I rushed to get a copy of this sequel. Book one is my favorite by author Lia London to date. I liked the space frontier settings, the sensory details, and the humor and spunk of the heroine. Book two has all of the above plus a deepening of the adventure as well as the stakes. […]
Trusted: Dragons’ Trust Book 1, by Krista Wayment
Another dragon book. That was my rather reluctant thought when I picked this one up. There are a lot of dragon books out there, more than I realized when I wrote my own. But I’d been told this one was good… I liked it more than Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, the dragonesque Newbery […]
Ragesong: Awakening, by J. R. Simmons
I love surprises. I especially love good surprises. And I really, really like it when that good surprise turns out to be only the first of several. That’s the case for Awakening. I loved the book, and it’s the first of a series. Book two, Uprising, just released in June. I’m getting it. Since I’ve […]
Lost in the Bayou, by Cornell DeVille
I love this cover. It sucked me in immediately. I’ve always liked survival stories, and this one looked intriguing. Whoa! It got intense in a hurry. Andy and Robin are orphans, or so everyone “official” is telling them, even though the bodies of their parents have not been found. It’s a new role for them […]
Navigating Early, by Clare Vanderpool
This is a strange book, one that has beautiful moments I’ve come to associate with Clare Vanderpool, but it doesn’t always resonate with me. At times, the book even feels over-written and abstract with images that are too great a stretch. And I struggled to get a handle on Early. Early Auden is a young […]
Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schlitz
I liked this book far more than the cover and title made me think I would. (The title comes from an old Percy Shelley poem, which is not my forte, and the cover is downright creepy.) I grabbed it simply because it took Newbery honors last year, and when it comes to the Newbery award, […]
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin
This was a sweet little story that took Newbery honors a few years ago. Minli lives in a small, poor village in ancient Asia with her Ma, who has become bitter at their poverty, and Ba (father), who tells stories to lighten it. After a visit by a traveling peddler, Minli sets out to change […]
Flora and Ulysses, by Kate DiCamillo
This is not my favorite work by DiCamillo. It often seemed silly and repetitive, annoying even. I certainly would not have awarded it a Newbery. But by the end, it had a sweetness to it, a completeness. A feel-good-ness. Ulysses is a squirrel that was accidently vacuumed up by Mrs. Tootie Tickham. After receiving CPR, […]
Prince of Malorn (Annals of Alasia, 3), by Annie Douglass Lima
I came to this book in an unusual way. One of my children’s literature friends sort of “set me up” with this author. She recommended I read this book because the author and I write in a very similar literary style. I totally trust the judgment of my friend (hey, she likes MY work :)) […]
Jump Boys, by Alex Banks
I featured this book back in January, but I’m recycling it because it never made MMGM. I mentioned it a few weeks ago when I featured The Swift, written by the same author, so I thought it was appropriate to bring this one back to the forefront. Jump Boys is the first middle grade novel by […]