"SHHHH! Quiet." Because Roger is not only reading, he's reading a book. A book. Oh, for the love of books, this is the perfect book for book lovers of all ages. Yes, Roger is reading. Or trying to, anyway. He's got a spotlight illuminating the pages just so,...
*STARRED REVIEW Suzy and Franny met in a pool back when "making a friend, and having one, seem[ed] like the easiest thing in the world." But just before seventh grade, Franny – who could already swim underwater at age 5 – is dead by drowning. Smart, logical, full-of-facts...
Davis knows that every kid will "get boiled down to only one adjective…. It's decided. There. Permanent." Among his closest friends, Ellen is Mean, while Sophie is Pretty. Davis is "the Fat one, but everyone calls [him] husky." He hopes to escape his adjective, but being...
*STARRED REVIEW "The word fat makes some people uncomfortable," Willowdean Dickson remarks. Called Dumplin’ by her mother, Will insists that fat is "not an insult." She's comfortably self-aware, buoyed by her late aunt, whom she still deeply mourns, and her picture-perfect best friend. When she introduces herself...
Canadian writer Sharon E. McKay is no stranger to children and war; her numerous books that have highlighted the horrendous effects of adult conflict on the world's youngest citizens have garnered international attention via lauds and awards. Her latest, "endorsed by Amnesty International Canada," as...
So it wasn't even dusk yet and already the spine was tingling as soon as I opened the book. I kept looking around to make sure what was on the page hadn't somehow escaped and was about to pounce on me. With Halloween just over...
*STARRED REVIEW At 40, Kevin Lee, an almost-tennis-pro-turned-club-instructor, finds out he’s adopted when he tries to donate a kidney to his less-than-deserving widower father. The only clues to Kevin's identity are an unfinished letter from his late mother with a nude centerfold of his birthmother. Meanwhile, his younger...
When Pulitzer-ed MacArthur 'Genius' Katherine Boo's first (and thus far only) book debuted in January 2012, I predicted it would be found alongside the nominees/finalists for all the Very Important Literary Prizes that year – indeed, among many, many honors, Boo won the 2012 National Book Award for Nonfiction. What...
Meet Maria, Jin, and Fatimah. They're new – not only to their classroom, but to the language, culture, and country that is our United States. Maria, who left behind an unnamed Spanish-speaking nation, longs for the constant conversations with her friends when their "voices flowed like water and flew...
Death by Water takes readers on a wild ride of epic proportions In addition to being noted for his prodigious literary accomplishments, 1994 Nobel Prize-winning Kenzaburō Ōe is known for being politically outspoken. He made international headlines again during this year’s 70th anniversary of the Nagasaki/Hiroshima...
Wonderstruck. I know, I know – that's the title of Brian Selznick’s previous jaw-dropping accomplishment on the page ...
How did we get to the month of Halloween already? To get you ready for the upcoming fright-fest, check out these eight spooky tales that have managed to stay scary for generations. Lost ghosts, evil spirits, deceptive other-worldly beings, hauntings, murders and worse. Goosebumps gotcha...
Who can resist a lost little kitten? Furry-friendlies unite: this adorable black-grey-and-white fluff-bundle will set your heart all aflutter. Wandering out with Mommy Cat and two siblings, this little one gets lost. She's woofed at by a dog (thankfully leashed), and narrowly misses getting run over...
Who knew ...
A young girl and her father are traveling, with little more than a backpack each. She counts what she sees to pass the time: cows, hens, a bored donkey, the clouds ...
"Listen. I'm going to tell you a story -- " Well, of course, if two-time National Book Award finalist (third time will be the charm!) Gene Luen Yang is involved with the explicating, you're going to listen, and listen well. This former high school computer science...
At 17, Maggie Thrash and her mother are visiting her brother in New Mexico where he's attending college. "I don't approve of your running off with this person you haven't seen in two years," her mother admonishes her, while her brother deadpans a "I'm bitterly...
So you know how the book ends by the second paragraph in the "Prologue." But holy moly, once you start, you'll want to experience every detail of how the eponymous boys in the boat – "nine young men from the state of Washington – farm boys, fisherman, and...
Caldecott Medalist author/illustrator Allen Say introduced his personal portrait-of-an-artist-as-a-young-man in the one title he didn't illustrate, the autobiographical middle-grade novel, The Ink-Keeper's Apprentice, originally published in 1979. More than three decades later, in 2011, Say returned to his early artistic journey, reworking his Apprentice into a...
One unintentionally wrong word uttered in a children's cartoon lost Mana Neyestani his job, his freedom, and nearly his life. As editor of the children's pages for Iran's Iran-Jomeh, Neyestani drew his recurring 10-year-old character confronting a cockroach that replies with a single Azeri word: "Namana." As Neyestani...
