Hound Dog True By Linda Urban Harcourt Children’s Books (an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) $15.99 ISBN: 978-0-547-55869-1 Ages 9-12 On shelves September 20th There’s identifying with a work of children’s fiction and then there’s wondering if the author of the work has somehow discovered time travel and was able to observe your younger self. […]
Review of the Day: Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier
July 8, 2011 by
Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes By Jonathan Auxier Amulet Books (an imprint of Abrams) $16.95 ISBN: 978-1-4197-0025-5 Ages 9-12 On shelves August 1st. What is the most telling difference between those works of children’s literature written long ago and those written today? Pose this question to a room full of children’s librarians and I […]
Review of the Day: Hidden by Helen Frost
July 2, 2011 by
Hidden By Helen Frost Frances Foster Books (Farrar Straus & Giroux) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-374-38221-6 Ages 10 and up On shelves now. If poems had been introduced to me as a child as puzzles, maybe I would have taken to them a little more. A poem is a kind of puzzle, isn’t it? Depending on the […]
Review of the Day: Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
June 28, 2011 by
Breadcrumbs By Anne Ursu Illustrated by Erin McGuire Walden Pond Press (an imprint of Harper Collins) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-201505-1 Ages 9-12 On shelves September 27, 2011 Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen is, let’s admit it, the world’s greatest puberty metaphor. A boy and girl are friends. Something happens and he grows cold […]
Review of the Day: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente
June 1, 2011 by
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making By Catherynne M. Valente Illustrations by Ana Juan Feiwel and Friends (an imprint of Macmillan) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-312-64961-6 On shelves now. Well devil if I know what to do with it. Never complain that you are bored, ladies and gentlemen. Say such a […]
Review of the Day: The Boy at the End of the World by Greg van Eekhout
May 21, 2011 by
The Boy at the End of the World By Greg van Eekhout Bloomsbury Children’s Books $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-59990-524-2 Ages 9-12 On shelves June 21, 2011 For all that dystopias are now the #1 hot genre amongst children and teens (having supplanted vampires for the moment) I’ve yet to have a kid actually ask me for […]
Review of the Day: Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
April 30, 2011 by
Dead End in Norvelt By Jack Gantos Farrar, Straus and Giroux (an imprint of Macmillan) $15.99 ISBN: 978-0-374-37993-3 Ages 10-14 On shelves September 13, 2011 What makes Jack Gantos tick? It’s a question that haunts every book he writes, from the simplest Rotten Ralph to his own YA autobiography Hole in My Life. It’s a […]
Review of the Day: Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis
April 15, 2011 by
Kat, Incorrigible By Stephanie Burgis Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $16.99 ISBN: 9781416994473 Ages 9-12 On shelves now Early nineteenth-century child and teen novels written with an equal influence of Jane Austen and Diana Wynne Jones are nothing new. Indeed they’ve been around for quite some time. They’re your Sorcery and Cecelia by […]
Review of the Day: Fly Trap by Frances Hardinge
April 5, 2011 by
Fly Trap By Frances Hardinge Harper Collins $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-088044-6 Ages 9-12 On shelves May 31, 2011 As I see it, reviewing a sequel is a peculiar enterprise. One can hardly review a book without suggesting to the reader that they read the previous novel as well. And in the rare case where the sequel […]
Review of the Day: The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall
March 16, 2011 by
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. […]
Review of the Day: Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
March 4, 2011 by
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 […]
Review of the Day: Small Persons with Wings by Ellen Booraem
February 22, 2011 by
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. […]
Review of the Day: Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt
February 12, 2011 by
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 […]
Review of the Day: Season of Secrets by Sally Nicholls
February 1, 2011 by
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 […]
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