Book Review: Sherlock, Lupin and Me: The Dark Lady

I’m a fan of Sherlock Holmes. Through the years I’ve come across many versions and spin-offs of the original books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and I’ve enjoyed them all.  Here is yet another: Sherlock, Lupin, and Me: The Dark Lady, written by Irene Adler. Actually, the authors are Pierdomenico Baccalario and Alessandro Gatti. The…

Book Review: Dragonhaven, by Robin McKinley

Jake Mendoza lives at the Makepeace Institute of Integrated Dragon Studies in Smokehill National Park. At the institute there are various lizards to show to the tourists who come in by the busload, but they aren't actual dragons. And then there are the amazing dragons themselves, who rarely show themselves, and who are endangered. When…

The Language of Sparrows

Book Review:  The Language of Sparrows, by Rachel Pfifer - When artist April Wright and her fifteen-year-old daughter, Sierra, move to Houston, Texas, they are trying to escape a past neither of them can get over. But their pain follows them, and April has no idea how to help her brilliant daughter, who learns languages…

Of Wind and Winter (Tale 1 of the Snow Queen)

Book Review:  Of Wind and Winter (Tale 1 of the Snow Queen), by Danyelle Leafty: Aneira is 9 years old when she is kidnapped by Baba Yaga, and if she ever hopes to see her family again, she must help the witch. What starts out sounding like a straightforward task soon becomes complicated, for everyone…

Greensleeves

Book Review:  Greensleeves, by Eloise Jarvis McGraw   Shannon Lightley has reached the end of high school and wonders what to do.  All her life, she’s been pulled in many directions and has tried without success to fit in.  She’s lived all over Europe with both sets of famous parents, lived with her aunts and…

The Case of the Left-Handed Lady

Here’s another Enola Holmes mystery (#2, by Nancy Springer):  The Case of the Left-Handed Lady.  Enola evades her brother Sherlock’s attempts to find her and force her to learn to be a lady.  Enola would rather be a detective, and at age fourteen, she knows all her brother’s tricks, from disguises to accents.  This time…

Sherlock Holmes

I've always been a big fan of Sherlock Holmes: his agile mind, razor-sharp whit, cunning deduction, and his ability to ascertain the facts from the most miniscule evidence, all the while accompanied by his kind-hearted, bumbling friend and chronicler, Dr. Watson. I've enjoyed all the different versions of Sherlock Holmes, from the original books by…