★★★★ My 4th grade daughter just finished The Lost Year and announced it was her new favorite book. So I thought it was about time I got around to reading this 2023 National Book Award Finalist, and it didn't disappoint! The Lost Year tells the story of the Holodomor - the horrific famine that killed… Continue reading Book Review: The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh
Book Review: All the Blues in the Sky by Renee Watson
★★★★★ UPDATE: All the Blues in the Sky is the 2026 John Newbery Award Winner!! Wow, this is a beautifully written, incredibly moving novel in verse about 13-year-old Sage who has just lost her best friend. Renee Watson's ability to put into words the feelings, the confusion, the conflicting and raw emotions surrounding the death… Continue reading Book Review: All the Blues in the Sky by Renee Watson
Book Review: The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest by Aubrey Hartman
★★★★★ UPDATE: The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest is a 2026 Newbery Honor Book! I really, really enjoyed The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest by Aubrey Hartman. Clare is a one-eyed fox that is not quite dead, but not quite alive. He lives alone in Deadwood Forest and shepherds souls to their final afterlife destination:… Continue reading Book Review: The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest by Aubrey Hartman
Book Review: Away by Megan E. Freeman
★★★★ Away is the companion novel to Megan E. Freeman's bestselling, Alone. Readers of Alone may remember that Maddie woke up one day to find herself alone in her small Colorado town. Whereas Alone takes reader on Maddie's survival journey in an abandoned town, Away explores what happened in that Colorado town to force evacuations… Continue reading Book Review: Away by Megan E. Freeman
Book Review: Cassi and the House of Memories
★★★★ Cassi and her Grandpa are very close. They tell stories, play music, play hide and seek, and blow bubbles together. But Grandpa sometimes forgets things, like the end of stories and that he's supposed to be looking for Cassi during a game of hide and seek. One evening Grandpa wanders off, and Cassi sets… Continue reading Book Review: Cassi and the House of Memories
Book Recommendation: Louder Than Hunger by John Schu
This book took my breath away. It is a heartbreaking but inspiring novel in verse. It was a 2025 Schneider Family Book Award Honor, and I think it is a great read that leads to better understanding and compassion for kids who are having mental health struggles. I will read it with my children and… Continue reading Book Recommendation: Louder Than Hunger by John Schu
Book Review: Will’s Race For Home by Jewell Parker Rhodes
★★★★★ UPDATE: Will's Race For Home is the 2026 Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner!! It's 1889, and the Emancipation Proclamation that freed slaves is now 25 years old. Will's family is living as a free Black family in Texas, but they are working as sharecroppers on another's land. With the desire to own their… Continue reading Book Review: Will’s Race For Home by Jewell Parker Rhodes
2025 Newbery Award Winner: The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly
The 2025 Newbery Award winner was announced in January, and the incredible honor went to The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly. I had read this novel the previous year, and gave it a re-read once it received the Newbery Award. I enjoyed it even more on the second read. I highly recommend… Continue reading 2025 Newbery Award Winner: The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly
5th Grader Book Recommendation: A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass
My 5th grade son's favorite book continues to be A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass. He read it in the 2nd grade, and it continues to persist as his favorite. Winner of the ALA Schneider Family Book Award - which honors books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent… Continue reading 5th Grader Book Recommendation: A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass
Book Review: The Forgotten Magic of Zoey Turner by Erin Stewart
★★★ Zoey's father passed away nine months ago in a bus accident, and ever since then she's suffered anxiety that has overwhelmed her life. Fearful of accidents and life's uncertainties, she doesn't attend school, she won't ride her bike, she won't swim in the deep end, and she sanitizes surfaces obsessively. Her anxiety prevents her… Continue reading Book Review: The Forgotten Magic of Zoey Turner by Erin Stewart
Birdie's Bookshelf 