Books to Inspire, Thrill and Engage Children
I love Shannon Hale’s books, but was reluctant to pick this one up. Book of a Thousand Days is written as a diary. Yawn, I thought. I was wrong. Dashti is a new lady’s maid to Lady Saren. As soon as she reports to her new mistress, they are whisked off to an isolated tower... Continue Reading →
Author Lauren Wolk returns to rural Pennsylvania, Annabelle McBride and her family in the beautifully written My Own Lightning. We first met Annabelle and her family in Wolf Hollow (read more here), and in this sequel, Annabelle is still processing the events that happened in that book. Life is slowly returning to normal - until... Continue Reading →
Sit by Deborah Ellis Sit by Deborah Ellis is little book full of small, but mighty, stories. They all start with a child. Sitting. And all move and end differently. Only two of the stories have the same characters, the rest stand alone. They are moving - some hopeful, some heartbreaking. All are well-written. All... Continue Reading →
I finally had some time to read this weekend - and what a great book to spend that time with! Applewhites Coast to Coast is the third book in the Applewhites series by Stephanie S. Tolan and R.J. Tolan. (Surviving the Applewhites is the first.) Reasons to love this book: realistic look at homeschooling (the... Continue Reading →
William, Edmund and Anna are in a predicament. Their grandmother has died. They suppose they should feel sad, but she was cold and distant and quite frankly rather mean, even though she cared for them since their parents had died. They’d like to stay with their housekeeper, but she’s not going to be staying in... Continue Reading →
A friend recommended Dragon’s Gate by Laurence Yep after reading it with her high schooler. I was about to hunt it down at the library when I discovered it on my own bookshelf. Apparently, Dragon’s Gate had been a part of our homeschool curriculum as an independent reader, so I had never read it. I... Continue Reading →
I read The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley on a summer vacation a while ago, and my social media friends told me that McKinley had written a prequel to that wonderful book. I kept my eyes open for it, and discovered a copy at a thrift shop while on vacation in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I... Continue Reading →
Minerva and Keira King are twins, but most people wouldn’t know it. Keira was born black, like Mama. And Minni was born white, like Daddy. Now that the girls are in middle school, their differences are causing Minni to ask lots of questions - and notice the way people treat her differently than her sister.... Continue Reading →
I had an evening to myself this week so I read this gem of a book, Little Bits of Sky by S.E. Durrant. As my daughter says, “What? I’m not crying! You’re crying!” (Which means there were tears. Sad tears. Happy tears.) Little Bits of Sky is a beautiful, heartfelt novella. It contains some beautiful... Continue Reading →
I’m a big Dave Barry fan. He’s got a great sense of humor and I’ve welcomed his fairly recent foray into middle grade fiction. The Worst Night Ever is a sequel to The Worst Class Trip Ever, although you don’t have to read the class trip book first to read this one. I enjoyed this... Continue Reading →
Cultivating Readers 