Tag Archives: Historical

The Truth About Mary Rose By Marilyn Sachs

Was Aunt Mary Rose really a hero? Or has Mary Rose been living up to a lie? Background: Marilyn Sachs is best known for a number of interconnected middle-reader books set in a pre-Robert Moses South Bronx in the early … Continue reading

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Checking In With The Imaginary Summer Book Club: Forever Amber By Kathleen Winsor

(Click here for information on the 2022 edition of Molly’s Imaginary Summer Book Club Featuring Classics of Women’s Literature. This week, the first selection, Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor) Well, Constant Readers, I vowed to get to our first massive … Continue reading

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Kathleen (Sunfire Romance #8) By Candice F. Ransom

There were times she wished she’d never come to America… Background: Scholastic’s Sunfire series is a cautionary tale about judging a YA Romance by its cover. Lurking behind the overheated cover art and melodramatic taglines are some of the best stories and most … Continue reading

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Emily (Sunfire Romance #11) By Candice F. Ransom

Born to enormous wealth, she longed for something that money couldn’t buy… Background: Scholastic’s Sunfire series is a cautionary tale about judging a YA Romance by its cover. Lurking behind the overheated cover art and melodramatic taglines are some of the best stories … Continue reading

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Emily’s Runaway Imagination By Beverly Cleary

When Emily gets an idea, nothing can stop her! Today Beverly Cleary celebrates her 103rd (!!!) birthday, and in tribute we are again looking at one of her early works.  She is best known (do I really need to say … Continue reading

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Wrapping Up The Imaginary Summer Book Club: The G-String Murders By Gypsy Rose Lee

(Click here for information on the 2018 edition of Molly’s Imaginary Summer Book Club Featuring Classics of Women’s Literature. As all of the four selected titles have filmed adaptations, we will be looking at the movie versions as we go along. … Continue reading

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Amy Moves In By Marilyn Sachs

“They’re laughing at me, those stupid girls. I hate them!” Amy decides. I often point out how a good YA historical never fails to address the disease and death that lurk around every corner in the 19th century… but even … Continue reading

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Dawn Of Love #2: Wild Prairie Sky By Cheri Michaels

How could she fall in love… with a young man as wild as a mountain lion and as free as the prairie wind? I’m a big fan of Scholastic’s Sunfire series- in which orphaned teenage girls have to choose between … Continue reading

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To All My Fans, With Love, From Sylvie By Ellen Conford

For Sylvie, movies weren’t just stories. They were a way out. A few years ago I reviewed Conford’s And This Is Laura, and recalled it as pleasant, but largely unremarkable. So I was surprised to find Sylvie a much more sophisticated piece of work, … Continue reading

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Hollywood Daughters #3: Encore By Joan Lowery Nixon

Erin Jenkins, teen star, feels closer to her show-biz parents than to her real ones, who don’t approve of her television career… Background: The first volume of the Hollywood Daughters series dealt with former child star Abby “Cookie” Baynes and her … Continue reading

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