Stick Dog Wants a Hot Dog is the second book in the Stick Dog series. It’s useful but not necessary to read the first one before reading this one, but I’ll assume you read my review of the first one. The tone and approach are similar, with the narrator asking the reader not to give […]
Stick Dog
May 16, 2014 by Leave a Comment
When I told my son I wasn’t a huge fan of Potterwookiee, he said that if I want books that look like they’re written by middle schoolers, I should totally read Stick Dog. So I did, and he was right. The cover looks like one of those school notebooks with the sewn binding and a […]
The Unwanteds
April 30, 2014 by 1 Comment
The Unwanteds is a dystopian novel quite suitable for the middle grade set. Quill, an island nation, is walled off, armed heavily against the threat of an undefined enemy beyond those walls. The world is bland, gray, and decaying. The leader, High Priest Justine, rules with an iron fist. Everyone has their place, and all […]
Miri Attwater and All That Glitters
January 29, 2014 by 1 Comment
The adventures of Miri Attwater continue in Miri Attwater and All That Glitters. It’s very much a sequel, picking up where Miri Attwater and the Ocean’s Secret left off (in fact, I kind of wished I’d taken the time to reread the first book) and I’ll assume you’re familiar with my previous review. Miri continues […]
The Cheshire Cheese Cat
November 6, 2013 by 2 Comments
Another book recommendation from my daughter and her school library! The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale is an amusing story about unlikely friendships and overcoming assumptions. Charles Dickens has a supporting role, with details that will keep fans of Dickens engaged (admittedly, that will mostly be adults—but that’s part of why this […]
The Real Boy
September 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Anne Ursu, author of The Real Boy, doesn’t write happy books with neatly tied up endings, but she does write beautiful and evocative books. (If this sounds appealing and you haven’t yet read Breadcrumbs, go change that.) The Real Boy takes place on an island where magic is strong. It’s the story of Oscar, an […]
The Wolf Princess
September 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The novel reads like a fairy tale, where atmosphere overrides logic, even though Russian history plays a big role in the plot. The descriptions of the landscape and the Palace are straight out of the Nutcracker’s Snow Forest…all white drifts, slender birches and pines, and diamonds in the air.
A Mango-Shaped Space
September 12, 2013 by 3 Comments
There are a lot of issues dealt with in A Mango-Shaped Space. It won the ALA Schneider Family Book Award which honors “artistic expression of the disability experience.” Mia has synesthesia, which means that she sees sounds, numbers, and letters in colors. The novel covers the several months during Mia’s 8th grade year when she’s […]
The Magician’s Elephant
February 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Review written by Jocelyn Koehler. Are there kids out there who read the New Yorker? Because those are the only kids I can imagine loving The Magician’s Elephant. That’s not to say it isn’t beautiful and at times moving. But entertaining? Not so much. Ostensibly, it’s the story of a young boy named Peter in […]
The Sound & The Echoes
November 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Sound and the Echoes tells the story of Will who learns that each person in our world (we’re called Sounds) has an Echo in a world that exists beneath ours. An Echo is born every time a Sound is born and it looks like a transparent version of the Sound. It turns out that Will’s […]
