Sometimes it takes me years to read certain books. Oftentimes, fear is involved. Sometimes when I like a book so very much, I'm afraid the next book by that author just might disappoint. So I do the denial thing and move said title deeper down...
Every time I close a Mas Arai mystery (this is my third – I know, I need to catch up), and in spite of the sometimes gruesome body count, I have to admit I miss the crotchety old man with his Japanese phrases mixed in...
Happy Cinco de Mayo from Perico and his human family! While everyone busily prepares for the big picnic and festivities on the rented barge that will float down the San Antonio River, Perico the parrot looks for ways he can help, too. But Grandmother and Aunt...
By the time I actually met Sonya Chung, debut novelist of Long for This World, which hit shelves in March, I was already a groupie. Long was one of those suddenly-surprising-out-of-nowhere books that make you gasp. A publicist sent it to me initially and it...
Having discovered manga late in life, I seem to be making up for lost time ...
Even though "Uncle" calls her Rosa Garcia, Tzunun Chumil knows her real Mayan name, and that in Spanish, Tzunun is 'colibrí,' which means "hummingbird." She knows somewhere that she has a mother and father that once loved her very much, that she lived a happy...
Inspired by two real children in Dhaka whom Ann Malaspina met on her travels through South Asia, Yasmin's Hammer is yet more proof for the need to educate girls throughout the world. When a cyclone destroys their home village "by a lazy river," two sisters – Mita and...
Five years ago, Taipei-born Malaysian British Tash Aw landed in the media spotlight with The Harmony Silk Factory, complete with public speculations about an allegedly enormous debut advance. Decorated with multiple important prizes, including Commonwealth and Whitbread first novel awards, Aw’s Factory earned him both...
Jack Lime is a self-described "detective, a private investigator, a gumshoe." He's also a new student at Iona High School, who landed mid-9th grade in the ultra-planned, exclusive community from the City of Angels to live with his grandmother after the tragic death of his...
It's no wonder that this kiddie classic by longtime DC-area local Audrey Penn has sold some 4.5 million copies! I can proudly say I've added more than a few copies to that total, as it's one of those incredibly appropriate stories for an experience that every...
The latest in what has become practically a franchise – Audrey Penn's Kissing Hand series – deals with an extremely difficult subject ...
Min opens her latest with guilty sobs recalling her "brainwashed" teenaged self in 1970s China, when she was forced to denounce Pulitzer and Nobel prize-winning writer Pearl S. Buck to Madame Mao. That guilt clearly drove Min (Red Azalea) to write this "based on the...
With over 300 titles to her name, Jane Yolen simply couldn't be more prolific! Here she teams up with the whimsically fantastic illustrator Stéphane Jorisch who captures Yolen's delight-filled father/daughter adventures as they meet dogs walking their owner, paint a room seven shades of blue, get...
Last week, this article landed in my inbox: "Jewish Group Boycotts Canadian Kids' Book." The comments are also well worth reading. Then a friend sent me another related article which announced, "Controversial Mideast book stays in Toronto schools." The running quote box on the left side...
Here's a whimsical counting book that celebrates "[o]ne magical, moonlit night in the zoo ...
Gene Luen Yang, who made publishing history as the author of the first graphic novel ever to be nominated for a National Book Award, returns with an irresistible, hilarious little book that takes sibling rivalry to whole new heights. First serialized in The New York...
David Almond has been repeatedly popping up in my inbox recently. Not him personally (don't I wish, as he is definitely one of my very favorite writers for young adult titles), but his mega-award-winning name is haunting my emails...
Regardless of your politics (although there's no mistaking where longtime comics creator Larry Hama and the rest of his funny cronies' loyalties lie), you will definitely find many moments to guffaw over in this four-part comic series too entertaining to put down! The New Ice Age has...
Timing is everything, right? Last weekend, I had our teenage daughter and a friend of hers wandering NYC, and we happened to do the fabulous, downloadable Soundwalk/Chinatown walking tour narrated by Chinatown native Jami Gong – all three of us were attached to one iPod...
Art director for an alternative city paper by day, comics artist whenever he has the time, SAM (Secret Asian Man, yes!) – not so unlike his own creator Tak Toyoshima – fights stereotypes when he can, makes biting commentaries when frustrated, and generally tries to...
