Well, this is embarrassing. I guess if I’m going to do the crime, I’ll have to do the time. Just kidding, sort of. The truth is this: one of those little library boxes appeared in my neighborhood last year, which made me very happy. I wander by it frequently, depositing and taking books, although mostly…
I have been looking forward to reading this book for a while. It comes up now and again, especially on best books lists. It’s also titled The Book Thief, which sounds so exciting and so very bookish. Let’s establish what this book is. It is a young adult novel about Nazi Germany. That’s pretty much…
Yes, I absolutely had to combine the three into one post. It was just too hard to find lists that accurately distinguished between children’s, middle grades, and young adult reads. In fact, there may be no accurately distinguishing between them. See post HERE to get an idea of what I mean. And on top of…
Let’s get this settled once and for all. Where is the line between YA (young adult) and MG (middle grades) literature? What ages are we talking here, let alone themes and appropriateness? (Please note that this debate has been worn out just about everywhere else on the internet, but I have not settled it for…
Dustbin Baby, by Jacqueline Wilson–ahem, Dame Jacqueline Wilson–published in the UK in 2001 by Random House/Doubleday. Or at least that was where it started. I had a week before me, during which I was planning and packing for a very big trip, two thick books lined up in the queue (which would be the wooden…
the starving artist 