Phinney/Greenwood author J. Elizabeth Mills has just released her 30th children’s book. “The Spooky Wheels on the Bus” is now on sale at Santoro’s Books, which will host a book launch party on Sept. 11.

THE SPOOKY WHEELS ON THE BUS is a humorous retelling of the popular reschool song. Filled with gently spooky monsters, witches, ghosts, bats, and more, it is the perfect sing-aloud for preschoolers who love to wriggle and dance.

A Wedgwood author and Ballard illustrator have teamed up to write a children’s book, “Edsel McFarlan’s New Car,” and they’ll be doing book readings during Saturday’s Greenwood Car Show.

Max Holechek and Darrell Toland will read from the book at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., and “How to Draw a Car” tutorials are at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. in the Kids Zone at Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church at 7500 Greenwood Ave. N. The hardcover book, for children ages 4-8, will be available for $15 (it will retail for $16.95 when available at bookstores in late July.)

The story follows the adventures of Edsel McFarlan, a young car enthusiast who receives, from a mysterious source, a model car kit that matches the full-scale of his automotive passion.

Memories of his childhood provided inspiration for author Max Holechek while writing Edsel McFarlan’s New Car. “I remember how my friends and I would imagine miniaturized version of ourselves driving our toy trucks, living in a doll house, or sailing swimming pool ships. I wondered: “What would happen if a kid got a model car kit that assembled into a life-sized automobile? And what funny things might happen once it’s built?”

There’s a lot happening at the Seattle Public Library these days, including a new online career resource center and the Summer Reading Program.

SPL’s new Workplace911 is an online career resource covering all aspects of work, from finding a job to handling a difficult boss.

Workplace911 is a joint partnership between author and work expert Bob Rosner, Brainfuse and The Seattle Public Library. The resource is free and will be available from the Library’s website at www.spl.org by selecting the “Job hunting resources” Quick Link.

Rosner is a Seattle-based (Queen Anne) bestselling author and award-winning journalist. He is author of “The Boss’s Survival Guide” and “Working Wounded: Advice that Adds Insight to Injury.” Rosner has a unique perspective on today’s workplace, having personally responded to over 50,000 emails from employees and employers. He is a regular contributor to the Today Show and CNBC, and has been featured in People, the Wall Street Journal and Fortune.

Rosner also will facilitate a series of workshops about employment and the workplace at several local libraries.

The Library also has a program that provides personalized reading lists for teens.

To get your list, go to www.spl.org and then to the “Teens” page under “Audiences.” Use the “Ask a Librarian” e-mail form to tell us about a few books you love or ones that have put you to sleep. Tell us your favorite genres. Fantasy, horror, romance? What else?

In a day or two you will receive a list of five recommended books just for you. You can use the personalized list service as many times as you want, and it’s always free!

For more information, call the Teen Center at 206-615-1410.

The Library system also just kicked off its Summer Reading Program, with the theme “Where Does Reading Take You?” The annual program encourages everyone to read during summer, especially children. You can sign up in person, at any of the 27 Library locations or online.

Children can track books online, or get a reading log from any Library location and collect a sticker for each book read. Teens and adults can also track books online or in-person at their local branch.

Children who participate in the Summer Reading Program will receive a free paperback book and a pass to the Burke Museum after reading 10 books. Children who read 10 books by Monday, July 26 will be entered into a drawing for the city librarian’s popular Breakfast of Champions event held at the Sheraton Hotel in August. One winner from each Library location will be selected.

This year’s Summer Reading Program includes hundreds of free programs for families at Library locations. Here are the programs scheduled for the Greenwood Library.

