Two recent books for kids are good additions to the family bookshelves. Flawed Dogs by Berkeley Breathed (creator of Bloom County) tells the story of one brave dachshund with a celebrated hair tuft and only three legs who falls in with the mutts of the world and leads them to glory, and even better, loving [...]
Continue Reading →Amphibian by Carla Gunn is a novel told from the point of view of an intelligent, sensitive, and worried boy. Phinn is worried about the state of the environment, the relationship between his separated parents, and the bully at school. The problem is that he is right to be worried about all of these things [...]
Continue Reading →I have a new favorite book for the pre-teen set. I loved Escape Under the Forever Sky by Eve Yohalem; I could not put it down once I’d started and I cried when I was finished. It is a marvelous book about courage, responsibility, and connection. Escape Under the Forever Sky is about the best kind [...]
Continue Reading →The Diamond Girls by Jacqueline Wilson is one in a series of books written about the matriarchal Diamond family: mom has five children, all from different dads, and she loves them all ferociously but not always with the best of judgment or foresight or care, relying as she does on the power of tarot , [...]
Continue Reading →Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card is wildly imaginative and engaging science fiction for teenagers. Strangely enough, it stars a bunch of little kids led by a hero nicknamed Ender. Ender, the third kid in his family, was allowed to be born only because of his incredible gene material. He and his fellow soldiers are [...]
Continue Reading →American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang is a perfect book for teenagers and a good read for anybody. The illustrations in this graphic novel are sharp and evocative, and the three story lines intermix, coming together in the end as a parable of identity and self-definition, explored in a very different way from the [...]
Continue Reading →Yesterday I read Wake by Lisa McMann. This book was a bestseller for young adults and a sequel came out this spring, with the third in the series to come out next year. I just don’t get it. Okay, this book was easy to read and mildly entertaining, and its premise of one girl finding herself, [...]
Continue Reading →20 Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler is a wonderful book about being a teenager, but it is more than that; 20 Boy Summer is also a lovely and very real portrayal of loss, its ripple effects of sorrow, anger, and denial, and the undertow of guilt as life goes on. Anna, the teenage narrator, has to [...]
Continue Reading →The Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz are empowering and engrossing fare for the middle school crowd — and really fun reads for their parents. If your kid has these books, make sure you read them too (not only for the adventure but because some political and social issues are raised that are well-worth discussing) [...]
Continue Reading →I wish someone (like my son who recommended this book to me) had told me that Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel is just the first in a three-part series about the beguiling little bat named Shade who follows his own heart (and echo radar) to find justice and happiness for bats everywhere. I was so enthralled and [...]
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