For the holiday season, here’s a diverse list of books with a wintry setting. Brrr!
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
The Girl Who Speaks Bear by Sophie Anderson
The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown
The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh
The Lotterys More or Less by Emma Donoghue
Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee
Absolutely Truly by Heather Vogel Frederick
Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
The Doldrums and the Helmsley Curse by Nicholas Gannon
Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser
Winterhouse by Ben Guterson
Very Rich by Polly Horvath
WinterFrost by Michelle Houts
Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson
Ice Dogs by Terry Lynn Johnson
Brother’s Keeper by Julie Lee
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
The Poet’s Dog by Patricia MacLachlan
Greenglass House by Kate Milford
Lara’s Gift by Annemarie O’Brien
Astrid the Unstoppable by Maria Parr
The Barren Grounds by David A. Robertson
May B. by Caroline Starr Rose
Jasper and the Riddle of Riley’s Mine by Caroline Starr Rose
The Evil Wizard Smallbone by Delia Sherman
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Lost Frost Girl by Amy Wilson
Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin
“It snowed last year too: I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea.” ~Dylan Thomas (from A Child’s Christmas in Wales)
October is my favorite month of the year, not just because it’s so cool and colorful, but because it has the funnest holiday: Halloween! To celebrate, here’s a list of creepy reads that’ll leave you feeling delightfully spooked. Read them at night with a steaming cup of your favorite autumn tea.
The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson
Small Spaces, Dead Voices, and Dark Waters by Katherine Arden
The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier
The House With a Clock in Its Walls and other books by John Bellairs
Doll Bones by Holly Black
The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury
The Ghost Road by Chris Cotter
The Witches by Roald Dahl
A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano
Watch Hollow by Gregory Funaro
The Graveyard Book and Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Wait Till Helen Comes and other books by Mary Downing Hahn
The Great Ghost Rescue and Dial-a-Ghost by Eva Ibbotson
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
How to Catch a Bogle Trilogy by Catherine Jinks
The Dark Thirty by Patricia McKissack
The Book of Bad Things and other books by Dan Poblocki
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (three books) by Alvin Schwartz
City of Ghosts, Tunnel of Bones, and Bridge of Souls by Victoria Schwab
Beware! scary stories picked by by R.L. Stine
Goosebumps Series by R.L. Stine
Lockwood & Co Series by Jonathan Stroud
The Accidental Afterlife of Thomas Marsden by Emma Trevayne
Nightbooks by J.A. White
Happy reading!
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and teapot bubble. Give me autumn, give me tea; Give me spooky Halloweens!
My July 12, 2017 post was a list of “100 Juvenile Books That Take Place in the Summer.” Here are some more. These were published between 2017-2021.
JFIC novels that take place in the summer and were published between 2017 and 2021:
All the Ways Home by Elsie Chapman
Any Day with You by Mae Respicio
August Isle by Ali Standish
Battle of Junk Mountain (The) by Lauren Abbey Greenberg
Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol (Graphic Novel)
Brother Wars: Cabin Eleven by Steven K Smith
Camp Average by Craig Battle
Camp by Kayla Miller (Graphic Novel)
Camp Clique by Eileen Moskowitz-Palma
Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn
Chirp by Kate Messner
Effie Starr Zook Has One More Question by Martha Freeman
Emperor’s Riddle (The) by Kat Zhang
Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora (The) by Pablo Cartaya
Finally, Something Mysterious by Doug Cornett
Forever This Summer by Leslie C Youngblood
From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
Girls of Firefly Cabin (The) by Cynthia Ellingsen
Guggenheim Mystery (The) by Robin stevens
High Rise Mystery by Sharna Jackson
Hope in the Holler by Lisa Lewis Tyre
House that Lou Built (The) by Mae Respicio
Jelly Bean Summer by Joyce Magnin
Junior Lifeguards Series by Elizabeth Doyle Carey
Key to Everything (The) by Pat Schmatz
Kind of Paradise (A) by Amy Rebecca Tan
Lemons by Melissa Savage
Line Tender (The) by Kate Allen
Matchstick Castle (The) by Keir Graff
Mystery of the Moon Tower (The) by Francesco Sedita
Parker Inheritance (The) by Varian Johnson
Quicksand Pond by Janet Taylor Lisle
