Alison Reads

London corporate attorney Samantha Sweeting discovers that she’s made a 50-million-pound mistake on the same day she is made a partner in the firm. In horror, she runs away, gets on a train, and ends up asking for a drink of water at a country house where she is mistaken for an applicant for the […]

In 1943, 10-year-old Dewey moves to New Mexico to live with her father, who is working on a top-secret military project. Dewey is a girl who loves electronics and gadgets, so she is happy being around brilliant scientists. She eventually becomes friends with Suze, another “misfit” girl. This book is a fascinating insight into what […]

During the Depression, tall skinny Violet Mathers leaves behind a loveless childhood and goes on the road with musicians Kjell and Austin as their manager. They give her love and the confidence to start her own dress-designing business. An inspiring book by the author of PATTY JANE’S HOUSE OF CURL, which I also highly recommend. […]

My second favorite comic strip, available in some newspapers but not in Eugene, is Frazz, who is a grown-up Calvin. He works as an elementary school custodian. He also write songs and competes in triathlons. With his song royalties he buys books such as Captain Underpants for the school library. The strip is highly literate […]

My favorite web comic strip is Unshelved, a strip about the Mallville Public Library. My favorite character is the knitting cataloger, but she works in the basement and rarely appears in the strip.

This is the first graphic novel I have read all the way through, and I selected it because it won the 2007 Printz Award for best young adult book. It starts out as three separate stories and brings them together at the end. One story is the ancient Chinese fable of the Monkey King, the […]

Eight-year-old Paris and her older brother Malcolm are separated in foster care when their alcoholic mother can no longer take care of them. Paris spends a year adjusting to normal family life and learning to trust her foster family. Then her mother telephones and Paris must decide whether or not to live with her again. […]

This is a page-turner of a book. An asteroid hits the moon and knocks it closer to the Earth, triggering tsunamis and earthquakes and volcanoes. In her diary, sixteen-year-old Miranda describes how her family tries to cope with food shortages, freezing cold, drought and sickness. I couldn’t put the book down. For middle and high […]

Based on the Chinese version of the Cinderella story. Xing Xing’s mother has died and she lives with her stepmother and stepsister in a cave in Ming-dynasty China. Her stepmother shows little affection for her and makes her work hard. If you know the story of Cinderella, you know how this book ends, but it’s […]

Here I am writing my very first blog entry.