Welcome to the Spot Writers. This month’s prompt is to write a story involving a penguin. Today’s story comes to us from Val Muller, author of the kidlit series Corgi Capers. Note: getting ready for my own baby penguin, I forgot to post this story on August 30. The penguin …
While my son was in the library, I decided to pick up a graphic novel from the middle grade/young adult section to read over while he ignored storytime and played with all the hands-on activities in the children’s section. This story caught my eye because of its multicultural elements: it …
The reason I picked this book up is because I saw an interview with Ben Montgomery about how to encourage high school journalists to improve their interview skills, so I was curious to read a book-length piece by him regarding a woman he researched after her death. The book follows …
When I was in college, I heard an author speak. I did little research about her before I went to hear her read a passage from her book, When the Emperor was Divine, but I do remember a poignant passage she read about a woman, a shovel, and a dog. …
Original story by Mary Downing Hahn. Adapted by Scott Peterson, Meredith Laxton, and Russ Badgett A while back, I reviewed the original novel Wait Till Helen Comes, though when I first became aware of the title, it was as a graphic novel at a book fair. So of course I …
Now that school’s out, I’m catching up on posting reviews of some of the easier reads I’ve read over the school year. I try to preview books that my daughter might be interested in reading. Having grown up in the age of dinosaur computers that ran The Oregon Trail game, …
I picked up this book in a classroom one day while substituting for another class, and it was a super easy and fast read, but with complex themes that would be good for a reader in the coming-of-age years, someone confronting the drive to be independent of parents and their …
Last year, this was the Loudoun County 1book1community pick, and I grabbed a copy after we had excess in our school library. I had forgotten about it until now. It’s about a seventh grader, so that gives you an idea about the target age range. To me, it was odd …
Welcome to the Spot Writers. This month’s prompt is to write a story that involves worms. Today’s tale comes to us from Val Muller, author of the Corgi Capers mystery series. Served By Val Muller It was June 2—exactly two days of school left after today. Marsha had been a …
I’ve wanted to read this book for a while now. The fictionalized film version of this story is one I’ve enjoyed, so I was glad to finally pick up this book that was written in the 1970s and has achieved bestseller status. The title refers to the events that happened …