I enjoy Downton Abbey, so a book loosely inspired by it is bound to get my attention. Cinders & Sapphires is a soapy Edwardian read that very much evokes Downton Abbey while still telling its own story. There are more characters and subplots than I could easily keep track of (here’s where the lack of […]
Chains
February 5, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Like many Laurie Halse Anderson books, Chains often feels like a punch to the gut, but you also just can’t put the book down until you get to the end. This historical novel tells the story of Isabel, a young slave from Rhode Island in 1776. When her relatively kind mistress dies, Isabel knows that […]
Mississippi Bridge
February 3, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Mississippi Bridge is an illustrated novella rather than a novel, but the slim size and pictures shouldn’t lull you into thinking it’s a sweet book for young kids. It’s a powerful picture of racism in 1931 Mississippi, told from the point of view of a ten year old white boy. Jeremy, our narrator, spends a […]
The Titan’s Curse
January 31, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Review written by Jeff Dougan. The Titan’s Curse is the third installment in Rick Riordan’s bestselling series about Percy Jackson & his friends. The success has inspired a direct response called Son of Angels, published for Christians who think fantasy is evil. The first two books, The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters, have […]
The Whipping Boy
January 15, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The Whipping Boy tells the story of, well, a whipping boy and the prince whose punishments he gets. The whipping boy hopes to be dismissed from the castle so he can go back to the sewers to work as a rat catcher like his father did. He fondly remembers the freedom of that life. The […]
The Shifter
December 31, 2013 by 2 Comments
In the world of The Shifter, magical healers can draw pain out of victims and into the healer—the injuries are typically healed as well, although only the pain is passed on to the healer. The pain is then transferred into a piece of pynvium, a metal that can store pain. Things made out of this […]
Ever After High: The Storybook of Legends
December 17, 2013 by 1 Comment
When you look at the cover of Ever After High: The Storybook of Legends, you can imagine the tie-in dolls (and they look about as you’d imagine). Normally neither my daughter nor I would be intrigued by a book whose copyright is held by Mattel. But then I noticed that it was written by Shannon […]
The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z
December 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
I read The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. several months ago, and now that my own daughter is in seventh grade and spent the first few months of the school year pulling together her own leaf project, this book has frequently been on my mind. It’s a slice of life type story about Gianna, who […]
Harry Potter, Books 1 & 2
November 22, 2013 by 2 Comments
Review written by Clark Valentine. (This review focuses on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s / Philosopher’s Stone, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. This review is full of spoilers, but I can’t imagine that’s super relevant to most people at this point.) You almost certainly know the story. 11 year old Harry Potter […]
The Runaway King
November 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
If you read the review of The False Prince, you know I loved it. Its sequel, The Runaway King, doesn’t disappoint (which is rare in sequels, particularly in middle books of trilogies, but that’s probably a post for another time). If you haven’t read The False Prince yet, I suggest you do that before you […]
