The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art, by Erwin Raphael McMannus, HarperOne 2014. The book has been a national bestseller in both the religious and secular markets. I read this book because it was assigned for an art group. I believe the leader chose it because he had read McManus’ book,…
I picked up this book this summer as part of a plan to read several books for movies coming out which I wanted to go see. As a life-long Roald Dahl fan, I had read The BFG before. I did not remember it being a favorite. (Technically, the top spot belongs to Matilda.) But on…
This book is an exception. The vast majority of what I read comes straight from my Best Books lists, even if I have to find a reason to put it there myself. At the library one day, my husband walked up to me and handed me the book, A History of Food in 100 Recipes…
We have finished our stack of Arnold Lobel books, and this is our final Lobel review. To end it, we’ve got a quartet of Lobel picture books: The Turnaround Wind, On Market Street, Ming Ho Moves the Mountain, and The Great Blueness and Other Predicaments. As I’ve come to expect, some of Lobel’s books are…
In our forward march through many of Lobel’s many books, we come to a couple of collections: Fables and A Book of Pigericks. Fables is one of Lobel’s modern classics, and it won a Caldecott Medal for illustration. It features twenty original one-page fables, each featuring animals, a moral, and the light, humorous tone (which…
I came across The Random House Book of Poetry (1983) when I was checking out as much as I could from the library from Arnold Lobel. Officially, it is a collection from both old and newer poets, as edited by the Children’s Poet Laureate, Jack Prelutsky, and just illustrated by Arnold Lobel, but since it’s…
On my way through the most lauded of the Arthurian writings, I arrived at Mary Stewart and her Merlin Trilogy. I happened to have four of the books, so I did not realize that only three of them comprised the trilogy, while the fourth was one of two peripheral books. The series is as follows:…
I would like to apologize for the lack of new content on The Starving Artist in the past couple weeks, and I would like to offer a little explanation. We are in the middle of a new construction debacle, in which we have no internet and are not sure when we will have internet. Turns…
The last two months have seen as many publications from my indie publishing company, Owl and Zebra Press’s imprint, Muldover Books. While finishing up on a reprint project (which you’ll hear about next month), I decided to take a little flu-recovery-time to jump on a couple “quick” projects that I knew I could handle while…
We have continued to read as much Beverly Cleary as was in the boxed set we bought last year. I believe, in fact, I am down to the almost-last review. (I am back-logged and owe you a Mouse and the Motorcycle trilogy review.) I believe that these books are related on some level to the…
My son is what is termed a “reluctant reader.” It seems a little more–a little stronger–than reluctant, sometimes. About a year ago, a kind bibliophile who also happens to be family, sent along a small pile of easy reader-esque books which she hoped would entice my son to read. Alas, although he spent some time…
This is a continuation of my reviews of books by Arnold and Anita Lobel. I broke the long list into groups, and this is the group of four Early Readers that I read with my son. For the record, I have recommended a few of the Lobel books for the Best Of list, including Frog…
I will dare to give the Jack Stalwart series of children’s secret agent books three stars, but only because my eight-year-old son loves exactly two series of books, and this is one of them. If I had found these Elizabeth Singer Hunt books on my own, I would have only made it through the first…
Mouse Soup and Mouse Tales, by Arnold Lobel. As far as I can tell, the two books are not exactly related, but they look like a series, are titled like a series, and are meant for the same age group. And both are about mice. I picked these books up after my son so thoroughly…
The X-Files universe, which includes a couple TV series, a couple movies, a mini-series, comic books, and a graphic novel. The TV series debuted in 1993 and the next mini-series or movie is in talks, as of 2016. The X-Files, original TV series seasons 1-5 (1993-1998) The X-Files, comic books (1995-1998) The X-Files: Fight the…
The Sesame Street Bedtime Storybook, featuring Jim Henson’s Muppets. It was published in 1978 by Random House. I don’t really know how or why my kids picked this book out of the stack that was left in the room into which they moved for the summer. (We are in the process of building a house.)…
No Pretty Pictures: a Child of War, by Anita Lobel. Published by Greenwillow Books, New York, in 1998, with an unfortunately drab and unexceptional cover (especially considering that the author is known as a children’s illustrator). The more recent 2008 reissue cover is much better. DISCLAIMER: I do not see this as a children’s or…
Goosebumps, the movie, released in 2015 by Sony Pictures. There are a few things that I need to say before I get to this movie. The first is that I do not allow my kids to read Goosebumps or watch the show, because they are too scary (and possibly I have some other reasons). That…
The Pendragon Trilogy, by Stephen R. Lawhead, which includes Taliesin, Merlin, and Arthur. I read old paperbacks from Avon Books which I received as hand-me-downs from my aunt. The original publication dates were 1987, 1988, and 1989. Turns out I was confused about these books. (Side note: Did you know there is a website to…
This wasn’t a list I was going to make. But then, I found myself with three adorable nephews and an Amazon Prime account for their birthdays. Now, I know some of the books that I have loved reading to my kids–and Lord knows I spent enough time researching the best and most classic books–but I…
the starving artist 