We first met Louisiana Elefante in Kate DiCaimillo's book Raymie Nightingale. Louisiana lived with her granny, wore hand-me-down cloths and didn't always have enough food to eat. Louisiana was one of Raymie's best friends, along with Beverly Tapinsky. Now, we learn more about Louisiana in this wonderful new book. When the story opens, Louisiana is in [...]
This is for Riordan fans who want to learn Latino and Hispanic mythology. Charlie has lost his parents and his house has burnt down. So he has it rough and then he sprouts horns, followed by feathers, and, well, read on for more. Charlie then finds himself walking into the myths his abuela told him as [...]
Cassidy Blake's parents are ghost hunters on TV, but Cassidy can actually see ghosts. Cassidy almost drowned when she was younger, but she was saved by Jacob, who turns out, is a ghost himself. The ordeal left Cassidy the ability to see ghosts, and left her with a new friend in Jacob. When Cassidy's parents travel [...]
Who is Brine Seaborne? Found 3 years earlier in a small boat at sea, she doesn’t know either or what her real name is. Assigned to be a maid in the house of a local mage, she spends her days cleaning and reading. In a strange set of circumstances, she finds herself on the run with [...]
Mara lives in a city made up of islands, appropriately called the City of Islands. This is a mysterious land where music has power and magic is real. Twelve-year-old Mara works for the Lady of Tides. Her work is to dive in the waters around the islands to find magical treasures left over from the city [...]
Why is Chicago a blue collar city with amazing architecture? Dwarves! Yes, indeed. Dwarves live within and below the great city of Chicago and have strongly influenced its development. And if you would like to know how the Great Chicago Fire happened, well, it’s lucky it wasn’t on a Thursday or it would have been worst. [...]
It's summer, and Jack is left at home to take care of his autistic sister, Maddy, while his mother works two jobs to support the family. For Jack, this means chores and boring days. But one day, Maddy, who never speaks, sees a box of seeds at a street fair and she tells Jack to buy [...]
This is a spinoff early reader series from one of my favorite books — The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. Calpurnia is a spunky precocious girl in Texas at the turn of the century, the 20th century that is. Through explorations of the natural world with her grandfather, Calpurnia has developed a strong scientific and curious mind, [...]
What do you do as your 13th birthday nears and on that day you will become a siren like your three older sisters? Lolly Salt does not enjoy singing ships to their doom but when the Sea Witch calls she and her sisters must answer that call. Lolly lives in a modern Maine but through a [...]
In The Great Shelby Holmes, John Watson has just moved to Harlem with his mother after growing up on Army bases. Having moved many times, he is used to making new friends but he has never met someone quite like Shelby Holmes. Shelby is the perfect person to show him around his new and very diverse [...]
