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