Coe Booth has captivated readers and critics alike with her three gritty, fast paced novels of urban life in New York City: Tyrell, Kendra, and Bronxwood. This bard of the Bronx writes of tough times in the language of her…
Tag: reviews
Environmental Awareness for the Very Young: Stacy Nyikos’s Toby
It is often hard to convince people of the value of saving endangered species. One can argue for the importance of biodiversity, but when one asks people to sacrifice—whether not to build that beach resort, for instance—there has to be…
Three Middle Grade Titles from Indie Publishing Pioneer Zetta Elliott
Zetta Elliott burst onto the children’s publishing scene with a Lee & Low New Voices Award and the acclaimed 2008 picture book for older readers Bird, the moving story of a boy’s close relationship with his troubled older brother. Since…
A Child on Her Own: Jewell Parker Rhodes’s Sugar
A poet and author of fiction for adults, Jewell Parker Rhodes turned to writing for children with the highly acclaimed Ninth Ward, the story of an 11-year-old girl whose ailing grandmother—and her grandmother’s stories—help her to survive Hurricane Katrina in…
From Chile to Maine and Back: A Review of I Lived on Butterfly Hill
Marjorie Agosín is an acclaimed poet and essayist whose dozens of published works explore the lives of women and Jews in her native Chile and the struggle for human rights around the world. I Lived on Butterfly Hill (Simon &…
Fleeing Genocide: A Review of The Weaver’s Scar
This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, which claimed the lives of up to a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The massacre revealed the helplessness of international organizations and spurred the establishment of the International Criminal…
Beyond Magenta: An Interview with Susan Kuklin (Part II)
As I wrote last week in the first part of this interview with Susan Kuklin about her new book Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out (Candlewick Press, February 2014), I was thrilled that Susan agreed to be interviewed for The…
An Undocumented Immigrant Looking for Hope: The Secret Side of Empty
As happened at the turn of the previous century, the new century has seen a massive migration of people from one country to another. Escaping oppression and war, the effects of climate change, or the lack of economic opportunity, the…
Young and Wrongly Accused
Years ago, my husband and I saw the documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, about three teenage misfits in West Memphis, Arkansas who were accused—and then convicted—or the grisly murder of three eight-year-old boys. Two of…
Into The Deep
In the past several years, Zetta Elliott has emerged as a major author of speculative fiction featuring African-American protagonists. Her two previous books for young readers, the young adult novel A Wish After Midnight (2010) and the middle grade novel…