Books to Inspire, Thrill and Engage Children
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 →
One of my favorite stories from childhood is Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John. This is a sweet, difficult story of families living on a mountain in French-speaking Switzerland. Hard feelings and frustrations lead to an unforgettable and unforgivable accident. How the two families, especially the children, work through the ramifications of the... 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 →
For all the books I’ve read, I can’t believe I’ve read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl for the first time. Charlie is an unlikely recipient of a golden ticket to see the inside of Mr. Willy Wonka’s famous chocolate factory. The other children who have golden tickets are spoiled, rotten and selfish.... Continue Reading →
When Roberto decides to sneak away to attend a movie one afternoon, he has no idea that it means he will never see his parents again. German soldiers raid the theater, round up the boys and send them to a work camp. As Roberto and his friend Samuele struggle to survive, they vow to stay... Continue Reading →
Cultivating Readers 