Val Muller

I promise I’m reading grown-up books, too, but these middle-grade and YA books are so easy to read while keeping an eye on the toddler. Speaking of whom…I’m doing lots of research into books that she might like to read when she gets a bit older. Hence, my purchase of The Lemonade War from a […]

Set in my favorite time period, this book for young readers follows a young slave named Sal (Isabel), who is separated from her sister during the American Revolution. The book is upper-level middle grade (for strong readers) or the younger end of YA (School Library Journal has it listed as grades 6-10, but I could […]

I was at a consignment sale the other week, and I picked up several of the books in the Magic Treehouse series (by Mary Pope Osborne) for a fairly good price. They are not consecutive, but volumes 1 and 2 were there. The series came out during the gap between my own childhood and that […]

I purchased this book when I heard Garcia speak at a writers conference. The book is meant for young adult readers. The story follows a 17-year old named Kennedy. After her father abandoned her, Kennedy is left with just her mother and cat. But a gruesome start to the book leaves Kennedy without anyone, and […]

Last June, I reviewed the first book in the Twig Stories series. In honor of Earth Day, I read the second. The Twig Stories series follows stick creatures that I think of as elves or sprites (but more wood-like), with a focus on descriptive language and environmental issues. In this book, Leaf (who is always […]

Satrapi’s graphic novel is also a memoir. It’s presented as a comic strip detailing her childhood and adolescence in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution and her older adolescent years in Vienna. In the introduction to the novel, Satrapi summarizes the history of Iran, noting that the influence of foreign countries, including Great Britain and the […]

James Sveck, the protagonist of this novel, reminds me a bit of Holden Caulfield. He’s at the cusp of adulthood (18 years old), and he doesn’t really want to go to college: he finds people his own age to be insufferable. The book follows his musings in the time just before he is expected to […]

A middle grade mystery/adventure, The City of Ember follows Lina and Doon, two children who live in an underground city called Ember. Throughout the story, things in Ember are bleak—and getting bleaker. There are huge storerooms full of supplies like canned goods and lightbulbs, but those are depleting rapidly. Stores are only open on certain […]

I received a new Kindle Fire for Christmas, and I “fired” it up, logging onto my Kindle account. Of course, there are shelves and shelves of “TBR” books. Now that the little one is sleeping a “bit” more predictably, I’ve had more time to read. So I clicked on the first book on my shelf, […]