She Spoke Too has been named a GOLD winner in Foreword Reviews’ 2024 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards – Juvenile Nonfiction Category!
All posts by kathymacmillan
Read This!: CINCINNATI LEE, CURSE BREAKER by Heidi Heilig
Cincinnati Lee, Curse Breaker by Heidi Heilig
Summary: Cincinnati Lee’s great great (great?) grandfather is famous. His adventures discovering ancient artifacts have been made into movies, and his work is widely respected by museums across the world. The thing is, in that line of work, you’re bound to get cursed. And that leaves your great great (great?) granddaughter to break the curse by returning the artifacts you “preserved.” Cincinnati’s own adventure begins in the Cosmopolitan Museum in New York City, where her single mom works and Cincinnati has grown up. Soon she learns about the ancient Spear of Destiny—and its potential to right all the wrongs in her family’s past. Or bring about the end of the world. It all depends on whose hands it falls into. Cincinnati must beat two relic hunters to the spear, and her quest will take her to surprising locations throughout the city and even across the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way, she’ll make a new friend (which is not the easiest thing to do), make some enemies (surprisingly easy to do), and ultimately learn what makes the world worth saving. Acclaimed author Heidi Heilig makes a dazzling middle grade debut with an irrepressible hero, a compelling cast of friends and enemies, nonstop action, and a thoughtful approach to viewing our responsibilities to each other and the world around us.
An intrepid heroine, a race across the world to break a curse, and a thoughtful story—who could ask for more? In Cincinnati Lee, author Heidi Heilig has created a middle grade character who feels immediately classic and yet refreshingly contemporary. At the heart of the story are Cincinnati’s relationships – with her mother, her best friend, the new friend who challenges her understanding of herself, and the great great (great?) grandfather whose actions kicked off the curse. Cincinnati may not always follow the rules, but her heart’s in the right place as she grapples with big questions about responsibility and relationships. Brimming with action and lively characters, this story also offers lots for readers to think about as they enjoy the fun.
CINCINNATI LEE, CURSE BREAKER is out now.
Bonus: See my reviews of Heidi Heilig’s previous books here.
Read This!: WE ARE THE SCRAPPY ONES by Rebekah Taussig and Kirbi Fagan
We Are the Scrappy Ones by Rebekah Taussig and Kirbi Fagan
Summary: We are the scrappy ones. / We live, we adapt, we defy. / Made of stardust and grit, we are spectacular.
Children with disabilities experience the world in all kinds of ways. Yet one thing they share is navigating a world that doesn’t always make space for them as they are. Existing on the edges can feel unfair—and downright exhausting. And at the exact same time, it can also foster creativity, resourcefulness, and adaptability. In a word, scrappiness.
In lyrical prose overflowing with gorgeous imagery, author and disability advocate Rebekah Taussig celebrates the unique and authentic experiences of children with disabilities: “We might move slowly or in zigzags, but we thrum our own tempos to beautiful songs.” Taussig’s text flows with Kirbi Fagan’s evocative pastel, colored pencil, and collage illustrations, which showcase the diversity of the disability experience. Yes, medical devices, wheelchairs, hearing aids, and guide dogs appear, but always the focus is on the agency of the children interacting with their world. This book is a glorious ode to the spirit of disabled children, acknowledging that “[the] burden we carry is the weight of a world that wasn’t built with us in mind.” Especially powerful is the section highlighting “revolutionaries thinking of you before you were born, fighting to get this world ready for you.” (Those revolutionaries, all members of the disability community, are featured in more detail in the back matter and each one is someone all kids and adults should learn about!) The core message is as simple as it is necessary: you are not alone. A beautiful, moving, and necessary picture book for all collections.
WE ARE THE SCRAPPY ONES is out now.
Bonus recommendation: Check out my review of Rebekah Taussig’s excellent memoir, Sitting Pretty.
Super Cities! Baltimore Crossword Puzzle Now Available!
Check out these new FREE resources for educators!
- Super Cities Baltimore Crossword Puzzle (printable .pdf)
- Super Cities Baltimore Crossword Puzzle answer key (printable .pdf)
The answers to all the clues can be found in Super Cities! Baltimore. Find out more about the book below!
Super Cities! Baltimore by Kathy MacMillan
Arcadia Publishing, 2023. $14.99.
Sometimes the coolest places are right outside your front door. Learning about Baltimore’s interesting and unique culture has never been so super fun!
ISBN 9781467198981
“After 19 years of living in Baltimore, 10 of them spent covering the city streets on a bicycle (my only mode of transportation during that time), and seven moves across the city’s neighborhoods, I didn’t think there was much left for me to discover about Charm City. Even so, I’d be hard-pressed to compile an exhaustive list of everything that makes our city the greatest. Kathy MacMillan’s done some of the work for us in Super Cities! Baltimore. I sat down to read the book with my six-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Mila…’I basically liked all of the book,’ Mila told me after we’d finished reading. ‘It felt like I was really there.’” – “Mother/Daughter Corner: Ana and Mila Hart Review ‘Super Cities! Baltimore’”, Baltimore Fishbowl
“My Turn: Exploring Our Super City” in the June 2023 issue of Baltimore’s Child
Order now from the Deaf Camps, Inc. Online Bookstore (autographed copies that support a great cause!) | Arcadia Publishing | amazon.com | BarnesAndNoble.com | Bookshop.org
Read This!: THE SECRETS OF UNDERHILL by Kali Wallace
The Secrets of Underhill by Kali Wallace
Summary: Nick Sixsmith has spent her whole life on the road. The daughter of a traveling arborist, she and her mother move from town to town, caring for the ironwood groves the communities rely upon. When a dangerous blight takes hold of these magical trees, they must journey to the city of Mistwood—her mother’s hometown—for answers. Nick can’t wait to explore the prosperous city of Mistwood and all it has to the bustling markets and workshops, neighborhoods built under a roaring waterfall, and the vast ancestral grove of ironwood trees. But dark secrets simmer beneath the surface as people start to disappear, and tensions rise in the city. As the mystery grows, Nick and her new friends must follow the trail where it leads underground, to a strange, enchanting world called Underhill. Only then, among the roots of ancestral grove, will Nick find a way to save her new home and the ironwood trees.
Another instant-classic middle grade fantasy from Kali Wallace. As in her previous middle grade novels Hunters of the Lost City and City of Islands, Wallace creates a world here that feels both timeless and utterly of its own moment, filled with achingly detailed characters confronting the challenges of their own time and yet providing insight on issues plaguing our modern world. In The Secrets of Underhill, the focus is on how people coexist with their environment, and what happens when greed outweighs human lives. As Nick helps her mother explore the cause of the mysterious blight affecting magical ironwood groves everywhere, she also confronts family secrets and her own fears. A bighearted story celebrating family ties, the power of nature, and the value of standing up for what’s right.
THE SECRETS OF UNDERHILL is out now.
Stories By Hand with Kathy MacMillan 