At the Rescue Cat Café by Anna Humphrey
Picture books are a great way to read a book without having to read a full novel. You can get a good, strong story, but done quickly enough to get your book fix without a lot of effort. Now that is not to say they are bad, or not “real books” or even not in depth. In fact, just the opposite is true. Some of my favorite books have been picture books. I still talk about Strega Nona, The Clown of God, Zoom and Rezoom, […]
Little Moments in a Big Universe by Todd Stewart
Little Moments in a Big Universe is a romantic story about bravery, kindness, even environmentally friendly. There are lush, rich, deep, amazing, unique illustrations which capture each moment and allow it to explode to life. The theme is familiar, but the presentation makes for an experience unlike anything else you might have read before. The author and illustrator Todd Stewart (due mid October 2025; read via an online reader) takes several characters and an explorer in a spaceship through the universe. When they crash into […]
The Rough-Face Girl by Rafe Martin & David Shannon
In this Algonquin rendition of Cinderella, The Rough-Face Girl lives with her father and two beautiful yet cruel sisters in a village on the shores of Lake Ontario. On the outskirts of the village lives the Invisible Being; a rich, powerful, and supposedly very handsome man who every woman in the village has set her sights on. However, to win his hand the women have to get past his sister and the tests she places in their paths. When her stepsisters fail, can the Rough-Face […]
Princess Furball by Charlotte Huck & Anita Lovel
The story is, according to the author’s inscription, “one of the many variants of the Cinderella story; readers will recognize it as being similar to the English ‘Catskin’ and to the Grimms’ ‘Many Furs’ or ‘Thousand Furs. The title princess (who is actually nameless) grows up without a mother but with a serious indifferent father. Her only comfort is her nanny, who teaches her writing, reading, dancing, and cooking; a standard gamut of royal tutorage except for the cooking. But when her nanny dies, her […]
The King Who Learned To Smile by Seymour Reit
The king, a young boy named Harold, has all gold things. Gold crown and gold robe, gold shoes, gold throne and gold bed, gold toothbrush and gold comb, gold brush and gold pen, gold spoon and gold plates. He even had goldfish in a gold bowl, and his favorite book is Goldilocks and the Three Bears. And yet he’s unhappy (I’d go with gold everything has to be heavy, never mind the glare when the lights hit it, but I guess royalty does things differently), […]
Dorrie and the Wizard’s Spell by Patricia Coombs
Dorrie, the little witch with her constantly bent hat and her mismatched socks and her cat Gink, lives with her mother Big Witch and Cook in their Victorian house. One day they go to the Bazaar to sell Big Witch’s odds and ends and potions and balms. While there, Big Witch disappears right from under Dorrie’s nose. She’s apparently been turned into a teacup, and unless Dorrie can get Wink the Wizard to reverse it, she’s going to have a teacup for a mother for […]
