May Kids' Book Club Pick: 'Lunch Lady And The Cyborg Substitute'

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She yanks on her elbow-length rubber gloves and snaps the string of her apron into a knot but this is no ordinary lunch lady. Not only does she serve food, she also serves justice.

The Lunch Lady in question is the star of NPR's Backseat Book Club's latest pick, The Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute by Jarrett Krosoczka.

Like most cafeteria workers, she feeds breakfast and lunch each day to school children. But she also retreats to a Batman-like lair below the lunchroom. From there, she can monitor the whole school for suspicious characters like the Cyborg Substitute or the Video Game Villain. And like any good crime-fighter, she's loaded with cool gadgets like fish stick nunchucks, a spatu-copter, and a hairnet that catches the bad guys.

Yes, these are fun, fired-up graphic stories that kids consume like popcorn. But they like their author have a sneaky depth that parents and kids alike can appreciate.

Krosoczka brings both energy and tenderness to his writing. While today he can revel in the successes of the Lunch Lady series and his other books, his life had a rocky start. Krosoczka's dad wasn't in the picture and his mom was addicted to drugs and often incarcerated. But he was raised by his loving maternal grandparents, and in a recent TED talk, How a Boy Became an Artist, he described the impact his grandparents had on his life and paid tribute to all the adults who helped foster his creativity. You can see some of Jarrett's childhood artwork at his website.

We hope you'll read along with us starting with the first book, The Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute and then keep reading through the rest of the series. We'd love for you to share your questions for Krosoczka with us. Also, tell us about the people who work in your school cafeteria! If you have a photo of you and staff members of your cafeteria, please have an adult help you send it to us at BackseatBookClub@npr.org.

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May Kids' Book Club Pick: 'Lunch Lady And The Cyborg Substitute'

NJ shore towns eye new ways to protect beaches

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BRICK, N.J. (AP) More than five months after Superstorm Sandy roared through, destroying hundreds of houses and damaging thousands more, Brick no longer has dunes on its beaches.

Instead, it has piles of hastily-arranged sand serving as emergency barriers that are all but begging to be washed away.

So when Mayor Stephen Acropolis emerged from a meeting Thursday with New Jersey environmental officials who told him a federal beach-replenishment project probably wouldn't take place in Brick until next year, his resolve to have the town do something on its own only hardened.

Brick is one of many Jersey shore towns considering new and costly ways to protect their shoreline in the aftermath of Sandy. Some are turning to sand-filled fabric tubes that would form the base for new dunes. Others are looking at expanding protective rock walls or so-called groin fields, which are rock piles placed offshore. Many towns are paying for the work themselves.

"We're sitting out here naked, with no dunes," Acropolis said. "I call them sand castle piles. You get a full moon high tide and they're gone."

Earlier this week, Brick's township council explored the idea of placing a geotube, a huge sand-filled tube, covering it with sand and planting dune grass atop it to form the basis of a new dune system. After hearing about the delay in the federal beach-widening project, Acropolis predicted the council would be even more supportive of the $7.5 million project, for which Brick would probably have to borrow money.

It would join its neighbor Mantoloking, the New Jersey community hardest by the storm, in using the tubes to help rebuild dunes. The strategy has been used in other Jersey shore towns including Ocean City, Atlantic City and Sea Isle City, among others.

Homeowners in Bay Head, on the other side of Mantoloking, got permission from the state to expand a protective rock wall, paying for it themselves. The project would extend an existing 4,500-foot wall by another 1,300 feet.

In Avalon, the council agreed Wednesday night to study beach protection technology including a groin field rock piles placed in the water and parallel to the shoreline. The rocks would have small gaps between them large enough to let water and sand flow through but small enough to blunt the force of large waves and storm surges.

"It is our responsibility to examine innovative ways to provide a greater level of protection for our community while preserving our beaches and dunes that often take the brunt of significant coastal storms," said Avalon Mayor Martin Pagliughi.

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NJ shore towns eye new ways to protect beaches

Metropolitan Beaches Commission Reconvenes To Examine Area Beaches From Nahant To Nantasket

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BOSTON, April 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Metropolitan Beaches Commission (MBC) has reconvened to assess the state of the Boston Harbor region's public beaches and held its first public hearing, Monday, April 8, 2013. The Commission, originally established in 2006 by the Massachusetts Legislature, will examine the impacts of the reforms and recommendations made in its first report and make recommendations for further improvement under the leadership of co-chairs State Senator Tom McGee and State Representative Kathi-Anne Reinstein. There will be a second public hearing in May 2013, followed by a hearing in each of the nine communities from Nahant to Nantasket beginning in June 2013.

"These public hearings will give the region's residents an opportunity to share their ideas about how to improve our region's public beaches, and give the Commission the chance to assess where we are today and where we hope to go in the future," said Commission Co-Chair Senator Tom McGee. "Working together, I am confident that we can protect what we have accomplished since 2007 and help move these beaches from good towards great."

The Commission was created in 2006 to take an in-depth look at the Commonwealth's public beaches managed by the DCR. This year the Commission will issue additional findings and recommendations to better leverage these resources for all the residents of the regions' coastal communities in the future. As in 2006, the Commission will hold nine public hearings in the towns of Nahant, Lynn, Revere, Winthrop, East Boston, South Boston, Dorchester, Quincy, and Hull. The hearings and final report will further identify and showcase economic development opportunities for local communities made possible by public investment in clean water, better beaches and our waterfront neighborhoods and beachfront communities.

"We've made great strides on these beaches for all the region's families," said Commission Co-Chair Representative Reinstein. "They have truly benefited from public and private sector investments in our beaches and it's important that we don't lose the progress we have made."

The Metropolitan Beaches Commission is comprised of elected officials and community, civic, nonprofit, and business leaders from across the region. The 2013 MBC Commissioners are:

Co-Chair Thomas McGee, State Senator, Third Essex

Co-Chair Kathi-Ann Reinstein, State Representative, Sixteenth Suffolk

Carlo Basile, State Representative, First Suffolk

Kip Becker, Boston University

Barbara Bishop, Speaker DeLeo's Office

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Metropolitan Beaches Commission Reconvenes To Examine Area Beaches From Nahant To Nantasket