August is a transitional month for many of you. Still full on summer, yet school routines hover just around the corner. The titles I’ve chosen for this month’s batch of books range the spectrum: some rejoicing in make-believe and fresh …
Category: chapter/middle grade
just right for July!
How’s the summer treating you? Taking a mostly-break from my blog has definitely been revitalizing for me. For one thing, it’s freed me for a bit of gardening. I am entirely a novice gardener. So, small things feel monumental: tomatoes …
simply smashing: fiction imports for a wide age span
Today, three short chapter books to suit a variety of readers coming to us from Sweden and the UK. These books were all a joy for me to read, and I am hardly the target audience! So think outside the …
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50 more chapter books, 100-ish pages or less
As I mentioned last week, here is a sequel to my list from a couple years ago featuring about 50 books that are 100-ish pages or less. Today’s list features 50 more, most of which are part of a series so …
a second batch of fantasy!
Earlier this year I decided to devote some time to reading a bit more fantasy, looking for gems to recommend. In January, I posted one batch of titles which you can find here. Over the past months I’ve tackled quite a …
butlers, betrayals, and the gentlemanly game of cricket
Gary Schmidt wrote a couple of my favorite ever middle-grade novels, The Wednesday Wars and Okay for Now, both richly human, honest, painful, and redemptive stories that get my highest recommendation for ages 13 and up — which is not …
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fancy some fantasy?
One of my goals for Orange Marmalade in 2019 is to delve a bit into fantasy — which sounds very dwarf-like, this delving. Partly in order to keep expanding my own reading menu; partly because I recognize that for many …
a Dickensian tale of golems and chimney sweeps
Presenting another piece of middle-grade fiction that I couldn’t put down 🙂 Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster, by Jonathan Auxier published in 2018 by Amulet Books 344 pages + Author’s and Historical Notes Masterful storyteller Jonathan …
love, loss, and one little donkey
Saving Winslow, by Sharon Creech published in 2018 by Joanna Cotler Books, Harper Collins 165 pages Louie knelt beside the basket. A small gray head with black eyes and feathery eyelashes and sticking-up ears emerged. Attached to the head was …
a happy, vintage, read-aloud find
The Curious Lobster, written by Richard W. Hatch, illustrated by Marion Freeman Wakeman originally published in two volumes in 1935 and 1939; this edition 2018 by New York Review Books 392 pages I love when I stumble across a classic …
