I regularly run across news stories about the decline of the newspaper industry, but I was shocked when I saw the newspaper stand at my local gas station. The papers are so puny now, printed on shrunken, skinny paper, a telltale sign of the Internet takeover of media. Sue Corbett’s The Last Newspaper Boy in America (Dutton, 2009) explores a similar theme. Protagonist Wil has been dying for his twelth birthday because he’ll finally be old enough to inherit the family...
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...
Guaranteed, Malia and Sasha Obama are going to be famous first daughters. But long before Malia and Sasha made the White House their home, long before Jenna and Barbara, Chelsea or Amy, was Alice Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt’s oldest daughter and perhaps the most famous and celebrated first daughter ever. What to Do About Alice? How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy! by Barbara Kerley and illustrated by...
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...
Seems like everyone likes a treasure hunt. Add to that a web of historical artifacts, ancient symbols, and mythic beliefs, and you’ve got such stuff as The DaVinci Code and National Treasure are made of (to paraphrase Shakespeare). You’ve also got the stuff of the YA Novel Ring of Fire: Century Quartet #1by Pierdomenico Baccalario and translated by Leah D. Janeczko (Random House, 2006) has mystery, action, and seemingly endless clues that make you think everything...
A Brief History of Montmaray by Michelle Cooper (Alfred A. Knopf 2008), is a great young adult novel written as the diary of sixteen-year-old Sophie FitzOsborne. Sophie and her cousins are the royal family of Montmaray (population approximately twelve), a tiny fictional island that lies between England and Spain. All the parents are dead, except for one crazy uncle, so the FitzOsborne cousins pretty much fend for themselves as they care for a crumbling castle, a crazy relative, dwindling funds, and subjects who keep...
