If you haven’t read Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt – go do it! It’s a classic of children’s literature, and one of those elevated children’s texts that reads well as an adult – but also it’s short and sweet, which busy adults can appreciate. Not to mention the story is about life and death, and how much life is too much life, and why death is sad but necessary. Evergreen topics, if you will. Tuck Everlasting is about Winnie, a ten-year-old member of a rather […]
Sometimes even your favorites can disappoint
The Baby-Sitters Club: Claudia and the New Girl by Gabriela Epstein (based on Ann M. Martin's novel)
Claudia and the New Girl focuses (big shock) on Claudia, who is my favorite character in the series. A new girl, Ashley, joins Claudia’s class, and she’s also an artist! And she likes Claudia’s art and wants to be friends! Claudia gets swept up in the validation of having a friend share an interest and validate her work as something special. This leads to tension with her other friends and her not living up to her duties as vice-president of the Baby-Sitters Club. Friends falling […]
A gripping time-travel slave narrative
Kindred was our June Cannonball Read book club selection. I decided to read both the original novel by Octavia E. Butler and graphic novel adaptation by John Jennings and Damian Duffy. Both works focus on Dana, a young writer living in 1970s northern Los Angeles (much like Butler herself). She is recently married and moving into her new home with her older white husband, Kevin. They seem quite in love and happy. Dana is unpacking some books when suddenly and inexplicably she travels through time […]