I am such a Harry Potter fan that I am almost always disappointed by J. K. Rowling’s other works, simply because they are not Hogwarts in the 90s. So let’s just take this children’s chapter book for what it is: a magical, Christmas journey into the Land of the Lost by one little boy and…
I purposely went from Zadie Smith’s NW to A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh. I find Smith to be—while beautiful and noteworthy—depressing and challenging, so I took a brain-break with one of my very favorites, Pooh Bear. And while Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh series (Winnie-the-Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young (poetry, actually written first),…
I read it in a day, partly because my son had broken his arm and I had to take him to the urgent care and then bring him home and receive visitors and get him all straightened out (and let him watch movies instead of do school for the day). I also read it in…
I know most of you can empathize, but it has been a busy season. I hosted Thanksgiving for thirteen and I go all out (and then multiply what you were thinking by ten), my daughter’s birthday fell the day before this year, we are still in a pandemic, I have Christmas to make happen on…
I would give this one a 3.5 to 4 stars. I’m going back and forth. The idea behind Mañanaland by Pam Muñoz Ryan piqued my interest and then when I started reading it, I was a bit like “yawn” and then by the end I liked it again. What happened? I think the main thing…
This review has been a long time in coming. Todd Parr didn’t fall onto my list of TBRs in any conventional way (though I just looked it up and one of his books is on the Best Picture Books list). It was more of a way for me to volunteer at my kids’ school. It…
You might think, anymore, that I’m pulling your leg when I say a book was my favorite in fourth grade. It does seem like I say that a lot, but fourth grade was a golden year for me, so by “fourth grade” I mean around fourth grade. And in reality, I’ve only made this claim…
I started off on reading Robert McCloskey way back when my son and I read Homer Price, like a few years ago. Shortly after, I reviewed the classic, Make Way for Ducklings, and then got Lentil from the library. All this time later, I have read all of his picture books (which aren’t many), and…
Here are a few of the books that I remember loving in late-elementary school: A Wrinkle in Time, Caddie Woodlawn, The Wheel on the School, The Indian in the Cupboard, and The Borrowers. (Also the Babysitters Club, but we don’t need to pretend that’s great literature; just good, clean fun.) It occurs to me that…
I hadn’t even noticed, until now, that I had two Kate DiCamillo reviews lined up one right after another. This is another book that I read with my son, but then gave a 24-hour re-read in order to review it fairly. I remembered it, but not well enough. I think that one of the reasons…
It has only been two days since I reviewed a picture book, but this one was sitting on the list waiting to be reviewed, so we’re going to go ahead and do it. I found this book when I was looking for something specific. I have a nephew who is really, really into building and…
I enjoy giving books to the young people in my life. It is a fantasy of mine to supply great libraries of curated books to all of my grandchildren. Yes, this is my fantasy. Toward this end, I have kept my eyes open for the best of all books for every age of person. This…
I was reluctant to read Old Yeller by Fred Gipson to my son. I had never read it, but I knew, just from being an observant American, that it was not going to end well. My son loves books with boys in nature, especially involving animals and coming-of-age, but we had already endured Where the Red…
I was looking forward to reading Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (for us, bound in one volume) out to my son, because I remember having enjoyed them in high school. To this day, one of my very favorite poems is “The Jabberwocky,” from Looking Glass. What I found, unsurprisingly,…
I have been looking forward to re-reading this book for years, so it was advantageous when the movie was slated for release around the same time it was coming up on my son’s fourth grade reading list. You see, it was one of my favorite books when I was a kid and I read it…
Just get used to it. You’re going to get a Roald Dahl review at least once a year. I love Roald Dahl. Some of my most favorite books in the world were written by Roald Dahl. (His titles include Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Witches, The Twits, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach,…
A book like this hardly needs a review, let alone an introduction. In the dream library that I made for my future grandchildren–in my head–classics like this one will always find a place. Still, there is no telling with kids, especially very young ones. With them, there is no accounting for taste, for reals. They…
When I saw this movie with my kids, a few years ago, I was really expecting something like The Spiderwick Chronicles or The Chronicles of Narnia. Perhaps the absence of “Chronicles” in the title should have been a sign, but this book (and movie) are nothing like either of those books/series. Terabithia–despite its fanciful name–is not…
We were perusing the children’s section of a Barnes & Noble on a family trip to the mall, when we came across a few featured tables piled high with great-looking books. I did what all modern Americans do, and I pulled out my smart phone to take photos of all the books that I wanted…
This book really doesn’t need a review, does it? But it was on the Best Books list and I read it (not for the first time), and here it is. I will admit that this was never a favorite of mine. I just didn’t get all the hype. I was so used to the illustrations…
the starving artist 