My Life in Pink & Green tells the story of Lucy, a 7th grader who helps her mom and grandma at their drugstore. The store is struggling, and Lucy tries to find ways to help save the family business. She loves makeup and makeovers, which she uses to start her own little business. When she […]
Breadcrumbs
November 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Breadcrumbs—a retelling of “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen—seems very much like a middle grade novel in how it’s presented, where it’s reviewed, the illustrations that remind me a bit of The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, etc. Amazon says it’s for ages 8 and up, third grade and up. Based on the […]
The Name of This Book Is Secret
October 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Lots of people suggested I read The Name of this Book Is Secret, and I’m so glad I finally did. It’s the kind of irreverent metahumor that I love. The narrator speaks directly to the reader, explicitly playing with the nature of what a book is, such as letting the reader write the last chapter […]
The Goose Girl
October 15, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Goose Girl is extrapolated from the fairytale of the same name. Overall, it does a good job of staying true to the fundamentals of the tale while creating a complex story that stands well on its own. The basic plot is the same—a princess (Ani) travels with her handmaid (Selia) to marry a prince. […]
Green Angel
October 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Review written by Jocelyn Koehler How will we react when the worst happens? Will we curl up and despair? Or will we rise up and endure? The answer to that question lies at the heart of Hoffman’s deceptively slender novel Green Angel. Taking equal inspiration from traditional fairy tales and the September 11 attacks, Hoffman […]
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
October 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane explores surprising emotional depths for a novel about a china rabbit. Edward is definitely not animate—I would call him a doll except he would take it as an insult. Although he thinks and he feels a full range of emotions, he doesn’t do anything that an inanimate object can’t […]
The True Meaning of Smekday
October 4, 2012 by 1 Comment
Review written by Jonathan Lavallee What does Smekday mean for you? That’s the essay question that Gratuity Tucci answers in the first part of The True Meaning of Smekday. There’s a contest to choose one essay to go into a time capsule to be opened one hundred years in the future. That first essay got […]
The Looking Glass Wars
September 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Looking Glass Wars is inspired by Lewis Carroll’s stories, but the premise is that Carroll wrote his books based on the stories of Alyss who is truly from Wonderland but trapped in Victorian London. Familiarity with Carroll’s novels will add to a reader’s enjoyment of The Looking Glass Wars—it’s fun to see how Frank […]
The Moon Coin
September 18, 2012 by 1 Comment
2012 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards: Gold Medal Winner (Pre-Teen Fiction – Fantasy) The Moon Coin is a delightful fantasy story about Lily and her brother Jasper. Their Uncle Ebb has always told them tales (not stories—there’s a difference) of the Moon Realm. After Ebb disappears, Lily finds the Moon Coin necklace her uncle always wore […]
Beauty Sleep
August 28, 2012 by 1 Comment
Beauty Sleep manages to retell the story of “Sleeping Beauty” while incorporating a proactive princess and true love despite the curse of a hundred year sleep. This is no mean feat! I thoroughly enjoyed this novel which occasionally brought me to happy tears as things fell into place (I’m also sleep deprived, which may factor […]
