Jan 5Pride and Prejudice: Recommended ReadalikesAccording to E.M. Dadlez, a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Central Oklahoma, there are only two types of Jane Austen fans: Pride and Prejudice/Emma fans or Persuasion/Sense and Sensibility fans. We’re not surprised. Fans of Jane Austen (Janeites, or sometimes Austenites) are some of the most loyal and…Books4 min readBooks4 min read
Dec 8, 2022Nancy Drew, the Secret of the Old Clock: Recommended ReadalikesMove over Sherlock Holmes, this is a series for the girls*. Created as the counterpart to the Hardy Boys series, Nancy Drew became the female detective for generations of women. The Nancy Drew series did a surprisingly good job of disregarding stereotypical gender roles, considering that the books came out…Books5 min readBooks5 min read
Nov 17, 2022Heaven: Recommended ReadalikesA lot of heavy concepts are covered in Angela Johnson’s Heaven: adoption, death, identity, and broken trust. It’s a lot for readers to take in. You would think that it’s too much for a middle-grade book but, when you’re going through some of the same raw emotions as the main…Books5 min readBooks5 min read
Nov 3, 2022Ella Enchanted: Recommended ReadalikesIf you weren’t around during the 2000s, you missed out on an absolute tsunami of reimagined fairy tales that flooded the market. A Cinderella Story (2004), Enchanted (2007), and Sydney White (2007) flew off the shelves of Blockbuster. The Princess Diaries series (by Meg Cabot), the Princess Academy series (by…Books5 min readBooks5 min read
Oct 25, 2022Coraline: Recommended ReadalikesHorrific, deformed monsters are imitating friends and family. Souls are being devoured and trapped in the eternal unrest of the afterlife. Women with rusty sewing needles for fingers and sentient doppelgänger dolls are working to replace eyes with plastic buttons. When Neil Gaiman decided to pitch his horrifying idea to…Books5 min readBooks5 min read
Oct 24, 2022How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents: Recommended ReadalikesDespite being over 30 years old, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents continues to be incredibly popular. The ageless story of four sisters, told in an interesting reverse chronological order, has confidently moved into the realm of the classics. But the wonderful thing about literature is that new classics…Books4 min readBooks4 min read
Jul 7, 2022The Westing Game: Deep DiveWhat transforms a book from a plain general fiction to a full-fledged mystery? Does there need to be a murder most foul? Should there be a heart hidden under the floorboards? Is it always elementary, our dear Watsons? Our old pal the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a mystery as “a piece…Season 34 min readSeason 34 min read
Jun 30, 2022The Westing Game: Recommended ReadalikesFrom Nancy Drew to the Mystery Gang, most children dream of solving mysteries with their friends. While there might not be an obnoxious old man with a large inheritance or a masked ghoul waiting for us to find, there are plenty of books to discover. …4 min read4 min read
Jun 23, 2022Persepolis, The Story of a Childhood: Deep DiveAh yes, World History, the high school class determined to fit the entirety of global events into fifty minute chunks over the course of about six months. You already know the drill: start with the history before history. Flourish in the Fertile Crescent and Mesopotamia. Jump over to the Indus…Podcast4 min readPodcast4 min read
Jun 17, 2022Persepolis, The Story of a Childhood: Recommended ReadalikesIt’s hard to know how to prepare children for the complicated, and sometimes terrifying experience of being alive. How much should you tell them, and when is it too soon to start discussing world events with them? While we may never experience the devastation of war, poverty, and loss of…Podcast4 min readPodcast4 min read
