The meaning of life: it is a question we ponder throughout our lives, and starting from an early age. Often it is the death of a loved one (human or pet) that starts a child wondering what it’s all about, this living versus dying thing. When I was young my father counseled me, “Do not [...]
Continue Reading →I have my sons to thank for one of my wonderful literary adventures this summer. We were out on Long Island, spending the day canvassing the streets of Sag Harbor. My oldest son had noticed a used bookstore on our way into town and insisted that we backtrack to find it. He headed off with [...]
Continue Reading →Summer is coming! I have been waiting so long for the hot weather and lazy days…days meant for reading under a shady tree, at the beach, on the patio, or lounging indoors during a summer thunderstorm. Summer is a great time for kids to read, freed from classes and teachers and essays and reading logs. [...]
Continue Reading →The new Young Adult novel The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher is a thriller for any age, offering an acute and harrowing vision of a future not so far away. The world has run out of potable water and those territories in control of the few remaining fresh water sources — the republic of Minnesota [...]
Continue Reading →Great Gifts for the Great Kids in Your Life: For the younger set: Two Bobbies by Kirby Larson and Mary Nethery, illustrated by Jean Cassels. The true story of a dog and a cat who together survived Katrina. This book is beautifully illustrated, heartwarming, and unforgettable. For the third to fifth graders: Becoming Naomi Leon [...]
Continue Reading →My son’s teacher read Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan out loud to his class, a chapter a day. Every day of that month of reading Martin came home eager to tell me about what was happening with Naomi, her brother, and her great grandmother with whom she lives in the small town of [...]
Continue Reading →Lian Tanner’s Museum of Thieves is the first in a trilogy series about a gutsy girl named Goldie, her brave pal Toadspit, and her intelligent mentors Herro Dan, Sinew, and Olga Ciavolga. The names alone are proof of Tanner’s imagination (did I mention a cute little dog named Broo who turns into a brizzlehound and a [...]
Continue Reading →The Mackenzie Blue series by Tina Wells are chick-lit for pre-teens. The books are also funny and engaging, contemporary in style and traditional in moral lessons offered: be true to yourself, be good to your friends, offer kindness to everyone. Twelve-year old Blue Mackenzie is the star of the series, a privileged seventh-grader with material possessions [...]
Continue Reading →It has been a long time since I’ve reviewed a book for young readers but Trial by Journal by Kate Klise is such a great find, I have to write about it. My youngest son introduced it to me. He is in third grade and although he has read the Harry Potter books, he is not [...]
Continue Reading →Richard Adams is best known for Watership Down (which I reviewed in November of 2008), his wonderful novel depicting the epic journey of a group of brave rabbits to find a new home and a more peaceful existence. The Plague Dogs, published five years after Watership Down, portrays two dogs undertaking an even more perilous [...]
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