What would you do if you found out that the county was going to take your house away? Zollicoffer, Tennessee, is a little town with a big name. Lou Mayhew, who is about to enter the sixth grade, lives there with her parents. Her dad is the local junkman. Lou is not exactly thrilled with…
What do deer, reindeer, Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, elves, and a bunny rabbit have to do with the Christmas Cats in Silly Hats? Deer are beautiful creatures. I love to watch them visit the corn feeder we have out for them. Unfortunately for me, they usually visit it after dark or when I’m not looking…
Most people think of rats as nasty disease-ridden animals. But people keep rats as pets, and rats are also kept in laboratories as test subjects. Cats are known for chasing and killing rats. It has been said that cats and rats are incapable of getting along with each other, but the same has been said…
The great thing about fairy tales? Anyone can connect with them. They’re highly accessible. The only price of admission is being human. There’s a reason we give fairy tales to children. It’s about all they can connect with. They haven’t yet been told how to “get” Sartre, or Barthes, or any other tricky-to-pronounce French author.…
In their first adventure, Nick and Tesla rescued a girl from her kidnappers and managed to wiggle out of those same kidnappers’ clutches themselves. Now they need to help a friend find a stolen mint-condition comic book. Still spending the summer with their mad scientist uncle, Nick and Tesla are in the basement lab when…
What would you do if you found out your uncle, the one you were to stay with for at least the next three months, turned out to be a mad scientist? Nick and Tesla, brother and sister, both eleven years old, get the pleasure of staying with their Uncle Newt while their parents are in…
The day is dull, dark, and soundless. That is a perfect beginning for a book inspired by any tale of Edgar Allen Poe. In this tale of three little ravens, Edgar decides on this boring gray day to go and see his friend Roderick in his tree house. Of course, his little sister wants to…
No matter where in the United States you live, chances are that will hear Spanish as well as English being spoken. So wouldn’t it be a great idea to start your little ones off learning the Spanish language along with English? Many items, like toilet paper and paper towels, have written on the packaging in…
Have you ever been afraid of the dark? I’m sure if you think back to your childhood, you can remember a time when you were afraid of the monster you were sure was hiding underneath your bed, or maybe you were terrified of the nameless creature that inhabited your closet. Mia’s Quest for Courage is…
The look of wonder and excitement in a child’s eyes when he or she is introduced to books and the world of reading is priceless. Most small children are fascinated with flowers. My two-year-old granddaughter loves to watch the butterflies and the bees fly around and land on their colorful petals. Taking a toddler on…
