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City of Orphans is now in paperback! While I have read a handful of books by the prolific, Newbery Award winning author Avi, his most recent book, City of Orphans, is the first I have reviewed here! In 1991 Avi won the Newbery Honor for his book The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, a unique work of historical fiction in which the twelve year old Charlotte goes from a proper young girl to

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - THE SHORT SELLER -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} <!-- END INTERCHANGE --> The Short Seller is the newest book from Elissa Brent Weissman, author of Nerd Camp, Standing for Socks and The Trouble with Mark Hopper. What I love about

(US and UK covers - both by the impeccable Brett Heliquist...) I once heard a classical musician being interviewed. He was asked what time period he would most like to live in and he replied the fifteenth century because it must have been such a quiet time that any kind of music or singing was very special, revered, remembered, held in high

A year ago I had the pleasure of reviewing the fantastic nonfiction picture book Nurse, Soldier, Spy written by Marissa Moss and illustrated by  John Hendrix. Although a mere 32 page picture book, both Moss and Hendrix did extensive research and the book included an author's bibliography, artist's bibliography, glossary and index. No doubt this wealth of knowledge, as well as the compelling

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - SON -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} <!-- END INTERCHANGE --> Son by Lois Lowry completes the quartet of books that began in 1993 with The Giver, followed by Gathering Blue in 2000 and Messenger in 2004.  Son begins at almost the

** January 23, 2013: A report from a National Institute of Health council unanimously recommended that almost ALL of the 451 chimpanzees currently housed at their facilities for the purposes of research and testing be retired, as reported by James Gorman in the New York Times yesterday. Sadly, the N.I.H does not have the funds to retire some 400 of the chimps OR enact the changes to the

As I started reading Faith Erin Hick's excellent graphic novel Friends with Boys, which started as an online comic, Vera Brosgol's wonderful Anya's Ghost came to mind right away. Both books have dark haired, outsider protagonists with big black eyes who are haunted by ghosts. However, Anya's ghost is kind of the evil twin to the ghost that has haunted Maggie McKay since she was a little girl,

One of the few downsides to this blog is that I have such a full shelf of books I want to read and review I feel like I rarely have the time or luxury to read a complete series of books. In terms of reviews, I feel like a positive review of the first book in a series is a pretty good indicator of the rest to come and readers don't need me to keep telling them that every time a new book in the

While I have read a handful of books by the prolific, Newbery Award winning author Avi, his most recent book, City of Orphans, is the first I have reviewed here! In 1991 Avi won the Newbery Honor for his book The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, a unique work of historical fiction in which the twelve year old Charlotte goes from a proper young girl to a mutinous pirate accused of murder as

Spy School is the new novel from Stuart Gibbs. His second novel, Belly Up, about mysterious animal deaths at a zoo caught my eye both for its original plot idea and for the potential humor the jacket flap promised. Although I have yet to read  Belly Up, I can tell you that Spy School is funny, action packed and an intelligent book about intelligence. Spy School begins with a heavily

Project Jackalope by  Emily Ecton is one of those books that fills a very important, once over looked niche in the world middle grade kid's books. Although a different beast from Project Jackalope, Jeff Kinney and his Wimpy Kid books have made writing books about boys who are not orphaned wizards popular again. The awesome Tom Angleberger exploded the field with his very funny, thoughtful

After reading The Unforgotten Coat by Frank Cottrell Boyce last year I knew I had to read all of his books. Boyce's gift for creating a believable narrative voice in his young characters as well as the thoughtful, funny, often profound plot threads that he weaves through his books amazes me. Cosmic, with it's wild plot and eccentric characters, is ultimately a very moving, meaningful story

A year ago, I enthusiastically and admiringly reviewed The Big Splash by Jack D Ferraiolo. And, a year ago his second middle grade novel, Sidekicks, was released. Newly issued in paperback, I finally got around to reading (actually, I mostly listened to the audio which is brilliantly read by Ramon de Ocampo and Jack Garrett)  Sidekicks and I am amazed to say that I think it is even better

