Anna Banana and Me by Lenore Blegvad; ill. by Erik Blegvad Aladdin, 1985 32 pages In many ways, I wasn't raised to be a leader, or to be adventurous. I grew up in a conservative environment, surrounded by traditional ideas of femininity. My parents generally laid down tighter limits than my peers' parents did - … Continue reading Anna Banana and Me
Jane, the Fox & Me by Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault; trans. by Christelle Morelli and Susan Ouriou Groundwood Books, 2012 104 pages When I was a kid, I often felt as though I lived in friendship limbo. I always had 2 or 3 very close, loyal friends, but I was never part of the … Continue reading Jane, the Fox & Me
Someone by Alice McDermott Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2013 240 pages The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant Scribner, 2014 336 pages The company where I work serves the real estate industry, which has two primary trade show seasons each year: one that runs January-May and one that runs August-November. Being the marketing director, I do … Continue reading Someone and The Boston Girl
A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck Dial Press, 1998 192 pages When I first started this blog, I made a few rules for myself. One of them was never to review the same author more than once. For 7 years, I've kept that rule - but now I'm about to break it. Six … Continue reading A Long Way From Chicago
The Case of the Missing Marquess (An Enola Holmes Mystery) by Nancy Springer Scholastic, 2006 224 pages I'm pretty ambivalent about books that amend the work of dead authors. Some - like the annotations and new stories released by the Tolkien estate - find their way onto my bookshelf. But I tend to give a wide … Continue reading The Case of the Missing Marquess
Arcadia by Iain Pears Knopf, 2016 528 pages Not long ago, I tried to describe to my husband what it's like to read Iain Pears and Kazuo Ishiguro, two of my favorite authors. Though their styles are distinct, there is a key commonality: both like to play with perception and how it affects narrative. Ishiguro comes at … Continue reading Arcadia
West of the Moon by Margi Preus Amulet Books, 2014 224 pages You might have noticed that, lately, I've mostly been reviewing books for teens and young women. It hasn't been intentional - just the natural outcome of my recent reading patterns. My daughter is 11 now, and a wide-ranging and advanced reader. We still have a "bedtime" book … Continue reading West of the Moon
