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/
Dec 21 2023
Mya McLure is a young environmentalist who knows that making an impact requires efforts both personal and political. While she leads her classmates in petitioning local government to stop cutting down trees, she also finds herself faced with a much less public dilemma, as a large number of toads come to her home in search …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/12/21/mya-mclure-the-brave-science-girl-the-toad-cave-by-douglas-haddad-jennifer-ball-cordero/
Dec 15 2023
This was a weird one for me. On the one hand, hurray for good deeds and celebrating Hanukkah! The titular Eight Knights of Hanukkah are the children of Lady Sadie, tasked with safeguarding the kingdom from a dragon named Dreadful who keeps interrupting everyone’s preparations for the big celebration. Her Ladyship tells her children to …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/12/15/the-eight-knights-of-hanukkah-by-leslie-kimmelman-galia-bernstein/
Dec 11 2023
Doug and his kid thoroughly enjoyed this book but I genuinely did not expect to fall in love with it as hard as I did. It’s a cold, snowy evening when Hershel of Ostropol walks into a village where he was expecting a warm reception on the first night of Hanukkah, with lights, latkes and …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/12/11/hershel-and-the-hanukkah-goblins-by-eric-a-kimmel-trina-schart-hyman/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire