Inside Out Medieval Castle

A longbow as tall as the archer. A tapestry capturing a battle scene that is 75 yards long. A castle that burns 1,000 candles per night. Everything is bigger in an Inside Out Medieval Castle. From the security built into the entrance to the stone toilets dropping waste into theContinue Reading

Art of Ramona Quimby

Beverly Cleary captured the rebel inside every little girl when she first captured Ramona on a page. No one could replace Beverly. However, the illustrators did change throughout the years. Louis Darling, Alan Tiegreen, Joanne Scribner, Tracy Dockray, and Jacqueline Rogers all had a hand in creating the Art ofContinue Reading

Beastars Vol 1

Everyone wants to be a hero, or even a superhero, in Beastars Vol 1, a new high school manga for grades 4 through 7. At Cherryton Academy, carnivores and herbivores live in separate dorms. But when an alpaca is killed, the carnivores are the prime suspects especially a large wolfContinue Reading

Marvin

In 1950 at age six, Marvin Hamlisch was the youngest student to be accepted to Juilliard, the famous New York City music school. He auditioned with a then-modern pop song, Goodnight Irene, instead of the usual classical music selection. Marvin was the American son of Jewish Austrian immigrants forced outContinue Reading

Dogs: A Coloring and Activity Book for Kids

So, have you tried everything to get your kids off their phones and tablets? Dogs: A Coloring and Activity Book for Kids will keep your children or grandchildren (ages 4-8) occupied for hours. Only crayons or colored pencils are necessary to color beautiful dogs. Dogs: A Coloring and Activity BookContinue Reading

Storm Rising

There is a Storm Rising in the Middle East that may indicate the End Times have arrived. Iskra, aka Viorica, is a trained assassin tasked with retrieving an ancient text called the Book of Wars in Israel. So is ex-SEAL Leif and his team provided by the US government. BothContinue Reading

Curious Creatable Creatures

Why didn’t they have books like Curious Creatable Creatures when I was young? I made a model of Frankenstein that just stood there (and would be worth a lot more now if I had never even opened it). Many of these twenty-two creatures light up, make music, and move! TwoContinue Reading

Sheets

Sheets is a heartwarming graphic novel about the unusual friendship between a grieving girl and a lonely ghost boy. Marjorie’s mother is dead and her father is so depressed that he barely leaves his bedroom to eat. The family’s laundry is run before and after school by Marjorie. The mysteriousContinue Reading

Lulu is a Rhinoceros

Cute, well-illustrated picture book that explains why Lulu is a Rhinoceros. Lulu looks like a bulldog to everyone but herself. She knows deep inside that she is a rhinoceros. To fix her lack of horn, Lulu tries on a banana peel and an upside-down ice cream cone. It is onlyContinue Reading

The Ghost the Owl

Despite being depressingly far from the suggested age for The Ghost the Owl, I loved this middle grade (ages 9-12) comic. The story was intriguing. The artwork is unusual but superb. It merges a picture book and a graphic novel into a surreal dream world of the afterlife. A girlContinue Reading

Baby Monkey, Private Eye

Cute, funny, easy reader with awesome illustrations. Baby Monkey, Private Eye contains five cases for Baby Monkey, who is of course a baby monkey, to solve. This is a brilliant mash-up of picture and chapter book. The illustrations are more frequent than words and were my favorite part.  Marketed toContinue Reading