An independent-minded young teen seeks adventure and finds maturity in Gold Rush Girl. Gold Rush Girl by Avi. Candlewick, 2020, 306 pages Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ages 10-14 Victoria Blaisdell, better known as Tory, grew up in comfortable circumstances in Providence, Rhode Island. Before 1849, her greatest trial was her Aunt Lavinia’s constant criticism of her independent ways. But now Father has lost his job and desperate straits threaten the family. When word comes of gold to be found in far-off California, free for those enterprising enough to go and get it, Father sees the answer: go and get it. To say he’s a dreamer is…

A Canadian red squirrel takes to the river in The Littlest Voyageur, a charming animal story by a Newbery honor author. The Littlest Voyageur by Margi Preus. Holiday House, 2020, 165 pages (including author notes). Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10 Recommended for: Ages 7-12 Who says a squirrel can’t hear the call of adventure? Jean Pierre Petite le Rouge may be small in size, but his heart thrills at the song of the voyageurs returning from their trading jaunt to the far west. And so, one fine spring morning in Montreal, he stows aboard a canoe crewed entirely by men named Jean. Primarily Jean Gentille, in whose vest pocket…

An immigrant-become-US-citizen offers a powerful, personal explanation of our nation’s Constitution for middle grades and up. *This Is Our Constitution: What It Is and Why It Matters by Khizr Khan. Yearling, 2019. 224 pages. Reading Level: Ages 10-12Recommended For: Ages 10 and up Khizr Khan and his wife are originally from Pakistan. They are also Muslim. This perspective provides Khan with a unique vantage point from which to defend the U.S. Constitution. Those of us who grew up in a country that assumed the Bill of Rights can easily forget just how incredible this document is. Khan offers a personal introduction, including his background and current profession (he’s a lawyer).…

Missing Read Aloud Time During COVID-19 Quarantine? I don’t know about you, but our audiobook consumption has dropped this year. In the pre-COVID-19 era, we always had audiobooks going in the car. As a mom to two 13-year-olds and one 14-year-old, I was fully in the “chauffeur stage” of parenting. We made the most of our car time, listening to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Titanic: Voices from the Disaster, Animal Farm, The Yearling, and Father Brown this year. Glorious! Fast forward a couple of months, and my kids and I were missing our audiobooks. No one wanted to sit around staring at each other while we listened. My…

My Fourth of July by Jerry Spinelli, illustration by Larry Day. Holiday House, 2019, 38 pages. Reading Level: Picture Book, ages 4-8 Recommended for: ages 3-7 What’s the best day of summer—maybe even the best day of the whole year? For our nameless protagonist, it’s the Fourth. Banners waving, kids marching, horns blowing—all of it outside in the blazing sun. After an impromptu neighborhood parade it’s time to hurry up Mom and Dad (“I’m in charge of hurrying”), load up the picnic wagon and head for the park for an afternoon of food, games, food, songs, music, food, races, and more food. The day ends, of course, with fireworks—after an…

A Ben of All Trades: the Most Inventive Boyhood of Benjamin Franklin by Michael J. Rosen, illustrated by Matt Tavares. Candlewick, 2020, 30 pages. Reading Level: Picture Book, ages 4-8 Recommended for: ages 5-10 Ben likes books because they are all different. He does not like candlemaking because they are all the same. But candlemaking is his father Josiah’s trade and, naturally enough, the first trade young Ben tries. But not the trade he wants. He wants to be a sailor—an opportunity to see new places and new people and be surrounded by water! (for he’s a fine swimmer). His father, having lost one son to the sea, won’t have…

We Could Be Heroes puts together two “neurodiverse” youngsters in a misguided quest that results in real friendship. We Could Be Heroes by Margaret Finnegan. Atheneum, 2020, 241 pages. Reading Level: Middle grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ages 8-14 Two things we learn right away about Hank Hudson: he likes rocks, and he hates sad books. He hates the book his teacher is reading to the fourth-grade class—so much, that when we first see him he’s trying to set fire to it in the school bathroom. That doesn’t go over well, but he still has his rocks. And then he has Maisie. True, at first this seems a mixed blessing,…

Stamped, a young-reader version of Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning, is an engaging but one-sided picture of racism in America’s past. Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi. Little, Brown, 2020, 294 pages, including notes and index. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: Teen, ages 15-up Stamped from the Beginning: the Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America was published in 2017 and won a National Book Award for nonfiction that year. Author Ibram Kendi’s theme, in that book and in his #1 current bestseller, How to Be An Antiracist, is that the United States is so deeply steeped in racism that virtually…

Action-packed thrillers with a conscience and spiritual sensitivity, the Shepherd Suspense novels will hook teen readers. A Cross to Kill and Cross Shadow by Andrew Huff. Kregel Publications, 2019 and 2020. 250+ pages. Reading Level: AdultRecommended For: Ages 15 and up John Cross, ex-CIA-turned-pastor, “just happens” to be in the vicinity when journalist Christine Lewis is about to be beheaded at the hands of angry Middle Eastern terrorists. A dramatic car chase, life-or-death situations, and an abrupt exit from the foreign country bring John and Christine together temporarily. Or, is it temporary? Suddenly, Christine finds herself drawn to John (and likewise). And terrorists also find themselves drawn to John. Vengeance…

Purple House Press revives delightful out of print stories for a new generation. 1. What motivated you to start Purple House Press? Back in the 90s I sold out of print children’s books. My customers kept requesting the same books over and over even though they were hard to find. One of them was Mr. Pine’s Purple House, my own favorite, and when it reached the price of $300 online I decided it needed to be reprinted. Because who can afford a $300 book and if you were lucky enough to get a copy, who would let their child hold it and read it? I thought the stories would die…