by Phyllis | Dec 16, 2020 | Book reviews
His Gift by Joan C. Benson tells the inspirational story of a gifted teenage concert pianist. Molly has entered a competition sponsored by the Detroit Symphony in the fateful fall of 1929. Can she compete with all the other skilled young people? Might she even win?...
by Phyllis | Dec 9, 2020 | Book reviews
Twelve-year-old Ellie finds her middle-class family thrust by the Great Depression into foraging for existence in the woods on Echo Mountain, far removed from their former lives in town. In this book published in 2020 and written by Lauren Wolk, Ellie finds she loves...
by Phyllis | Nov 27, 2020 | Thoughts to share
What am I thankful for in 2020? This strange 2020 year was the one where I got to think about fantastic places, instead of traveling to real places. The fantastic ones are pretty nice! This was the year where my blog and newsletter list is expanding, and I thank God...
by Phyllis | Nov 4, 2020 | Book reviews
Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan is a novel that pairs the points of view of two fifth grade boys, Ravi, a recent immigrant from India, and Joe, a local guy. Both have to deal with the same bully. The book alternates chapters between the two points...
by Phyllis | Oct 13, 2020 | Book reviews
Chirp by Kate Messner, published in 2020, tells the tale of Mia, a twelve year old former gymnast who’s just moved from Boston to Vermont. Her family moved there to support her grandmother, whose unpredictability makes everyone wonder what’s going to happen next....
by Phyllis | Oct 7, 2020 | Book reviews
Kate Messner’s Ranger in Time series features a rescue dog, Ranger, who who magically is called to other times and places to help save people. In this tale, Soldiers and Spies, Ranger helps a young black soldier in the Continental Army of George Washington....
by Phyllis | Sep 22, 2020 | Book reviews
Authors Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan team up to tell a middle-grade tale with two points of view: one a Muslim Pakistani-American girl who just wants to fit in at her big new school, and the other a Jewish girl whose best friend has dumped her. This contemporary...
by Phyllis | Sep 2, 2020 | Book reviews
Georges, that’s with a silent s, moves into a Brooklyn apartment building and meets Safer, another twelve-year-old who starts a spy club for the two of them. They’re spying on a bird nest, on people in the building lobby (through the videocam), on people...
by Phyllis | Aug 5, 2020 | Book reviews
Bryan Davis, author of thirty successful young adult books, wrote this middle-grade tale and published it last year. It’s a delightful comic book story of heroes and villains told as a novel, with plenty of gadget references that remind me of Batman....
