Nellie Bly was a groundbreaking journalist whose personality led her to become world-famous at a time when women in journalism were usually assigned mediocre topics. When I first watched a documentary about her in teaching journalism, I knew I wanted to read the primary source referenced in the documentary, hence this book. She helped to […]
Browsing Posts in book reviews
With the crazy school year—teaching virtually at the same time as in the classroom—I did not have time to write book reviews as often as I would have liked, but I was still reading! So this summer, I am writing and publishing book reviews for a sizeable stack of work I’ve read. You can expect […]
Note: It’s been SO LONG since I have posted a book review. This does not mean I have not been reading! This year has been a challenge and a struggle on many front. For me as a teacher, teaching concurrently (teaching students in person at the same time as online) has been the biggest challenge–that, […]
This is not my first review of an Anderson book—I am obviously a fan. I’d say this is a good early YA/advanced middle grade reader. I had purchased it back when I read Chains, also about the early American time period, then shelved it for other things. I saw it while cleaning off a shelf […]
I heard about this short novel as it was mentioned briefly in something I was reading about Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, a novel I greatly adore and teach almost every year. When I read the synopsis—a young man who grew up in Nazi Berlin under the gaze of a stuffed Bengal tiger, then finds […]
I can’t remember how old I was when I first read “The Lottery,” but I have been a Shirley Jackson fan since then. I was excited to learn about this short novel, apparently her last published novel, so I snagged a copy. I had no idea what the novel was about; I simply bought it […]
I meant to read this book long ago. I bought a copy, then misplaced it. During some spring cleaning, it emerged, and I read it over the course of three days or so. It’s a story of bullying and perseverance, and it reinforces a thought I’ve been having over the past several weeks: the world […]
Someone was giving away books, and this one caught my eye. It’s listed as middle grade—for ages 8 to 12—which I frequently read to (1) research books my kids might like in a few years (2) stay sharp for writing my Corgi Capers series and (3) be able to read something in a day or […]
When I gave my dad a copy of Life of Pi to read, he recommended I read Kon-Tiki, noting that it is a typical survival-at-sea story that may have helped inspire Martel’s Life of Pi. After reading it, I do think my dad is right. This nonfiction piece follows Thor Heyerdahl, who hypothesized that humans […]
Though this book is clearly within the realm of young adult fantasy, the author’s afterward lets us know how much of this novel was inspired by both real events the Jews encountered in the early 1900s and fairy tales/mythology. It follows two Jewish sisters growing up in the woods of Dubossary, and its historical origins […]
