5,000 years ago a man wanted power in his clan in England, so he had a magical stone created that would allow him to lose compassion for his fellow man, thus letting him do what was necessary to gain the role of leader. Over 4,900 years later, this artifact is found again and a series of bearers ...
Great story! The sequence of events is perfectly arranged not to be too overwhelming and to keep you on your toes! I love the concept of the flint heart and how it's not just used to create one big bad guy throughout the story but rather to show a multitude of behavioural changes. The characters ...
Meli's life is turned upside down. The cause of this? A drawing of a pelican. Now Meli has to learn to live on the run, constantly looking over her shoulder. Let's hope Meli can make it to America, and to safety. I selected this book because I needed another book about war on my shelf. I chose it...
Because Paterson is from Barre, VT, just down the road from where I live, I've been reading her books. This novel is based on Paterson’s meeting and relating to a Balkan family who had moved to Barre. Her story traces an Albanian family’s journey from the Balkans to Vermont, using the teen daugh...
Admittedly, I am not a Christian, though there is respect towards the deities, whatever they're called (or they prefer to be called), but I don't feel you have to be religious in order to show gratitude and appreciation for the wonder that is life. This book provides delightful illustrations for ...
No, I'm not crying. There's just a log in my eye. Okay, so I read this YEARS ago. Maybe when I was 14? I saw the movie first and that absolutely ruined me. I think this is about my 3rd reread, which proves this book is timeless. As well as, you know, heart ripping. I thought I'd be okay reading t...
There are books, written decades ago, that are so good you wonder how it is possible you haven’t read them sooner. For me, The Great Gilly Hopkins is one of those books. That fact that I haven’t discovered this book is even more interesting considering I read Katherine Paterson’s award winning Ja...
2013 Laura Ingalls Wilder AwardRosa’s mother is singing again, for the first time since Papa died in an accident in the mills. But instead of filling their cramped tenement apartment with Italian lullabies, Mamma is out on the streets singing union songs, and Rosa is terrified that her mother and...
Acclaimed storyteller and Newbery medalist, National Book Awardwinner, and Laura Ingalls Wilder award recipient Katherine Paterson breathes new life into this classic tale of action, adventure, and romance. Raised in the wilderness, Parzival knows nothing of his destiny as the Grail Knight--the o...
This book should be read without the presentiment that the heroine is going to be heroic, selfless, lovely, or even pleasant.To judge the book based on that is to completely miss the point of this novel.No, Sara Louise isn't a pleasant heroine. She is eaten up with neglect, bitterness, jealousy, ...
"You gotta know someone cares about you, or you just give up." —The Same Stuff as Stars, P. 21 Katherine Paterson has brought into the twenty-first century her compassionate feel for the stories of fractured families, and I think that we are tremendously lucky for it. The story of Angel an...
2013 Laura Ingalls Wilder AwardIt's 1899 in a small town in Vermont, and the turn of the century is coming fast. According to certain members of the church where Robbie's father is the preacher, the end of the century might even mean the end of the world. But Robbie has more pressing worries. He'...
We praise you for our Brother Sun, who in his radiant dawning every day reminds us that it was you who brought forth light. We praise you for Sister Moon and all our Sister Stars, who clothe the night with their beauty and, like you, watch over us while we sleep. We praise you for our Brother Win...
But the farther he rode, the more the grief he had left behind crowded the narrow spaces of his heart. No amends! How could that be? He had meant no wrong. Indeed, all he desired was to be a man of knightly honor and courtesy—to be a man of whom his wife, his mother, and h...