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 [...]

Michaela MacColl has written two novels for young readers that feature historical figures: Beryl Markham in Promise the Night and Queen Victoria in  Prisoners in the Palace: How Princess Victoria Became Queen with the Help of Her Maid, a Reporter, and a Scoundrel. Recently I had a chance to ask her a few questions about [...]

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 [...]

Author Annette Laing is busy putting the finishing touches on her third book in The Snipesville Chronicle series. The new book will appear in March. In the meantime, she’s lowered the price of the first book in the series, Don’t Know Where, Don’t Know When (see my review) to just 99 cents for Kindle and [...]

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 [...]