I haven’t reviewed picture books much here because I’ve been a middle school teacher. Though, really, that’s not an excuse. It’s not like I didn’t read picture books to my middle schoolers. So since my reading life is intentionally expanding, I guess I’ll start posting reviews of the picture books I read as well. So … More After the Fall | Sticky Note Reviews
In the last week I finished two books: Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina and Scarlett Undercover by Jennifer Latham. Here are my reviews: Scarlet Undercover Burn Baby Burn #bookaday Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina. Before this, the only reference to Flushing, Queens I had was The Nanny. I liked how the history wove … More Burn Scarlet | #StickyNoteReviews
I’m gradually getting through the books I picked up at the Scholastic Book Fair a few weeks ago. I was so excited when I saw that Fairest was included in the available books; I’ve been enamored with this world ever since Cinder, being a huge sucker for retellings. #bookaday Fairest by Marissa Meyer. Mirror, mirror… … More Sticky Note Review: Fairest
Welcome to Feature Shelf, a series that provides book recommendations based on theme or title suggestions. We are temporarily making the change to podcasts for production time reasons. I actually hope to continue the podcast even after transitioning back to video. Thanks for understanding about the switch, though. So Marissa Meyer’s Cress, the third book … More Feature Shelf #32: The Fairy Tale Remix Edition (Text only)
I’m a huge fan of retellings. Books like Ash by Malinda Lo, and The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott struck my fancy because they took stories from my youth and updated them, changed them, made them modern and included twists I never even saw coming. So when I went to the Scholastic … More Coming Soon: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Add this to books like Beastly, Malinda Lo’s Ash and Neal Shusterman’s Dark Fusion series — all favorites from my list of retellings. Cloaked was written in response to fans who wrote Flinn about not recognizing some of the fairy tales (because they haven’t been made into movies). Check out the book talk below. Evernote … More Book Preview: Cloaked
Ash is a retelling of the Cinderella story. I’ll admit that I was momentarily confused by the blurb – there was a scene with an apple – and I thought I was reading Snow White. After the death of her father, Aisling, or Ash, is left with hardship of paying off the debts of her … More Not Grimm's Cinderella Story
The fairy tale components we see in Francis Hodgson Burnette’s A Little Princess come from Joseph Campbell’s idea of the monomyth, or hero journey. Sara Crewe goes through all three stages of the hero journey: the initiation, the separation, and the return. Of the fairy tales, A Little Princess also most resembles the Cinderella stories. … More Fairy Tale Elements in A LIttle Princess
>A feature of young adult literature that I stress to my students is that it can be a mirror, reflecting their own lives, or a window, allowing them to see into someone else’s. The situation that underscores “Charm” is one that far too many adolescents may be familiar with. In this short story, we see … More "Charm" from The Rose and the Beast
>For many adolescents isolation is a feeling that is all too prevalent in their everyday lives. In “Tiny,” the protagonist of the same name is familiar with this notion as well, and the story becomes a window to those who understand what it means to really feel different. Then again, maybe the message is about … More "Tiny" from The Rose and the Beast
