Fall Festival!

The Franklin T DeGroodt Memorial Library and the Friends of the Libraries of Palm Bay are pleased to announce that they have received a grant from Target to be used for their annual Fall Festival. Fall Festival is an annual community event that introduces and encourages library use to the children and families of our community.

Come celebrate the fall season with contests, games, food, crafts and more; featuring special guests like RC the Recycling Cat, the Chick-fil-A COW, and Twinkles the Clown with her Fall Carnival! All ages welcome; but patrons under 10 years of age must be accompanied by a parent or older sibling. Costumes may be worn but are not necessary. Admission is free, but food an additional cost.

Fall Festival will be held on Saturday, October 29th from 1-3pm. 

Teen Volunteers ages 12-18 interested in volunteering for this event, please contact the DeGroodt Youth Services Department.

Zombie Author Apocalypse Events

Book Review: This Brave Balance

This Brave Balance

By Rusalka Reh

Paperback: 142 pages

Publisher: AmazonCrossing (August 23, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1611090059

ISBN-13: 978-1611090055

Reviewed by Matt M.

                This Brave Balance is a book from Germany that is set in an unidentified run down city. It focuses on a teenage boy Dipper, and his group of parkour (free running) athletes: Skylark, Jay, and Corone, along with Corone’s mentally challenged sister, Kittiwake. Dipper doesn’t really have much going for him, as he’s not too good in school, works in construction, and hardly sees his mom outside of coffee at 3 in the morning. Parkour is everything to him and his friends, and everything changes when Corone’s ex-girlfriend Kite joins. Kite and Dipper get along “too well”, and a chain of events occur where the group is threatened to be taken apart, with Dipper struggling to apprehend everything going on.

                The story, though short, is decent, but maybe due to cultural and translation issues, the story feels off. To describe the good, Reh ultimately conveys a series of event s through the eyes of a teenager struggling with issues, from family, friends, romance, and parkour. The story feels real, that we may know someone who can relate to one of the characters (if not relating ourselves). While some characters are more developed than others, with Dipper being the main character that grows through the story, it does a good job making the main characters real in a short length. For the not so good, some things can be said. The story would’ve benefited being longer.  To keep spoilers to a minimum, halfway through the story, Dipper learns that Corone has family problems. This seems to be the main problem, as far as showing how powerless some of the characters are, but near the end, the last 20 pages or so, several revelations are revealed, and then settled 2 pages afterwards or so. In short, the pacing is even till the end, when everything starts happening. Also, I feel the story would have been better if it were told through the views of other characters, mainly Corone, Kite, and Kittywake as they are important to the story. One last thing that should be said is the use of strong language, just to let the reader know. All in all, for a foreign story, it’s quite different from other books I’ve read, and feels strange once finished (the ending itself is kinda hanging). A 2.5/5