I picked up an audio version of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children on a whim last week when I was leaving for a long bike ride. It came out in 2011 and never appealed to me, but the title was one I’d heard of in a sea of unfamiliar books, so I gave it […]
M. C. Higgins the Great, by Virginia Hamilton
This book wasn’t my favorite, but I want to review it because it won the Newbery in 1975, and as many of you know, I’m on a (long, slow) quest to read all the Newbery winners. It also won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and the National Book Award and became the only book to […]
The Maladorn Scroll (Alora, 3), by Tamie Dearen
I have to put in a plug for a series I’ve featured before. Book three of the Alora series, The Maladorn Scroll, just released. I’ve really enjoyed these fantastical dips into the realm of Tenavae. They’re clean, the romance is sweet, and the premise is really unusual. It’s that uniqueness I like the most. […]
The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill, 2016
I am completely infatuated with this book. It is outstanding in beauty and nearly biblical in its perceptions. It is a story of magic, of beginnings and endings infinite in their proportions; it is the story of love. The Day of Sacrifice waits for no one. A child, the youngest within the Protectorate, must be […]
I'll Be Seeing You, by Lurlene McDaniel
I have to admit, this one was extremely sappy and predictable and I didn’t really enjoy it all that much. But my teen daughter loved it. And it’s clean. So I guess it’s worth a quick review for teens and parents of teens who like sticky sweet drama without all the hot and heavy. Lurlene McDaniel […]
Peak, by Roland Smith
I thoroughly enjoyed this teen boy adventure. Peak Marcello is a 14-year-old boy, the son of two well-known mountaineers, so he hardly can help it that climbing is in his blood. But when he’s caught climbing a New York skyscraper, he only escapes jail when his father, Josh, shows up and offers to take him […]
The Gladiator and the Guard, by Annie Douglass Lima and a giveaway!
I’m excited to announce the release of a young adult action and adventure book that I had the honor of beta reading this winter. I enjoyed thoroughly enjoyed the first book in the Krillonian Chronicles, The Collar and the Cavvarach, so when the opportunity arose to read book two, The Gladiator and the Guard, and be involved […]
Flying the Dragon, by Natalie Dias Lorenzi
Skye has a cousin, Hiroshi, she has never met. Because Hiroshi lives in Japan, and Skye was born in America. But when Grandfather grows ill, Skye’s Japanese relatives move to America for Grandfather’s treatment. Skye is embarrassed to have Hiroshi in class with her. He can’t speak English well. He’s completely unaware how “uncool” he […]
Blood on the River, by Elisa Carbone
I discovered this book several years ago, when I was looking for historical fiction to suppliment an American history class I was teaching to my then-homeschooled daughter. I’ve just finished reading it with both of my boys for the same class. I’m still impressed. This is the story of Jamestown, told through the eyes of […]
Constance, A Story of Early Plymouth, by Patricia Clapp, 1968
Constance Hopkins was a passenger onboard the Mayflower. The daughter of Stephen Hopkins, neither she nor her father were part of the congregation of Separatist we commonly call Pilgrims but members of the Virginia Company. At least Steven was. Constance was merely fourteen when she made the journey. This is her story, the tale of […]