Dory Fantasmagory by Abby Hanlon (Dial Books, 2014) perfectly captures the thought process and imagination exaggeration of a super creative first grader. With a mix of text and comical illustrations, Hanlon puts together a fantasmagory (“a shifting melody of real or imagined characters”) of any imaginary play time. My very imaginative eight-year-old loved the mix

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I read the trilogy The Kingdom and the Crown by Gerald Lund because I finished all the currently produced episodes of The Chosen! I was craving more immersion in the historical world of Roman-occupied Israel. We are studying the New Testament at church this year, and I’m the Sunday School teacher, so I promise I

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Who didn’t like Aven Green, the armless main character from The Insignificant Life of a Cactus? Author Dusti Bowling has created an Aven Green early chapter book series (Union Square Kids) featuring the loveable spunky girl in third grade. Just as the teenaged Aven, her eight-year-old counterpart is self-confident, determined, and out-spoken. Even though she

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Two years ago, I wrote about how much I enjoyed the first of the Precious Ramotswe Mysteries, a new series by Alexander McCall-Smith sharing the childhood mysteries featuring Precious Ramotswe, the future Ladies’ Detective. I enjoyed the second and third in the series as well. Simple mysteries give the young children reading a chance to feel

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