In this appealing multicultural novel, three generations of a Bengali family find life and love in America. *You Bring the Distant Near  by Mitali Perkins.  ...

Word Shaper: Someone who shapes, and changes, words. We associate envy with the color green. Why? William Shakespeare. In America, we write "color" instead of ...

Portrait of a Reader is a new feature in which we try to "unpack" a particular kind of reader. The portraits will overlap; most people will ...

An unusual setting makes this graphic novel a worthwhile perspective on navigating the treacherous waters of those middle years. All’s Faire in Middle School by ...

A middle-school bully gets a chance to start from scratch—if only he can escape who he was before. Restart by Gordon Korman.  Scholastic, 2017, 256 ...

This friendly guide to friendship may help fill in some gaps parents inadvertently miss. Growing Friendships: a Kid’s Guide to Making and Keeping Friends by ...

Happy 500th birthday to the Protestant Reformation! 500 years ago this month, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door in Wittenburg. Of course, the ...

*For Christ's Crown: Sketches of Puritans and Covenanters By Richard Hannula. Canon Press, 2014. 223 pages.  Just as the title implies, this volume is all ...

"What are your kids reading these days, Betsy?" My friend and I were sitting at the park this week on a gorgeous afternoon while the ...

Garvey's Choice, a gentle verse novel, charts the course of an overweight African American preteen toward self-respect. Garvey's Choice by Nikki Grimes.  Wordsong, 2016, 105 ...

In this far-out fantasy, an alien named Sputnik has to prove earth is worth saving. Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth by Frank Cottrell Boyce. ...

New picture books! Brand, spanking, new! Beautiful, silly, thoughtful, informative, and downright fun. Take a look!   (Several of these made it onto our Back-to-School ...