Category Archives: Books

2018 Diversity Reading Challenge Update

This year I’m participating in the Diversity Reading Challenge hosted by Pam at an Unconventional Librarian.  I’m really enjoying the way it encourages me to diversify my diversity, as it were.  I’m leaving the ones I’d read at my last update … Continue reading

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Guest Post by Lexi Kozlar: Charlotte, Sometimes

A while back, a page at my library came asking for one of the New York Review Children’s Collection books.  I don’t remember what it was any more – we didn’t have it, I filled in a purchase request, the … Continue reading

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A Sky Full of Stars by Linda Williams Jackson

I won an ARC of this book from Brandy at Random Musings of a Bibliophile last year, waited to read it until it was close to coming out… and am now behind on posting my review of it.  It is … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Historical, Middle Grade, Print | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Spinning by Tillie Walden

This was one of the Cybils teen graphic novel finalists.  (Although my son read and enjoyed the winner, Spill Zone, I ran out of time to read it myself.) Spinning by Tillie Walden. First Second, 2017. Tillie Walden tells first-hand her … Continue reading

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The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya

Here’s book number three in my impromptu middle grade Latinix reading series, following Stella Martinez Has Something to Sayand A Dash of Trouble. The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya. Read by the Author. Listening Library, 2017. Arturo … Continue reading

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A Dash of Trouble. Love Sugar Magic #1 by Anna Meriano

I had an unplanned little Latinix series as holds came in on various fun-sounding books all at the same time. Here’s the next one, a funny fantasy with lots of baking. A Dash of Trouble. Love Sugar Magic #1 by … Continue reading

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Stella Diaz Has Something to Say by Angela Dominguez

Here’s a charming first novel from the illustrator of Mango, Abuela & Me. Stella Diaz Has Something to Say by Angela Dominguez. Roaring Brook Press, 2018. Stella is nervous about school now that her best friend, Jenny, is in another … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Early Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Print, Realistic, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

3 Fun Early Chapter Books

Jasmine Toguchi: Super Sleuth by Debbi Michiko Florence. Pictures by Elizabet Vuković. Farrar Straus Giroux, 2017. I’d been wanting to read the new Jasmine Toguchi series, especially because I have a Japanese-American niece who’ll be needing some early chapter books … Continue reading

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Scythe by Neal Schusterman

Scythe has been sweeping up the honors – it won the Young Adult Speculative Fiction Cybils Award, a Printz Honor, and was being talked up by my teen librarian, to boot. Scythe by Neal Schusterman. Simon & Schuster, 2016. Humanity … Continue reading

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2 More Cybils Middle Grade Graphic Novel Finalists

Here are two more of the Cybils Middle Grade Graphic Novel finalists. Coming back to write these reviews reminds me that I still haven’t read the only one I couldn’t get from my own library – Suee and the Shadow.  … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Middle Grade, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments