This is a cute and spooky read for upper elementary and middle grades readers. It’s an easy read and is pretty pitch-perfect for the intended audience. For an adult reader, it’s a bit thin on the ground. But still cute. And still full of thoughtful thoughts and kid-problems. And hopefully the premise is intriguing, because…
Baking and fantasy as written by T. Kingfisher? Of course! YA. Fairy tale-style. Funny. Charming. All that. But it is Kingfisher, so there are also dead bodies strewn along the story’s path, and some scary moments, just more funny, coming-of-age things than the bodies and scares. It gets wacky. It gets introspective. And it’s written…
I kinda wish The Truth About Horses by Christy Cashman wasn’t titled The Truth About Horses. And I also wish the cover were different. Though it almost looks self-pubbed and the title is lackluster and maybe even cheesy, the book is pretty solid. Despite some rather specific things I will find to complain about, overall…
Finally, a Neil Gaiman book that really agrees with me. Everyone else seems to admire his work so assiduously, but me… it either wasn’t my flavor (American Gods) or I thought it was not very good (The Ocean at the End of the Lane). While I had no idea what was coming to me with…
I’m sure to catch it for this review, but I was not at all impressed or even very entertained by the Percy Jackson & the Olympians book series. In the original five books that put the otherwise-teacher and -father Rick Riordan on the map, his famous Percy Jackson goes from age twelve to age fifteen…
I Speak Boy by Jessica Brody (2021) is a solid read for middle grades readers, especially if they are interested in a little romance. With a fun premise and modern lessons, there are plenty of twists and turns and memorable characters in this loose retelling if Jane Austen’s Emma. Emmy is obsessed—and not in a…
I have meant to read some Jules Verne for many years, because his books are classics (though they were intended more for boys, originally). In the latter half of the 1800s, Verne wrote prolifically on his Voyages Extraordinaires series (he was French) and those fifty-four novels (and novellas) include Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,…
The Pages and Co. series, specifically, The Bookwanderers by Anna James were not on my TBR. It is a pretty popular series right at this moment. I didn’t know that when I encountered it. You know how I keep saying that I wasn’t going to buy any more books this year? Well, there seems to…
Another month, another book that I am reviewing because I taught it to my ninth grade(ish) co-op students. I can’t remember how I found this poetry anthology last summer, but I am sure glad that I did. Rather than have to pull poems from the whole world of poetry or require the students to purchase…
I can’t decide whether or not I like The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser. I have such opposite reactions to different aspects of it. When it comes down to it, I would recommend it for its merits, but I spent the first third of the book wanting to put it down because…
One of my favorite books in elementary school was The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong. For my review of that book, see HERE. When my co-op, language arts class of middle schoolers arrived at The House of Sixty Fathers, I was excited to read something else by DeJong. And though it is from…
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…
Well. It’s cute. It’s relevant. It might even be important. It didn’t shine like a beacon, for me. It has a few issues. It also has a few awards. The “new kid” of the graphic novel New Kid by Jerry Craft is Jordan, and he’s not new to his neighborhood or his house: he has…
The books we’ve been reading for middle school literature lately (I teach a co-op class) have been so short that the students have actually asked for more reading suggestions. Not all of the students, but still. After Animal Farm and then War Horse, we landed on another super-short novel (which we’re not going to call…
This book was not what I expected, though if I had seen the movie that came out several years ago, I wouldn’t have been surprised. To be frank, War Horse sounds like a book I would not enjoy, but it was on the required reading list for the middle schoolers I teach this year, so…
Let’s just establish, right away, that though I gave Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky only three stars out of five (I think, generously), I will still be recommending it. Sometimes books are important for a reason, but maybe they’re not the world’s best book. They fill a void. And until that niche…
Lyddie was another in a line of middle grades historical fiction that I have read as the Middle School Language Arts teacher at the homeschool co-op I am a part of. I’ve been more impressed by the selections for this year (part of a writing curriculum based on Modern History as opposed to last year’s…
Perhaps this is a crazy undertaking for me as a blogger, since it would be a little crazy for you as a reader to attempt what it will imply: reading a book a week for the year. I don’t know what’s wrong with me—or with other people, for that matter—that lists and attempts like this…
Another week, another middle grades book under the bridge. It is true: I seem to read almost nothing but middle grades book these days. You’re just going to have to take my word for it that I have much wider interests in literature than middle grades books. However, between curriculum-writing for seventh and eighth grade…
A couple months in to school, and this is the third book I am assigning for my middle grades Language Arts class which is also studying Modern History. The first two books were a moderate win, so I thought it would be too much to hope for another success, and yet… This book was even…
the starving artist 