When I was a girl, I was too afraid to watch the part of the Disney movie in which Penny is lowered into the darkness in a bucket. If I had actually read the stories on my bookshelf, I would have had great sympathy for the mice in the Prisoner's
When I picked up Cherie Priest's I Am Princess X, it was on the advice of a trusted bookseller for a (then) thirteen-year-old friend of mine. Then an older reading friend raved about it too. At last, I picked it up, and was pleased to find it was my first
In which I discuss some of the skinny volumes, which have nestled into my bookbag. (Meanwhile longer works, like Kathleen Winsor's Forever Amber and Greg Iles’ The Bone Tree, were left at home.) Patricia and Fredrick McKissack's Best Shot in the West tells the story of Nat Love, who was born into
In which I discuss some of the skinny volumes, which have nestled into my bookbag. (Meanwhile longer works, like Timothy Findley's The Piano Man's Daughter and Greg Iles' Natchez Burning, were left at home.) Stephen Thomas' The Jokes is not funny-haha, but funny-hmmm. It's not meant to be funny-haha either, although many
In which I discuss some of the skinny volumes, which have nestled into my bookbag (while longer works, like Marge Piercy's Gone to Soldiers and Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend, were left at home. Vivek Shraya's God Loves Hair is illustrated by Juliana Neufeld, a full-page image introducing each of
