chrisholliman

Children's Librarian

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Tag: juvenile fiction

  • “A Tale Dark & Grimm” by Adam Gidwitz

      This is a bloody good book.  Literally.  Hansel and Gretel are the main characters, but their story is not confined to just meeting the witch with the candy house in the forest.  Rather, Gidwitz mines the complete collection of the Grimm’s Fairytales and has the brother and sister show up in stories with which…

  • “Brendan Buckley’s Universe And Everything In It” by Sundee T. Frazier

      Brendan Buckley is a ten year old boy interested in rocks and Tae Kwon Do.  He keeps a journal called  Brendan Buckley’s Book of Big Questions About Life, the Universe and Everthing In It.  Lately he’s had plenty of questions for that journal.  While at the mall looking at a rock collection, his grandmother…

  • The Witch’s Guide to Cooking with Children by Keith McGowan

     A wonderful, modern twist on Hansel and Gretel.  Sol and Connie have moved with their father and stepmother to a new town.  The neighbor next door, Ms. Holaderry, seems a bit funny, especially when Sol realizes that her dog has been gnawing on a human femur!   After a few visits to their local public library (!!), the…

  • Because of Anya by Margaret Peterson Haddix

    Ten year old Anya has a secret that she wants to keep: she’s wearing a wig.  Her real hair has begun to fall out due to an auto immune disease known as Alopecia Areata.  School is hard enough, but when you don’t have hair, the thought of facing your peers is almost unbearable.  Anya struggles to…

  • My Brother Sam Is Dead by James and Christopher Collier

    During this entire book, I was awaiting for two things: 1) for Sam to die and 2) for the protagonist Tim to pick a side in the Revolutionary War.  But Sam doesn’t eat it until page 208!  And Tim never makes up his mind whether he wants to be a Tory or a Rebel. The first half…

  • Lucky: Maris, Mantle, and My Best Summer Ever by Wes Tooke

    It’s the summer of ’61 and Louis May has a lot of new things in his life.  His parents have recently divorced and he and his dad have moved in with his stepmom and stepbrother in White Plains, New York.  It’s an uncomfortable arrangement and Louis constantly feels that he’s getting overlooked.  Baseball is the…

  • Ways to Live Forever

    If you’re looking for a book to make you cry, this is it.  Eleven year old Sam has leukemia, so he stays home everyday with his teacher Ms. Willis and his friend Felix, who also has cancer.  Sam likes to list facts about himself, such as he has always wanted to go up a down elevator or take…

  • A Wrinkle In Time

        Beginning with those famous words “it was a dark and stormy night,” A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’engle remains as readable as when it was first published in 1962.  A Newberry Medal winner, it mixes science fiction, fantasy, philosophy and religion in an interstellar adventure that will appeal to both children and adults. Plot:  Meg Murry’s…