Rambler Steals Home (A) by Carter Higgins
Rating Your Bunkmates and Other Camp Crimes by Jennifer Orr
Rules of the Ruff by Heidi Lang
Season of Styx Malone (The) by Kekla Magoon
Short by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Shouting at the Rain by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
Silver Meadows Summer by Emma Otheguy
Stand Up, Yumi Chung! by Jessica Kim
Summer and July by Paul Mosier
Summer at Meadow Wood by Amy Rebecca Tan
This Would Make a Good Story Someday by Dana Alison Levy
Thousand Questions (A) by Saadia Faruqi
To Night Owl from Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan
What Happens Next by Claire Swinarski
When I Hit the Road by Nancy J Cavanaugh
When Life Gives You Mangos by Kareen Getten
Where the Watermelons Grow by Cindy Baldwin
Wild Blues by Beth Kephart
Wrong Way Summer by Heidi Lang
Of the ones I’ve read, I particularly enjoyed Lemons by Melissa Savage, a funny and touching story of two friends searching for BigFoot while coping with family loss.
Happy reading!
“American-style iced tea is the perfect drink for a hot, sunny day. It’s never really caught on in the UK, probably because the last time we had a hot, sunny day was back in 1957.” ~Tom Holt
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May is both Older Americans Month and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Here’s a list of 25 middle grade books that include grandparents. Several are by Asian American authors.
The Blackbird Girls / Anne Blankman
The Witches / Roald Dahl
Louisiana’s Way Home / Kate DiCamillo
Brendan Buckley’s Universe and Everything in It / Sundee Tucker Frazier
The Fourteenth Goldfish / Jennifer L. Holm
Sunny Side Up / Jennifer L. Holm
The Thing About Luck / Cynthia Kadohata
When You Trap a Tiger / Tae Keller
Listen, Slowly / Thanhha Lai
Dream Within a Dream / Patricia MacLachlan
In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse / Joseph Marshall III
Merci Suárez Changes Gears / Meg Medina
Chirp / Kate Messner
The Turtle of Oman / Naomi Shihab Nye
Astrid the Unstoppable / Maria Parr
A Long Way from Chicago / Richard Peck
A Year Down Yonder / Richard Peck
As Brave as You / Jason Reynolds
The Good Thieves / Katherine Rundell
The Great Wall of Lucy Wu / Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Heidi / Johanna Spyri
The Runaways / Ulf Stark
Clean Getaway / Nic Stone
Gone Crazy in Alabama / Rita Williams-Garcia
Echo Mountain / Lauren Wolk
Happy reading!
“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves — slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh
April is National Poetry Month, so here’s a list of outstanding novels written in verse. All have received starred reviews, and several have also won awards.
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander (award winner)
The Canyon’s Edge by Dusti Bowling (starred reviews)
Serafina’s Promise by Ann E. Burg (award winner)
Love That Dog (award winner), Moo, and Saving Winslow (starred reviews) by Sharon Creech
The Wild Book by Margarita Engle (starred reviews)
Starfish by Lisa Fipps 2021 (starred reviews)
Garvey’s Choice (starred reviews) and Words with Wings (award winner) by Nikki Grimes
Catching a Storyfish by Janice N. Harrington (starred reviews)
Out of the Dust (award winner) and Witness (starred reviews) by Karen Hesse
Full Cicada Moon by Marilyn Hilton (starred reviews)
Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai (award winner)
The One Thing You’d Save by Linda Sue Park 2021 (starred reviews)
The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkey (starred reviews)
May B. by Caroline Starr Rose (award winner)
Land of the Cranes and The Moon Within by Aida Salazar (starred reviews)
Red Butterfly by A.L. Sonnichsen (starred reviews)
The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary by Laura Shovan (award winner)
Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga (award winner)
Brown Girl Dreaming (award winner memoir) and Before the Ever After (award winner) by Jacqueline Woodson
“Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, Before the taking of toast and tea.” ~T.S. Eliot
Let’s celebrate Valentine’s Day with a sweet jFIC love story:
Dream Within a Dream by Patricia MacLachlan
Louisa is not looking forward to spending another summer with her grandparents on the tiny island where they live. Her brother doesn’t mind, but she’s a writer, so even though she enjoys her grandparents’ company, she would rather be off having adventures with her ornithologist parents. This year, however, she discovers that the island has a lot to offer, and she meets George, a very special boy with whom she forms a very special friendship.
