Category: Middle Grade Fiction

  • REVIEW of The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

    REVIEW of The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

    Living in a freezing garret with a disabled soldier who knew his late father, Peter Augustus Duchene spends his young life wondering what happened to the baby sister he remembers being born, the baby sister named Adele. He finds a fortuneteller who claims that his sister is alive. To find her, he must “follow the…

  • REVIEW of Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

    REVIEW of Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

    When Opal moves to Naomi, Florida with her father, the Preacher, she doesn’t know a soul. Her mother up and left them many years ago, and Opal has a lonely ache in her heart. While shopping in the local grocery store, Opal meets a gregarious mutt whom she claims as her own and names Winn-Dixie.…

  • REVIEW of The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo

    REVIEW of The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo

    Rob Horton lives in a Florida motel with his father, a father who refuses to speak the name of his dead mother, a father who hit him at the funeral to stop him from crying. The school bullies beat Rob up on the bus every day, A rash on his legs makes him the target…

  • INTERVIEW with Peter Bunzl, Author of The Cogheart Adventures

    INTERVIEW with Peter Bunzl, Author of The Cogheart Adventures

    I recently had the privilege of reviewing an advance copy of Cogheart, a middle grade steampunk adventure by Peter Bunzl. (You can read my review here.) The book has been out for a while in the UK, but it released in America on February 12. Today I have Peter Bunzl visiting on my blog to…

  • REVIEW of West (East #2) by Edith Pattou

    REVIEW of West (East #2) by Edith Pattou

    After rescuing her White Bear prince in the previous book, Rose is living happily with Charles and their children Estelle and Winn, but not happily ever after. When she travels to visit her parents, she learns that Charles’ own ship has been shipwrecked. As Rose tries to trace his whereabouts, Winn and Estelle disappear, and…

  • REVIEW of The Enchanted Sonata by Heather Dixon Wallwork

    REVIEW of The Enchanted Sonata by Heather Dixon Wallwork

    Clara Stahlbaum has been practicing her Johann Kahler Sonata for two years. On Christmas Day she will play it at the concert hall, attract the attention of handsome pianist Johann Kahler, and finally have her happily ever after. But when a strange Nutcracker shows up on her piano, she finds herself whisked away to the…

  • REVIEW of Cogheart (The Cogheart Adventures #1) by Peter Bunzl

    REVIEW of Cogheart (The Cogheart Adventures #1) by Peter Bunzl

    Lily Hartman’s father has gone missing. Her housekeeper, named guardian in her father’s will, has turned into a tyrant, selling her father’s mechanical servants and searching the house for some mysterious item. When Malkin, her mechanimal fox, comes bearing a cryptic message from her father, Lily flees her house with a little rosewood box. Does…

  • REVIEW of The Song of Seven, by Tonke Dragt

    REVIEW of The Song of Seven, by Tonke Dragt

    School teacher Frans van der Steg amuses the children in his classroom with adventure stories about Frans the Red, but he never imagined that he would find himself in the middle of his own adventure story. Shortly after arriving in the quiet village, he receives a letter from a mysterious Count Gradus Grisenstein asking him…

  • REVIEW of Secrets of the Wild Wood by Tonke Dragt

    REVIEW of Secrets of the Wild Wood by Tonke Dragt

    Tiuri and two more knights are waiting for Sir Ristridin. The plan was to meet up at Ristridin’s castle when spring came, to see if any of them had discovered the identity and whereabouts of an evil knight who killed their friend in the previous book.  But Sir Ristridin, who ventured into the Wild Wood,…

  • REVIEW of Sawdust in His Shoes by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

    REVIEW of Sawdust in His Shoes by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

    Joe Lang was born and bred in the circus. At age fifteen he is ready to transition from being a child performer to being the star of his own bareback riding act. But when a mishap in the ring leaves him an orphan, a judge orders Joe to stay at a school for boys in…