2019 Wrangler Award for Outstanding Juvenile Book Winner 2019 Spur Award – Western Writer’s of America Finalist This is a nicely plotted, heartfelt Middle Grade Western looks into the lives of folks homesteading in 1910 Colorado. Belle Martin is 12 years old and excited about the adventure of trying to farm the Colorado prairie. But […]
Cool story about Iris, a deaf girl named after a whale. Iris has strong tech skills (she repairs antique radios for pocket money) but she’s main streamed in a school with no deaf students and feels frustration at being alone. Then she learns about a whale (Blue 55) who communicates in a different frequency from […]
Wonderful companion novel to The Mad Wolf’s Daughter (2018), this book shares Drest’s story as she struggles with the dual challenges of deciding how to cope with the price on her head — and with her place in the family whom she rescued in the The Mad Wolf’s Daughter. In order to remove the threat […]
Hilarious and sweet, this epistolary novel keeps the reader turning the pages. The premise is adorable: two 12 years old girls from opposite sides of the country are sent to the same summer camp by their single gay dads who are planning to woo each other on once in a lifetime trip to China. Bette […]
Lovely. Amazingly, a solidly middle grade story about escaping child abuse by running away on the streets of a city in India. Join the friends Viji, Ruku, Muthi and Arul as they create family and provide for each other until tragedy strikes. Ms. Venkatraman is able to convey all this in a child’s voice and […]
Bob Graham is a wonderful whimsical picture book writer whose books are worthy of poring over: How to Heal a Broken Wing; A Bus Called Heaven; April and Esme, tooth fairies; and more! The Poesy Ring traces a gold ring from County Kerry in 1830 through its various travels until it ends up in a […]
Jonah Winter and Red Nose Studio have teamed up to create an incredible, fun book about Elvis’ childhood for kids! It relays, in short emotive prose, what if felt like to grow up dirt poor, hungry, and amazed by one’s first cheeseburger. The book deals frankly with the issue of Elvis’ appropriation of Black music […]
Sharon Draper, the acclaimed author of the beloved, Out of my Mind (2012), returns with an enjoyable book that manages to provide a girls’ eye view of racial issues, from police profiling to skin color dynamics. Isabella’s mom is white and her dad is black and her parents are divorced and she’s traded back and forth once […]
Deeply moving, this book intended for older children and teens will be an education for adults as well. Carla Killough McClafferty presents the stories of William Lee, Christopher Sheels, Caroline (Branham), Peter Hardiman, Ona Marie Judge, and Hercules, six of the best known slaves owned by our first president. The author also presents detailed information […]
A hilarious read about poverty and wealth, hunger and hamburgers from Polly Horvath. Rupert is very poor and always hungry; there is never enough food at home. A ridiculous accident happens on Christmas Day that introduces him to the ultra-wealthy Rivers family. The book is a series of bizarre adventures hungry Rupert goes on with […]
