When I was in high school, I read Fran Arrick's Steffie Can't Come Out to Play (1978) more than once. I even wrote a book report on it in the ninth grade, when the assigned reading included J. Meade Falkner's Moonfleet and Robert Westall's The Machine Gunners. (Wanted: female characters.)
The word 'goodish' entered my vocabulary thanks to an observation that Carol Shields makes of two female friends in The Republic of Love. (General increased usage of -ish also ensued.) "They love the word ‘goodish,’ as in goodish sunsets, goodish travel bargains, goodish men." The title and cover of Suzanne Sutherland's When
At first glance, readers might not spot similarities between J. C. Carleson's The Tyrant's Daughter (2014) and Gabrielle Prendergast's Audacious (2013). Knopf - Random House, 2014 Laila, the 15-year-old daughter of an assassinated dictator, flees to North America with the aid of authorities who recognize the family's vulnerability
Kathy Kacer's name dots the pages of Second Story Press' Holocaust Remembrance Series. From her first book in 1999 to last year's Shanghai Surprise, no other author has contributed so many stories to the series. The Secret of Gabi's Dresser is bookended by contemporary snippets designed to draw young readers into the
One mother in my step-daughter's seventh-grade class complained. The teacher incorporated John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas into the lesson-plan, and this mother believes the subject is inappropriate for twelve- and thirteen-year-old students. Are children too young to grapple with such serious subjects? The story of Hana's Suitcase
