by Phyllis | Jan 26, 2021 | Phyllis Wheeler's Books
Rejoice with me! My dream is coming true! My debut novel, The Long Shadow, comes out June 1 from Elk Lake Publishing. It’s an anti-racist novel for kids 10-14. I’ve been wanting to write a children’s book since I was 13! What’s The Long Shadow...
by Phyllis | Apr 7, 2020 | Book reviews
Picture book biographies are coming into their own lately, aimed at young kids and also older ones who can look at the notes in the back. Here’s a truly notable book, set apart by its amazing illustrations and its jewel-toned prose. Sojourner Truth was a woman...
by Phyllis | Apr 1, 2020 | Book reviews, Middle-grade voice example
Middle-grade voice involves a (usually) sassy or joking twelve-year-old who’s finding himself or herself in a pickle and agonizing about it in a very funny way. It’s unique to middle grade books, as far as I can tell. I’ve talked about it before, and...
by Phyllis | Mar 12, 2020 | Book reviews
Rob Currie’s debut middle grade novel, Hunger Winter, tells a suspenseful tale of brave kids in World-War-II Holland. After a neighbor bangs on their door late at night, Dirk must grab his six-year-old sister and flee from the Nazi secret police into the Dutch...
by Phyllis | Dec 3, 2019 | Book reviews
Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo (a Newbery Honor winner from 2013) tells a winsome and magical story about a ten-year-old girl and a squirrel. Flora is surrounded by some dysfunctional people, like her parents, who are separated, and a new young neighbor who...
by Phyllis | Nov 4, 2019 | Book reviews
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney (2007) is a hot book where middle-schoolers are concerned. It’s a #1 New York Times bestseller, and its many sequels are too. Many parents, though, aren’t so thrilled about this tale of a manipulative cheat. So what is...
by Phyllis | Aug 7, 2019 | Book reviews
Rise of the Dragons by Angie Sage (2019), a middle-grade series opener, involves two worlds. In one, young Sirin Sharma is in the slow process of losing her only parent to illness (and her cat to hard-hearted caregivers). It seems to be the same world you and I live...
by Phyllis | Jul 3, 2019 | Book reviews
One thousand refugees from Earth, likely the only survivors, are in a spaceship orbiting a populated planet, hoping for permission to land. If they can’t live on Choom, they’ll perish –their food and fuel are nearly gone. They came because they were invited...
by Phyllis | Jun 19, 2019 | Book reviews, Middle-grade voice example
Three Times Lucky, by Sheila Turnage (2012), tells a middle-grade whodunit with the unforgettable Southern voice of a rising sixth-grader, Mo. Mo lives with the eccentric proprietors of the town diner, Lana and the Colonel. No matter that the Colonel has amnesia and...
