Category Archives: Children’s

Throwback: Chamber of Secrets

Posted on November 21, 2014 by Amanda

I have always considered Chamber of Secrets one of my least favorite books in the Harry Potter series. It follows too closely the pattern of the first book, and there are a few scenes in it that just really bore … Continue reading →

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Throwback: Sorcerer’s Stone

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Amanda

I am in need of comfort right now. I’m also right smack in the middle of NaNoWriMo, having received a wonderful bit of inspiration when the NaNo team chose to design a cover of my novel for their 30 Covers … Continue reading →

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The Whispering Skull, by Jonathan Stroud

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Amanda

The adventures continue for Lockwood & Co, related to the teaser at the end of The Screaming Staircase. It involves murder, theft, old uncontained relics, a black market ring, and leaping off buildings. I don’t want to say anything more … Continue reading →

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The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud (audio)

Posted on June 14, 2014 by Amanda

Lucy is a ghost-hunter in alternate-world London. In this alternate world, ghosts of the dead frequently come back to haunt the living, and only children can see them (though adults can sense them to a certain degree). Ghost-hunting agencies then … Continue reading →

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The School for Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Amanda

First book of the new year! Spoilers. The School for Good and Evil is a long, intricate fairy tale about two girls, Sophie and Agatha, who are kidnapped from their small town of Gavaldon and taken to a school for … Continue reading →

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Kid Cyclone Fights the Devil, by Xavier Garza

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Amanda

This is a collection of folktales and creepy children’s stories out of Mexico (and out of Mexican-American communities in southern Texas). There are 14 stories in the collection, which is a bilingual collection – Spanish one direction for half the … Continue reading →

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Doll Bones, by Holly Black (audio)

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Amanda

Zach, Poppy, and Alice are twelve years old, and have been best friends forever. Though it seems childish to other people their age, they love to play a make-it-up-as-you-go adventure game with their action figures, with a creepy porcelain doll … Continue reading →

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The Peculiar, by Stefan Bachmann (audio)

Posted on August 4, 2013 by Amanda

Middle-grade fantasy novel about England after a gate to the fairy world opened up, letting in fairies, creating a big war, and now the aftermath. The narration goes back and forth between Bartholomew, a “Peculiar” or a child who is … Continue reading →

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A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness (audio)

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Amanda

People have been talking about this book for a very long time, but because of my negative experience with Patrick Ness’s The Knife of Never Letting Go in the past, I wasn’t interested in reading it. However, my oldest son … Continue reading →

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The Mostly True Story of Jack, by Kelly Barnhill

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Amanda

Jack’s parents are getting divorced, and so Jack is sent to live with his aunt and uncle in middle-of-nowhere Iowa for the summer. At home, he’s used to being nearly invisible. He has no friends, the bullies ignore him, and … Continue reading →

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