Sunday Book Reviews

Nick Owchar reviews new Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys titles for the Los Angeles Times. (Melanie Rehak's Girl Sleuth:Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her is also reviewed today for the LA Times.)

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Jill Murphy's The Worst Witch Saves the Day is "Children's Book of the Week" for the Times. Nicolette Jones reviews this latest volume in the pre-Harry witch boarding school series. Pitched at whatever comes right after "emerging readers," these books are very sweet and lots of fun. And, as Nicolette Jones notes, "a great joy of the series is Murphy’s black- and-white illustrations, entirely clear and in tune with the text. Best of all are the perfectly pitched expressions on the face of Mildred’s cat Tabby — registering fear, surprise and contentment."

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Alyson Button Stone has written a nice article about historical fiction for the Metro West Daily News (Framingham, MA). She reviews Beth Hilgartner's A Murder for Her Majesty, Christina Bauer's The Pirate Queen, and Sally Gardner's I, Coriander in an attempt to find something other than fantasy. Stone writes, "these books are geared for teen girls. History is sometimes intertwined with time travel or fantasy, and there is always a lot of estrogen-based empowerment." In addition, there is a nice list of historical fiction for girls at the end of the article.