Children's Book Reviews Archives - Town of Pelham Public Library

YA Book Review: “Caravaggio Signed in Blood” By Mark David Smith

Children's Book NewsOctober 24, 2016388Views 0Likes 0Comments

In the work of historical fiction Caravaggio Signed in Blood, the Renaissance artist is depicted as a brawling, unrepentant, street fighter in Rome, spoiling for his next battle. Equipped with a flashing sword and an eye to mayhem, he encounters the influential nobility and promptly slays one of them in a street clash. Now he is…

Juvenile Book Review: “Full of Beans” by Jennifer L. Holm

Children's Book News, UncategorizedOctober 3, 2016600Views 0Likes 0Comments

Eighty years ago, a nickel was worth something. One nickel could buy candy, a ticket to a movie, and real food for a meal. It was during the Great Depression, and life was far from ideal even in Key West, Florida. Huge mounds of smelly garbage piled up, people were out of work, and kids went…

Young Adult Nonfiction Book Review: “The Boys Who Challenged Hitler” By Phillip Hoose

Children's Book NewsAugust 15, 2016978Views 0Likes 0Comments

On April 9, 1940, Germany invaded Denmark. The Danish Army put up little resistance, and by that afternoon Germany occupied Denmark. The German government promised the Danes that life would go on normally if they didn’t resist their new overlords -- and the Danes accepted this Faustian bargain. Their cities were left intact and their…

Juvenile Book Review: “Wolf Hollow” by Lauren Wolk

Children's Book NewsJuly 12, 20161KViews 0Likes 0Comments

How we treat each other does matter; it can sometimes determine who lives and who dies. Betty Glengarry is a force of evil who suddenly arrives one day in the small Pennsylvania farming town of Wolf Hollow. Everywhere she goes, she spreads lies and pain. Her chief victim is a younger girl, Annabelle, whom she…

Juvenile Book Review: “Raymie Nightingale” by Kate DiCamillo

Children's Book NewsMay 31, 2016332Views 0Likes 0Comments

Nightingale is not Raymie’s real last name, but it describes her well. Like Florence Nightingale, Raymie knows how to shed light and rescue the needy. She and two other girls meet at the home of a baton winner in order to learn how to twirl. Somehow, Raymie convinces herself that if she becomes a champion…

YA Book Review: “The Hired Girl” by Laura Amy Schlitz

Children's Book NewsApril 22, 2016442Views 0Likes 0Comments

Some of us complain about having it rough. Really? Take a look at fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs – the only girl in her house -- who lives on a poor farm in Pennsylvania with her father and older brothers during the early 1900s. Here is her daily schedule: scrub and sweep the floor, clean out the…

Juvenile Book Review: “The Nest” by Kenneth Oppel

Children's Book NewsJanuary 19, 2016572Views 0Likes 0Comments

The first time Steve sees the white-winged wasps he is sure they are really angels. Not only do they look like ethereal creatures, they can also speak to him. They say, “We’ve come because of the baby. We’ve come to help. We can fix what’s wrong with the baby.” The theme of a sick baby…

YA Book Review: “All the Bright Places” By Jennifer Niven

Children's Book NewsDecember 11, 2015314Views 0Likes 0Comments

They meet on a narrow ledge six stories above the ground in the bell tower of their high school. At first, only one student notices, but dismisses the image because he sees only Theodore “Freak” Finch, a known nutcase. But wait! There is a girl on the other side of the bell tower. It is…

Young Adult Book Review: “Bone Gap” by Laura Ruby

UncategorizedNovember 11, 2015499Views 0Likes 0Comments

Corn fields. Farmers claim that you can hear the corn grow. And the corn does grow – tall and full –so thick that a person can appear or disappear between the rows. In the underpopulated town of Bone Gap, a beautiful girl from Poland appears in the empty barn of two young brothers, Sean and…

Juvenile Book Review: “Nooks and Crannies” by Jessica Lawson

Children's Book NewsOctober 24, 2015465Views 0Likes 0Comments

Take one almost twelve-year-old girl, her dearest and only friend Pemberley, a mouse, and a very detailed reading of the mystery novels of Percival Pensive. and you’ve got a really good mystery with murder, money, and mayhem. In Nooks and Crannies by Jessica Lawson, young Tabitha Crum, along with five other almost-twelves, receives an invitation to…