Episode 812: Pop Culture: DC League of Super Hero Pets - Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange

Welcome to Reading With Libraries!

Thank you for joining us on the 8th season of our book group and Reader’s advisory podcast!

Our organization is the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and we work with all types of libraries. Schools, public, academic, history centers, and more! We are here to support you and to bring you new knowledge to inform your library work.

This season we continue to explore a wide variety of book genres and topics so you can expand your reading horizons and share more information with your library community.

This season we continue to explore a wide variety of book genres and topics so you can expand your reading horizons and share more information with your library community. We are having fun with pop culture references in our genres, and looking at some different sources for book ideas. This week we are getting ready for the movie DC League of Super-Pets! IMDB gives this description: “Krypto the Super-Dog and Superman are inseparable best friends, sharing the same superpowers and fighting crime side by side in Metropolis. However, Krypto must master his own powers for a rescue mission when Superman is kidnapped.

When the Justice League are captured by Lex Luthor, Superman’s dog, Krypto, forms a team of shelter-pets who were given super-powers: A hound named Ace, who becomes super-strong, a pig named PB, who can grow to giant-size, a turtle named Merton, who becomes super-fast, and a squirrel named Chip, who gains electric-powers.”

And it comes out this weekend! Let’s celebrate this movie with a look at books about animals doing amazing things – regular or superhero!

Beverages:

This is, of course, a book group. And every book group needs to have beverages, so you really get the feel for your reading! This week’s beverages have a superhero theme, naturally! But please don’t share them with your pets, no matter how “super” they are, these are for human consumption only! As always, we link to the recipes on our shownotes page if you want to try them out.

Hulk Party Punch

Sprite 2 ltr. Bottle

• Lemon-Lime Kool-Aid Drink Mix Packet

• 1-2 Fresh Limes, Sliced

• Green Food Coloring (optional)

• Yellow Food Coloring (optional)

• 1 cup sugar or large can pineapple juice (optional)

. In a large pitcher or punch bowl, combine the Sprite, Kool-Aid drink mix, 2 drops of green food coloring, and 2 drops of yellow food coloring. Stir well. Note: The food coloring is optional but it gives the drink much more of that Hulk look!

2. Slice the limes into rounds then into halves. Add to drink mixture.

3. For a sweeter punch, add in a cup of sugar or a large can of pineapple juice.

4. Refrigerate your punch for at least 2 hours before serving.

5. Serve and Enjoy!

The Spiderman

Spider-Man’s classic colors are blue and red, so this drink is a nod to his costume. Plus, when you add colored sugar to the rim, then you’re getting fancy!

For the Blue:

2 cups Sprite Soda, Chilled

½ cup Sugar

½ tsp Blue Raspberry Lemonade Kool-Aid Drink Mix

3 cups Ice (crushed)

4 drops Neon Blue Food Coloring

For the Red:

2 cups Sprite Soda, Chilled

½ cup Sugar

½ tsp Cherry Kool-Aid Drink Mix

3 cups Ice

4 drops Red Food Coloring

Take your glasses and dip it in the simple slush and then dip it into the blue sanding sugar.

Set to the side.

Sprite works best if chilled.

Blend club soda, sugar, food coloring, and Kool-Aid in a blender.

Add the ice and blend until it is a slush and the color is evenly distributed.

Pour the blue into a pitcher and place in the freezer while you make the red part.

Red SpiderMan Drink Slush

Blend club soda, sugar, food coloring, and Kool-Aid in a blender.

Add the ice and blend until it is a slush and the color is evenly distributed.

Mixing your Spider-Man Drink Colors:

Pour your blue slush first about 1/4 of the way.

Then add your red 1/4 of the way.

Repeat until full.

If you want to turn it into an adult beverage, then add your favorite boozy concoction.

Genre Discussion:

The Book Genre Dictionary defines the Animals and Pets Genre: “about animals in some way, shape, or form. The books can be about inspirational or special animals that help people day to day or have saved lives, or animals from other countries or regions that most people don’t know much about.”

