Tweet Last Saturday I was happy to be invited as a guest to the Hillsboro, Oregon, public library mother-daughter book club meeting. Gretchen Olson, author of Call Me Hope, was also there to talk about her book and the Hands … Continue reading
Category Archives: Reviews of Books for 11-13 Year Olds
Tweet Fans of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series will find The Ruby in the Smoke very different, but in many ways just as pleasurable to read. It opens with sixteen-year-old Sally Lockhart visiting her deceased father’s shipping firm and … Continue reading
Tweet Jack Perdu is a loner, a ninth-grader who is an expert on Greek classics and lives on the Yale University campus with his archeology-professor father. One winter afternoon, while he has his nose in a book, he is nearly … Continue reading
Tweet Becoming a Superhero by William D. Smith is an endearing tale that is a semi-autobiographical account of a young boy who dreams of being a superhero, and discovers a lot about himself along the way. We meet Billy Smith, … Continue reading
Tweet Goosebumps author R. L. Stine says “Who doesn’t like a good ghost story? Creepers is a good one! Thrills and chills? You Bet. But it will also warm your heart.” Here’s my review of Creepers by Joanne Dahme Courtney … Continue reading
Tweet Remember learning about the Scopes Monkey trial in history class? The trial pitted the state of Tennessee against a high school science teacher, J.T. Scopes, who challenged the legality of the state’s rule against teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. … Continue reading
Tweet Be sure you have plenty of time when you start to read The Curse of Addy McMahon by Katie Davis—you might not be able to stop turning pages to see what happens next. On the other hand, Davis’s clever … Continue reading
Tweet There’s a lot to like in Donna Gephart’s first book, as if being 12-3/4 isn’t bad enough, my mother is running for president. Vanessa Rothrock is nearly 13 and already used to the limelight because she’s the Florida governor’s … Continue reading
