The reviews for Jacqueline Davies’ The Lemonade War are mostly good, but after being critical of Island of the Blue Dolphins, I find myself reluctant to call this one how I read it: I liked it. I didn’t know what to expect, really. My daughter had pulled it from the shelf in her classroom, telling…
When my daughter was assigned this book for fifth grade reading, I was happy to read it. I enjoy history and have a special interest in Native American history. I thought this would be an interesting story, even though it is a fictionalized account. Not so much. Besides the real story, itself, I found this…
Frindle, by Andrea Clements, was another one of those third grade reading lists books that I bought for the new school year. In the fall, we were attempting to read the books back and forth, one paragraph at a time, but we have since stopped that. Understandably, partnering with my “low-reading” son, we read through…
When I saw the charming movie preview for the newest The Little Prince adaptation, I knew it was time to add it to the summer reading list. I like to read a book, timing it with an exciting movie release. Plus, I had been meaning to read The Little Prince for years and years. It’s…
You are about to be introduced to my favorite cookbook author. It is not Bobby Flay. It is not Nigella Lawson, or Julia Child, or Deborah Madison, though I love them all. It is none other than the lately underappreciated Bert Greene. He, my friend, was a real cookbook author. He was born into creativity…
This is a classic. I chose it from a third grade reading list, to read out to my son at bedtime. I had read it—finally, as an adult—maybe fifteen years prior, but had basically forgotten the entire thing. When I started reading, though, the basic feeling came back to me, and I was in the…
I read Walk Two Moons probably fifteen years ago, and I liked it enough that I considered myself a Sharon Creech fan. But despite my intentions to read more of her work, here I am fifteen years later reading my second book out loud to my nine-year-old son. Castle Corona was a title I found…
Let’s first be clear on what this is. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay, by J.K. Rowling is not a novel. It’s not even a play, in the tradition of so many great writers before her. It is, in fact, a screenplay. (There is also a book by almost the exact…
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:…
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 starving artist 