Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
The marsh is a key player in Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (published 2018). The marsh hides the footprints and possibly other secrets behind the murder of Chase Andrews, a popular young man in the small town of Barkley Cove, North Carolina. But when the isolated Marsh Girl, Kya Clark, is suspected of
The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner (Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2025) somehow seamlessly ties trauma from 9/11 with the pandemic of COVID-19, all while supporting a mischief-making boy as he finds new meaning in his life. For Finn, losing his firefighter dad in New York City during the early months of COVID-19 (two years before)
Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All by Chanel Miller (Philomel Books, April 2024) is a somewhat ridiculous but delightful short chapter book about finding not just entertainment during a boring summer but also building friendships with unexpected people. Magnolia and her new friend from California, Iris, undertake a project: find the owners of all the unmatched
Runaway Papoose by Grace Moon (published 1928) is one of the early Newbery books that just by its title alone seems questionable and suggests irrelevance for young readers today. The book itself actually was better than the title suggests. Although the title first reminds a modern reader of the racist connotations connected to the perjorative
Her Right Foot by Dave Eggers (illustrated by Shawn Harris; Chronicle Books, 2017) is a second-person picture book about the Statue of Liberty. As the title indicates, it focuses on the right foot of the statue, a foot that shows motion! As a whole, the book tells the history of the sculpture, from the idea
The Weight of Vengeance : The United States, the British Empire, and The War of 1812 by Troy Bickham (Oxford University Press, 2017) is a scholarly look at the “forgotten war.” Throughout my life, I have known very little about the War of 1812, so I was eager to learn more about this war that
With a strong Nantucket setting, Downright Dencey by Caroline Snedeker (published 1927) is the story of a developing friendship between a Quaker girl and the young, poor orphan boy who lives on the outskirts of town. More deeply, however, it is a sweet old-fashioned story of Christian conversion and what it means to find forgiveness and
TIn Mexikid: A Graphic Memoir by Pedro Martin (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2023), the author shares a pivotal time from his childhood, specifically when he traveled to Mexico to retrieve his ailing grandfather and return with him to the United States. Pedro, who is also called Peter, feels conflicted by his half-American, half-Mexican identity,
The early reader Hill of Fire by Thomas P. Lewis and illustrated by Joan Sandin (HarperCollins, 1983) is an “I Can Read” level 4 reading level. It tells the fictionalized but true story of a farmer in Mexico who discovered a volcano in his field in 1943. In this fictionalized story, the farmer is given
The children’s novel The Windy Hill by Cornelia Meigs (published 1921) provides a unique early twentieth century portrayal of a particular summer of two city teenagers spending a summer with a dull but wealthy uncle, the intrigue of the story is predictable and lacks true excitement. Children today will not be impressed with the outdated
Jose Pimienta’s graphic novel Twin Cities (Random House Graphic, 2022) tells the story of twins that, for the first time, will attend two different schools: one in their home town of Mexicali, Mexico, and the other in a specialty school just over the US border in Calexico, California. As the two kids go through their
The easily accessible text and the fun related activities make The Great Depression for Kids by Carol Mullenbach (Chicago Review Press, July 2015) a fantastic choice for the young student in upper elementary school or older that is interested in learning more about the era in our history. The text covers life before the Great
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