And for Black History Month, here are a few of my favorite historical novels by African American authors:
Finding Langston Trilogy (Finding Langston, Leaving Lymon, and Being Clem (coming in August, 2021) by Lesa Cline-Ransome
Elijah of Buxton and other awesome novels by Christopher Paul Curtis
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and other installments of The Logan Family Series by Mildred Taylor
Some Places More than Others by Renée Watson
One Crazy Summer Trilogy by Rita Williams-Garcia
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jaqueline Woodson
Happy reading!
“Words cannot espresso how much you bean to me!” –unknown
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Happy New Year! Looking forward to a year full of awesome reads!
My favorite dozen from 2020:
Eva Evergreen (Semi Magical Witch Book 1) by Julie Abe (Ages 8-12; Grades 3-7)
Eva Evergreen’s quest is to earn the rank of Novice Witch before her thirteenth birthday, for if she doesn’t, she’ll lose her magic powers forever. The problem is that Eva only has “a pinch of magic” – or so she believes. This delightful fantasy novel reads like an anime movie. I look forward to the sequels!
The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman (Ages 9-12; Grades 4-7)
After a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explodes, two rival fifth-grade girls from completely different backgrounds end up on a train on their way to stay with one of the girls’ estranged grandmother. A poignant multigenerational historical novel about the power of friendship.
Premeditated Myrtle (Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery 1) by Elizabeth C Bunce (Ages 10-18; Grades 5-12) (some diversity)
Myrtle Hardcastle is a brilliant twelve-year-old girl obsessed with forensic science and detective work who persists in her investigations in spite of the social expectations of her time. The series has similarities to the award-winning Flavia de Luce Mystery Series by Alan Bradley, but it’s written for kids! Engaging and delightful!
The Sisters of Straygarden Place by Hayley Chewins (Ages 10-14; Grades 5-9)
A beautifully-written surreal fantasy about an enchanted house, menacing plants, bonds between sisters, and reality-bending revelations. I loved the little black dogs that squeeze inside their owners’ brains to help them sleep. Spooky and original!
Leaving Lymon (Finding Langston Trilogy Book 2) by Lesa Cline-Ransome (Ages 8-12; Grades 3-7) (BIPOC author)
The second installment of the Finding Langston Trilogy follows the story of the bully Lymon, and includes the reasons for his anger, his love of music, and his finding hope for a better future. A moving and inspiring historical fiction story told by an outstanding writer.
One Time by Sharon Creech (Ages 8-12; Grades 3-7) (some diversity)
With the help of a brilliant teacher and a boy with a generous smile, 11-year-old Gina Filomena and her classmates discover that their future is full of wonderful possibilities. An uplifting coming-of-age story that’s perfect for classroom reading groups.
The Clockwork Crow by Catherine Fisher (Ages 9-12; Grades 4-7)
Thirteen-year-old Seren Rhys is an orphan hoping for a better life in her Godfather’s country mansion. But nothing turns out as she expects, and she ends up going on a fantastic journey to rescue the family’s young son who has been stolen by fairies. A mysterious and fast-paced fantasy with themes of resilience, courage, and belonging.
