Whimsical and lyrical: Lucy Wood's short stories will touch the curious and sensitive reader who is willing to believe. Houghton Mifflin, 2012 If you like your stories to be rooted in realism, Diving Belles is not for you, but if you enjoy discovering the extraordinary in the ordinary,
As one of my Must Reads (it's also in the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up), this classic had the feel of "homework" when I first picked it up, but soon became a pleasure to read. Brian Jacques' Redwall (1986) The Redwall series began when I was more interested
"I come of straightened people, madly secretive, tenacious, economical." The first segment of the story introduces the reader to the narrator of "Bardon Bus" in a way which recalls other heroines in other stories. "Like them, I could make a little go a long way." (If you've recently read Who
The day I consider myself too grown-up to read a children's story, is the day I stop reading. Rumer Godden's The Dolls' House (1948) Illus. Tasha Tudor (1976) I re-read this slim volume countless times when I was a girl. Not only did I have a dollhouse, but I was one of
"Frances is loitering by a second-floor window of the high school in Hanratty, on an afternoon in early December. It is 1943." Loitering: it's a significant word. There is something unsanctioned about her presence there. And, yet, she is a high-school teacher. But she has no business being on the
