by Deb Aronson | Jul 22, 2019 | Blog
Caterpillar Summer, a debut novel by Gillian McDunn, is a perfect summer read, in large part because of the setting. The reader is transported to a small island in North Carolina, and a lovely house built high near the dunes and the beach. But when the main...
by Deb Aronson | May 29, 2019 | Blog
I could not put down the Season of Styx Malone, by Kekla Magoon (Wendy Lamb Books). What grabbed me? First, the opening: “Styx Malone didn’t believe in miracles, but he was one. Until he came along, there was nothing very special about life in Sutton, Indiana. Styx...
by Deb Aronson | Apr 7, 2019 | Blog
Ethan Marcus Makes His Mark, by Chicago-based author Michele Weber Hurwitz, shows us a character thrust in a situation where he doubts, not only his ability to do something, but also his desire to do it. We watch Ethan figure out a lot of things; how to find his...
by Deb Aronson | Feb 26, 2019 | Blog
Non-fiction has the reputation of being boring. In my own youth I thought of history, for example, as boring. It focused so much on wars, treaties and what I think of as “big men,” meaning leaders, mostly white men, and was entirely fact based. But who were these...
by Deb Aronson | Feb 25, 2019 | Blog
The Emperor’s Ostrich, by Julie Berry (Roaring Brook Press), begins with a farmgirl looking for her runaway cow, and ends up as a story of growth, adventure and friendship. Tossed in with that set up is a touch of supernatural in the form of ancestor spirits, who...
by Deb Aronson | Feb 10, 2019 | Blog
Thomas and the Dragon Queen, a lively middle-grade novel, has knights, castles, mighty war horses, princesses and dragons. The reader starts out thinking they know what they are getting from a book with those ingredients, but Crum turns almost every one of those...
Recent Comments