Mar 12 2024
Oh, wow, I’m playing in a Wild Beyond The Witchlight campaign right now, and this is like the perfect G-rated accompaniment to the Carnival that more or less opens the proceedings! Bright, colorful and filled with magic, Market Day is the story of anthropomorphic animals selling and buying wares at a day-long market. Ginger, Cinnamon …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/03/12/market-day-by-miranda-harmon/
Mar 07 2024
Y’all. Y’ALL! So many books about girls getting into D&D focus way too much on nonsensical interpersonal drama that often reveals the author’s inability to process their own emotions, but this? THIS?! Is the best book on being a young female roleplayer I’ve read in possibly forEVER. Val Winters is less than thrilled to be …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/03/07/table-titans-club-by-scott-kurtz/
Mar 05 2024
This is one of those delightful graphic novels that plonks you into the action in media res, then skillfully unfolds a ton of world-building around you. Aimed at a middle grade audience, this is a terrific way to introduce that plot device to young readers, while immersing them in a wholly original fantasy world. Cactus …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/03/05/cactus-kid-and-the-battle-for-star-rock-mountain-by-emmanuel-guerrero/
Feb 29 2024
So I haven’t yet read any of the books in the Cat Ninja series that spawned this prequel, but I’m definitely thinking of getting a bunch to add to my kids’ personal library after enjoying this adorable entry! Before he became the protector of Metro City, Cat Ninja was just a kitten, learning how to …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/02/29/kitten-ninja-by-colleen-a-f-venable-marcie-colleen-ellen-stubbings/
Feb 15 2024
While on one of my periodic rage walks through my neighborhood a short while ago — tho, fortunately, these have been filled less with rage and more with a restless desire for movement recently, at least before I busted my knee again yesterday, deeeeep sigh — I stopped by one of the Little Free Libraries …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/02/15/rocket-and-groot-stranded-on-planet-strip-mall-by-tom-angleberger/
Feb 08 2024
I genuinely did not expect this first installment of the new middle grade horror series The Doomsday Archives to be quite as accomplished as it is but dang, what an impressive series debut! New Rotterdam is one of those creepy coastal New England towns that definitely inspired H. P. Lovecraft’s Innsmouth (OH! I wonder if …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/02/08/the-wandering-hour-by-zack-loran-clark-nick-eliopulos/
Feb 01 2024
So there are a lot of reasons why this book resonated with me and made me cry for younger me, but foremost among them was the very clear cut, if never fully named, eldest daughter syndrome our main character Deena suffers from. Idk if it’s even a thing in certain cultures, but the expectation she …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/02/01/drawing-deena-by-hena-khan/
Jan 22 2024
I somehow managed to persuade my 13 year-old to read this with me, and we were both incredibly delighted by this sweet, spunky tale of a young girl living in the middle of nowhere who discovers that magic really does exist in her life. Ten year-old tomboy Avery helps her father run a gas station …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/01/22/you-wish-by-jeff-victor/
Jan 16 2024
I went into this thinking, mostly due to the publisher, that it was a graphic novel. I was a bit surprised to open it up and find that, while there are certainly very lovely, impactful illustrations courtesy of Karl Johnsson, this is very much a middle-grade chapter book. That’s not a bad thing at all, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/01/16/children-of-the-phoenix-vol-1-the-eye-of-the-storm-by-oskar-kallner-karl-johnsson/
Dec 27 2023
This book is an utter delight! Just SNOW Already! masterfully combines straightforward prose with the slyest, most charming illustrations to tell an entirely different, layered tale of anticipation and of (hopefully) not neglecting all the wonderful things already taking place while you’re waiting for something “better” to happen. Our unnamed protagonist is a young boy …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/12/27/just-snow-already-by-howard-mcwilliam/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire