A woman playing a big part in a pirate story! What a refreshing and delightful twist. In the position of leadership, Honorata, our heroine, survives to become a queen and then finds her lost love. The Queen of the Caribbean begins with The Black Corsair...

Swashbuckling, yes! I am going to use the word 'swashbuckling.' The Black Corsair by Emilio Salgari and Nico Lorenzutti is nonstop action right from the first scene. The Black Corsair is all about vengeance. The Lord of Ventimiglia, otherwise known as the Black Corsair, is...

Immagica by K.A. Last is a story all of a piece with those such as Alice in Wonderland, The Chronicles of Narnia, Inkheart, The Neverending Story, and Labyrinth. It is the story of Rosaline, a young girl whose family houses unimaginable secrets, both dark and...

Piano Paradises: My Piano Has A Big Secret by Elerya is an imaginative children’s book that should please early readers and keep them engaged. Six-year-old Chanelle loves to play instruments — flute, clarinet, and piano — but she really wants a piano of her own....

Lily Is... Wide Awake by Brandon Brand is a rhyming story for children. In the book, Lily cannot fall asleep because she keeps hearing and seeing things in the dark. Lily and her parents blame her overactive imagination and fear of the dark on reading...

Footprints is a book with an excellent storyline, which offers a wonderful outlook on life. Author Melinda Taliancich Falgoust has a winning concept about a young girl, Aiko, who wants to leave a mark — or footprint — without staining planet Earth. Aiko feels small...

In an interesting and adventurous story targeted at young adult readers, Talon: Encounter, the fifth book in the Talon series by author Gigi Sedlmayer, readers will again be taken on quite a journey. Continuing the story of Tamo, Timo and Talon as well as their...

Who wouldn’t want to be hugged by a penguin? I know I would! In Fluffy Hugs, Volume I by Richard Dodd, Fluffy is a magic penguin who has missions he completes to help anyone he can. Poor Fluffy’s parents were taken out of the zoo...

Our favorite barnyard characters are back in Return to Fern Valley: Another Collection of Short Stories by author Aileen Stewart. These 12 stories are entertaining and fun for middle-grade readers. You will meet chickens Roberta and Mildred Cornstalk, Jason Curlytail (a pig with five brothers...

Cooking in Fern Valley: Another Collection of Short Stories and Recipes by Aileen Stewart is a wonderful collection of stories with fun farm animals that also includes some yummy recipes. Each of the 12 stories involving wonderful characters set in and around Curlytail Farm in...