Category: Children and YA
Top ten books I wish I’d read as a child
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is actually something I’ve thought a lot about: books I wish I’d read as a child. There’s something so completely different about reading a book as a child — really falling into the story and characters and making…
Review: Pride by Ibi Zoboi
I have a list of recent Austen adaptations I want to read, like Ayesha at Last, Unmarriageable, and Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors. I’d seen great reviews of Pride by Idi Zoboi and was happy to find the audiobook narrated by Elizabeth Acevedo. I thought her…
Review: Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar
I absolutely loved this children’s book about a girl from a Cuban-Jewish family living in New York who is seriously injured in a car accident and ends up in a full body cast. It’s a perfect book for children in about 3rd-4th grade who…
On The Come Up and The Poet X: a Double Review
These books share a lot of similarities and both were fantastic, so I’m reviewing them together. Both are about teenagers dealing with racial identity, religion, friendship, and family. Both are gifted poets struggling to express themselves. Both love their families but find themselves hiding…
Re-Reading Childhood Favorites: Heidi by Johanna Spyri
You might not expect Heidi to be one of my childhood favorites, but it is. I tended to love books that were grittier and darker. I preferred flawed or “prickly” characters (think Mary Poppins, Ramona, and Harriet the Spy) and I loved stories that…
Review: The Breeding Tree by J. Andersen
Author Andersen has just released the third book in this series, and when she asked me to read it, I asked if I could start with the first instead. This was an interesting, well-written YA dystopian novel. It builds on concepts you’ve already seen…
Dad’s Red Dress by L.J. Sedgwick
I loved this book by Irish author L.J. Sedgwick about a teenager who moves to Ireland with her transgender dad, her artist stepmother, and her younger sister Laura. It’s an unusual story, but one that’s told with humor and sensitivity. Jessie loves her family…
Are the books of Dr. Seuss racist?
Dr. Seuss has always been a hero of mine. I’ve been a huge Seuss fan since the day I could read, and probably earlier. I have a portrait of the man, several biographies, and a lithograph of the Lorax graces my walls. When I…
Riven by Belinda Crawford
I received a copy of Riven from author Belinda Crawford. Last year I reviewed Hero, the first in the series, and loved it. I didn’t enjoy Riven quite as much, but I still want to see where the series goes. The Hero Rebellion is…
Exploring Children’s Classics: Railway Children and All-of-a-Kind Family
Next in my exploration of children’s classics written by women are The Railway Children and All-of-a-Kind Family, both set around the turn of the century, although The Railway Children was actually published near that time, while Family was published in 1951. Both novels are…
Exploring Classic Children’s Series: Betsy-Tacy and Anne of Green Gables
For the Women’s Classics challenge, I’m exploring classic children’s books written by women. In September I read two books, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, and Anne of Avonlea. I had read the first books in the series, but these two were…
Reading Children’s Classics by Women Authors
I haven’t done anything this year for the Women’s Classic Literature Event, which is hosted by the Classics Club, but since it’s September and it’s Back to School time, I was thinking about re-reading favorite classics by women authors. I’m looking specifically at books…
