Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
In the middle-grade novel Indigo and Ida by Heather Murphy Capps (Carolrhoda Books, April 2023), teenager Indigo Fitzgerald discovers a biography (with loose personal letters) about the nineteenth-century investigative writer Ida B. Wells. As she reads of Ida’s reporting on frequent lynchings in the South during the post-Reconstruction era, Indigo is inspired to focus her
Can you imagine a Harry Potter-type boarding school set in the Rocky Mountains and using the musical instruments to provide magical power instead of boring old wands? The Mystwick School of Musicraft by Jessica Khoury (Clarion Books, 2020; Audible Studios) does just that. Amelia’s life’s dream has been to attend the same musicraft school as
Lina, the main character in Finally Seen by Kelly Yang (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, February 2023) has grown up with her grandmother in China, while her young sister and parents have spent the last years living in California without her. Now it is her chance to move to the United States to
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
As tweenaged Raina prepared for the growing pains of getting braces while beginning middle school, a surprise fall on a sidewalk knocked out her two front teeth. The autobiographic comic novel Smile by Raina Telgemeier (Graphix, 2010) is her growing-up story. It mixes the discomfort of growing up, the disappointment of changing friendships, and the
When Katie and her family return home after an out-of-town funeral, they find themselves evicted from their apartment. To Katie’s dismay, her mother then settles into an Extended Stay hotel as their for-now home while she searches for a new job and an affordable apartment. A middle-grade memoir written in verse, The In-Between by Katie
El Deafo by Cece Bell (colored by David Lasky) is a graphic novel that won the Newbery Award in 2015 for its great story. I feel like it’s well deserving for both the story and the illustration, as its graphic nature provides a unique format to tell of the author’s experiences growing up deaf in
The Joy of Reading by Donalyn Miller and Teri S. Lesesne (Heinemann 2022) is a beautiful book for educators about how we can help develop a love of reading with the children in our lives. With a focus on what the joy of reading is and how we nurture this joy within our students, Miller
The Cool Code by Deirdre Langeland, illustrated by Sarah Mai (Clarion Books, 2022), is an amusing graphic novel about a formerly homeschooled eighth-grader who creates an app to help her be “cool” in her new school. Zoey enters school worried about how to make friends, and in the end, she finds the true meaning of
Bears Make the Best Reading Buddies by Carmen Oliver is a book about a girl and her unusual friend that helps her to enjoy her reading time. The pictures depict this reading buddy as a bear, and Adelaide describes how her bear is such a good buddy. Yet the book as a whole seems to be
Build, Beaver, Build by Sandra Markle is a book about beavers at the largest beaver dam in the world. Sandra Markle is a name that I’ve come across many times in my years of reading children’s fiction. I have reviewed two of her scientific mystery books on this site: The Case of the Vanishing Little
Power Up: A Visual Exploration of Energy by Shaker Paleja and Glenda Tse is a visually appealing and easily accessible book about energy for the upper elementary school and middle school student to enjoy perusing. Each page provides a huge amount of detail but the format of the pages gives the book a casual feel
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