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33 Minutes (subtitle: . . . Until Morgan Sturtz kicks my butt) by Todd Hasak-Lowy caught my eye with the title alone. The cover is quite striking as well. And the interior artwork by bethany bARTon that includes some very funny charts, lists and graphs, is great too. But what I really love about 33 Minutes is that Hasak-Lowy covers a province normally dominated by girls in middle

Kate Feiffer's Signed by: Zelda (with wonderful cover art by Kelly Murphy) is her second novel for young readers and comes on the heels of nine pictures books, four of which are illustrated by her father, the great Jules Feiffer. Besides her own great track record as a children's book author and her wonderful lineage, I was intrigued by Signed by: Zelda because one of the main characters is

Written in 1958 and winner of the Newbery Honor, The Family Under the Bridge is the story of how an old hobo named Armand, who wants nothing of homes, responsibility and regular work, ends up with all of these as well as a family of children. Set in Paris, France in a time when hobos were more like wandering gypsies than the people living on the streets these days, the story follows Armand

Before I begin my review, I need to thank long-time reader of my blog, Heather aka Proud Mama for mentioning Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright in a comment on my article How to Choose Age Appropriate Books for Advanced Readers. I had heard of Enright and her award winning books before, but Heather's mention of them (and the great new covers by Mary Grand Pré) inspired me to buy them and

Jake and Lily is the newest book from Newbery Winner (Maniac McGee) and Newbery Honor Winner (Wringer) Jerry Spinelli, author of one of my favorite books for teens, Stargirl, which I really need to review here. With Jake and Lily, Spinelli brings us the story of the titular twins and the summer of their twelfth birthday when they go through changes deeper and more meaningful than puberty.

The Same Sun Here by Silas House and Neela Vaswani was impossible to put down and frequently had me in tears. I can't imagine what it must be like to be one of the librarians who sit on the Newbery panel each year, but as I read The Same Sun Here I kept thinking, "This book deserves a medal. This is exactly the kind of book those librarians seem to love." Besides being worthy of awards and

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

After watching the movie Millions , based on the book by Frank Cottrell Boyce, with my family four or five years ago, I knew that I wanted to read his books for kids. Americans may not know this, but Boyce is a well respected screenwriter in the UK and has written four other kid's books (see below) including the soon to be published Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang Flies Again. The movie was thoughtful,

I have to confess that, despite the fact I have been dedicated over the last three years to searching out well written, thoughtful and entertaining books written at the second and third grade reading levels, I continue experience a sense of apprehension each time I begin to read one, even if it is by Newbery Award winning author Patricia MacLachlan with illustrations by the charming and

First published in 1967, The Great Brain by John D Fitzgerald is a wonderful counterpart to Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series.  Although I didn't read Wilder's books until I was an adult and reading them out loud to my daughter, I am sure that as a child I was predisposed to like The Great Brain books because of my familiarity and love of Mercer Mayer's illustrations. While the writing

One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street, written by Joanne Rocklin with illustrations by Chris Buzelli is a wonder - one of those books where, when you reach the last page, you find yourself wondering how the author managed to pull all the threads together, and in a way that is so beautifully, meaningfully, wonderful. Rocklin begins her salty-sweet story with a string of common,

I have only read one other book by Gary Paulsen in my life and, while I find that mildly embarrassing because he is a prolific, award winning author, it makes sense. Paulsen, a two time competitor in the Iditarod dog sled race, is known for his outdoor adventure/survival books like the superb Hatchet, Newbery Honor winner, being a prime example of this. Hatchet follows thirteen-year old Brian

The Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter reminds me a bit of colorful puzzle pieces that don't seem to make a picture until you have fitted the last few pieces in.  Three or four chapters into the book it seems like it's going to be one kind of story, half way through the book you are sure it's a different kind of story.  It is not until the end of the book that you realize just what kind of story it

The Cool Crazy Crickets Club and The Cool Crazy Crickets to the Rescue are (hopefully) a new series of beginning reader chapter books from author David Elliott and illustrator Paul Meisel.  Among many other chapter and picture books, you may recognize David Elliott from last year's superb picture book, Finn Throws a Fit, illustrated by the magnificent Timothy Basil Ering,

Ok, I am just going to do this now and get it out of the way: YES - there are passing similarities between Tom Angleberger's amazing new book, The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid that go well beyond their shared publisher, the excellent Amulet Books. Both are set in middle school, both are first person narratives, both contain kids who exist on the fringes (

I am now half way through my third ND Wilson book and I have to say, he really likes to beat the tar out of his main characters - all of whom are boys. Leepike Ridge is Wilson's first published book, his second, 100 Cupboards, is also the first in a trilogy. Having been a female my whole life, this getting beaten up and bashed about thing is still pretty alien to me as I/we try to stay out of

Written in 1951, Eleanor Estes' Newbery winning Ginger Pye is a marvelous book that, for parents, serves as a reminder of how much children's literature and children's lives have changed in the last 60 years. Jerry and Rachel Pye live in Cranbury, CT where their father is a highly regarded, although not famous, ornithologist, who travels often and their mother, some 17 years his junior, is a

Originally begun as a web comic on Funbrain, where book one can still be read for free, Jeff Kinney's Wimpy Kid is a hugely popular series that has gotten kids, boys especially, reading. I almost didn't write this review because these books are so ubiquitous that I figured there were very few parents and kids who didn't know about them. However, after reading the first two in the series I

Every Soul a Star is now available in paperback and I would like to call it to your attention - again. My apologies to those of you who read this review when it first posted, and to those of you who haven't read it, I hope you are inspired to seek out this spectacular book!With her latest novel Every Soul a Star, Wendy Mass confirms that she is the young adult version of the literary novelist AS

It is rare to find a well written mystery in the world of young adult literature, especially one that doesn't have a "Scooby-Doo" type ending, the kind you never could have seen coming no matter how good your deduction skills may be. Not only is Siobhan Dowd's The London Eye Mystery gripping from start to finish, it is also an entirely plausible story from start to finish. And, most importantly,

Ellen Potter is the creator of my favorite clairvoyant sleuth, Olivia Kidney, who now has three books to her name. She has also written Pish Posh, which also involves some serious detective work on the part of main character Clara Frankofile.  With SLOB we have the honor of meeting Owen Birnbaum, a narrator who is one point shy of having a genius IQ, which is what he tells people because his