-
Home Is Where You Start
Two regrets: 1. The book did not come to my attention when published in 2014 and 2018, but I am glad Al E. Boy shared the 2021 edition. I am more sorry that the Canada-born, English teacher, currently in Seoul, South Korea, did not send his latter works – The Adventures of Fawn (2020), or The Adventures of […]
-
A Rockin’ Princess Breaks the Mold
In this bid to reshape fantasy archetypes Marvel comic author Greg Pak teams with a talented illustrator Takeshi Miyazawa, who also works for that company, to deliver The Princess Who Saved Herself. The picture book in comic format recasts the image of the ancient concept of royal maiden. Even to say that is like casting […]
VGwrites
-
The Key to Life is to Be-long
In a volume of presentations at the 2012 International Colloquium of American Studies, on poetry in the United States, Marcel Arbeit, noted student on southern culture, writes, “Poems as Part of Everyday Life According to Fred Chappell.” On point, Arbeit writes that the North Carolina laureate Fred Chappell’s thought that “bad poetry,…has too much pathos, […]
VGwrites
-
Puzzle Solver as Poodle
The book highlights questions that confounds many adults in the United States these days, and offers answers that make the deadly plague and safety practices understandable, even to a preschooler. The toy poodle star of the debut picture book co-authored by A. Chakravorty and M. Stainwell, and Illustrated by Claudia Fasser, puts scientifically accurate information into […]
-
Patience Is Required For Peace
It’s funny – Juntu Ahjee’s, The Return of Sister Harris, is a page-turner defeated only by elements dear to most readers. In many places the narrative’s pace is too slow or there is not enough to paint clear pictures, but the spare prose aside, the Seattle-based, award-winning, horror fiction writer and poet, is a keen storyteller. The […]
-
Love As a Trick in the Head
Engle tends to make a common literary trope into a page-turner, because she is not afraid of the weird. The fish-out-of water scenario and deft prose in her 2013 debut work, Clifton Chase and the Arrow of Light, brought to mind Mark Twain’s 1889 classic, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Part of that is the author’s […]
VGwrites
-
A Story For Our Time
Karen Gorback characterizes Freshman Mom as a “debut novel,” yet she is no rookie author. The 270-page novel shows readers why it is as complicated to do right by those you love as it is to make the most of yourself. That said, the tensions between the main character’s urge for self development and the […]
VGwrites
-
Dreams Are Never Too Big for the Brave
Welcome to the worldview of Sonia Cunningham Leverette, author of BJ’s Big Dream, a work that more closely captures the way a child’s mind works than any I have read in a long time. That said, no doubt the writer’s insight into the young comes from more than 30 years experience in education. She is an assistant superintendent […]
VGwrites
-
A Reader Rescues a Bully’s Love
Author, B. S. Gibbs, summarizes this as a “chapter book for kids … illustrated with a dozen intricate, beautiful drawings.” True. The attorney/storyteller inspired by Jane Austen, light fantasy, “and all things medieval,” goes on to tout Janetta and the Book Thief as a trove of positive pleas for reading, kindness, inclusiveness, and anti-bullying. Those things […]
-
A Sip and aTrip Takes You into a Dream
Many Americans have made their peace with the “gotta get ahead” pace of daily life. In fact, often urbanites and sophisticates in the United States wear the burden of their busyness or over commitment as a gold star. Yet, some dream about how life might be in a smaller place with a slower pace. The […]
VGwrites
veereads
It's About Story
-
Home Is Where You Start
Two regrets: 1. The book did not come to my attention when published in 2014 and 2018, but I am glad Al E. Boy shared the 2021 edition. I am more sorry that the Canada-born, English teacher, currently in Seoul, South Korea, did not send his latter works – The Adventures of Fawn (2020), or The Adventures of […]
veereads 