My Happy Life, by Rose Lagercrantz, illustrated by Eva Eriksson By the time this sweet little chapter book came into our lives, it was far too easy for my older daughter. But she read it anyway. It was a gift to her younger sister, who isn’t quite reading at this level on her own yet, […]
The Dark Blue 100 Ride Bus Ticket, by Margeret Mahy My older daughter absolutely loves this book, and it was one of the first chapter books with actual tension and potential bad things happening that she not only tolerated, but really liked. Perhaps she was OK with the tension because the premise was so obviously […]
Snake and Lizard, by Joy Cowley, illustrated by Gavin Bishop I didn’t set out to post two Joy Cowley books in a row, but we do have a lot of her books, so I guess it was bound to happen eventually! My older daughter loves to read, but hates tension in her books. We are […]
The Monster in the Mudball, by S.P. Gates This is an action-packed chapter book about a monster that escapes from an ancient mudball into modern England, and the efforts of a couple of kids and one seriously cool Artifacts Inspector to recapture it. The characters in this story are diverse- the kids are Asian, the […]
The World According to Humphrey, by Betty G. Birney My older daughter is not big on conflict and risk in her entertainment. I sometimes joke that if there is a plot, she doesn’t like it. That isn’t fair, of course. She just doesn’t like things that scare her. However, she loves to read and reads […]