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 …
Category: chapter/middle grade
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 …
an out-of-the-box fantasy!
Selznickian became an adjective of choice for me in 2007 when Brian Selznick created his genre-busting novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, weaving together word and image in a way that had not been done before. Since then, he has …
Louisiana’s journey…another gem from DiCamillo
If you could clothe goodness in a character, what what it look like? If you could depict human flourishing in one snapshot of one place, where would that be? If you could encapsulate abandonment and solace, dismay and hope, fragmentation …
seeking refuge…reads for kids and adults
I have been focusing my reading the past few months on middle-grade literature addressing the crisis of refugees and asylum seekers. It has been tough, frankly. Emotionally tough. My goal in doing so was to offer you an array of …
barraged by blaster rifles!
Today I’ve got a different sort of post. From time to time I am asked by young moms or homeschoolers for particular book suggestions or lists. The other day, a young friend wrote to ask for some ideas for her …
