I am a big fan of Edwidge Danticat and this young adult novel does not disappoint. Set in the US, it tells the tale of sixteen-year-old identical twins Isabelle and Giselle who are involved in a tragic accident on the way to a school orchestra concert.
This may sound cynical but I believe that most of us are capable of murder. The question is how far would the average Joe–not a psychopath or otherwise mentally ill person–have to be pushed in order to actually go through with murdering someone?
Struck by lightning, twelve-year-old Seamus is thrust into medieval times. Confused and physically unable to tell anyone that he is from another time, he struggles to adjust to the speech patterns and the new skills (archery, horse back riding) he is expected to know. He finds that he is part of a troop on a …
Happy New Year and best wishes for 2017. We have been off to an interesting start and without introducing any partisan politics at all I feel obliged to ask a question. In a world where we have incessant access to news (real and ‘alternate’), do authors still have a job? Why should we as a …
I’m old enough to remember when you had to go find an actual book, preferably the Encyclopedia Britannica, if you wanted to research a topic, but I would be lying if I said that I’m nostalgic of that particular part of my past.
Sydney Lincoln is a lawyer who is searching to find her place in life. “I can’t decide what I want which is the story of my life,” she says. After following her best friend, Loren, to DC, she finds herself working for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Sydney struggles to come in to her own in her job, …
This photo was taken in 2013 and it still amazes me how much my daughter has grown in that time. She is still an avid reader–both of my children are–and we still share our joy of reading. Nowadays, we discuss books we’ve read and recommend them to one another. I love this interaction, I love …
There is more than one way to skin a cat…or so I’ve been told. Similarly (or maybe not) encouraging your children to develop a lifelong love of reading involves a variety of approaches and audio books can be an important addition to your bag of tricks.
“Where’s Papa going with that ax?” said Fern… This line, the first in Charlotte’s Webb is one of the most famous children’s book first lines. We immediately are interested in what is coming next, we connect with Fern’s concern, and get a sense of the urgency of Wilbur’s plight. You can probably assign varying intonations …
This morning I read a book review in which the reviewer’s writing was so careless and error-ridden that I questioned her credibility in critiquing someone else’s work. I stopped reading by the third paragraph and thought, she really should have hired an editor.