“It was a dark and stormy night.” The opening of this book imprinted itself on my ten-year-old brain in ways I didn’t fully realize until I returned to it over four decades later. I first read A Wrinkle in Time in 1975 when my grandmother, a children’s librarian, gave me a copy for my birthday. It wasn’t just any copy; it was a signed copy that my grandmother had purchased in 1963 when she attended the Newberry-Caldecott award dinner in Chicago—almost two years before my […]
The weirdest afterschool special I’ve never seen
This book was an impulse purchase on a long airport layover a few years ago. I’d heard good things about China Miéville and wanted to give him a shot, and I figured a quick kids’ book read would be a good place to start, and then — classic me — I let it sit on the shelf for nearly two years before getting to it. Un Lun Dun has a lot going for it. The protagonists, Zanna and Deeba, pre-teen girls and best friends, have […]
A Balloon of One’s Own
I’ve been reading a lot of children’s books lately, which is a delightful situation. And The Twenty-One Balloons, in particular, is a delightful book. I first read this book as a child and adored it, and I was so excited to read it again. The Twenty-One Balloons is the story of Professor William Waterman Sherman, a retired math teacher who’s sick of kids and is desperate for some solitude. He decides to take off in a hot-air balloon, with enough supplies to last him a […]
Real Friends. Who are they?
Questions probably everyone has asked are: “Real Friends. Who are they?” And “How do I get some?” Shannon is no different. Growing up as the middle child, she always tried to find her place. Not really close in age to any of her siblings, she never had a friend until Kindergarten. As the years go along, she realizes friends are not easy to understand. In a graphic novel format, Hale and Pham consider the world of one girl who is just trying to get through […]
Liked it better the first time I read it
3.5 stars I read this book for the first time back in October 2012. My review from back then can be found here. Back then, I rated the book 4 stars and from my write-up, I really appeared to enjoy it. The first Cannonball Read Book Club of the year was a discussion of this book, since the star-studded movie version, directed by Ava DuVernay will be in cinemas any day now. From the trailers and promotional material, the movie looks like it’s going to be visually stunning, […]
Betty Before she was X
Before she was Betty X and before she was Dr. Betty Shabazz she was just Betty. A girl who lost her beloved aunt. A girl who had to move to Detroit to live with a mother and family she did not know. A girl who had to deal with the life of a black girl in the 1940s. Loosely based on the life of Betty Shabazz, her daughter Ilyasah Shabazz (with the help of Renée Watson) gives you a peak at the events that would […]
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