By: tanita✿davis,
on 8/23/2016
Welcome to another session of Turning Pages!According to the PEW Research peeps, about 70% of people consider themselves religious in some fashion, whether through traditional Jewish, Muslim or Christian denominations or other neopagan practices... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 7/15/2016
Welcome to another session of Turning Pages!Aquafortis got me thinking about comfort reads a few weeks ago. While I really started reading fiction mostly late in high school, I have some read-again books which resonate with me mostly because of... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 5/13/2016
Welcome to another session of Turning Pages! Synopsis: Nola Chambers is a reminder that her family wasn't always the golden-skinned, fair-haired folk who can stand proud and nearly-white in their village of Redding. Nola reminds her father that... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 3/18/2016
Welcome to another session of Turning Pages! Synopsis: Privileged and perfect is how life could be described for fifteen-year-old Kambili and her brother, Jaja. In Nigeria, where so many deal with fuel shortages, power outages, strikes at hospitals... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 2/26/2016
Welcome to another session of Turning Pages! Synopsis: Ludmila Novakova is a girl of wealth and privilege. The daughter of the Chancellor, she has lived her seventeen years as the pampered denizen of Prague Castle, a good Catholic girl who accepts... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 9/30/2015
I remember M.E. Kerr. My sister had a book called DINKEY HOCKER SHOOTS SMACK, and I was in grade school and thought the title sounded awful. Who'd name their kid Dinky? With books, though, curiosity traps me every time, and the fact that Dinky was a... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 8/18/2015
Geez, louise, can we even call it summer reading anymore!? I lost July, and now The Wees and the Littles started school today, the poor things, and the cousin slouches off, pouting, on Wednesday. I'm going to pretend that we've got at least until... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 6/2/2015
Because I believe that every young reader should see themselves reflected in fiction, I am always on the lookout for books which depict the varied shades of growing up religious to put in my "faith in fiction" file. Though the author does not claim... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 5/19/2015
Honestly? I did not see this one coming.Some of us in the kidlitosphere who have grown up in a faith have frequently bemoaned the scarcity of accurately, positively and creatively depicted faith in children's fiction. (Please note I said "faith" and... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 12/5/2014
It's a blustery, rainy day, and I have hot tea and lemon and have just finished a novella I've been looking forward to for weeks. All is well in the Wonderland treehouse, people. Happy, happy times. I'm generally not attracted to prequels as much as... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 9/8/2014
Come, Best Beloved, and sit you by my feet. I shall tell you a tale such as sister Scheherazade could have scarce imagined. A tale of wonders, of deeds both great and grievous, of courage that defies description, and above all, Child of Adam, I... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 5/13/2014
This book pretty well had me at the cover. Like Venkatraman's earlier novel, CLIMBING THE STAIRS (and WOW, the Spanish language cover of that book) this cover was so visually arresting, I wanted to dive into the imagery. Dance is gorgeous and... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita✿davis,
on 2/28/2014
After a lengthy push to finish up a manuscript, I'm sort of blinking in daylight. Time to dig into a pile of neglected books! First up, a debut from Bay Area writer Whitney A. Miller. I would characterize this one as horror - but though there's gore... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita davis,
on 10/1/2012
When I studied the work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in grad school, I heard the word "magical realism" overwhelmingly. We talked a lot about the concept as defined by his work, and by the work of Latin American writers. We also talked about how... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita davis,
on 7/31/2012
Wow. It's almost August! It's the last official month of summer reading...woe!Kudos today to newbie teacher *Anne Boles Levy*, and to all the rest of you teacher and librarian folk going back to the grindstone, reveling in the smell of chalk (I... Read the rest of this post
By: tanita davis,
on 5/1/2012
An article which might have sneaked past you this weekend, Macmillan's Heroes and Heartbreakers blog added a new post to their section of YA Crush, titled, Are you there God? The Mysterious Disappearance of Religion in YA Fiction, by Brittany... Read the rest of this post
Okay. I need to check this out. I haven't read anything with magical realism since Like Water for Chocolate--years ago!!
It's really a treat - I thought I wasn't into it, but it surprised me.
Sounds interesting--I've been hearing a bit of buzz about it here and there. I'm not always a fan of magical realism, but it all depends on how it's done...