The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass

If the last few seasons of publishing are any indication, we’re in the midst of a 21st-century witch craze. Witchery is hot, and it’s popping up across all publishing and entertainment categories: middle-grade graphic novels, ... Read More »

May 14, 2020 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

The Automatic Age

By GMB Chomichuk

The Automatic Age is the first in a series of illustrated novellas by Winnipeg graphic novelist GMB Chomichuk. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world where robots rule, humans are nearly extinct, and automated ... Read More »

April 30, 2020 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

Tales from Beyond the Brain

By Jeff Szpirglas and Steven P. Hughes (ill.)

For a certain subset of readers who came through their middle-grade years in the 1980s, there are few books as iconic as the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark trilogy, in which author Alvin ... Read More »

April 23, 2020 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

Tales from the Fringes of Fear

By Jeff Szpirglas and Steven P. Hughes (ill.)

April 23, 2020 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

★ Music for Tigers

By Michelle Kadarusman

From the opening sentence of Music For Tigers, author Michelle Kadarusman signals she is writing a book for thoughtful readers. “The first sound I hear in the forest at the bottom of the world is ... Read More »

April 17, 2020 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

Alien Nate

By Dave Whamond

An alien crash-lands on Earth. The creature – who is childlike, goofy, and more than a little weird looking – quickly befriends a human boy, who helps the visitor evade some government-agent types looking to ... Read More »

April 2, 2020 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

★ My Long List of Impossible Things

By Michelle Barker

Vladimir Nabokov advised fiction writers to put their characters up a tree and then throw rocks at them. In the edgy and suspenseful My Long List of Impossible Things, novelist Michelle Barker’s tree is tall ... Read More »

February 13, 2020 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

★ Wildfire

By Carrie Mac

This powerful new novel by Vancouver writer Carrie Mac begins in media res, deep in a Pacific Northwest forest. Two teenagers, Annie and Pete, are in a tent with a forest fire approaching. Annie is ... Read More »

February 6, 2020 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

Until Niagara Falls

By Jennifer Maruno

In two very different but affecting middle-grade novels, we learn about the complicated inner lives of girls as they confront their fears, bullies, and the uncertainties of growing up. Author and educator Jennifer Maruno (When ... Read More »

February 3, 2020 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books