• Heart and Soul of Mexico - Experience a fun, interactive show that covers many regions and aspects of Mexican culture. The musicians of La Mariachi Mexico will perform familiar songs on a variety of authentic instruments. For ages 6 and up. 2 p.m. Sunday, June 6.
• Games Around the World - Celebrate the differences and similarities among cultures by playing games from around the world with W.E. C.A.R.E. Sports. Discover new games that use luna sticks, diabolos, pelele (fling-it nets), lariats, takraw balls and petecas. For ages 5 and up. 4 p.m. Tuesday, June 29.
• 20,000 Volts Under the Sea - Sing, dance and laugh with the Brian Waite Band. This deep-sea rock musical is fun for the whole family and filled with interactive games, zany characters and, of course, great lives music. For ages 3 and up. 4 p.m. Wed., July 7.
• Robot Challenge - Explore the world of robotics with educators from the Pacific Science Center! How do scientists use modern robots to investigate other planets and dangerous places on earth? Analyze the features of these robots then program one to maneuver through a simulated hostile environment. Compete in teams against other programmers to be the robot champion. For ages 12-18. 2 p.m. Wed., July 14.
• Save Our Amazing Raptors (SOAR) - Educators from the Woodland Park Zoo will introduce you to live raptors (birds of prey) and explain their natural history and special adaptations. Ask questions and check out skulls, feathers and owl pellets. For ages 5 and up. 4 p.m. Tuesday, July 20.
• Read the Book, Watch the Movie! - Join us as we watch a beloved movie and briefly discuss the movie and the book that inspired it. “The Princess Bride,” 2:30 p.m. Saturday, July 24.
• Paper Airplanes - Drop in on the Museum of Flight as we pitch, roll and yaw through hands-on activities that explore the science of flight! Learn about aerodynamics and discover the motions and controls of airplanes while building paper airplanes, two-loop gliders and straw rockets. For ages 6 and up. Groups and drop-ins welcome. 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 8.
• Zinery 101 - A zine is a self-published magazine. Learn the basics and make your own zine with Lucy Morehouse of Ong Ong Press. For ages 12-18. Limited to 20 people. Please register with the branch. 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 22.

Balderdash Books and Art at 8536 Greenwood Ave. N. is celebrating its five-year anniversary with a big sale.

All children’s books and hardcover books are 50% off! Softcover books are 25% off. Regulars with a credit account will get up to 75% off on all hardcover and children’s books!

In the 5 years that Balderdash Books has been open we have increased the floor space by 500 square feet, added a new back entrance, and doubled the Science Fiction and Fantasy section. You can park in the lot behind our building for FREE and enter through the back door. Please come help us celebrate our 5 year anniversary and take advantage of an awesome sale. Or just come visit the cats.

Phinney resident and chef Tamara Murphy just published her first book, “Tender: farmers, cooks, eaters,” which focuses on supporting farmers, farmers’ markets and local eating. Murphy is the owner and chef of Brasa and Elliot Bay Café and winner of the prestigious James Beard award in 1995.

A real force in the national culinary community, Tamara has traveled the country to share the important message of local sustainable food. Regionally, she has created events such as An Incredible Feast – Where the Farmer’s are the Stars (pairing farmers and chefs to raise awareness and funds for local family farms), The Good Farmer Fund (to help local farmers gain direct access to emergency funding during crop or farm loss due to disastrous events), and Burning Beast (where chefs come together in a creative setting to raise awareness for local farmers). TENDER explores simple ways to enjoy eating, cooking and choosing our food.

Neighborhood photographer David Chui published his first book, “Journey of an Apple: From Lake Chelan to Hong Kong,” which is available at Santoro’s Books in Phinney Ridge.

A one-of-a-kind look behind-the-scenes at the twists and turns of growing and shipping our state’s signature fruit, Journey of an Apple features 105 color photographs and profiles the colorful people and locations responsible for bringing Washington apples to a hungry world.

Spanning the seasons, and shot over several years on two continents, the book is both an informal look at the intricacies of modern agribusiness and an immigrant’s personal quest to reconcile his native Hong Kong with a new life in the Pacific Northwest. Employed in the produce industry for 14 years, Chui has a light-hearted touch and puts a very human face on global trade.

Half Price Books is having a huge sale at its Greenwood warehouse this weekend, with more than 50,000 books and other items for sale from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

There’ll be over 50,000 books and other items priced at $1, $2, and $3, with many items less than $1 (all videos, comics and record albums will be $0.25). On Sunday everything will be $1 or less, with additional specials happening in the afternoon on Sunday. Live music both days. We’re also passing out coupons to visitors of the warehouse sale (while supplies last) good for 50% one item at our Capitol Hill and University District Half Price Books stores.

Half Price Books’ warehouse is at 9241 Greenwood Ave N. Here’s what the line to get in looked like at last September’s warehouse sale.

Greenwood author Nathan Crowder is getting some new literary exposure, thanks to his chapter in the new anthology, “Close Encounters of the Urban Kind,” which was just released by Apex Book Company.

From the publisher:

We’ve all heard the stories of what happens to those who go to lovers’ lane and of the folly of flashing your lights at another car at night. We all know someone who knows someone that survived a meeting with Bloody Mary and another who picked up a hitchhiker that then disappeared. And we all know these stories aren’t true. They’re just urban legends. Right?

Wrong.

Sometimes the stories we hear are true. Often they’re more than they seem. These are the urban legends with alien explanations and the alien encounters mistaken for urban legends. The line between one and the other is so blurred in this anthology of stories about Close Encounters of the Urban Kind that you will never look another urban legend the same way again.

