I’ll call him Bobby, which might have actually been his name. I can’t use the old cliché to say his family was poor as church mice since I think the mice had several steps advantage up the financial ladder.

Heather Webb sets her book of historical fiction, The Next Ship Home, at the turn of the century in and around Ellis Island. The book is well-researched and true to the times. Two protagonists get almost equal billing.

First of all, nobody put me in charge of ranking sins so I may be way off base with this blog. However, I feel a need to have my say. From all the posts I’ve seen recently about censorship and banning of books, I am not looking at an occasional problem.

Avi begins his book Loyalty with the date of Friday, April 4, 1774, and the sentence, “On this day, my father was murdered because he said a prayer.”

Okay, so you have to wonder a bit about having a day for everything and who came up with this one. The fourth Wednesday in January was designated as Library Shelfie Day for organizations and individuals.

Isabelle Allende begins her novel, Violeta, with Violeta’s letter to Camilo whom she loves “more than anyone in this world.” She promises to tell him her life story that is worthy of a novel, more because of her sins than because of her virtues.

In the children’s book news recently, I saw that the A. A. Milne books became public domain on January 1, 2022. It set me thinking of the pleasure they had brought me and of the shared pleasure they had brought with my own children and with the kindergarteners and second graders I taught.

Forty years ago, as we were winding up our day, we got a phone call from my brother-in-law John. Since we were in Germany and John was in Virginia, phone calls were both expensive and rare.

This composition was brought on by a cardinal who claims ownership of the bush outside our pantry window. I have been amused at the uselessness of the bird fighting something that didn’t really exist, thinking how much smarter I was than Cardinal. I would never be so foolish – or would I?

Happy New Year! As we begin a new year, I wish each of you a peaceful and happy one with an acrostic.

Rachel Trethewey uses previously unpublished letters from the Churchill archives to tell the story of the Churchill sisters in the aptly named biography, The Churchill Sisters.

Joseph has lost his staff. The moss on the manger roof is splotchy. The donkey has no ears and the cow only one of her horns. Since the nativity scene came from Sears and was inexpensive in the first place, why don’t we just replace it?

Gary Schmidt is a prime reason that books should not have age labels. His books are labelled “middle grade.” Like youth, his books are often wasted on the young. An adult friend and I have become Schmidt groupies and make sure we read and discuss the next book when it comes out.

This blog is part book review and part cautionary tale. I’ll start with a word of caution. If you allow your daughter to grow up to be a librarian, you can count on your to-be-read stack of books to grow like Southern kudzu from her suggestions, even if your list gets no help from other sources.

Sharon Draper began Melody’s story in Out of My Mind. I recommend reading it for background before reading her newest account in Out of My Heart. Reading them back to back would be best.

I could hear urgency in my daughter-in-law’s voice when I answered the phone. “Could you go get Benjamin at school? He missed the transfer bus.”

One good thing seems to be certain in the wake of every national or international crisis, whether manmade or in nature. Jodi Picoult will incorporate it into a gripping novel. The current pandemic sets the scene for Wish You Were Here.

We celebrated Thanksgiving #65 together yesterday, just the two of us. We’ve had all kinds of Thanksgivings from our family of three in Belgium to big family gatherings in Mississippi. Probably the hardest were the years that entailed Thanksgiving with one family at lunch and a second with the other family at dinner.

The birthday party for Curious George included his friends of all ages from grandparents (us) to grandchildren (Benjamin and Owen from next door). This much beloved monkey turned 80 this year, and we all agreed that he looks really good for his age.

You may have met Lucy Barton in Elizabeth Strout’s novel My Name Is Lucy Barton, but it is not necessary before you read Oh, William!, her newest novel about Lucy’s first and ex-husband.