by Carolyn | Animal books, Education, Nature, Older Elementary, Preschool, Read Alouds, Recommendations
Certain books just ask to be read aloud. Often, they possess a conversational quality or a certain voice you can “hear” in your mind. Beside the Pond by James Witmer, the newest in his Big Old Garden series, is one of those books. Witmer’s writing...
by Carolyn | Adventure, Boys, Historical Fiction, Middle School, Middle-grade, Read Alouds, Recommendations
If you think your kids wouldn’t enjoy a western, you just might be wrong. When we visited Colorado this summer, I chose an audiobook themed to our location. The Misadventured Summer of Tumbleweed Thompson by Glenn McCarty with illustrations by Joe Sutphin is a...
by Carolyn | Uncategorized
I love retellings like The Gilded Girl. Retellings give a us a chance to experience a story we love in a new way. And they can give readers unfamiliar with the original a taste of what they’re missing (and hopefully a desire to try it)! The Gilded Girl by Alyssa...
by Carolyn | Adventure, Character Training, Cultural Diversity, Fantasy, Highschool, Recommendations, Young Adult
The Sunlit Lands Series by Matt Mikalatos is my top pick for kids who have grown up reading The Chronicles of Narnia, The Wingfeather Saga, and The Green Ember Series and are now ready to dive into young adult. These books contain the same kind of deeply true and...
by Carolyn | Animal books, For fun, Picture Books, Read Alouds
It takes something special for a picture book to make me laugh and cry, but Dozens of Doughnuts by Carrie Finison illustrated by Brianne Farley has all the right ingredients! This sweet, rhyming story features a bear, LouAnn. She whips up a batch of doughnuts to eat...
by Carolyn | Autobiography, Cultural Diversity, Juvenile Fiction, Recommendations, Young Adult
When a book quotes Tolkien in the title and Dostoyevsky on one of the first pages, I pay attention. Everything Sad is Untrue: A True Story by Daniel Nayeri has won more awards than I can list here and seven starred reviews, and for good reason. It is a stunningly...
by Carolyn | Biography, Books about Books, Nonfiction, Older Elementary, Picture Books
Ever since I wrote Library’s Most Wanted, picture books about librarians and libraries have been on my radar. These books tell the stories of librarians and their often unconventional libraries both in America and around the world. Some of them are biographies...
by Carolyn | Adventure, Chapter Books, Early Readers, Fantasy, For fun, Imagination, Older Elementary, Recommendations
When a favorite author like Jonathan Auxier breaks into a new genre or age group, I’m happy to follow. The Fabled Stables: Willa the Wisp introduces chapter book readers to Auxier’s imaginative worlds in an easier to read, beautifully illustrated format....
by Carolyn | Character Training, Fantasy, Imagination, Older Elementary, Parenting, Picture Books, Preschool, Read Alouds, Recommendations
Julia’s House Moves On by Ben Hatke is a beautiful picture book about not having it all together. Because none of us do, really. And sometimes it takes a book like this to help us, and our kids, take a deep breath and remember that our plans may not work out,...
by Carolyn | Adventure, Boys, Education, For fun, Juvenile Fiction, Middle School, Middle-grade, Mystery, Recommendations
Readers have asked me for more adventurous books that boys would like, and I think the Lost Art Mysteries series by Deron R. Hicks fits the bill. Boys and girls alike will be pulled into these fast-paced novels that read like a spy thrillers. They’ll be so...
