The Help by Kathryn Stockett G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2009 451 pages Starting with today's post, I've added a new age category: young women. Books under this heading are appropriate for the age group I like to think of as "grown-up girls." They're mature teens and college students, the oldest of the next generation of women. … Continue reading Grown up Girls: The Help
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley Random House, 2009 373 pages I think it was in one of my college lit classes that I first heard the term "antihero." Before that point, I had encountered the character type but had never had a name for it. For those who aren't … Continue reading The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Little House in the Big Woods and others by Laura Ingalls Wilder; ill. by Helen Sewell (first editions) and Garth Williams HarperCollins, orig. pub. 1932 I was trying to decide what to post today--something I've stockpiled? or a freshly written review? what age group or genre?--when I realized that I would be posting right before … Continue reading The Gift of Inspiration: The Little House Books
Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai HarperCollins, 2011 272 pages The Vietnam War is kind of a nebulous area in my historical understanding. I know something about it--but only from an American perspective (how and why the U.S. got involved, our casualties, protests on the homefront). I know virtually nothing about the war … Continue reading Inside Out and Back Again
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse Scholastic, 1997 227 pages I first read Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust several years ago (maybe around 2005?) and remembered it as an inspiring book, good fodder for Read Like a Girl. What I didn't remember is that it's also one of the rawest, heaviest books I've … Continue reading Out of the Dust
Goin' Someplace Special by Patricia C. McKissack; ill. Jerry Pinkney Atheneum, 2001 40 pages Since the birth of my daughter, I've become painfully sensitive to the idea of parenting under hardship. My heart twists around itself every time I think of families who are living through famine, war, oppression, or crushing poverty. This sensitivity reaches … Continue reading Goin’ Someplace Special
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick Scholastic Press, 2011 639 pages When I was growing up, book fairs were one of my favorite things about school. Every year, I waited with baited breath for those little catalogs to show up on our desks. And though I never got to buy all the books I wanted (which was … Continue reading Wonderstruck
