Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
Tree. Table. Book. by Lois Lowry (Clarion, 2024) features the friendship between two Sophies: one who is eleven and the other is 88. With a unique and memorable narrator, Lowry’s deceptively short newest offering touches on deep issues such as aging, childhood experience, and the formation of memories. In fact, there was so much in
Just as I felt after I read Long Way Down, I feel that the middle grade novel-in-verse Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2020) gave me a window into a different world. In this story, ZJ is dealing with his father’s progressive cognitive decline, which comes with nightmarish migraines, mood swings,
Newbery Honor middle grade novel Iveliz Explains It All by Andrea Beatriz Arango (Random House, 2022) delves into the tumultuous inner struggles of Iveliz, a seventh-grader, as she grapples with a myriad of emotional challenges and her mental illness. In this poignant free verse poetry novel, Arango gives Iveliz a realistically confused voice that resonates
Alte Zachen by Ziggy Hanaor and Benjamin Phillips (Cicada Books, 2022) is a thoughtful graphic novel about a boy and his Bubbe (grandmother) going shopping in New York. His grandmother fled Europe during WWII as a child and as she has aged, she’s started to become confused. As a result, throughout this book, she mixes
The ACB with Honora Lee by Kate De Goldi (Tundra Books, 2012; originally published in New Zealand) focuses on a child’s relationship with her grandmother, who suffers from dementia. Perry is an only child, and I love how her budding relationship with Gran teaches her parents a bit about priorities, family, love, and friendship. Perry’s parents overschedule
Grandpa Green by Lane Smith (Roaring Brook, August 2011) is the story of a past generation through the eyes of a great-grandson. The young great-grandson knows Grandpa’s story because Grandpa, a gardener, has created a topiary garden with statues that remind him of the past. My son (age 4) and I loved the story of
When I joined the 2009 Science Book Challenge, I didn’t intend to focus on neuroscience, but it turns out that that branch of science is absolutely fascinating to me. These two books I read really have convinced me that science and art are inextricably related each other, for art is perceived and appreciated by the
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