Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom by Louis Sachar illustrated by Tim Heitz Harper, 2020. 182 pages. Review written March 21, 2020, from a library book This book is high class silliness. It’s been 40 years since Louis Sachar wrote a book about Wayside School. Side note: It’s interesting to me that they list three Wayside School books in the front and Louis Sachar acknowledges three in the Intro, but my absolute favorite, and, okay, probably the only one I was really interested in enough to read, is not mentioned — Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School. That one’s essentially a puzzle b ..read more

Leaving Lymon by Lesa Cline-Ransome Holiday House, 2020. 199 pages. Review written April 1, 2020, from a library book Starred Review Leaving Lymon is a “companion novel” to Finding Langston, but there’s no need to read one or the other first. In fact, for me having read Finding Langston long enough ago that I remembered it without the exact details ended up confusing me. Since the names “Langston” and “Lymon” are so similar, I wrongly thought for quite awhile that this was telling the backstory of our hero in the earlier book. I was wrong – it’s telling the backstory of the bully in the earlie ..read more

The Owls Have Come To Take Us Away by Ronald L. Smith Clarion Books, 2019. 216 pages. Review written October 27, 2019, from a library book I love the title of this book, so nicely sinister. You might not want to give it to a kid prone to nightmares, or a kid prone to conspiracy theories. This book tells the story of Simon, a 13-year-old who is obsessed by aliens – who then has encounters with aliens – or at least he thinks so. When they abduct him, what he remembers is looking into the eyes of an owl. Simon does the right things and tells his parents – but they don’t believe him. They have him ..read more

Snapdragon by Kat Leyh First Second, 2020. 224 pages. Review written July 17, 2020, from a library book Starred Review Snapdragon is a girl who all the kids at school think is weird. She lives with her mom and her dog, Good Boy. When Good Boy goes missing, she looks at the house of the old witch, who’s rumored to eat pets. She does find Good Boy, and he’s been patched up after a car hit him. The next day some boys are playing with the body of a dead possum and trying to gross out Snapdragon. But she finds the possum’s babies and goes to the witch’s house to get help taking care of them. It tur ..read more

The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly Greenwillow Books, 2024. 253 pages. Review written April 18, 2024, from a library book. Starred Review This book opens with a kid named Michael Rosario in August 1999, on his eleventh birthday, stealing canned peaches from a grocery store to save for his mother after the world ends with the Y2K bug. Michael’s mom lost her job at that same grocery store because she’d called in to take care of him when he was sick. (His fault, obviously!) Now she works three part-time jobs and is almost never home. She pays an older teen named Gibby to watch him a f ..read more

Pawcasso by Remy Lai Henry Holt, 2021. 238 pages. Review written July 29, 2021, from a library book Starred Review Pawcasso is Remy Lai’s third book that involves kids keeping a huge secret from the adults in their lives. I’m getting a little tired of that – but Pawcasso is so adorable, I loved the book anyway. In this book, it’s the start of summer, and Jo’s been staying in her house all day. When she does go out, she sees a dog carrying a basket. The basket contains money and a shopping list and Jo watches the dog do the shopping for his owners. But when the dog walks into a bookstore where ..read more

Over the Moon by Natalie Lloyd Scholastic Press, 2019. 291 pages. Starred Review Review written December 5, 2019, from a library book Here’s a delightful fantasy tale of a girl named Mallie Ramble who lives in a village on the mountain with her parents and her little brother. Her father has gone blind and mute from working in the mines, and so Mallie needs to go down the mountain and work as a maid in the valley. Even so, she can’t earn enough to keep the family out of debt. The Guardians say that her little brother Denver is going to have to work in the mines even though he’s only seven. Olde ..read more

The Size of the Truth by Andrew Smith Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2019. 266 pages. Review written November 6, 2019, from a library book When he was four years old, Sam Abernathy was trapped in a well for three days. He was playing Spud with his friend Karim, and an older boy, James Jenkins, threw the ball so high, Karim couldn’t catch it, and Sam stepped in the hole and fell. The whole town of Blue Sky, Texas, rallied to save him, and some people still wear their “Pray for Sam” t-shirts. Now Sam is eleven years old, and his parents just had him skip two grades from sixth grad ..read more

A Royal Guide to Monster Slaying by Kelley Armstrong Puffin Canada (Penguin Random House), 2019. 280 pages. Starred Review Review written October 31, 2019, from a library book At the beginning of this fantasy adventure, thirteen-year-old Rowan is complaining because she wishes she were destined to be the Royal Monster Hunter instead of the Queen. But because she was born two minutes before her twin brother Rhydd, she gets the throne and he gets the job of monster hunter – even though their aptitude is the opposite. But when a battle with a gryphon – the same type of monster that killed their f ..read more

Lalani of the Distant Sea by Erin Entrada Kelly Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins), 2019. 386 pages. Starred Review Review written October 18, 2019, from a library book Lalani of the Distant Sea is an original fantasy tale with an island theme. Lalani lives in a small island community tightly ruled by the menyoro. Everybody has their roles. They pray to the Mountain that it will not get angry with them. Now there is a drought. Plants are drying up and everyone is thirsty. Years ago, Lalani’s father and her best friend’s father both sailed away, trying to cross the Veiled Sea to reach the mythic ..read more