Crowder’s chapter, “Frames of Reference,” is about snuff films. “Everybody knows someone who knows someone who says they’ve seen a snuff film,” he says. Despite the idea of snuff films covered in TV shows such as “CSI,” Crowder says a real snuff film has never been proven to exist.

Crowder says he met the anthology’s editor at the Crypticon Horror Convention last summer and she asked him to contribute to the book. “Originally I was going to do a story on sewer gators. And at the last minute I came up with the other idea,” he says.

Crowder’s short stories have been published in a number of places, and he’s written several novels, including the super-hero novels “Chanson Noir” and “Cobalt City Blues.” His recent short story ”Deacon Carter’s Last Dime” is on the storySouth Notable Stories of 2009 list.

Crowder will read from the book at the Wayward Coffeehouse, 8570 Greenwood Ave., from 8-10 p.m. on Saturday, April 10. (Also appearing will be the editor, Jennifer Brozek, and fellow authors Rosemary Jones and Erik Scott de Bie. You can buy the book at the event and the authors will be available for autographing the book after the reading.)

“I’m currently working on an urban fantasy novel set in London, which I hope to have finished in the next month,” Crowder says. “I’ve got dozens of novels lined up, it’s just a matter of which I finish first.”

Neighborhood resident David Stoesz, aka the Uptight Seattleite in his Seattle Weekly column, continues the celebration of his recent publishing of “A Sensitive Liberal’s Guide to Life,” with a free multi-media event Wednesday night at Neptune Coffee.

(Book cover illustration reprinted by permission of the author.)

Stoesz promises beer, a PowerPoint presentation, and drumming by former Greenwood resident Etta Vosk. Stop by Neptune at 8415 Greenwood Ave. N. at 7 p.m. Wednesday and see how uptight he really is.

Balderdash Books and Art at 8536 Greenwood Ave. N. has expanded and added a new back entrance and free parking.

We have opened up the back of the store which was our storage area for many years. Those piles of books are now on shelves and ready for people to browse. Our back door is now a rear entrance to the store from the Chase parking lot on the corner of 85th and Greenwood. The Chase parking lot is available for parking in the “90 minutes free parking for Greenwood customer” spaces. We are also having a Spring Cleaning sale. Buy 1 hardcover and get one of equal or lesser value FREE. Come check out the new additions to the store and conveniently park for free in the back!

Neighborhood resident David Stoesz has an alter ego: the Uptight Seattleite. Through his column in the Seattle Weekly, thousands of people become enlightened on topics such as coffee shop etiquette, sweater-wearing dogs, and the appropriate condolence gift when someone’s backyard chicken flies to the eternal chicken coop in the sky. 

Now Stoesz is truly bringing his uptightness to the masses through his new book “A Sensitive Liberal’s Guide to Life: How to Banter with Your Barista, Hug Mindfully, and Relate to Friends Who Choose Kids Over Dogs.” It’s being released by Gotham Books today, with original illustrations by Rod Filbrandt.

(Book cover illustration reprinted here by permission of the author.)

Stoesz tells us there’s an Uptight Seattleite “multimedia extravaganza” at 7 p.m. March 31 at Neptune Coffee, 8415 Greenwood Ave. N.

The new Couth Buzzzard Books Espresso Buono Cafe at 8310 Greenwood Ave. N. is starting Open Mic Nights at 7 p.m. every every Wednesday. The evening is hosted by musician/philosopher Katie Weller. Sign-up starts at 6:30 p.m.

Come and share your music, poetry, stories, whatever. Drinks and food available. You can learn more at our Facebook page: Couth Buzzard Espress Buono or website: www.buonobuzzard.com. And don’t forget our Family Game night every Thursday at 6, and the Writer’s Group on Mondays at 7 p.m.

Who else in the neighborhood sponsors open mic nights? Let us know in comments.

The new Couth Buzzard Books Espresso Buono Cafe at 8310 Greenwood Ave. N. is adding meetings and entertainment in its new space.

Starting Monday, Feb. 1, they’ll be hosting a new writing group at 6 p.m.

Leader, Marilyn Stauter calls her approach “Guided Spontaneity.” For more information contact Marilyn Stauter at stauter5687@msn.com, or 206-633-5687.

And every Thursday from 6-9 p.m. is now Family Game Evening, with cards and board games.

Chess, Go, Bridge, Scrabble, Dominos and more. The Cafe will also be open for drinks and food. 206-436-2960.