Children’s

The Last Wild Trilogy, Piers Torday

In a world where animals no longer exist, twelve-year-old Kester Jaynes sometimes feels like he hardly exists either. Locked away in a home for troubled children, he’s told there’s something wrong with him. So when he meets a flock of talking pigeons and a bossy cockroach, Kester thinks he’s finally […]

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Where the River Runs Gold, Sita Brahmachari

Click here to return to the series This month we look at Sita Brahmachari’s novel Where the River Runs Gold (Waterstones, July 2019), which takes place in an everyland, according to the author. But she told me that Meteore mountain–meaning between earth and sky–was inspired by Meteora in Greece and […]

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A.S. King’s Me and Marvin Gardens, Review by Kimberly Christensen

Me and Marvin Gardens by A.S. King Middle Grade Fiction Published by Scholastic Trades Review by Kimberly Christensen Everything around twelve-year-old Obe Devlin is changing. New subdivisions keep springing up behind his house on the acres of land that once belonged to the Devlin family. Obe’s former best friend, Tommy, […]

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Wilderness Wars, Barbara Henderson

Wilderness Wars slow-builds menace from its nail-biting opening to its stunning apocalyptic climax. This is a golden eagle of a book—it grabs you in its talons and won’t let go. A thought-provoking and often frightening study of what happens when you mess with Nature and Nature decides to fight back. […]

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Neela Vaswani’s Same Sun Here, Review by Kimberly Christensen

Same Sun Here By Silas House and Neela Vaswani Middle Grade Fiction Review by Kimberly Christensen When middle schoolers River and Meena become penpals, the two students form a fast friendship. Meena recently immigrated to New York City from India, and lives in a small flat with her mother and […]

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Ali Benjamin’s The Thing About Jellyfish, Review by Kimberly Christensen

The Thing About Jellyfish By Ali Benjamin Published September 22, 2015 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Middle Grade Fiction Review by Kimberly Christensen The summer before seventh grade, Suzanne’s former best friend, Frannie, drowns while on vacation. Frannie and Suzy’s friendship had derailed in that most painful of […]

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Mary Knight’s Saving Wonder, Review by Kimberly Christensen

Saving Wonder by Mary Knight Hardcover, 288 pages Published February 23rd, 2016, by Scholastic Review by Kimberly Christensen Curley Hines and his grandpa love their mountains and their way of life, even though mining accidents that happened on the mountains claimed the lives of their family members. Still, most everyone […]

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The Last Panther, Todd Mitchell

Fort Collins author Todd Mitchell starts every book he writes with a question. His latest middle grade novel, “The Last Panther,” takes place in an apocalyptic world in what used to be Florida. Two divided human populations deal with climate change and hurricanes that have flooded the coasts, creating swamps. […]

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Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstances, Ruth Emmie Lang

There was a strange, enchanted boy. In Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance, a wistful fantasy by Columbus author Ruth Emmie Lang, Weylyn Grey touches the life of many, human and beast, in his odyssey. –Ohio.com Orphaned, raised by wolves, and the proud owner of a horned pig named Merlin, Weylyn Grey […]

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The Tiger and the Acrobat, Susanna Tamaro

This captivating story of a brave young tiger who refuses to give up on her dreams is a celebration of the power of nature and the beauty of innocence, and is a testament to the courage it takes to be true to ourselves. –Amazon.ca Goodreads Review Back to GoodReads

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George’s Secret Key to the Universe, Lucy Hawkins and Stephen Hawking

Father and daughter team up in series, where science meets fiction. Beginning in 2007, this series is ongoing. Hawking emphasises the great need for general scientific education “because the challenges we now face are global”. “The answers to our problems, whether they’re climate change, desertification or ocean pollution will be […]

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The Skeleton Tree, Iain Lawrence

The Skeleton Tree is a survival tale that tracks two boys who need to quickly learn how to survive in the wilderness when their boat sinks off the coast of Alaska. The Skeleton Tree is a finalist for the 2017 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. –CBC Books Goodreads Reviews Back to Goodreads

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Leaf & Echo Peak, Jo Marshall

When we began the site, we included Jo Marshall’s children’s books as separated posts rather than one series. Please search for “Twig Stories” in the search bar to find the first three volumes of this wonderful and brilliantly illustrated children’s series. In the previous three adventure novels Twigs are thrust […]

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Please Don’t Paint Our Planet Pink!, Gregg Kleiner

What might happen if we could SEE carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? What if CO2 were, say, pink? In this engaging, funny, and highly timely book for children (and their adults!), a young boy whose parents named him Wilbur “in honor of that pig in Charlotte’s Web” discovers the power […]

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Who Pooped in Central Park, Gary D. Robson

Join four intrepid kids as they discover the surprising variety of wildlife that lives in New York City’s premier park. The animals themselves are sometimes hard to find, but their poop is everywhere! Follow Tony, Lily, Emma, and Jackson as they explore Central Park, investigating poop (scat) and footprints (tracks) […]

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