I’m a big fan of Sharon Creech and have read almost everything she’s ever written. I love her lyrical, creative use of language and her endearing characters. Her new book The Unfinished Angel (HarperCollins, 2009) is a short masterpiece with characters that you can’t help but love. There is an angel that lives in the tower of the Casa Rosa in a tiny village in the Swiss Alps. She flishes, and flooshes, beaming warm thoughts on “peoples.” But...
Over the years we’ve read just about every Junie B. Jones book there is. Another fun series is Ivy + Bean. We just finished Doomed to Dance where Ivy and Bean decide they want to take ballet lessons. They have seen a video of a gorgeous ballet with a thrilling fight scene. Ivy and Bean are dying to take ballet lessons. Ballet lessons would absolutely be the perfect thing. Both of their mothers remind the girls of all the activities...
What if your family had no soap, milk, sugar or shoes? Such is the case for Katje and her family in Boxes for Katje by Candace Fleming and illustrated by Stacey Dressen-McQueen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003). Set in Holland just after World War II, Katje and her little town of Olst are struggling to get by. Katje is thrilled when one spring morning she gets a surprise package from America, “the land of plenty.” The box contains a cake...
Author E.L. Konigsburg made Newbery history in 1968 when her book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the Newbery, and her first book Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was runner up. In 1996 she won the Newbery again, this time for The View from Saturday. The View from Saturday tells the story of five unlikely friends–four sixth graders and their teacher Mrs. Olinski. The structure of the...
