This is the fun, fast-paced, witty, and not too long adventure novel you’ve been searching for. Chock full of jokes and characters you grow to love.
Review of the Day: Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff
February 18, 2021 by
The publisher sold this book to me as Doll Bones with a trans narrative and maybe that’s the best description you should hope for. Smart. Original. Necessary. Thank god we have this book now.
Review of the Day: Milo Imagines the World by Matt de la Peña, ill. Christian Robinson
February 3, 2021 by
Read this book to a child when you yourself need to remember that the world is full of horrible, wonderful, complicated people and that there are millions of their stories out there just waiting to be learned.
Review of the Day: Katie the Catsitter by Colleen AF Venable, ill. Stephanie Yue
January 21, 2021 by
Created by the crackerjack team of Venable and Yue, this daring duo introduces the world to small, furry New York City superheroes and the catsitter that gets caught up in the action.
Review of the Day: Planet Omar – Accidental Trouble Magnet by Zanib Mian, ill. Nasaya Mafaridik
September 11, 2020 by
Let’s hand Omar to as many kinds as we can name. Because as far as I’m concerned, funny books that also prove to be smart and socially conscious (not to mention anti-racist) might help us get out of the mess this world is in.
Review of the Day: Just Like Me by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
June 11, 2020 by
We may have spent the better part of Poetry Month sheltering in place, but that doesn’t mean poetry went to sleep. Instead, books like this one have just been biding their time. Go out. Find it. Discover it. And discover why a book this good deserves some keen adjectives in its arsenal.
Review of the Day: Wink by Rob Harrell
May 28, 2020 by
They say, write what you know. And if what you know is how to lie on a steel table, your head screwed into place, a laser pointed at your face, that might be a good place to start. We live in dark times. How dark are they? SO dark that a book about a kid with a potentially deadly eye cancer is the bit of lighthearted levity we all need and crave.
Review of the Day: Fighting Words by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
May 7, 2020 by
Not every 12-year-old is going to be ready for the abuse and pain addressed in Bradley’s latest. But for those kids that want a book can be honest with them about the world, written at their age-level, with funny parts and a happy ending where things get better, this is that book. It ain’t easy but it’s there for you.
Review of the Day: Desert Girl, Monsoon Boy by Tara Dairman, ill. Archana Sreenivasan
April 30, 2020 by
I honestly think there’s a value in teaching kids the fact that the more you learn, the more you will realize just how much you do not know. That there’s always room for more knowledge. And Desert Girl, Monsoon Boy is a gorgeously wrought, simply written, smart story that does the work of engaging and informing kids alongside their ill-informed parents.
Review of the Day: Shirley & Jamila Save Their Summer by Gillian Goerz
April 14, 2020 by
Firmly rooted in reality, the book tips its hat low to Sherlock Holmes but maintains an originality entirely of its own. Surely kids won’t be asking for more of the same? They most certainly will. And don’t call me Shirley.
Review of the Day: Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk
January 31, 2020 by
Hand this to the kid that yearns for that freedom. For wide-open spaces and mysterious figures hiding in the shadows and snot nosed brothers and lots and lots of puppies. Hand it to someone who needs their own mountain. Even if it’s just a literary one.
Review of the Day: My Papi Has a Motorcycle by Isabel Quintero, ill. Zeke Peña
June 29, 2019 by
Children are forever being picked up and taken to new locations without their input or consent. In today’s book review, you can see a kid taking the initiative. A father/daughter tale unlike any other out there today.
Review of the Day: The Line Tender by Kate Allen
April 10, 2019 by
There are books for kids that dare to be more thoughtful than pulse pounding. If chosen freely by a child, they can unlock something inside. Something that means more to the person reading than anyone else. The Line Tender carries this promise in its pages. It’s the right book for the right reader.
Review of the Day: The Happy Book by Andy Rash
March 13, 2019 by
You have other books about emotions that you love, I have no doubt, but seriously consider supplementing them with Rash’s latest. A loving little book unafraid to be happy, sad, angry, scared, and supremely good.
Video Premiere: Creators IRL (Part 3): Identity
January 24, 2019 by
What the heck is ‘Creators IRL’?”. It’s a series Penguin created to “offer a safe space for conversations, questions, revelations, and reflections between readers and some of their favorite creators. Featuring candid discussion from some of the book community’s most beloved creators, each video will center on a particular topic and explore how that topic has influenced the creator’s life and career.” Today, I’m premiering the third video in the series. Its focus? “Identity”.
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