Library Thing says: “Animal fiction is a type of fiction in which the story, characters, plot, the end, all involve animals. Animals can be active or passive characters. An Animal can be the central character, a narrator, a villain, a hero etc. Mostly an Animal fiction would be entirely based on Animals, human characters may form important components of the story”

Suggested Reading Resources:

Our Book Discussion

We have our beverages, we are familiar with this week’s genre, let’s get to the book discussion! We will give you a list of all the books we share today. You can click on any of these links to go to Amazon.com for more information. If you buy anything while you are there, Amazon will give us a small percent of their profits from your purchase. Thanks in advance for helping to support the mission of CMLE – we appreciate it!

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Vol. 1: BFF’ by Amy Reeder, Brandon Montclare, Natacha Bustos, and Tamra Bonvillain

Lunella Lafayette is a preteen genius who wants to change the world, but lives in fear of the Inhuman genes inside her! Now, Lunella’s life is turned upside down when a red-scaled beast is teleported from the prehistoric past to a far-flung future we call…today! Together they’re the most Marvelous Team-Up of all — Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur! But will they be BFFs forever, or just until DD’s dinner time? And Lunella soon learns that there are other problems with having a titanic T-Rex as a pet in the modern-day Marvel Universe. School, for one. Monster hunters are another — especially when they’re the Totally Awesome Hulk! Then there’s the fact that everyone’s favorite dino didn’t journey through time alone. Beware the prehistoric savages known as the Killer-Folk — New York City’s deadliest tourists!

A Taste Fur Murder: A Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Mystery, by Dixie Lyle

Meet Deirdre “Foxtrot” Lancaster. Trusted employee of eccentric zillionairess Zelda Zoransky, Foxtrot manages a mansion, a private zoo, and anything else that strikes her boss’s fancy. Her job title is Administrative Assistant, but chaos handler would be more accurate. Especially after she glimpses a giant ghost-beast in Zelda’s pet cemetery. For some strange reason, Foxtrot is seeing animal spirits. And, ready or not, in this mystery from Dixie Lyle, the fur’s about to hit the fan…

Still reeling, Foxtrot comes home to find her cat Tango—her dead cat Tango—alive and well and communicating telepathically. But that’s not all: There’s an ectoplasmic dog named Tiny who changes breeds with a shake of his tail…and can sniff out a clue like nobody’s business. So when a coworker drops dead while organizing closets, Tiny is on the case. Can Foxtrot and her new companions ferret out the killer among a menagerie of suspects—human and otherwise—before death takes another bite?

Rescuing Penny Jane: One Shelter Volunteer, Countless Dogs, and the Quest to Find Them All Homes Paperback – February 20, 2018

by Amy Sutherland (Author)

What shelter dogs need is obvious—a home. But how do we find all those homes? That question sends bestselling writer and lifelong dog lover Amy Sutherland on a quest to find the answers in her own volunteer work and beyond. The result is an unforgettable and inspiring trip through the world of homeless dogs and the people who work so hard to save them. Rescuing Penny Jane introduces readers to dogs like Alfred, a loony, gorilla-sized Goldendoodle, intent on jumping on absolutely everyone at the shelter; Rugby, the crippled pit bull—mix puppy who was found abandoned on a roadside; and Brody, an overly exuberant and misunderstood German shepherd mix. Then there are the author’s own adopted dogs: Penny Jane, the terribly skittish stray from a Maine farm who repeatedly pushes Amy’s patience to its limits; and Walter Joe, who acts like a rabid dog in the shelter only to become a marshmallow in his new home. She also delves into the history of rescue dogs, like Sido, the sheltie mix who inspired the no-kill movement; Sadie, the Civil War dog who braved Gettysburg; and Bummer and Lazarus, San Francisco’s famous nineteenth-century stray dogs. Through conversations with leading shelter directors, researchers, trainers, adoption counselors, and caretakers across the country, Sutherland offers a nuanced, fully informed picture of the rescue world, along with its challenges, champions, and triumphs. Rich, moving, and at times laugh-out-loud funny, Rescuing Penny Jane ultimately explores what it is to be a Canis lupus familiaris and what it is to be a Homo sapien.

