When it comes to young-adult fiction (or YA, as it’s known in the industry), the subgenre often seems synonymous with “edgy.” Over at Pub(lishing) Crawl, Mandy Hubbard lists a bunch of boundary-pushing topics broached by big YA books in recent years. They include kidnapping, war, suicide, and a whole bevy sexual taboos. Now, I don’t […]

It’s easy to find children’s books that are didactic; plenty of authors want to instruct about the alphabet, teach how to count, or tell little ones that bedtime is a Very Good Thing (especially for frazzled parents). It’s also not hard to find children’s books that are dynamic; writers love to offer stories arranged in […]

The Newbery Medal is a less-than-constant cultural barometer. The highest honor for children’s literature has gone to works entirely wholesome (such as Kate DiCamillo’s pint-sized saga The Tale of Despereaux in 2004) and surprisingly gruesome (see Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, which won in 2009 by melding Rudyard Kipling with graveside grue and serial killers). […]

Normally, I cast around a bit when introducing these book reviews, looking for a snappy opener or a catchy illustration. This time I’m just going to say it plain: It’s hard to imagine a better book for preteen boys than N.D. Wilson’s Leepike Ridge. All the rowdy, romping joys of boyhood find their place in […]

Summer seems sundered a little sooner each and every year. I remember wandering through an Ohio Valley August that burnt brown, the fields around my Lexington, Kentucky, home so blasted and brittle it was as if they’d been baked in an oven, the sky a shining sheet every bit as flat and hot as an […]