L. Frank Baum’s The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1902) Illus. Mary Cowles Clark Dover Publications, 1976 Of course when I was young, I would read this any time of year. But as an adult, I revisit it on the holidays. The way that other readers turn to Dickens
Matthew Quick's Sorta Like a Rock Star Little Brown, 2010 In a reading month that included War and Peace and Tess of the D'Urbervilles, you can imagine that I was craving something a little lighter. Enter Amber Appleton and her loyal dog, Bobby Big Boy, in the pages of this
Witi Ihimaera's The Whale Rider (1987) Harcourt Inc, 2003 The Whale Rider is set on the East Coast of New Zealand, and that is, indeed, where Paikea is the tipuna ancestor, but this is a novel, not a narrative of myth and culture. It is a story of one fictional
Mildred D. Taylor's The Gold Cadillac (1980) Illus. Michael Hays Dial Books for Young Readers, 1987 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1976) won the Newbery in 1977 and it remains Mildred D. Taylor's best known novel. But the Logan family was actually introduced in her first novella, Song of the Trees
Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking (1945) Trans. Florence Lamborn Illus. Louis S. Glanzman NY: Viking Press, 1950 My copy of Pippi Longstocking is a bookclub edition, one of several that my mother ordered for me when I was a girl. What sets Pippi (and Rudyard Kipling's Kim) apart in this series, however, is the