It’s a Wonderful Woof: Chet and Bernie Mysteries, Book 12, by Spencer Quinn

Holiday time in the Valley, and in the holiday spirit – despite the dismal shape of the finances at the Little Detective Agency – Bernie refers a potential client to Victor Klovsky, a fellow private eye. It’s also true that the case – promising lots of online research but little action – doesn’t appeal to Bernie, while it seems perfect for Victor, who is not cut out for rough stuff. But Victor disappears in a rough-stuff way, and when he doesn’t show up at his mom’s to light the Hanukkah candles, she hires Chet and Bernie to find him.

They soon discover that Victor’s client has also vanished. The trail leads to the ruins of a mission called Nuestra Señora de los Saguaros, dating back to the earliest Spanish explorers. Some very dangerous people are interested in the old mission. Does some dusty archive hold the secret of a previously unknown art treasure, possibly buried for centuries? What does the Flight into Egypt – when Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus fled Herod – have to do with saguaros, the Sonoran desert cactus? No one is better than Chet at nosing out buried secrets, but before he can, he and Bernie are forced to take flight themselves, chased through a Christmas Eve blizzard by a murderous foe who loves art all too much.

Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of A Man, His Wife, and Her Alligator by Homer Hickam, Jr.

Elsie Lavender and Homer Hickam (the father of the author) were high school classmates in the West Virginia coalfields, graduating just as the Great Depression began. When Homer asked for her hand, Elsie instead headed to Orlando, where she sparked with a dancing actor named Buddy Ebsen (yes, that Buddy Ebsen). But when Buddy headed for New York, Elsie’s dreams of a life with him were crushed, and eventually she found herself back in the coalfields, married to Homer. Unfulfilled as a miner’s wife, Elsie was reminded of her carefree days with Buddy every day because of his unusual wedding gift: an alligator named Albert she raised in the only bathroom in the house. When Albert scared Homer by grabbing his pants, he gave Elsie an ultimatum: “Me or that alligator!” After giving it some thought, Elsie concluded there was only one thing to do: Carry Albert home.
Carrying Albert Home is the funny, sweet, and sometimes tragic tale of a young couple and a special alligator on a crazy 1,000-mile adventure. Told with the warmth and down-home charm that made Rocket Boys a beloved best seller, Homer Hickam’s rollicking tale is ultimately a testament to that strange and marvelous emotion we inadequately call love.

Dogtripping: 25 Rescues, 11 Volunteers, and 3 RVs on Our Canine Cross-Country Adventure, by David Rosenfelt

When best-selling mystery writer David Rosenfelt and his family moved from Southern California to Maine, he thought he had prepared for everything. They had mapped the route, brought three GPSs for backup, as well as refrigerators full of food, and stoves and microwaves on which to cook them. But traveling with 25 dogs turned out to be a bigger ordeal than he anticipated, despite RVs, the extra kibble, volunteers (including a few readers), and camping equipment.

Rosenfelt recounts the adventure of moving his animal companions across the United States with humor and warmth, and tells the tale of how he and his wife became passionate foster parents for rescue dogs, culminating in the creation of the Tara Foundation and successfully placing several thousand dogs with loving families.

Operation Rescue Dog

by Maria Gianferrari (Author), Luisa Uribe (Illustrator)

This sweet story about a girl named Alma and a stray dog named Lulu shows how a girl and a dog can rescue each other.

Lulu’s ears flap in the wind

as the rescue truck rolls into the lot.

Lulu’s tail thumps—

Everything smells . . . new.

Lulu sleeps under the moon, drinking from mud puddles and is covered in ticks until she is rescued. She waits for the Operation Rescue Dog truck, scared and uncertain.

Alma misses her Mami, who is far away in Iraq. Alma wears Mami’s scarf around her like a hug. She wonders: Can a dog feel like a hug?

In this heartwarming and moving picture book, a lonely child and a lonely dog come together and find warmth, companionship, and love in each other.

Horse of a Different Killer, by Laura Morrigan

Animal behaviorist Grace Wilde’s psychic ability gives her insight into the minds of all kinds of creatures. If only humans were as easy to read…

Dead men may tell no tales, but they can screw up your life with a few phone calls. Grace’s abusive ex-brother-in-law, Anthony Ortega, needs her help—at least that’s what he said on the messages he left before his sudden death. Grace is inclined to let the matter rest in peace, but when her sister is named a suspect, Grace decides to get to the bottom of the cryptic calls.

