Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
Amaze! Amaze! Amaze! Yes, I’m writing about Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (published 2021). I read it in 2022 shortly after it came out, and I desperately wish I’d reviewed it before the movie came out, so I could give you my movie-free perspective. After I watched the movie, I did listen to it
The first-person poetic middle grade novella All the Blues in the Sky by Renee Watson (published 2025) captures the essence of grief in the aftermath of the sudden death of a friend. Thirteen-year-old Sage learns to deal with the pain of losing her friend as well as dealing with guilt as she meets with a
Ly-Lan and the New Class Mix-Up by Ha Dinh (Zonderkidz, 2025) is the first in the early chapter book Ly-Lan Finds a Way series, which features a spunky third grader who has a strong sense of right and wrong. Our main character faces ordinary kid challenges and seeks solutions through a Christian perspective. In this
Candle Island by Lauren Wolk (published 2025) begins with an epigraph by James McNeil Whistler: “As music is the poetry of sound, so is painting the poetry of sight and the subject-matter has nothing to do with harmony of sound or of color.” This book is a gorgeous middle grade fiction novel with an overarching
I got an introduction to the sport of fencing in It’s All of Nothing, Vale by Andrea Beatriz Arango (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2025), a middle grade novel about a young women struggling to come to terms with her injured leg, which stops her from excelling in her favorite pastime. Written in free
The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See (Scribner, 2019) is the story of questioning fate tied into friendship, war, survival, betrayal, and ultimately forgiveness. Two girls from different backgrounds, Mi-ja and Young-sook, become friends in the 1930s, and their friendship story alternates between their growing-up years and 2008 “modern-day” Young-sook, who is a bitter
The titular character in the Regency novel Frederica by Georgette Heyer (published 1965) is not looking to get married. Ever since her father died, Frederica Merriville has been the guardian of her family, and even beforehand she was the principal person to run the household, since her mother has been gone for years. Now she
Beverly Cleary is best known for her Ramona Quimby stories and her Mouse and the Motorcycle books. But she has a repertoire of other stories. One two-book series that my daughter and I found begins with the story of Ellen Tebbits, a very good girl who finally finds a best friend. The sequel book is
Fern is trying to find her way back to the only home she remembers in middle grade novel The Wrong Way Home by Kate O’Shaughnessy (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2024). Fern has lived on the Ranch since she was six, so when her mom sneaks her away, she is shocked and distressed. As she
Grace Goes to Washington by Kelly DiPucchio (illustrated by LeUyen Pham; Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2019) is a friendly picture book introduction to government. It begins with a school lesson about the branches of government, making correlations between the principal and the president as well as between the student council and the Congress.
In The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2018), our robotic friend from the first book has been refurbished and sent to work as a “normal” robot on a farm in a futuristic world. With all of her memories and abilities from her wild years, however, Roz is only
If your typewriter could speak, what would it say? What if your typewriter could type back everything that has ever been typed into it? This is the premise of the middle grade novel Olivetti by Ali Millington (Feiwel & Friends; March 2024). Olivetti is told from two perspectives, that of Olivetti the typewriter himself and
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