Meet Harriet M. Welsch -- one of the most unforgettable, funniest characters in children's literature. Harriet is a girl with only one ambition in life: to be a spy. She works hard at it -- filling her secret notebook with observations about her parents, friends, and neighbors. But when her classmates find her notebook and read her mean comments about them, Harriet finds herself shunned by everyone. How can she put her spying talents to good use and make her friends like her again?
“That to me is part of the joy … of memoir, which is — it is all about looking back.” Beth Nguyen’s Owner of a Lonely Heart is a memoir about motherhood, loss and coming-of-age while navigating the refugee experience, told with a vivid and powerful voice. Nguyen joins us to talk about the feeling […]
Authentic and sweet, The List of Things That Will Not Change should be essential reading for every young person. Bea’s story is one that many children will relate to, as she is a child of divorce who also experiences anxiety. However, the love Bea’s family has for her and each other shines and is a testament to […]
Reading when you’re a kid is the best, because everything is fascinating and new, and your heart is still fresh and unsullied by the wear and tear of commuting and filling out tax returns and waiting in line for coffee two hours each morning. Who wouldn’t want to go back to the days when the whole world felt magic, […]
The science fiction and fantasy genre is about strange new worlds and fantastical destinations—otherworldly places you want to visit—but for me it’s also always been about the great characters in those worlds, who I identified with, admired, and in some way could see myself being (or at least, see myself wishing I could be like […]
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Young reporters make great protagonists, see. Fiction has a long and proud tradition of producing lovable, insatiable, distinctive, and tireless journalists. Sometimes they’re young (Harriet the Spy), occasionally they’re the subject of satire (Scoop), and once in a blue moon, their jobs take them to a flat disc balanced […]