Shannon Costello

Like the Little House books, this biography is aimed at young people.  And like the books, it is still very interesting.
Laura certainly simplified her family’s moves.  For example, the family lived in the little house in the woods of Wisconsin, moved out to Indian territory, and moved back to Wisconsin after they were nearly forced [...]

This is the book I am least familiar with…and yet, it comes unedited from Laura’s pen.  Rose’s lawyer ended up with the notebooks it was written in and it was eventually decided to publish it as is, almost 30 years after the previous book.
Laura is an adult now, with adult problems.  She doesn’t want to [...]

I just finished re-reading Fire by Kristin Cashore and Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt.  They both made me cry again.  Different as they are, they both feature women who give up the possibility of ever having children and still manage to embrace their future in spite of their pain.  Very powerful.

One thing that hasn’t much changed since the time of Little House in the Big Woods is our obsession with appearance.
Ma used carrots to dye her butter so it would be yellow.  And they bought light brown sugar to use when company came.
But all that is minor compared to corsets and the desire for a [...]

Based on the cover I thought this book would be interesting enough to be worth checking out, but I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it nearly as much as I did.  (Nielson, by the way, is yet another graduate of Brigham Young University, though not of their writing program.  They are certainly doing something right over [...]

I accidentally read a YA horror story.  Oops.
The whole point is horror.  The beautiful doll with sharp little teeth that can tell if the bad guys’ victims are lying or not.  (Interesting how it is evil that controls truth here.)  The murderous dwarf who, though burned and buried, slowly digs his way out to continue [...]

While I really enjoyed Straw into Gold by Gary D. Schmidt, I was unmoved by Hawksmaid by Kathryn Lasky.
Hawksmaid is about Maid Marian, with Robin Hood pushed firmly into the background.  I suppose that is my first objection.  I don’t mind making Marian have a little more vim & vigor, but why does it have [...]

I was really stirred up about Pegasus, but now I’m calmer and interested in the topic of partial publishings for its own sake.
I spent a lot of time perusing Robin McKinley’s blog and I found that she went through a process by which Pegasus got so long that it became easier to chop it into [...]