

laurenaliseschultz
Ship Breaker
When writing the 2011 Michael L. Printz Award Winner Ship Breaker, author Paolo Bacigalupi drew inspiration from concerns with global...


laurenaliseschultz
A Northern Light
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly came highly recommended from several other book bloggers and had also won the Michael L. Printz...


laurenaliseschultz
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
After reading my review of A Wrinkle in Time, several people have mentioned to me that they have never gotten around to finishing all...


laurenaliseschultz
Love is the Higher Law
Where were you on September 11? For my generation, asking this question is a lot like asking a Baby Boomer, Where were you when JFK was...


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Mandie and the Secret Tunnel
It's been something like twenty years since I've read the Mandie books, and I was thrilled to find that they had been published on...


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Moon Over Manifest
Clare Vanderpool’s Moon Over Manifest, the winner of the 2011 Newbery Award, is a story about stories. When Gideon Tucker sends his...


laurenaliseschultz
Woods Runner
I must admit that although Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet won the Newbery in 1987, I’ve never been that interested in reading the novel—or any of...


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A Wind in the Door
In the Newberry-winning novel A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L’Engle introduced readers to Meg Murry, her younger brother Charles Wallace,...


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The ORIGINAL Hidden Staircase
Note: this is a review of the ORIGINAL version of The Hidden Staircase, published in 1930. Want to know the plot differences between...


laurenaliseschultz
The Hidden Staircase
Back before cell phones existed and women were apt to sit anxiously at home by the phone waiting for news, Nancy Drew went zipping...


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A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time begins very much like many other children’s adventure stories: with an unhappy adolescent. Meg Murry feels...


laurenaliseschultz
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing
Right around the time that I started reading The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The Pox Party,...


laurenaliseschultz
It's Kind of a Funny Story
It’s fairly well-known that Asian teenagers are under a lot of pressure to succeed academically. Forget making a decision about your...


laurenaliseschultz
When You Reach Me
Career changes. Job interviews. Performance reviews. Tax Forms. Most of us would probably agree that every once in a while, it would...


laurenaliseschultz
The Horse and His Boy
Harry Potter and the Twilight Series are prominently stacked in the all the bookstore windows, perhaps helping you realize that adults...