I’ve been thinking about horror fiction lately. What are the secrets of its appeal? Why are teens so drawn to it? How can we know which adult horror novels will appeal to teens and which won’t? One of the reasons I’ve been thinking about this lately is because I enjoyed The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper [...]
A fun and informative guide to observing and sketching birds
Peanut Written by Ayun Halliday; Drawn by Paul Hoppe Schwartz & Wade; $15.99 There’s a panel in Ayun Halliday and Paul Hoppe’s Peanut that could also serve as a log line for the book. “The hardest thing about a peanut allergy,” says the main character, Sadie Wildhack, “is remembering to stay vigilant. Especially if you [...]
Girls Write Now, a nonprofit organization that mentors budding female writers, opened its CHAPTERS Reading series with Sesame Street's 'Maria' and YA author Sonia Manzano as the first guest speaker. The ongoing 4-part event will showcase the works of teen girls from all over NYC, and will feature female authors like Gayle Forman, Adele Griffin, and Marcia Ann Gillespie.
A page-turner of a novel about Emily Dickinson
Geronimo Stilton meets Akira Kurasawa in Geronimo Stilton: The First Samurai, the 12th volume of the time-traveling mouse’s adventures in graphic novel form. In this story, the Pirate Cats travel back to 1603 Japan, and Geronimo and his troupe follow, impersonating a traveling band of actors, to find out what they are up to. Good [...]
Children will identify with Splat the cat’s quest for Christmas presents in the animated version of Rob Scotton’s Merry Christmas, Splat. Be sure to check out this starred review.
Among the latest offerings from Capstone’s fruitful relationship with DC Comics are a line of hardcovers reprinting some of the latter’s kid-friendly comics. Not collections of groups of comics, but single-issue reprints, differentiated from the original comics only by their hard, sturdy covers and spines—actual comic books never seem to last long in libraries, no [...]
When We Wake by Karen Healey. Little, Brown. 2013. Reviewed from ARC from publisher. The Plot: “My name is Tegan Oglietti, and on the last day of my first lifetime, I was so, so happy.” And Tegan, sixteen, was happy. No, her life wasn’t perfect or flawless. Her father, a soldier, had died when she [...]