The Magic School Bus Lost In Outer Space by Joanna Cole

I ALWAYS wanted a teacher like Ms. Frizzle. My 5th grade librarian came pretty close: Like the Friz, she had red-hair, wore crazy earrings, and always seemed a little kooky. But it was her kookiness that made her so cool and what had me going back to the library day after day. Sadly, Ms. P didn’t have the power to make a bus transform into a space ship, which is what happens in this 4th installment of The Magic...

The Last Silk Dress by Ann Rinaldi

For many young adults, myself included, author Ann Rinaldi is our first introduction into the world of historical fiction. With each new book, readers are introduced to a different time in history and get to view it through the eyes of a young woman. While I can’t remember the first Rinaldi novel I ever read, I do remember the one that had the most impact: “The Last Silk Dress.” A friend, who also loved Ann...

Snow White In New York by Fiona French

What if Snow White was not a princess but a jazz singer, and instead of living in a castle in the forest she made her home in Manhattan during the 1920s? Such is the premise of Fiona French’s wickedly original take on this classic fairy tale. Snow White is a young girl living in New York City during the jazz age when her widowed father marries a Manhattan society woman whose name often appears in the city’s...

The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant

Growing up, like every other kid on my block, I spent months looking forward to summer. Not just because it meant I was done with homework or because I could stay up as late as I wanted reading. No, I loved summer because that’s when my relatives came to visit. I come from a rather large extended family and summer was the one time of year we were all able to get together in one place. That annual family reunion...

The Frog Prince, Continued by Jon Scieska

I love fairy tales, and while some people may argue the original versions are always the best, I have always appreciated when an author takes something classic and spins it into something new. Sometimes these new adaptations are so brilliant I get jealous that I didn’t think of it first! Such is the case with “The Frog Prince, Continued,” a slightly dark “sequel” to The Frog Prince, in which author...