I absolutely love Sherman Alexie, so when I noticed just now that he’d written a new book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian I ordered it right away.  And when I saw it was a book for younger readers (grade 7 - 10, according to Amazon) I knew I had to write it […]

I’ve been on a bit of a Neil Gaiman kick lately, since Stardust came out and I read and enjoyed Coraline. Although I’ve been way too busy to read much more (I picked up M is for Magic and another Gaiman book about a month ago) I did have a chance to listen to […]

Last month I reviewed Lois Lowry’s The Giver very positively — it’s an absolutely great novel, for young readers and adult readers alike. So I had high hopes for another novel by Lowry, Number the Stars — hopes which were almost, but not quite, met.
Don’t get me wrong: the Newberry-winning Number the Stars is […]

I’ve been a fan of Charles de Lint’s work since I was a young teenager and picked up a copy of Moonheart. Moonheart probably isn’t for younger readers, as it includes some pretty graphic sexual descriptions and some pretty dark situations, but minus the fairly adult sexuality most of de Lint’s work would easily appeal […]

The name-sake character of Neil Gaiman’s book Coraline is a bored young girl whose family has recently moved into a strange old house filled, by and large, with strange old people. Left to entertain herself by her always-too-busy parents, Coraline sets off exploring the grounds, meeting the neighbors, and puzzling over the strange door in […]

Jumping Monkeys, the really very excellent podcast I blogged about here, is running a contest to win an autographed copy of Chandra Prasad’s book On Borrowed Wings, the story of a young women in the ’30s who goes to Yale disguised as a man. Here’s what you need to do:
To enter to win […]

One of the benefits of being a teacher is that every so often you come across great discounts for educators. This weekend (and up until Tuesday) Borders offered an educator’s discount of 25% off all books, CDs, and DVDs. (I don’t know if that’s nation-wide or just in my area.) On Friday night they […]

Lois Lowry’s young adult novel The Giver is a truly amazing book. Winner of the Newberry Award in 1994, The Giver tells the story of a utopian society located somewhere (somewhen?) in the future where lying is forbidden, competition is eliminated, everyone knows exactly where they belong, and death is unknown.
Or so it seems. […]

The Simple Dollar is a personal finance blog, but every Sunday they offer long, in-depth reviews of personal development books. This week, they reviewed The Read-Aloud Handbook, a book about (as you can probably guess) reading loud to your children. It looks like a fantastic book. Listen:
First, and this is the big one, […]

As the step-father of a “tween” girl — and as a professor of Women’s Studies — I’m deeply concerned about the way “girly” expectations are not just imposed on girls but crammed down their throats (or, better yet, not crammed down their throats, because eating is totally outré for girls these days). Andrea Learned, […]