My son mentioned in passing that he loved the book he was reading in school so much that he started it over as soon as he was done. Of course I had to know what this wonderful book was, and thus I first heard about Stone Fox. What’s interesting is that if you described a […]
Gregor the Overlander
May 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Gregor the Overlander has much in common with other books I’ve read—a bit like A Wrinkle in Time meets Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland—but it still feels like an original tale. 11 year old Gregor follows his toddler sister, nicknamed Boots, into a hole in the basement which leads to a new land (Underland, as you […]
Beryl
May 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Beryl: A Pig’s Tale begins in a commercial warehouse, where all the pigs live together in concrete sties. Beryl is an orphan, living with her aunt and cousins who all hate her. One of the workers comes around, putting stickers on the biggest piglets. Everyone knows this means the piglets will be leaving and not […]
The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel)
May 6, 2012 by 2 Comments
Ellen Raskin was one of my favorite authors as a kid, so after the success of reading The Phantom Tollbooth with my kids, I was eager to share her books with them as well. The first book we read was The Mysterious Disappearence of Leon (I Mean Noel). It led to much laughter with the […]
Bridge to Terabithia
May 5, 2012 by 1 Comment
Bridge to Terabithia is one of the reasons I started this site. It’s become a childhood classic, but it’s also one that many people list among the most traumatic books they read as kids. Because I’ve been thinking a lot about depictions of death in kids books, I decided I’d better reread it, instead of […]
Hoot
May 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment
I’d heard about Hoot before I finally got around to reading it. I was under the impression that it was about protecting wildlife from development, but it turns out that’s mostly a subplot. This is primarily a book about bullying in many forms. Roy is the new kid in town. He’s so used to being […]
The Trouble with Violet
May 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Trouble With Violet is the first book in the Sister Magic series, and it sets up the books that follow. It’s a cute story of two very different sisters. Mabel is eight, and she’s very organized. She knows how things ought to be, and prefers that everything go according to plan. Violet is five […]
Exile
May 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The story of Aurelia and Robert continues in Exile. After Aurelia’s younger half-sister Melony tried to have her killed and their father refused to hold Melony accountable for her treachery, Aurelia flees both to escape assassins and to see the rest of the country she still hopes to rule someday. I enjoyed this book and […]
My Very UnFairy Tale Life
April 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment
In My Very UnFairy Tale Life, Jenny is an adventurer—her job is to go into the world of fairy tales and help them solve their problems. Her primary skill seems to be spouting self-described cheesy aphorisms, but the magical critters think she’s wise. She’s apparently the best adventurer they’ve had for a long time. At […]
Dancing Queen
April 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
In Dancing Queen, Liv—who just finished her junior year of high school in Ann Arbor, Michigan—spends her summer working as an intern with Music Mix in London, where she’ll be wrangling celebrities and helping plan concerts, all in the name of hopefully getting a future job in the entertainment industry. She’s living in a flat […]
