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Finding Home: 5 Middle Grade Novels About Immigration
Moving is tough; from living in a new house, to making new friends, and starting a new school. But it’s even tougher when that move also includes learning a new language, adjusting to a new culture,...
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December’s Best Books for Young Readers
With the holiday season in full swing, are you looking for a gift for the young readers in your life? Here are some of the most hotly-anticipated titles for young readers releasing in December. Fort...
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From Flying Ships to Turf Battles: Jed and The Junkyard War
On the surface, Jed Jenkins seems like a pretty normal twelve-year-old kid. He’s certainly not the kind of guy who would stand out in a crowd. Average. Typical. Nothing extraordinary. Except that for...
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10 Beautiful Ballet Books for All Ages
From pointe shoes and tutus, from pirouettes to pliés, many starry-eyed children dream of spinning across the ballet stage. For those little dreamers, here are ten ballet-themed books that touch upon...
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10 Books for Kid Inventors of All Ages
One of the best things about being a kid is the ability to come up with the zany, the extraordinary, the impossible, and having the faith to believe it can be made into a reality. And who knows? Maybe...
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Far From Home: Refugee Stories for All Ages
Where do you go when your children ask tough questions about current events? How do you explain things in an age-appropriate manner, without adding fear? As usual, the children’s book world is there...
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Summer, Bandstand, and Prison: The Warden’s Daughter by Jerry Spinelli
Author Jerry Spinelli has published more than 30 books, and is a household name to many parents and teachers alike. His most famous character is probably Maniac Magee, the runaway orphan from Two...
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Strike Gold with Caroline Starr Rose’s Jasper and the Riddle of Riley’s Mine
Ever since their ma died, and their pa took to comforting himself with drink, eleven-year-old Jasper Johnson and his older brother, Melvin, have been on their own. Hiding away half of what Melvin...
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7 Picture Books for Kitchen Helpers
It’s said that kids who help in the kitchen are more likely to be adventurous eaters. Whether or not that’s true is debatable in our house, but our kids do enjoy being kitchen helpers (even if that...
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When It’s About More Than a Dress Code: Cat Clarke’s The Pants Project
11-year-old Liv (not Olivia, thank you very much) already misses elementary school, and it’s only day one at Bankridge Middle School. In elementary school, nobody cared if your family had two moms. In...
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5 Books About Tantrums!
Every parent has been there. The moment (often in the most public of spaces) in which your sweet, innocent, smiling toddler morphs into a screaming, red-faced, unrecognizable creature. The Temper...
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A Final Return in Nadia Aguiar’s The Great Wave of Tamarind
Penny Nelson has vague memories of Tamarind. She’s been to the magical island twice before with her siblings, once as an infant and then again at five years old. But that was years ago. Her siblings,...
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A Tale of Spirit in Ruth Behar’s Lucky Broken Girl
10-year-old Ruthie Mizrahi has only lived in the United States for 8 months. Along with Mami, Papi, and her little brother Izzie, she fled Cuba where, during the 1960s, Castro’s hand lay heavy on all...
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5 Middle Grade Novels for Drama Kids
At some point in our childhoods, most of us have had the joy, the fear, and occasionally the embarrassment of being on stage. For some, playing Martha Washington in the second grade play is as far as...
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Funny Girls is a Can’t-Miss Collection of Hilarious Essays
It’s no secret that kids like funny books. Let’s be honest, adults like funny books, too. We all like to laugh. And I bet that if someone asked you to come up with five funny children’s book authors...
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6 Middle Grade Novels Featuring (Extra)Ordinary Kids with Chronic Illness
In recent years, the children’s book industry has seen increased pressure from readers for books that truly reflect all parts of our society. With that has come a slow emergence of characters in...
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5 Books About (Nice!) Clowns
When we think of clowns, our minds often jump to clowns like Pennywise from Stephen King’s It. In recent years, clowns have gotten a bad rap, the stuff of nightmares rather than giggles. But remember...
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9 Books for Young Readers Who Are Almost Ready for YA
Middle grade: The in between years. Not quite a kid anymore, but not a teenager, either. This no-man’s land applies to book picks, too: the group of readers who are seeking something more complex than...
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5 Picture Books to Read Under the Big Top
With the recent closing of The Ringling Brothers, it seems that the circus has become part of a bygone era. The big striped tent, the glitzy costumes, and the animals themselves—these are what...
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The Summer When It All Comes Down to This
She was a woman who was not going to like me. So begins 12-year-old Sophie LaBranche’s summer, the summer the new housekeeper, Mrs. Baylor, arrives. Right away, Sophie takes a dislike to the older...
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