Thirteen-year-old Zardi is the daughter of the Sultan’s closest adviser. She lives with her family and Rhidan, a ward of the state since he was found on their shores as a babe years ago. Rhidan doesn’t look like anyone else in their country, and he knows nothing about where he is from. When the cruel [...]
In the early 1900s a girl named Beryl Clutterbuck was growing up on a ranch in what was then British East Africa. With a mother who had returned to England when she was a baby and a father who had little time to spend on raising her, Beryl grew up wild and as resistant to [...]
Home for the Holidays is the fifth book in Heather Vogel Frederick’s beloved series, The Mother-Daughter Book Club. By now, the girls of the Concord, Massachusetts book club are almost as well known to readers as the characters in the stories they are tackling this year: all 10 titles in the Betsy-Tacy series written by [...]
Ivy and Eldridge have become fast friends after their adventures in Ivy’s Ever After by Dawn Lairamore. Now they’re trying to enjoy themselves at Drusilla’s wedding when a giant beanstalk with vicious teeth for pods grows into the clouds, taking Drusilla’s pet goat with it. In Ivy and the Meanstalk, the two set off to [...]
Take an unconventional princess, a shy and timid dragon, an evil prince as would-be rescuer, and a kingdom that sorely needs a dash of hope. Mix in an absent-minded, wayward fairy godmother, a few trolls, and a cute stable boy. Bring all the ingredients together in a tale called Ivy’s Ever After by Dawn Lairamore [...]
The new Rebel in a Dress series by Sylvia Branzei succeeds in showcasing women who have broken the boundaries of their times to achieve what they wanted. Illustrations by Melissa Sweet and historic photographs make each woman featured come alive in just a few pages. I read two titles in the series: one that focuses [...]
When Shelby Jayne’s mamma, Mirage, left their family, Shelby swore she’d never forgive her. Now it’s a year later, and because her father will be out of the country working for six months and her grandmother recovering from hip surgery, Shelby finds herself deep in the swamps of Louisiana on Mirage’s doorstep with a suitcase [...]
The first time P (short for Princess) picks up the tiny possum she knows she’s in trouble. For one thing, she knows her Dad doesn’t allow pets on their Oklahoma farm. For another, she doesn’t even know what baby possum’s eat. But after her dog killed the baby’s mama, P can’t just leave the little [...]
