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 …
Tag: loss
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 …
three middle-grade novels; three kids wrestling with life and loss
I’ve met a bunch of awesome kids recently in the three novels highlighted today, all of whom I’d love to introduce to you. They’re coming from widely different locations — a farm in the American South, an island off the …
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when your mom lives in prison….
Ruby on the Outside, by Nora Raleigh Baskin published in 2015 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers The children we glimpse at the park, pass anonymously at the grocery store, sit next to on the subway — inhabit …
fiction favorites…What Came From The Stars
What Came From The Stars, by Gary D. Schmidt Tommy Pepper looked down beneath the cafeteria table at his fallen Ace Robotroid Adventure lunch box, and there among the spilled carrot and celery sticks, something…well, something glowed. Tommy blinked. Whatever …
orange marmalade 