Tales for Very Picky Eaters
by Josh Schnieder Clarion Books 2011 Five short tales for beginning readers utilizing reverse psychology. This might backfire for some kids. Like me. Know a picky eater? Sure you do. And when it...
View ArticleStickman Odyssey
Book One: An Epic Doodle (2011) Book Two: The Wrath of Zozimos (2012) by Christopher Ford Philomel Homer's epic tale reduced to stick figures and plenty of diversions from the classic poem, not that...
View Articlehow supporting ballou sr high school library will make you a magician
You may be thinking that magic is an illusion, a slight of hand, a trick. That's not the kind of magic I have in mind though. I'm talking about a type of magic that you see when a face lights up. It's...
View ArticleThe Hero of Little Street
by Gregory Rogers Allen & Unwin, Austrailia 2009 Roaring Brook, US 2012 The Boy, who previously met the Bard and the Bear and battled a Midsummer Knight, takes "readers" on another adventure,...
View ArticleThe Golden Ass of Lucius Apuleius
Adapted from the Latin by M. D. Usher Illustrations by T. Motley David R. Godine 2011 Ah, the good old days of Ancient Rome, where a reckless traveler manages to turn himself into an ass – literally,...
View ArticleMore
by I. C. Springman illustrated by Brian Lies Houghton Mifflin, 2012 It's Hoarders for the picture book set! A thieving magpie collects and collects until... well, as they say, less is more. One of the...
View ArticleThe Eleventh Plague
by Jeff Hirsch Scholastic 2011 I'm going to pose a seemingly nonsensical riddle worthy of the Mad Hatter: How are good dystopian novels like gangster films from the 1930s? In a future very near to us...
View ArticlePlanet Tad
by Tim Carvell HarperCollins 2012 Emmy-Award winning head writer for The Daily Show! and contributor to MAD Magazine! attempts to write a middle grade book! There are five levels of humor: Hilarious –...
View ArticleThe Rain Puddle
by Adelaide Holl pictures by Roger Duvoisin Lothrop, Lee & Shepard 1965 The barnyard is once again astir when the little red hen convinces the other animals that a puddle contains their drowned...
View ArticleMiss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children
by Ransom Riggs Quirk Books 2011 After his grandfather dies under bizarre circumstances young Jacob goes on a journey to uncover the truth about the odd and fantastic stories he'd been told as a...
View ArticleWonder
by R.J. Palacio Knopf 2012 Can a boy with a deformed face find friends, happiness, success, and acceptance when he first goes to middle school? Only in a middle grade novel. I'm going to lean a...
View ArticleWonder, part 2
Yesterday I wrote a "review" of R.J. Palacio's Wonder wherein I was trying to work out what I was thinking on the fly, on the screen, sorting out my thoughts in public. even as I was committing the...
View ArticleLegends of Zita the Spacegirl
by Ben Hatke First Second 2012 Out titular (and accidental) heroine returns for continuing adventures as her fame sucks her further and further from ever returning to Earth. Bad for her is good for...
View ArticleMoby Dick
Chasing the Great White Whale by Eric Kimmel illustrated by Andrew Glass Feiwel & Friends 2012 Finally! A version of Melville's classic I can actually finish! In one sitting! With pictures...
View ArticleDrama
by Raina Telgemeier Scholastic 2012 Romance and friendships are tried and tested during the production of a middle grade play where everything is one giant emotional... drama. Callie is crushing on...
View ArticleOh, Rats!
The Story of Rats and People by Albert Marrin illustrated by C.B. Mordan Dutton / Penguin 2006 Is there any pet more widely considered vermin? The nonfiction picture book examines the facts and...
View ArticleA Wrinkle in Time
The Graphic Novel by Madeleine L'Engle adaptation by Hope Larson FSG 2012 The classic middle grade book gets a solid graphic novel treatment by award winning artist Hope Larson. The weird thing about...
View ArticleSquish #4: Captain Disaster
by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm Random House 2012 Squish, an amoeba, and his single-cell friends learn life lessons in a primordial soup that looks a lot like an upper elementary school. As a...
View Article13 Days of Halloween: Zombie in Love
Zombie in Love by Kelly DiPucchio illustrated by Scott Campbell Atheneum Books 2011 A picture book about a zombie looking for love? Mortimer is, to be blunt, a bit clueless. He's looking for love...
View Article13 Days of Halloween: Sailor Twain
by Mark Siegel First Second Press 2012 A riverboat captain on the 19th century Hudson River nurses an injured mermaid back to health, hidden from his employer who is determined to find and kill her,...
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