…and a another bomb! And now somebody else might be after Joe and Nancy too!
• Episode 4: Title Unknown by Susan Cooper. I know it is past noon on October 30, but they have not posted episode 4 yet! Keep checking back. NOTE: They have delayed Episode 4 until November 6!

Tune in November 6, 2009 for Episode 4 by Susan Cooper

Bran Hambric doesn’t know a thing about himself. He was found at age 6 locked in a bank vault in the town of Dunce. He has no memory of anything before being discovered in the vault. He’s being raised by the Wilomas family, only because Mr. Wilomas worked at the bank and is forced to obey the “Finders Keepers Law.” If you find it, you have to keep it, even if “it” is a kid.

In Dunce, magic is outlawed. When Bran is confronted by a gangly creature that actually knows his name, he knows something is up - something about his past. Something that has to do with magic. Clues lead Bran to a magical library, a mysterious girl, a bank employee that is much more than she seems and a gnome. Yeah, a gnome: short guy, long beard, tall red hat shaped like a cone. Together the new friends set out to uncover Bran’s past and confront the Farfield curse.

An orphan kid living in a house where the family treats him badly. The kid finds out he’s magic.  A bad guy wants the kid dead. Oh, and there’s a curse involving the kid. Sound familiar? I know it does. There are an awful lot of Harry Potter similarities…but even so, Bran Hambric is a fun story anyway. I would call it fan fiction. Fan fiction is fiction created by the admirer of a certain story or that story’s characters. Kaleb didn’t plagiarize, he just took some ideas and built his own story around them. There are enough original ideas to keep the story interesting. AND, he’s a teenage author - not too shabby. He says that there are more Bran Hambric stories coming. It will be fun to see where he goes with Bran’s story and how his writing matures. Author: Kaleb Nation

• Official Website Bran Hambric
• Bran Hambric The Farfield Curse on CD

More boys coming into their magical powers:

Universal Studios announced the Spring, 2010 opening of their new Harry Potter park in Orlando, Florida. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter will be a part of Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park.

There will be rides of course - the three main ones are: “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey,” a ride that is an experience inside Hogwarts, “Flight of the Hippogriff,” a family style roller coaster and “Dragon Challenge,” a twin high speed coaster.

It sounds like the park will be a lot like walking straight into Harry’s world. Producer Paul Daurio describes arriving at the park, ”As you enter the Wizarding World, you first come upon Hogsmeade station. To your left, you pass Zonko’s, the joke shop, and Honeydukes, the sweet shop, where you can purchase an array of jokes and gags and sweets, including chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott’s.”

Sounds fun. Start saving your allowance.

• Wizarding World of Harry Potter Official Website
• Mugglenet: Park Info
• New York Times: Universal Lifts the Veil on a Harry Potter Park
• NPR: Wizard Wannabes: ‘Potter’ Park To Open In Spring
• NPR Audio Report
• Orlando Sentinel: Wizarding World of Harry Potter Will Open Spring 2010