An adventure story for the ages. It’s 1961, Charlie Fisher, the son of a foreign diplomat, finds himself adrift in the city of Marseilles. After witnessing a pickpocket in the busy city center, his intrigue draws him into an underground world of adolescent pickpockets, filled with a spirited, colorful cast of characters–ranging from identical Senegalese …
If you liked: ✓ books starring spirited & sassy girls ✓ underdog-type stories with brave main characters ✓ stories with unique world building ✓ ice skating & martial arts… together, then try Peasprout Chen: Future Legend of Skate & Sword. –Powell’s Books, Portland, OR Many thanks to author Kelly Jones for taking a photo of …
When are scarecrows truly creepy? When it is close to Halloween! And– when they stalk children and seem to have been making people disappear for over a hundred years. But I get ahead of myself. Eleven-year-old Ollie finds a distraught woman threatening to throw a book into a raging river. Ollie saves (steals) the book …
For me there are two main kinds of books with queer characters: those where queerness plays an integral role in the story and those where no one in the book bats an eye at a character’s queerness. Both are tremendously important. The first so that we can tell stories about our culture, how we got …
This was originally posted on Island Books’ tumblr It’s always a pleasure to see the list of finalists for the annual Washington State Book Awards, not least because the judges are some of our favorite people, local booksellers and librarians. We especially wanted to take note of this slate of books, though, since so many of their …
I think it’s fairly safe to say that we all have several reading personalities, depending on mood and circumstance. Sometimes, you might be in the mood for the literary equivalent of a summer blockbuster, with explosions and car chases and clearly defined bad guys. Other times you might want a stately costume drama or something …
For those of us who love Harry Potter (and there are a LOT of us), the magic never truly ends. We re-read the books. We watch the movies for maybe the hundredth time (and I might not be exaggerating). We find camaraderie and instant connections with fellow Potterheads who also believe in love, magic, and forever friendship. …
Like Vanessa by Tami Charles All I can say is thank goodness the ’80s are back in fashion, because this gem of a book is best read sitting in front of a TV tray in a recliner. Inspired by Vanessa Williams’ 1983 Miss America win, a headstrong and pushy teacher, and a supportive and scheming …
It all started with Sara Crewe. Not even book (A Little Princess) Sara Crewe, but Shirley Temple-movie Sara Crewe in “The Little Princess” (1939). That was when I first fell in love with the idea of boarding school, even if I may not have thought of it in that way at the time. That’s not …
This is my favorite middle grade book of 2017! Four very different kids survive a plane crash in the Amazon jungle, and readers will be fascinated by how they build a raft, harvest honey like monkeys, taste spiders, and adopt an orphan sloth. As they struggle, they learn a new respect for the natural world …
