Talk about the kidlit you're reading!

[Britwriter]

Just finished Capture the Flag. I enjoyed it, although it's not so much my sort of thing. Pretty straightforward adventure. I know my 8 & 10 year olds will like it, so will read it aloud to them.

Currently we're almost finished Candy Shop Wars Arcade Catastrophe. I'm really enjoying it, although wondering if there will be a twist at the end. The only thing that bothers me is the dialogue tags, but I don't know what a writer can do differently when there are often several people in a conversation. It makes it grating as a read-aloud, but I guess if you read to yourself it's not so noticeable.

It has made me very aware of my own dialogue tags now, especially in my lower middle grade, where more tags are needed to help the reader along.

[sissybaby]

I finished Starry River of the Sky and fell in love with Grace Lin's writing.

This morning I read Prince Puggly of Spud and the Kingdom of Spiff. I'll admit I never looked inside and didn't realize it was written in rhyme, but I have to say I adored it.

I tripped up on the meter a few times, but his rhymes were impeccable, and to be able to sustain that throughout a novel that actually tells a lovely, if ridiculous, story and not be repetitious says something in my book. I quite enjoyed it and smiled throughout the tale.

[RuthD]

Just finished & enjoyed Island of the Aunts (U.K. title Monster Mission), a quirky, Dahl-esque 1999 MG by the late Eva Ibbotson. It's full of subversive messages, use of violence to solve problems, and good and evil adults with dangerous foibles, and it's told in an old-fashioned, tongue in cheek, third-person-narrator style. The illustrations by Kevin Hawkes are a perfect fit.

[Smish]

I was on vacation last week and took along a copy of Millicent Min, Girl Genius to read on the beach. I liked it.