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
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
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliet; ill. by Brett Helquist Scholastic, 2003 254 pages Though there’s just one title, this is really a review of three books: Blue Balliet’s series of art mysteries starring three middle-school kids who live in modern-day Chicago. I read the first book, Chasing Vermeer, with my daughter after a librarian friend … Continue reading Chasing Vermeer
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson Penguin, 2014 352 pages I don’t read a lot of poetry, and I’m not entirely sure why. When my poetry-loving friends put up Facebook posts sharing a favorite line or two from what they’re currently reading, I always think, “How beautiful. I really should read more poetry.” Maybe verse is not … Continue reading Brown Girl Dreaming
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1963 256 pages A Wrinkle in Time is one of those books I think I have very clear memories of - and then I read it again and discover that I missed something entirely. I first read A Wrinkle in Time - or, rather, … Continue reading A Wrinkle in Time
Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters by Andrea Davis Pinkney; ill. by Stephen Alcorn Harcourt, 2000 Where I sit writing, in one of my city's newest public library branches, I can see people picking out magazines and books to read, checking out their materials, lounging in chairs with laptops propped on their … Continue reading Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters
Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty; ill. by David Roberts Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2013 32 pages Over on the Read Like a Girl Facebook page, I've been sharing a lot of posts related to the relative dearth of women in STEM fields. It's a subject that's top-of-mind for me because my daughter, who … Continue reading Rosie Revere, Engineer