Her only lead is Ortega’s fiancée, who believes that he had arranged to surprise her with the purchase of a Frisian gelding named Heart. The horse was being stabled at the R-n-R Ranch—but was taken in the middle of the night. Now, with her sister in trouble and a missing horse on her hands, Grace hopes the information harnessed from her psychic skills will be enough to rein in the killer…

Can I Be Your Dog? By Troy Cummings

A heart-tugging dog adoption story told through letters–deeply sincere and almost desperate pleas for a forever home–from the dog, himself!

This picture book shares the tale of Arfy, a homeless mutt who lives in a box in an alley. Arfy writes to every person on Butternut Street about what a great pet he’d make. His letters to prospective owners share that he’s house broken! He has his own squeaky bone! He can learn to live with cats! But, no one wants him. Won’t anyone open their heart–and home–to a lonesome dog? Readers will be happily surprised to learn just who steps up to adopt Arfy.

Troy Cummings’s hilarious and touching story is a perfect gift for a child wanting a dog, and for pet adoption advocates. It also showcases many different styles of letter writing, making it appealing to parents and teachers looking to teach the lost art of written communication.

Ladybug Girl and The Rescue Dogs

by Jacky Davis, illustrated by David Soman

Ladybug Girl decides to help out at the pet adoption fair at her farmer’s market. She can’t take any of the pets home, but through persistence and creativity, Ladybug Girl helps the rescue dog effort.
Ladybug Girl and her friends help at a dog-adoption fair and discover that even the littlest things can make a big difference in this tenth hardcover in the New York Times bestselling Ladybug Girl series.

Lulu is excited to meet all the rescue dogs when the pet-adoption fair comes to her local farmers’ market. She wants to take all of them home–but she already has Bingo, and Mama says one dog is enough for their family. That doesn’t mean Lulu can’t help, though. It’s time for Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad–her friends Grasshopper Girl and Bumblebee Boy–to step in! The Bug Squad can do all kinds of little but important things, like brush the dogs, play with them, and bring them water and food. And then Lulu comes up with the perfect plan to help the dogs find their forever homes. Her idea is such a success that the Bug Squad knows they’ll be back again next week. Together, they can help every dog get adopted.

This beloved series is celebrated for its gentle, authentic, and imaginative exploration of kid-emotions and -truths.

The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie

The Portable Veblen is a dazzlingly original novel that’s as big-hearted as it is laugh-out-loud funny. Set in and around Palo Alto, amid the culture clash of new money and old (antiestablishment) values, and with the specter of our current wars looming across its pages, The Portable Veblen is an unforgettable look at the way we live now. A young couple on the brink of marriage—the charming Veblen and her fiancé Paul, a brilliant neurologist—find their engagement in danger of collapse. Along the way they weather everything from each other’s dysfunctional families, to the attentions of a seductive pharmaceutical heiress, to an intimate tête-à-tête with a very charismatic squirrel.

Veblen (named after the iconoclastic economist Thorstein Veblen, who coined the term “conspicuous consumption”) is one of the most refreshing heroines in recent fiction. Not quite liberated from the burdens of her hypochondriac, narcissistic mother and her institutionalized father, Veblen is an amateur translator and “freelance self”; in other words, she’s adrift. Meanwhile, Paul—the product of good hippies who were bad parents—finds his ambition soaring. His medical research has led to the development of a device to help minimize battlefield brain trauma—an invention that gets him swept up in a high-stakes deal with the Department of Defense, a Bizarro World that McKenzie satirizes with granular specificity.

As Paul is swept up by the promise of fame and fortune, Veblen heroically keeps the peace between all the damaged parties involved in their upcoming wedding, until she finds herself falling for someone—or something—else. Throughout, Elizabeth McKenzie asks: Where do our families end and we begin? How do we stay true to our ideals? And what is that squirrel really thinking? Replete with deadpan photos and sly appendices, The Portable Veblen is at once an honest inquiry into what we look for in love and an electrifying reading experience.

Conclusion:

Thank you so much for joining us on Reading With Libraries!

Join us next Thursday with another topic or genre and many more books to share and discuss. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don’t miss a single episode! And if you want to hear more about the work we do in libraries or expand your library skills, check out our podcast Linking Our Libraries!

Bring your book ideas, bring your beverages, and join us back here on Thursday!