About a year ago, the Marvel Comic Moon Girl got a lot of positive press because its heroine is a young girl of color and because it was revealed that Lunella Lafayette, aka Moon Girl, is perhaps the smartest character in the Marvel Universe, outshining intellects such as Tony Stark and Reed Richards. Lunella is a science/math/engineering wunderkind and a fourth grader. She is also bored at school, friendless, and, in her opinion, deeply misunderstood by most of the people in her life, including but […]
Too cute for words (but I’ll try)!
I took my first trip to Yellowstone last summer and in one of the official gift shops in the Park, I picked up this innocent little book as a souvenir–supporting the Park Service and all that! Originally published in 1932, Cubby in Wonderland tells the story of a mother bear and her cub as they travel from Grand Teton National Park to Yellowstone and the many interesting critters they meet along the way. I’ll confess, during the opening pages I was all set to make some good-natured jokes about this book, like how […]
My favorite not my favorite
Terry Pratchett is one of my favorite authors of all time. I’ve read the Discworld series in its entirety and several of Pratchett’s other works as well. When he passed away in March 2015, the literary world lost one of the contemporary greats, but it seems he left a lot of unpublished things or just works in progress or to be collected. I was looking forward to Dragon’s at Crumbling Castle and Other Stories, which is a collection of juvenalia fiction. Some of the stories […]
Need a Hero? El Deafo To the Rescue!
Well, I couldn’t have chosen a better book to raise my spirits in these trying times. Cece Bell’s Newbery Honor-winning graphic novel is pitched toward kids but will entertain and educate anyone who picks it up. El Deafo is Bell’s account of losing her hearing but finding her power in her childhood. I am the parent of two special needs kids, one of whom wears a hearing aid, and I found myself saying, “wow, I never thought of that,” as Bell recounts what it was […]