Mar 18 2025
In my quest to read all of Diana Wynne Jones’s books in one year, this month I read The Crown of Dalemark, Stopping for a Spell, and The Tough Guide to Fantasyland! Seriously, this was quite a lineup for a short month: it included our first ending of a series, our first collection of shorter …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/03/18/a-year-of-diana-wynne-jones-the-mid-1990s/
Mar 12 2025
Bitsy Bat loves school, but is a little worried when new kid Enzo Owl threatens to take the Fastest Flier title away from her. Concerned that her friends will no longer think she’s special, she hyperfocuses on proving that she’s the best. But when race day comes and one of her classmates winds up in …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/03/12/bitsy-bat-team-star-by-kaz-windness/
Mar 06 2025
What a moving, necessary book. I fully admit that I’m not terribly cognizant of the existing literature on the topic in the English language, but I’m super glad that Papercutz had this translated from the original Bulgarian (courtesy of Borislava Pancheva) in order to reach a wider audience. That topic is how kids can deal …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/03/06/im-lucky-to-have-my-parents-by-radostina-nikolova-yana-popova/
Feb 27 2025
The spiritual is a proud musical tradition created by enslaved Black people in America, who channeled the rhythms and singing of their African origins into subversive songs of solidarity and guidance, using their owners’ Christianity as a cloak for their own defiance. Cheryl Willis Hudson discusses the history of the genre in this gorgeous picture …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/27/when-i-hear-spirituals-by-cheryl-willis-hudson-london-ladd/
Feb 24 2025
subtitled Solve Your Way Through 40 Puzzle Mysteries! I’m about to admit something deeply embarrassing for a puzzle aficionado: I think regular Murdle is too hard. Perhaps that is not even the best way to describe my reservations regarding the online game. I just think that certain information is implied in a way that requires …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/24/murdle-jr-vol-1-curious-crimes-for-curious-minds-by-g-t-karber/
Feb 21 2025
You can say a lot of things about movie adaptations, but you can’t deny how great they are for bringing books back into public attention. The Wild Robot totally passed me by when it was first published almost a decade ago, so getting the movie tie-in from a publicist’s box was a nice little surprise. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/21/the-wild-robot-by-peter-brown/
Feb 19 2025
In my quest to read all of Diana Wynne Jones’s books in one year, this month I read Castle in the Air, Aunt Maria, A Sudden Wild Magic and Hexwood! Honestly, it was a big month. Those are some hefty ones, and I think Hexwood is among her very best. It’s a high bar! Castle …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/19/a-year-of-diana-wynne-jones-the-early-1990s/
Feb 18 2025
Matty is a grade-schooler who loves making homemade slime with his parents. When he gets permission to demonstrate how to make slime in art class at school, he’s super excited! He packs enough ingredients so that all his classmates can get some slime to take home with them, and repeats to himself the simple recipe …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/18/so-much-slime-by-jason-lefebvre-zac-retz/
Feb 10 2025
subtitled A Lesson in Eye Contact, and frankly a very valuable read for anyone who’s ever struggled with sociability. This companion piece to Revony Rhinoceros Starts To Smile is another terrific book about how body language encourages relationships or otherwise. With its cute anthropomorphic cast, it’s an accessible way for people who struggle with social …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/10/jovi-giraffe-learns-to-look-by-patricia-bardina-joanne-burgess-paul-sharp/
Feb 07 2025
In my quest to read all of Diana Wynne Jones’s books in one year, this month I read Howl’s Moving Castle, A Tale of Time City, The Lives of Christopher Chant and Wild Robert! It was fun to revisit Howl after the Ghibli film version became so popular, and Wild Robert was entirely new to …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/07/a-year-of-diana-wynne-jones-the-late-1980s/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire