Good Luck Duck

Timothy and his father and mother live in a quiet valley. It’s too far away from the woods to hear the crows calling all day, too far from the bigger valley to hear the trains rolling by, and streetcars and buses don’t go that far.  The little family loves their quiet valley, but sometimes Timothy…

Snow Treasure

I just finished reading Snow Treasure to my literature class of eight- and nine-year-old homeschooled students. I only see them for forty minutes once a week, and the timing just happened to work out that I had to leave the kids hanging for a whole week with the hero captured by Nazis and with only…

Virginia Hall, an Extraordinary Woman

Whether they loved her or hated her, everyone who knew her considered her an amazing and memorable woman. Klaus Barbie, the infamous Butcher of Lyon became obsessed with finding the “Limping Lady of Lyon.” He had posters made and offered a huge reward for information leading to the arrest of “The Enemy’s Most Dangerous Spy.”

Paint the Wind

While checking my county library catalog for Pam Muñoz Ryan’s Echo, the description of Paint the Wind caught my eye because the story takes place in Wyoming. I’m always a little skeptical about stories supposed to take place in Wyoming, but I remembered, from years ago, that Ryan’s Esperanza Rising was surprisingly good. Echo, which…

The Christmas Rocket

Dino is almost ten years old. Many years of working in the family pottery shop have shriveled his grandfather like an old pea with a knitted cap upon his bald head, and made his Papa’s back stooped.  Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and Dino must go down to the village with his Papa to sell their…

A Long Road on a Short Day

“Early on a white January morning, Samuel’s mother said, ‘I do wish we had a brown-eyed cow to give us milk for the baby.’” So Papa sets out to get Mama a cow, and Samuel goes with him. “‘Keep up,’ said Samuel’s father. He looked up at the gray clouds. ‘It’s a long road on…

Why Libraries?

This article was originally written in three parts and published in The Wyoming News Chronicle in the spring of 2023. Andrew Carnegie, born in Scotland in 1835, emigrated with his parents to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was twelve years old. His life is an almost unbelievable rags-to-riches story. He went from working as a bobbin…

Orbiting Jupiter

In nearly every review Sara and I have written for Gary D. Schmidt’s books, we have used the word hard to describe the situations his characters encounter. Orbiting Jupiter takes hard to a new level.  In this interview with Schmidt after Okay for Now was published, he talks about an experience at a book club…

The Big Jump

In Gary D. Schmidt’s Okay for Now, Doug finds himself babysitting the local police officer’s five children. Before they go to bed, he has to read a book to each of them. Since Doug has only just learned to read, though he is in the eighth grade, the children’s books most of us recognize aren’t…

Anson’s Way

Anson’s Way, published in 1999, is Gary D. Schmidt’s fourth book, but only his second fiction novel. The Sin Eater was his first.  When the story opens, Anson Staplyton, drummer boy, is aboard ship on his way to Ireland from England where he will take his place as the seventh Staplyton to keep the king’s…