Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
The Sky Beneath Her by Mary Ellen Taylor (published 2026) was a short impulse read for me, a historical fiction mixed with contemporary fiction novel that I normally wouldn’t pick up. It alternates between Tula in the modern day and a number of characters in 1942 who are on board the Oceanus ship, hoping to
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
Ava and her mother look forward to the one day of the week in the picture book Saturday by Oge Mora (published 2019). Every week they spend Saturday together doing fun things like visiting the library, having picnics, and getting their hair done. On one particular Saturday, everything seems to go wrong for the mother
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
The Women by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin’s Press, 2024) is a painful look at the Vietnam War from the perspective of the women nurses serving in the traumatic emergency surgery’s. Frankie McGrath joins the war in order to bring respect and honor to her family, since patriotic service is a family tradition. But from her
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
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)
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
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