Lisa Ann Sandell has done a marvelous job retelling The Lady of Shallot by Tennyson. Song of the Sparrow is written in beautiful verse, which enhances the tale and keeps the reader turning pages. The heroine, Elaine of Ascot, lives in a British encampment with her father and brothers. She mends clothes and tends to …
Or Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog by Adam Gidwitz Jeanne, Gwenforte, William, and Jacob, are unlikely companions on a quest in thirteenth-century France. Adam Gidwitz weaves second-hand accounts in a style reminiscent of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The Inquisitor's Tale is set in the days of the Crusades, when economic, racial, and religious tensions were …
In the vein of To Kill a Mockingbird, Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk is the tale of a young girl in a small town exposed to events which change her life and the lives of her family forever. Annabelle and her family befriend Toby, a reclusive World War I veteran living in the hills of …
Reviewed in 2005 by home school student, Stephanie. "If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book." That is the warning given to the reader in the first few sentences of Book the First by Lemony Snicket. What kind of author would advise someone not to …
The book which changed the way I felt about reading in fourth grade was The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. The fun play on words and fantastical adventure of Milo and Tock was the beginning of my love of reading. Milo, a young boy who finds no wonder or interest in the world comes home …
In light of the new Wrinkle in Time movie opening this weekend, I'm reviewing Many Waters, the fifth book in the Wrinkle In Time series by Madeleine L'Engle. Meg and Charles Wallace's twin brothers, Sandy and Dennys, accidentally end up in one of their father's experiments in Many Waters. Instead of finding cocoa for their hot …
