Illustrated by David Wardle, this collection of fifteen fairy tales puts a “Doctor Who” twist on traditional fairy tales. As a fan of the show Doctor Who, I enjoyed the twist. The fifteen tales are divided over 261 pages, which include illustrations and an illustrated title page for each tale. As you can imagine, each […]
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As the film The Dark Crystal was formative in my childhood—I watched the film several dozen times per summer as a kid—I was excited to see that someone had written a sequel about it. I’m not an expert in the “lore” of The Dark Crystal’s fan fiction, as I just learned of its existence. I […]
I’d meant to read this book for a while now. After enjoying Clan of the Cavebear, I found it while researching similar stories. The story follows thirteen-year-old Julie, aka Miyax, as she escapes the arranged marriage of her Eskimo village. Hoping to board a ship for San Francisco, she finds herself lost in the wilderness […]
A friend loaned me this book—it looks like an ex-library book that she purchased at a sale. I’ll be honest. I started it when I was on maternity leave. I couldn’t get into it. I thought maybe I was too tired, so I read several other books and came back to it. It still didn’t […]
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 […]
I was glad to return to the world of Alexa Williams–along with all her usual legal and dangerous sleuthing and quest to combat human trafficking. Since Dead of Spring involved scandals related to fracking in Pennsylvania, I thought this would be an appropriate review for the week of Earth Day. If you are new to the […]
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 […]
