• Reviews

    Kids’ Review: Smile

    I’m going to try starting a new aspect of my blog with some of the kids I know at the library reviewing books they love (or don’t!).  My first reviewer is “S”, a coworker’s daughter who I’ve known for a number of years.  She’s in middle school now and is…

  • Reviews

    Review: The Girl Who Drank the Moon

    I received a copy of The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill as an ARC from Workman Publishing with a note that said “This. Book. Is. Sooooo. Good!”  And I’m inclined to agree.  At 400 pages, it’s a rather lengthy middle grade fantasy novel, but it was so fun…

  • Reviews

    Kids' Review: Bake Sale

    I’m going to try starting a new aspect of my blog with some of the kids I know at the library reviewing books they love (or don’t!).  My first reviewer is “S”, a coworker’s daughter who I’ve known for a number of years.  She’s in middle school now and is…

  • Reviews

    Book Review: Wolf Hollow

    “The year I turned twelve, I learned how to lie. The year I turned twelve, I learned that what I said and did mattered.”  And with those words, you’ll meet Annabelle a 12-year old girl, living in rural Pennsylvania in the early 1940s.  Her life is fairly simple, helping her…

  • Reviews

    Book Review: The Nameless City

    You may have heard me say before that graphic novels are not my favorite format to read.  I read very quickly and it’s almost as if the images get in the way of the text.  But, I appreciate graphic novels and although I may not be drawn to them, many…

  • Reviews

    Book Review: Soar

    Jeremiah has been dealt a difficult hand from the get-go, abandoned as a baby and later diagnosed with a heart condition requiring a heart transplant at the age of 11.  And that’s where his dreams of playing baseball are put on hold.  Jeremiah can’t play baseball, he can’t even run…

  • Reviews

    Book Review: The Nest

    I am not a huge fan of horror fiction… it scares me just a little too much.  Coraline was absolutely frightening, Doll Bones terrified me and even though I’ve met Mary Downing Hahn, I didn’t have to guts to tell her I’ve never read her work because I hate being scared.…

  • Reviews

    Book Review: Symphony For the City of the Dead

    I’ll be honest, this book took me a while to read. Not because it was boring, it was very informative and fairly dense. But, I now feel lke I know a lot more about the eastern front of World War II against Nazi Germany than I ever did. This is…

  • Reviews

    Book Review: Last of the Sandwalkers

    I had no idea what to expect when I opened up Jay Hosler’s Last of the Sandwalkers.  I’m not a huge fan of graphic novels, mainly, I think, because I am a very quick reader and I think that the format slows me down a little and I really don’t spend…

  • Reviews

    Book Review: On the Run

    I loved Hatchet by Gary Paulsen when I read it in elementary school.  The survival aspect fascinated me and I couldn’t stop turning the pages to find out what happened to Brian as he faced the Canadian wilderness.  So when I read the description of On the Run, I expected something similar,…