The writing team of Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple have created numerous gems. Yet, Monster Academy is still in the coal stage. It greatly reminded me of the story Ghoul School by Kevin O’Malley. Had I read Monster Academy first, I would have probably preferred it, yet, I did not. So, if you like Ghoul School (previous reviewed here) you’ll like this (and the reverse is true too, of course). The premise is simple: a “naughty monster” (which of course, means that they […]
A Worthy Follow-Up to a Classic
I’ll have to admit that I’m somewhat biased here, because Jane Yolen is one of my favorite young adult authors and her two other novels about the Holocaust (the dreamlike Briar Rose and the memorably earnest The Devil’s Arithmetic) are books I found beautiful. I was just browsing my local library’s YA section randomly and saw this book: I didn’t even know she had written another novel about the Holocaust. While Briar Rose transposed its story into a fairy tale and The Devil’s Arithmetic read like […]
How Do Dinosaurs Learn to Read?
The dinosaurs of yore are back again with Jane Yolen’s and Mark Teague’s newest collaboration. How Do Dinosaurs Learn to Read? is much of what we have seen before, but this time about reading. Therefore, if you child likes the others, you will like this too! We will jump and roar and soar and soak and throw and chew and even read books with our dinosaur friends. We will learn the proper and improper ways to handle […]