Small Reads for Brighters Days
While on the road in April, I read and/or listened to a number of mg or ya novels that I just loved. Quickly, here are four that have come up in my thoughts since then and that I really enjoyed. If you read and loved Girls, Drums, and Dangerous Pie, by Jordan Sonnenblick, be sure […]
Over the weekend, I read In a Heartbeat (Walker Books for Young Readers, 2010), Loretta Ellsworth‘s new novel. I had been waiting for this book to come out ever since I heard Loretta describe the book and its two main characters who tell the story in alternating chapter–teen girls, one the recipient of a donor heart […]
I read Chasing Brooklyn, Lisa Schroeder‘s latest novel in verse, on Friday. I couldn’t put it down. As usual, Lisa gets right to the emotional core of the story. Brooklyn’s boyfriend was killed in a car crash a year ago, and now the friend who was driving the car is dead, too, an apparent suicide. The […]
After seeing that I had the book Repossessed, by A.M. Jenkins, as my Favorite Book of the Week for, um, a lot longer than a week, someone (ack–can’t remember who) said I needed to read this book: Soul Enchilada, by David Macinnis Gill. So I did. And I really liked it. It’s another book that made me […]
I loved Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, and now I’m a giant fan of I Am the Messenger, too (both Printz Honor books). Ed Kennedy is a 19-year-old slacker, working as a cabbie, living with his smelly dog, The Doorman, in a hovel, fairly content to silently worship his best friend Audrey and drink with […]
Last week, I finished reading The Runaway Dragon, by Kate Coombs. I only became aware of Kate and this book because of the wonderful poems she’s been sharing in various online poetry stretches/exercises. I thought this was a picture book when I put it on reserve at my library, but it’s a middle-grade novel. A […]
My friend and crit group member Connie Van Hoven recently celebrated the release of her first children’s book: The Twelve Days of Christmas in Minnesota (Sterling, 2009). I’m so excited for her! The book is adorable! It’s the story of twins who visit their Minnesota cousin for Christmas, and he gives them a different, uniquely Minnesotan […]
OK, usually my One Book I Love posts are just a cover and a brief excerpt of a book I love (no surprise there!). But today, I have a special treat. You get not only some excerpts of a wonderful book but also an interview with the author, the fabulously creative Heidi Bee Roemer. I […]
I’ve been reading and rereading books by the other participants in the Poetry Blast (an upcoming event at ALA Chicago), and one new book I love is I’m Your Bus, by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Evan Polenghi. What a fun book! The narrating school bus has such a great voice, like a teacher who’s always bustling around […]
I have to admit I was sad when I heard Rebecca Kai Dotlich’s next book was a prose picture book–she’s one of my very favorite poets, and I want more, more, more poetry from her! But one read of Bella & Bean (ill. by Aileen Leitjen), and I fell in love. Word-hungry Bella and action-hungry […]
