Plumfield and Paideia

Daddy-Long-Legs

Reviewed by Sara Masarik
In this charming little romance, Miss Jerusha Abbot is a foundling at the John Grier Home for Orphans. She is, of course, particularly bright, creative, and romantic. In fact, Jerusha is a hybrid of Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables) and Juliet Ashton (The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie)... Read the full review

Dandelion Fire

Reviewed by Sara Masarik
In Dandelion Fire, we have the antidote to this poison. In the first book of the Cupboards trilogy, Henry doesn’t know who he belongs to or where he fits. In this middle book, we spend far more time inside the worlds within the cupboards. We meet Henry’s family, we discover new evil, and we spend a lot of time laughing at bureaucratic faeries. Read the full review

Daniel Boone: The Opening of the Wilderness

Reviewed by Sara Masarik
John Mason Brown assumes that we know something of Daniel Boone. Because, honestly, what American in 1952 didn’t know something about Daniel Boone? Today, it is probably a different story, but that doesn’t make the opening any less exciting. Presuming that we have a sense that Daniel Boone is a frontiersman and a hunter (the cover alone suggests that), Brown makes us think that this first scene is that of a great hunting expedition. And, it was. But not the kind we are thinking of. Instead, he is telling us about young Boone (not yet 21, we are told) traveling with the British regulars and General Braddock to take Fort Duquesne from the French in the French and Indian or Seven Years War. And, presuming once again that some of us may not know enough history to really be able to place that moment in history, he slips in this intrigue... Read the full review