It took me fall, winter, and spring, but I finished my third venture through the Harry Potter series. And you know what? I enjoyed it as much as the first time. I’m amazed at the imagination and intricacy of the books, and I’m doubly amazed at how much I forget in a few years’ time. In […]
Peter and the Starcatchers (Starcatchers Series, book 1), Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, 2004, Book Review
If you like Peter Pan, or if you love funny, fantastic middle grade fiction, I highly recommend you read this series. This is a reread for me, and the books are as delightful the second time through as they were the first. My daughter claims them as her all-time favorites. This series is where you […]
Dead End in Norvelt, Jack Gantos, 2011, Book Review
Dead End is a worthy title for this book. It deals with death on several levels, but it’s done in a comic, light-hearted way. Jack Gantos, age 12, lives in a town started for the poor by Eleanor Roosevelt during the Great Depression. It’s a socialist type of community (communist, as Jack’s dad, who desperately wants […]
Out From Boneville (Bone, book one), by Jeff Smith, 2005
I’ve heard good things about this series of easy graphic novels from several sources. And I admit book one was engaging. Fone Bone is a cute little white critter that reminds me a bit of Casper the ghost. He’s even-tempered, reasonable and likeable. But he, along with his cousins Phoney Bone and Smiley Bone, are […]
The Island Stallion, by Walter Farley, 1948, Book Review
After rereading The Black Stallion a few weeks ago (read my review), I had to revisit my second favorite book by Mr. Farley. This is the first of a companion series, one I put off reading as a child because after cruising through a dozen books featuring the Black, my loyalties were firmly entrenched. I […]
Gathering Blue (The Giver Trilogy, book two), by Louis Lowry, 2000, Book Review
Ms. Lowry wrote The Giver in 1993 (Newbery winner), Gathering Blue in 2000, and finally Messenger in 2004. It is a series of loosely related dystopian novels. A very depressing series, if truth be told, but engaging and well written. Though I’ve read the first one several times (long before my blog), I’ve never reviewed it–yet. Last year […]
Throne of Fire (Kane Chronicles, book two), by Rick Riordan, 2011, Book Review
Like most of his books, Mr. Riordan’s second installment in his Kane Chronicles has positive and negative elements. I won’t object to my kids (12+) reading them, but I don’t push them, either. The books are exciting, imaginative and funny, a combination that has made them wildly popular with middle school kids. But they also […]
The House with a Clock in its Walls, by John Bellairs, 1973, Book Review
This book was odd. Recommended to me by a friend, I had high expectations that simply weren’t met. It starts out with ten-year-old Lewis Barnavelt on his way to his uncle’s house after his parents’ deaths. Uncle Jonathan is a minor magician, and he lives in an old mansion formerly inhabited by an evil wizard. […]
The Mighty Miss Malone, by Christopher Paul Curtis, 2012, Book Review
I loved this one! The Mighty Miss Malone has everything in it that I appreciate about children’s literature: style, humor, beauty, depth—even history! I have absolutely no complaints about the story. It does have some incorrect grammar and spellings, but that’s because it’s written from the firsthand perspective of twelve-year-old Deza Malone. I don’t like such […]
Artemis Fowl (Artemis Fowl, book one), by Eoin Colfer, 2001, Book Review
Artemis Fowl is the first of an eight-book series, the last of which is set to release in July of 2012. I had heard of this book, but I jumped in without reading up on it, so I didn’t know what to expect. (Thanks, Tim, for Kindle-lending it to me!) In the words of the […]