![Combined Review of Two Contemporary Stories: Other Words for Home and More to the Story [MG Reviews]](https://i0.wp.com/fallingletters.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MGLit-52.png?resize=245%2C150&ssl=1)
I struggle to review contemporary middle grade because I’m not passionate about the genre. I read these two titles because I wanted to be able to book talk them. That’s my main motivator for reading any contemporary middle grade…
![“I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read That Yet” Results [NF and MG Reviews]](https://i0.wp.com/fallingletters.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/cuckoo-song-creepy.jpg?fit=314%2C475&ssl=1&resize=245%2C150)
Reviews of the winners of September and October’s vote – The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller (non-fiction) and Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge (middle grade fiction)
![An Enchanting English Timeslip Tale [MG Review]](https://i0.wp.com/fallingletters.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/MG-Review.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=245%2C150)
Measles mean Tom has been sent to stay with an aunt and uncle who live in a converted flat of an old house without a garden. When a grandfather clock strikes thirteen in the middle of the night, Tom creeps outside to discover a grand and expansive daytime Victorian garden, in place of parked cars and rubbish bins…
![3 Classic Young Adult Titles [YA Review]](https://i0.wp.com/fallingletters.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/yalit-review.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=245%2C150)
I wrote two of these reviews for a course on young adult literature. The Giver and The Owl Service were classified as classic young adult novels for the purpose of that course. I read The Hero and Crown earlier this year as part of Julie @ Smiling Shelves’ Newbery Challenge. I thought that meant…
![Beatrix Potter Has Never Been More Terrifying [MG Review]](https://i0.wp.com/fallingletters.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/scary-stories-for-young-foxes.jpg?fit=307%2C475&ssl=1&resize=245%2C150)
I read Scary Stories for Young Foxes over two days in late October. As an autumn read, the book delighted me. The stories offer some properly frightening, chills inducing scenes. If I described each story individually, they might sound like monster-of-the-week. But the progression of Mia and Uly’s journeys keeps them more interesting than that…