Tag Archives: Children-YA

Little House in the Big Woods

Posted on August 9, 2024 by smellincoffee

I have a persistent fantasy of living in a little off-grid cabin on the edge of the woods, a fantasy I suspect owes entirely to reading this as a child. It’s a memoir-in-novel form of the author, Laura Ingalls Wilder, … Continue reading →

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Blast from the Past II: The Quack Attack is Back!

Posted on August 9, 2024 by smellincoffee

Last year I closed out July with a special week of themed reading called “Blast from the Past”, in which I visited 1990s kidlit — or, in the case of the Henry & Beezus books, books I happened to read … Continue reading →

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Double play: science-y baseball and Tokyo teenage touristing

Posted on May 1, 2024 by smellincoffee

Diary of a Tokyo Teen is a graphic memoir of a Japanese-American teenager’s visit to her relatives in Japan, after an absence of five years. They live in an area not far from Tokyo, and the memoir covers her visiting … Continue reading →

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Warcross

Posted on August 20, 2023 by smellincoffee

Emika Chen is a young woman, desperately in debt because a past criminal record makes it impossible for her to obtain the kinds of work that she’s developed skills for. What’s she’s good at coding and hacking, and these days … Continue reading →

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Night Witches

Posted on August 11, 2023 by smellincoffee

The German army has invaded deep into Mother Russia, and Stalingrad itself is a battlefield. Young Valentina desperately wants to use her flying skills to defend her city, joining her sister Tatiana in the skies, but her mother forbids her. … Continue reading →

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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Posted on January 4, 2021 by smellincoffee

“In that direction,” the Cat said, waving its right paw round, “lives a Hatter: and in that direction,” waving the other paw, “lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.”“But I don’t want to go among mad … Continue reading →

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Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom

Posted on May 29, 2020 by smellincoffee

© 2020 Louis Sachar 176 pages I was a weekly visitor to my childhood library, always bringing home  a fresh pile of books — but some books I checked out over and over again. Sideways Stories from Wayside High and … Continue reading →

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IRL

Posted on October 15, 2019 by smellincoffee

© 2014 Cory Doctorow & Jen Wang 192 pages I happened to see Cory Doctorow’s name on the cover of this graphic novel, and had to take a look.  The plot is heavily based on a short story of Doctorow’s, … Continue reading →

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Limited Wish

Posted on June 5, 2019 by smellincoffee

The universe is trying to kill Nick. Again. Last time, it was only leukemia. Now there are multiple visitors from divergent futures asking him for help breaking into a nuclear power plant, he’s being stalked by a sociopathic mercenary, he’s … Continue reading →

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Pirate Cinema

Posted on August 16, 2018 by smellincoffee

Pirate Cinema© 2012 Cory Doctorow384 pages All Cecil B. DeVille wanted to do was make movies. He didn’t mean to ruin his family’s lives or start a revolution. In the not-too-distant future,  consumer electronics have concealed chips which monitor and … Continue reading →

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