The Penderwicks at Point Mouette By Jeanne Birdsall Knopf (an imprint of Random House) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-375-85851-2 Ages 7-12 On shelves May 10th When Jeanne Birdsall’s first middle grade novel The Penderwicks was published in 2005 it committed a crime. A crime shared, I might add, by books written by authors like Dr. Seuss, J.K. [...]
Inside Out and Back Again By Thanhha Lai Harper Collins $15.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-196278-3 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Thinking about the most memorable of children’s novels, one trait in all of them has to ring true in order for them to click with their readers. The books must contain some kind of “meaning”. Even the [...]
Small Persons with Wings By Ellen Booraem Dial (an imprint of Penguin) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-8037-3471-5 Ages 10-14 On shelves now We’re all sick of vampires right now. We’re also a little tired of zombies and don’t even TALK to me about angels. A couple years ago you could have said the same about child wizards. [...]
Okay for Now By Gary D. Schmidt Clarion Books (an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-547-15260-8 Ages 10-14 On shelves April 18th There are three kinds of literary sequels for kids out there. First, you have the sequel that is so intricately tied into the plot of the first book that not a [...]
Season of Secrets By Sally Nicholls Arthur A. Levine (an imprint of Scholastic) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-545-21825-2 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Sally Nicholls is not a household name here in America. She is possibly not even a name that most children’s librarians, booksellers, and teachers would recognize right off the bat. This, in spite of [...]
Words in the Dust By Trend Reedy Arthur A. Levine Books (an imprint of Scholastic) $17.99 ISBN: 978-0-545-26125-8 Ages 11 and up. On shelves now. A children’s book, written by a soldier about an Afghani girl, set in the recent past. That’s a toughie. There are a lot of easier books out there to review [...]
Eliza’s Freedom Road: An Underground Railroad Diary By Jerdine Nolen A Paula Wiseman Book (Simon & Schuster) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-4169-5814-7 Ages 7-11 On shelves now Name me all the films you can that involve slaves escaping via The Underground Railroad. No? Okay then, I’ll make it easy on you. Name me a single film, just [...]
Windblowne By Stephen Messer Random House $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-375-86195-6 Ages 9-12 On shelves now 2010 was not a great year for fantasies. Sure, there were plenty of books that contained small fantastical elements, but titles that plunged the reader into entirely different worlds with their own set of rules and understandings? Few and far between. [...]
The Adventures of Nanny Piggins By R.A. Spratt Illustrated by Dan Santat Little Brown and Company $15.99 ISBN: 978-0-316-06819-2 Ages 9-12 On shelves now. Don’t judge a book by its cover, they say. To heck with that, say I. When it comes to books for kids, nine times out of ten you’re going to end [...]
The Clockwork Three By Matthew Kirby Scholastic Press $17.99 ISBN: 978-0-545-20337-1 Ages 9-12 On shelves now I’m in a weird position. I’m tired of Steampunk, and yet if I say that word to most kids that walk into my library they’ll give me a blank stare followed by an immediate, “What’s Steampunk?” I’d explain to [...]
Crunch By Leslie Connor Katherine Tegan Books (an imprint of Harper Collins) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-169229-1 Ages 9-12 On shelves now. Leslie Connor forgive me; I sometimes forget how awesome you are. It’s nice to rely on an author. To know that you can trust them to write book after book that isn’t crap. That’s true [...]
Sugar and Ice By Kate Messner Walker & Company (a division of Bloomsbury) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-8027-2081-8 Ages 9-12 On shelves December 9th They say to write what you know. We’ve all heard that line. It’s bounced about countless writing groups. But there’s an unspoken rule amongst children that’s as pervasive as it is harmful: Read [...]
Mockingbird By Kathryn Erskine Philomel (a division of Penguin) $15.99 ISBN: 978-0-399-25264-8 Ages 9-12 On shelves now. Children’s librarians read quite a few books for kids and the result is that we tend to want to discuss them with one another. Unlucky librarians are surrounded solely by people who agree with their opinions. You’re much [...]
The Death (and Further Adventures) of Silas Winterbottom: The Body Thief By Stephen M. Giles Sourcebooks Jabberwocky $12.99 ISBN: 978- 1-4022-4090-4 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Charlie and the Chocolate Factory meets The Mysterious Benedict Society. If those words are mere gobblety-gook to you and don’t mean a thing, don’t worry. You can rectify that [...]
Where the Streets Had a Name By Randa Abdel-Fattah Scholastic $17.99 ISBN: 978-0-545-17292-9 Ages 9 and up On shelves November 1, 2010 When I was a child I had a very vague sense of global conflicts in other countries. Because of my Bloom County comics I knew a bit about apartheid in South Africa. Later [...]
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