"Helping adults find great children's books"
Title: The Aviary Author: Kathleen O’Dell Genre: Historical Fiction (some Gothic/Fantasy elements) Age Category: 8+ Historical Fiction: The Aviary Clara Dooley leads a quiet, lonely life. A serious heart condition has kept her indoors for years, far away from other children who might excite her. Instead, she spends her days in the Glendoveer Mansion, where her [...]
Title: Legacy Author: Thomas E. Sniegoski Genre: Middle-grade fiction (Books for Boys) Age Category: 12 years + Books for Boys: Legacy Eighteen-year old Lucas Moore hasn’t had the best life. He and his mother live in a beat-up trailer in the aptly-named nowhere town of Perdition, Arizona, where she waits tables in a diner and [...]
Title: The Death of Yorik Mortwell Author: Stephen Messer (illustrated by Gris Grimly) Genre: Middle-grade Fantasy Books Age Category: 9 years + Fantasy Book: The Death of Yorik Mortwell It’s not every day you come across a book where the hero dies in the first chapter. But in The Death of Yorik Mortwell, that’s exactly [...]
Title: The Door in the Forest Author: Roderick Townley Genre: Middle-grade Fiction (Children’s fantasy novels) Age Category: 8 years + Children’s Fantasy Novel: The Door in the Forest Daniel Crowley cannot tell a lie. For most of his life, this inability has been a fairly manageable annoyance. Now, as soldiers move into the small town [...]
Title: The Last Synapsid Author: Timothy Mason Genre: Middle-grade Fiction Age Category: 9-12 years Are you looking for a middle-grade novel with dinosaurs, time-travel, eco-responsibility, and Shakespeare for children? If so, The Last Synapsid by Timothy Mason may be what you are looking for! Summary: The Last Synapsid Life in Faith, Colorado is fairly uneventful [...]
Title: The Adventures of Tinitin: The Secret of the Unicorn Author: Hergé (Georges Rémi) Genre: Adventure comic book Age category: 8-12 years With the scheduled December 2011 release of Steven Spielberg’s movie, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, I thought I would review the classic 1959 middle-grade comic with the same title [...]
Title: The Storm Before Atlanta Author: Karen Schwabach Genre: Middle-Grade Historical Fiction Age Category: 9 – 12 years Children’s Book about the Civil War: The Storm Before Atlanta The Storm Before Atlanta is a children’s book about the Civil War. The book opens in 1863, with the Northern and Southern United States locked in conflict. [...]
Title: Beezus and Ramona Author: Beverly Cleary Genre: Juvenile Fiction / 3rd Grade Chapter Books Age Category: 6 to 12 years With the upcoming release of the movie “Ramona and Beezus” on July 23rd, I thought it would be fun to review Beverly Cleary’s classic chapter book Beezus and Ramona, the first in the series [...]
Title: When You Reach Me Author: Rebecca Stead Age Category: 9 to 12 years + Genre: Middle-grade Fiction When You Reach Me: Summary Miranda—the protagonist of the 2010 Newbery Medal-winning juvenile fiction book When You Reach Me—is a twelve-year-old latchkey kid living with her single mom in New York City in the 1970s. She’s smart, [...]
Title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Author: Jeff Kinney Age Category: 9 to 12 + Genre: Comic Juvenile Fiction With the March 19th release date of the movie based on Diary of a Wimpy Kid fast approaching, I thought I would write a review of this madly popular book. Although it was first published in [...]
Title: I Have A Dream Author: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Foreword: Coretta Scott King Age Category: 9 to 12 years + Genre: Picture Books Our Rating (out of 5): This post is a review of the second of two books I recommend for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Click here for “Children’s Books for [...]
Title: The Invention of Hugo Cabret Author: Brian Selznick Age Category: 9 to 12 years + Genre: Picture Book The Invention of Hugo Cabret: Summary Brian Selznick’s 2008 Caldecott Medal winning book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, introduces Hugo Cabret, an orphan boy who secretly maintains the clocks at a Paris railway station. Hugo’s father—once [...]