The Bromeliad Trilogy by Terry Pratchett, usually known for his humorous science fiction for adults, is part satire, part parable and all adventure story. My husband and I (mostly my husband) first read these books out loud at bedtime to our older son some eight years ago. Now my husband is reading them out loud to our youngest, who is seven. Long after my son has fallen

When I was a kid and reading chapter books some thirty years ago, a book like Lesley M. M. Blume's Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters qualified as a magical book for me.  There wasn't much fantasy for kids being written in the late 1970s and early 1980s (that I knew of - and I am sure I missed many shelves of great fantasy for kids, contemporary to the time or

Dead Boys by Royce Buckingham begins with a prologue that tells the story of an old sycamore tree growing in Richland, WA in the arid, eastern part of the state.  Just down the road from the Hanford Nuclear Plant, site of some serious toxic waste dumps into the Columbia River in the 1940s.  This dump fills the tree with toxic energy, turning it hungry and violent.  When a twelve-year old boy

Amy Ignatow has knocked my socks off again with The Popularity Papers: The Long Distance Dispatch Between Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang! I really don't know how she does it. Not only does she capture, wonderfully, the personalities of her two main characters through their writing and drawings, but she also manages to create a plot that is so genuine and real and filled with humor and

Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse's 1998 Newbery award winning book, is narrated in verse by fourteen-year old Billie Jo Kelby. From the Winter of 1934 to Autumn 1935, Hesse follows a painful and difficult time in the narrator's life that mirrors the hardship, destruction and decimation brought on by the worst ecological disaster in American history. Although beautifully written, Billie Jo's personal

The Big Splash is the first novel by Jack D Ferraiolo, who has worked for over a decade in television animation and created and writes for the PBS show WordGirl, for which he received an Emmy nomination. Published in 2008, The Big Splash came out in paperback a few months ago. Both covers caught my eye, but I have to be completely honest, books set in middle school with boys as the main character

Stephanie Burgis' Kat, Incorrigible, or A Most Improper Magick, as it is known in the UK where it was first published, is best described as a cross between Jane Austen and Diana Wynne Jones and is an absolute treat. I have not been this enchanted and entertained by a historical time period and a heroine since Patricia C Wrede's Thirteenth Child, which is could be called a cross between Laura

It's really hard not to pick up a kid's book with the title Gods of Manhattan, especially when the cover art is by the current god of fantasy cover art for kids, Brandon Dorman. When Scott Mebus' first book for kids came out in 2008 I picked it up and read the jacket flap and was instantly intrigued by this book that created an American mythology with historical figures from New York City's

I came across Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde while shelving in the Teen Department at work several years ago and was so intrigued by the premise that I snapped it up and read it right away. And loved it. Although technology changes at light speed these days, Heir Apparent, which was published in 2002, employs video gaming as part of the plot and still feels contemporary and relevant almost a

Oh how I love Mabel Riley: A Reliable Record of Humdrum, Peril and Romance by Marthe Jocelyn.  Set in Canada in 1901, and with a protagonist who aspires to be a writer someday, the comparisons with Lucy Maude Montgomery's beloved Anne Shirley are unavoidable and apt. While Montgomery's Anne books start in 1878 and span nine books and forty-two years in the main character's life, we only get a 

I first discovered Jon Mayhew and his debut novel, Mortlock, while perusing the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2011 Shortlist, the British version of the Newbery. Mayhew found himself in very good company, including Newbery winner Rebecca Stead and her novel, When You Reach Me and Janice Hardy and book one in her marvelous Healing Wars series, The Shifter. When I read the synopsis of

I don't know how or where to begin writing about this breathtaking, heartbreaking, perfect new book. The start would be the best place, I suppose. As Patrick Ness says in his Author's Note from the beginning of A Monster Calls,  I never got to meet Siobhan Dowd. I only know her the way that most of you will - through her superb books. Four electric young adult novels, two published in her