The Journey of Little Charlie by Christopher Paul Curtis; read by Michael Crouch Intermediate, Middle School Listening Library Rev. 3/18 5 CDs 5.23 hrs. 978-0-8041-6802-1 $45.00 Twelve-year-old narrator “Little Charlie” Bobo is already the size of a man, and when his South Carolina sharecropper father dies in a freak accident, the sheriff suspects Charlie. Charlie […]
August 2018 Back-to-School Horn Book Herald: Middle School
August 9, 2018 by Leave a Comment
March Forward, Girl: From Young Warrior to Little Rock Nine by Melba Pattillo Beals; illus. by Frank Morrison Houghton 214 pp. 1/18 978-1-328-88212-7 $16.99 As one of the Little Rock Nine, Beals helped integrate Central High School in 1957; here she recounts the childhood years that led up to that important step (described in the […]
Review of The House That Lou Built
August 7, 2018 by Leave a Comment
The House That Lou Built by Mae Respicio Intermediate, Middle School Lamb/Random 233 pp. 6/18 978-1-5247-1794-0 $16.99 Library ed. 978-1-5247-1795-7 $19.99 e-book ed. 978-1-5247-1796-4 $10.99 Lou Bulosan-Nelson dreams of building houses, and when her mother announces plans to leave San Francisco for a better-paying job in Washington State, Lou decides it’s time to build a […]
Review of Votes for Women: American Suffragists and the Battle for the Ballot audiobook
August 2, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Votes for Women: American Suffragists and the Battle for the Ballot by Winifred Conkling; read by Christina Moore Middle School, High School Recorded Books Rev. 3/18 6 CDs 7.25 hrs. 978-1-5019-7193-8 $20.99 Narrator Moore has a deep, resonant alto with a no-nonsense quality that perfectly embodies the resolve of America’s first feminists. When quoting Susan […]
Review of The Book of Boy
July 11, 2018 by Leave a Comment
The Book of Boy by Catherine Gilbert Murdock; illus. by Ian Schoenherr Intermediate, Middle School Greenwillow 278 pp. 2/18 978-0-06-268620-6 $16.99 e-book ed. 978-0-06-268622-0 $7.99 Secundus is a pilgrim. A child, known simply as Boy, is a goatherd. Together they travel, master and servant, from France to Rome in the Holy Year of 1350. Each […]
Review of House of Dreams: The Life of L. M. Montgomery
July 11, 2018 by Leave a Comment
House of Dreams: The Life of L. M. Montgomery by Liz Rosenberg; illus. by Julie Morstad Middle School, High School Candlewick 339 pp. g 6/18 978-0-7636-6057-4 $17.99 The author best known for Anne of Green Gables left behind extensive letters and journals; Rosenberg has gathered information from these and other sources to create a detailed […]
Strange and magical middle-grade
July 10, 2018 by Leave a Comment
What’s summer without a vacation from the norm? These fantasy and sci-fi novels for intermediate and middle-school readers are anything but ordinary. You’d think it would be hard to forget a weird, green, diminutive creature dressed in a chicken costume, but Livy has since her last visit to her grandmother’s in Australia five years ago. […]
Review of Rebound
July 5, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Rebound by Kwame Alexander; illus. by Dawud Anyabwile Intermediate, Middle School Houghton 414 pp. 4/18 978-0-544-86813-7 $16.99 In this prequel to Alexander’s Newbery Medal–winning The Crossover (rev. 5/14), it’s the summer of 1988, and twelve-year-old Charlie Bell would rather roller-skate with his two best friends or escape into the pages of his beloved Fantastic Four […]
Review of All Summer Long
July 3, 2018 by Leave a Comment
All Summer Long by Hope Larson; illus. by the author Middle School Farrar 172 pp. 5/18 978-0-374-30485-0 $21.99 Paper ed. 978-0-374-31071-4 $12.99 This sensitive, realistic coming-of-age graphic novel by Eisner winner (most recently, for her Wrinkle in Time graphic novel adaptation) Larson beautifully captures the experiences of finding one’s own rhythm and place in a […]
Summer adventures
June 12, 2018 by Leave a Comment
These four entertaining, summertime-set novels (including one graphic novel) will have readers channeling their inner sleuths to find buried treasure, getting an insider’s look at an (un)orthodox summer camp, revisiting a beloved family one last time, and gaining a deeper appreciation for the little things that can make a family trip so memorable. Author Jeanne […]
