This was a nice story yet strangely uninteresting. It managed to accomplish what melatonin supplements failed to do. I stayed with it because the second quarter of the book things looked promising and I managed to stay awake and zip through that part, but it never came through like I hoped. I ...
A wonderfully silly, upbeat, and entertaining read from the illustrations to the concept to the rhyming verses that tell the story. I honestly wasn't sure if this was non-fiction until I read the author's note at the end. I loved that you get a sense of the adoration that Prince Albert had for hi...
Definitely not my favorite Gloria Whelan novel. It was alright, just not as moving or engaging as her other books, many of which are outstanding. I think the description is pretty misleading, too, as there is really no big "mystery" to this story. The ending was fairly ambiguous, as well, so I w...
I think this is a good book. It is very discriptive and interesting. Chu's life is kind of similar to mines though, which makes it have many connections. I would like to know why do most chinese parents think girls are not as good and useful as boys.Chu's grandpa passed away and everyone was sad....
Gloria Whelan's Homeless Bird is a pleasant enough story. Predictable and pleasant. It is a fast read and Koly is a likable protagonist.But shortly after beginning the book I stopped to research the author. As I suspected after my first few pages of reading, Whelan herself is neither Indian or...
How do you describe the magnetism some books have when you're half-asleep at eleven p.m. looking for something to read? This book appeared on my bedside table one day, probably rescued from 10-year-old sister and 6-year-old brother's perpetual room cleaning, and somehow "I'll read a page or two"...
In the winter of 1840, the night of the full moon is approaching. Nothing will stop Libby Mitchell from visiting her best friend, Fawn, during a special ceremony at the nearby wigwam camp. But Libby’s adventure takes an unexpected turn when soldiers suddenly rush in. They order everyone at the ca...
From National Book Award winner Gloria Whelan comes the remarkable continuation of her Russian series.With her signature spare language and luminescent detail, award–winning author Gloria Whelan delivers the gripping companion novel to her Russian saga, Angel on the Square.One night in 1934, Mary...
Libby Mitchell can’t believe her luck! In 1841, her pioneer family decides to move north—near her best friend, Fawn, who lives with the Ottawa tribe. But the girls’ happiness at reuniting is short-lived. Greedy men want to cheat Fawn’s people out of their land and put all of the forest in danger....
Nine-year-old Hannah would do almost anything to go to school with all the other children in town. But Hannah is blind, and her parents keep her at home, where she is safe. Then Lydia Robbin, a strong-willed teacher, comes to town and convinces Hannah’s parents to send her to school. At first Han...
Sixteen-year-old Julia Hamilton is restless. Determined not to be left behind again--stuck in the cold house where her mother died ten years earlier, with only her dreams to keep her company--Julia begs her father to take her with him on his next expedition. When he unexpectedly agrees, Julia is ...
A pioneer adventure perfect for fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series! On Libby Mitchell’s tenth birthday, she and her parents climb into a covered wagon and set off on a journey that takes them two months and a thousand miles. Their trip from Virginia to the deep woods of Michiga...
Burying the Sun
Before the spring of 1878, 11-year-old Annabel Lee had never even heard of a wanigan. But she and her mother are now stranded on the small floating cookshack for three months while her father and the other loggers move their timber down the river to the mills at Lake Huron. With a constant thre...
The National Book Award winner presents a fascinating chapter in the childhood of author Louisa May Alcott (Little Women). This deeply affecting account of the tumultuous eight months the Alcott family spent at a farm, at which they hoped to create a perfect life, reveals a headstrong young write...
It's the summer of 1942. At her grandparents' island cottage in Michigan, 14–year–old Belle excitedly awaits the arrival of her exotic older cousin, Carolyn. Belle's expecting worldly sophistication and French style. But Carolyn brings much more than that: she carries the troubling reality of the...
The head of each family would contribute part of the money they had received from the government. The money was a payment for lands that had been taken from the Indians. Now they could buy back some of that land. Two days before the papers were to be signed, everything changed. Five Ottawa famili...
Dad is out of the ICU and in a regular room. I tell Dad how great the painting of Ruth is and ask if it’s finished. “Of course it’s finished. Can’t you tell? I thought you pretended to be an artist. I want to get home and send it off.” He growls about having to spend another night in the hospital...
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A flock of large black birds shot up into the sky. A rabbit watched us pass. “Is this some sort of park?” I asked. “No, no,” Mr. Grumbloch said. “It’s all part of the Pritchard estate.” The roadway curved this way and that, so I didn’t see the house until we were upon it. “That is Stagsway,” Mr. ...
This day we left Concord in the rain to travel by wagon the ten miles to our new home, which Father has named Fruitlands. The wagon was piled high with our possessions. Father drove the wagon. Mother was beside him holding two-year-old Abby May. Mr. Lane and Anna set us a good example by walking ...
Later that week I hear Mother and Father having a long whispered conversation in the kitchen, after which Mother, looking very upset, and Father, looking sheepish, summon me. Father says, “Peter, Herr Schafer has kindly invited you to a Shabbat dinner with him Friday evening, and we’ve agreed tha...
She was always restless during the white nights. “So much daylight,” she said, “it’s as if you have to lead two lives instead of one. It exhausts me.” Gratefully she accepted the lemonade Mama had made from some powder she had found in the store. Aunt Marya made a face. “Svetlana, this tastes lik...
Her other picture books in Sleeping Bear Press’s Tales of the World series are Megan’s Year, Waiting for the Owl’s Call, Yuki and the One Thousand Carriers (2008 Society of Illustrators Gold Medal winner), and Yatandou (a Junior Library Guild selection). Ms. Whelan lives near Lake St. Clair in Mi...
I was to go to my aunt Emma and uncle Edward. It came about in this way. A letter was sent telling them of the terrible wagon accident that killed Mama and Papa. They wrote at once kindly offering to care for me. Uncle Edward, who was my father’s brother, was a minister. Some years ago he and Aun...
Every Saturday afternoon Mr. Ladamacher and another German gentleman come to play cards with Grandpapa. Every Saturday morning Grandmama makes strudel. Every week the German gentlemen act surprised, as if they had never seen strudel before. “Himmel!” they say. That means, “heaven.” “Gussie made s...
my mother ordered, “take Anh and Thant to the village and buy a little tea at the Chans’ store.”Anh and Thant were pleased to be let off their chores. The two of them ran on ahead, balancing themselves on the mud dikes that outlined the paddies. The fields were empty and nearly dry, but in anothe...
As soon as he turned the motor off, the car became indistinguishable from the fifty or more cars strewn around him. Every once in a while the township supervisor would stop by on the pretext of wanting advice about a problem he was having with his car. After he had made the kind of jokes people m...
When winter comes we’ll live in a tigin, a house that stays in one place. When I complain that my life is too mixed up, Daddy points to the swallows, arrowing back and forth in the sky. “Megan,” he says, “the swallows are Travelers like we are. They are here all summer, and then like us they fly ...