A Pinch of Magic by Michelle Harrison (Ages 8-12; Grades 3-7)
The Widdershins sisters discover that they’re under a generations-long curse that keeps them from leaving their island, so they set out to break the curse and save their lives with the help of three magical objects and a mysterious prisoner. An exciting fantasy adventure with excellent world-building and characterization.
The Time of Green Magic by Hilary McKay (Ages 8-12; Grades 3-7) (bi-racial blended family)
A gorgeously-written, enchanting family story that follows the daily lives of 11-year-old Abi, her two stepbrothers, and her father and stepmother, as they adjust to a new family and a new home: a mysterious and possibly magical ivy-covered house. A suspenseful and heartwarming novel from a brilliant author. My favorite juvenile novel of the year!
Of Salt and Shore by Annet Schaap (Ages 10-12; Grades 5+)
Lampie, the lighthouse keeper’s 11-year-old daughter, makes a terrible mistake that results in punishments both for her and her alcoholic father. Hers is to be sent to live and work at the Admiral’s house, where a monster is said to live. A fantasy adventure with extraordinary characters and themes of courage, friendship, belonging, and self-worth.
The Monster Who Wasn’t (Monster Who Wasn’t Trilogy Book 1) by T. C. Shelley (Ages 8-12; Grades 3-6)
Imp hatched in a monsters’ lair, but looks just like a human boy and is possibly something between fairy and monster. The gargoyles and their angel take him under their wings, but the king of ogres has sinister plans for him. A fantasy story of family, good vs evil, and seeking one’s place in the world. Exciting and heart-warming!
Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk (Ages 8-12; Grades 5+)
The Great Depression forces 12-year-old Ellie’s family to leave their home in town and move to the untamed forests of Echo Mountain. There Ellie discovers a love of nature and is enjoying her new life until her father has an accident that leaves him in a coma. Ellie then decides to go to the reclusive “hag” of the mountain for help. A story about having the courage and persistence to become your own true self.
Happy reading!
“Take some more tea,” the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
“I’ve had nothing yet,” Alice replied in an offended tone, “so I can’t take more.”
“You mean you can’t take less,” said the Hatter: “it’s very easy to take more than nothing.”
Reading is the perfect activity for these unprecedented times of social distancing. Many libraries and bookstores are closed, but you can still borrow or buy ebooks and audio ebooks or simply order books and audiobooks online (preferably from your favorite local bookstore).
On March of last year, I posted a list for Women’s History Month titled Herstorical JFIC. Here’s a list (alpha by title) of several books from that post that are probably available to borrow as ebooks and/or audio ebooks from your local library (they’re all available from mine: the Denver Public Library):
Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez
Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk
Birchbark House (The) by Louise Erdrich
Breadwinner (The) by Deborah Ellis
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jaqueline Woodson
Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia (The) by Esther Hautzig
Esperanza Rising and Becoming Naomi León by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (The) by Jacqueline Kelly
Full Cicada Moon by Larilyn Hinton
Green Glass Sea (The) by Ellen Klages
Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
Lily’s Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff
Lions of Little Rock (The) by Kristin Levine
Lyddie by Katherine Paterson
Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
Night Diary (The) by Veera Hiranandaani
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
One Crazy Summer and sequels by Rita Williams-Garcia
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
Paper Wishes by Lois Sepahban
Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
War That Saved My Life (The) and sequel by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
West of the Moon by Margi Preus
Witch of Blackbird Pond (The) by Elizabeth George Speare
Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk
Stay home and read, everyone! ❤️
“For if I could please myself I would always live as I lived there. I would choose always to breakfast at exactly eight and to be at my desk by nine, there to read or write till one. If a cup of good tea or coffee could be brought to me about eleven, so much better. Tea should be taken in solitude.” ~C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy
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![Island Treasures: Growing Up in Cuba by [Alma Flor Ada, Antonio Martorell, Edel Rodriguez]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+4kH6ebZL._SY346_.jpg)
The Reading Café 