The Book Search

 So I guess I'm a little behind on updating the blog... since it's been since APRIL that I posted last.  Sheesh, it's not even like I have work to blame it on anymore.  But ok, here are two amazing new middle grade realistic fiction books.  The first one is by a favorite author, Jeanne Birdsall.  If you don't know, she wrote a series of books about a family called the Penderwicks, that was just wonderful.  Her newest book is called "The Library of Unruly Treasures" and it's also just a treasure.  Birdsall has a real gift for writing characters that are interesting and kind and smart, people that I'd like to be friends with and this book is exactly that, except this one also has magical creatures.  It's about Gwen, who's lived a life of upheaval, her parents are divorced and neither of them really seems to want a girl like Gwen around, so one summer, she ends up going to stay with her great uncle Matthew who she doesn't really remember and d...

It's started!  The nominations for the CYBILS awards started this week and I've got 19 books on hold at my local library... yikes.  I hope I can keep up!  Luckily, there were several I had already read and a bunch I'd never heard of so I started yesterday and finished the first one this morning.  I hope the rest aren't this emotional or I might not survive! The first one is called "The Penderwicks in Spring" by Jeanne Birdsall.  This one is the fourth one in the series and although I read the first one, I haven't read the second or third one and I really don't remember too much about the first one other than I liked it.  The Penderwicks are a big, loving, old fashioned kind of family.  The kids are nice to each other and although the story is set in a modern time (there are cultural references that make that obvious) the kids play outside, listen to music, and read and seem completely oblivious to screens.  There are some issues and this book, t...