Category: Young adult/children’s
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Hilda and the Bird Parade by Luke PearsonFlying Eye Books, 2013 (Originally 2012)
As I make my way through Luke Pearson’s “Hilda” graphic novels for kids, I find myself liking each one more than the last. The art is consistently excellent—I like the colors, the clean lines, and how it rewards attention to detail—and the stories keep getting better. This one opens with a scene from Hilda’s life…
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Anastasia Has the Answers by Lois LowryHoughton Mifflin Harcourt 2016 (Originally 1986)
At the start of Anastasia Has the Answers, we learn that Anastasia (who is 13 now) has decided she wants to be a journalist, which helps to give a pleasing structure to the book. She’s learned that journalists should think about the “Who, what, when, where, and why” of the situation behind the piece they’re…
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Hilda and the Midnight Giant by Luke PearsonNobrow Press, 2012 (Originally 2011)
I liked this second “Hilda” book more than the first: the art is as whimsical and gorgeous as it was in the first book, and there’s a bit more of a story. Just after the book opens, Hilda and her mom hear a knock on their door: but when Hilda opens it, no one’s there.…
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How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell (audiobook)
How to Train Your Dragon wasn’t really on my list of books I was curious about until I saw the mention of the audiobook (narrated by David Tennant!) in this post over at Shelf Love. I had never actually listened to an audiobook before this, and a kids’ book with a talented actor as narrator…
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Wonderstruck by Brian SelznickScholastic, 2011
Wonderstruck alternates between two (intertwining) stories, one told in words and the other told in pictures, and it totally worked for me—it’s dreamy and beautiful and very satisfyingly full of excellent New York City scenes/moments. The book starts with Ben, a twelve-year-old kid in northeastern Minnesota in 1977. His mom died in a car accident…
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Hildafolk by Luke PearsonNobrow Press, 2013 (Originally 2010)
Hildafolk is a quick and sweet graphic novel for kids that made me want a backyard and a tent and a rainstorm. At the start, we see the little red cottage where Hilda lives with her mother: it looks very cozy, with yellow-lit windows and smoke coming out of a chimney, a spot of warmth…
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The Last Bogler by Catherine JinksHoughton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016
This book is the third in a middle-grade historical fiction/fantasy trilogy, and I found it a pleasing conclusion to the story of Alfred Bunce, who kills monsters (bogles) for a living, and his various young friends/apprentices. Each book focuses on a different one of the kids, and at the center of this one is Ned…
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The Wright 3 by Blue BalliettScholastic, 2007 (Originally 2006)
Lately I seem to be alternating between reading The New Yorker and reading middle-grade fiction, which is pretty satisfying. (The April 11th issue of The New Yorker was amazing! It had zero long articles about politics or economics, but had long articles about: an Icelandic artist, a walk in the Alps, a motel owner/voyeur, and…
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A Plague of Bogles by Catherine JinksHoughton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015
This is the sequel to How to Catch a Bogle, and like that book, it’s middle grade historical-fiction/fantasy: Victorian London, with child-eating monsters called bogles. Birdie McAdam was the child protagonist of that book, and she’s still present in this one, but now her acquaintance Jem Barbary takes center stage: Birdie is no longer an…
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Code Name Verity by Elizabeth WeinDisney-Hyperion, 2012
Code Name Verity is one of those books I had sort of put off reading, and I’m not sure why. Because there was a lot of hype about it? Because historical fiction set in WWII isn’t necessarily my thing (with the exception of Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis)? I don’t know: it never…