I don’t read middle-grade fantasy all that often, but my daughter does, and a late-summer complaint that she was out of books sent me scrambling to recommendation lists in search for quality reads that were stocked on our local library shelves. I returned with three, and she immediately picked up the shortest (Dealing With Dragons… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Lost Conspiracy by Frances Hardinge
I don’t read too much middle-grade fiction, but I do occasionally dip my toe, and The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera has been recommended by enough friends that it was high on my list to try. And with Middle Grade on this year’s Bingo board, there was no better time than the present. The… Continue reading Middle-Grade Sci-fi Novel Review: The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera
Way back when I was a teenager, I read Over Sea, Under Stone and found it generally engaging but not good enough to make me grab the next one. But over the years, I’ve heard the almost univocal opinion that the next book, The Dark Is Rising, is far-and-away the best of the series and… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones is one of those acclaimed works of juvenile fantasy that I’d missed when I was a kid and have spent years meaning to circle back to. And as this year’s fantasy Bingo board felt like a two-handed shove in its direction, I finally pulled it off the shelf… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
When Ella Enchanted came out, I don’t think I even knew it existed, despite its popular acclaim and the fact that someone in my immediate family was reading it. Had I known about it, would I have appreciated a book that was For Girls? It’s hard to say. But as an adult, I had no… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
