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 […]
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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, […]
I’d always heard that Grimm’s Fairytales were much more gruesome than the popular Disney versions. I bought this book a while ago and finally picked it up to read. Its introduction is written my Maria Tatar, and it features the illustrations of Tracy Arah Dockray. The book itself is based on the stories told to […]
Book Review: Behind the Headlines: The Story of American Newspapers by Thomas Fleming A part of the “Walker’s American History Series for Young People” series, this nonfiction book was published in 1989. I picked it up when I took over the newspaper at my high school in an effort to brush up on my […]
Subtitled “a novel in words and pictures,” this 530-page book is a fast read. Spoilers follow. The story follows a fictional boy named Hugo, who happens upon plans for fixing an automaton that was partially destroyed in a museum fire. In doing so, he gets into various troubles and discovers the automaton’s relationship to Georges […]
I received this book for free as part of a Kellogg’s cereal giveaway. There were several books to choose from, but I chose this one because I’d already read works by this author and was interested in how he’d write for a slightly younger readership. For me, this was a fast summer read, and I […]
I’m posting this a bit late, but I hope now to get back to my weekly book review feature on Mondays. Balancing a new baby with my writing, editing, and teaching work was tough. Now that the lil bug is a bit older (and nappier) and summertime has lightened my teaching load, I have more […]
I’d been meaning to read this book for a while now. Even though she’s too little to read yet, I’m weaving in more middle grade and young adult literature so that I can have some excellent recommendations for my daughter. I will be recommending Ella Enchanted. The story plays off of traditional fairy tales, but […]
