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...
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...
In this book, J.J. Johnson gives just the right funny touch to the voice of twelve-year-old Iggy, and occasionally to his little brother Oz. Oz is convinced there are monsters in the attic. Iggy goes to prove him wrong at 3 a.m. and discovers that yes, there are some...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
