Before the Ever After is a beautifully written middle-grade novel about a 12-year-old boy whose father, a professional football player, is suffering from CTE. The book occurs in a time before anything was widely known about CTE and its effects on many athletes. Zachariah, or ZJ, is in the dark about what’s happening to his father, and…
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 was in the hospital at fourteen my family brought me a…
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 written by women about families that are struggling economically. Both have…
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 new to me. The Betsy-Tacy series was written by Maud Hart…
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 published before 1950 and in about the 8-10 age range. When…
I always love reading Newbery award winners, and Lois Lowry has written many great books for children, including The Giver. So this book has been on my TBR list for a while. Considering my family’s history, learning more about the Holocaust is important to me. So many books have been written on the subject, but…
This book was written by Eric P. Kelly in 1928 and won a Newbery award in 1929. It tells the true story of a 12th century boy in Krakow who dies will blowing a trumpet on the town walls during the invasion of the Tartars. Then it tells the fictional story of a 14th century…
I’ve been reading rave reviews about Patrick Ness for the last couple of years, and finally got around to reading one of his books. A Monster Calls was amazing and completely unexpected. I’m not sure how to review this book so I’ll just recommend that you read it. The story was originally conceived by Siobhan…
This week Biblibio posted on one of my favorite topics: strong female heroines in young adult literature. The post refers to a list published by The Atlantic on “the greatest girl characters of young adult literature” which includes Laura Ingalls Wilder, Pippi Longstocking, Harriet the Spy, Betsy from Betsy-Tacy, Ramona Quimby, and a few others.…
It’s hard to explain how a book that steals so much from existing children’s fantasy series can feel so original. And yet it does. The Magicians by Lev Grossman is unlike most of the fantasy you’re probably reading. It’s a book within a book, homage to great children’s fantasy worlds like Narnia and Harry Potter. …
The Graveyard Book is cool and spooky and touching all at the same time. I expected great things of Neil Gaiman and this one didn’t disappoint. It won the Newbery Medal in 2009, a prize going to the book each year that makes the largest contribution to American children’s literature. The Graveyard Book isn’t like…
My niece has a challenge at her middle school to read as many of the Newbery Medal winners as she can, so I took a look at the list to see what I could recommend. It was fun to remember so many favorite books, kind of like wandering through the children’s section of the library. …
The Book Stop 