Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Critique.
Juniper's Christmas
Eoin Colfer has written a youth novel entitled 'Juniper's Christmas'. This is a new way of viewing Santa Claus for me in a more human likeness of everyday people. Juniper in her search for her mother meets a man named Niko who has a resemblance to someone we all know.
By Mark Grahamabout a year ago in Critique
The Obstacle Course A Self-help/Inspirational Novel
Neal R. Varon has written a book entitled 'The Obstacle Course' and these two phrases will make you want to read this book. What a course! and What a class! The book is like taking a class for you will want to do the activities offered for I learned plenty.
By Mark Grahamabout a year ago in Critique
Two-Headed Chicken Beak to the Future
Tom AngleBerger has written this youth novel that is about a two-headed chicken on a voyage that will have them hopping through the Corona verse and telling knock-knock jokes through time and space. It is a book that reads like a comic or maybe something like a graphic novel story.
By Mark Grahamabout a year ago in Critique
Finch House
'Finch House' written by Ciera Burch is a youth novel about a girl named Michaela and her love for her PopPop and making new friends, but not to go by the big old house 'Finch House' for the is a secret that will affect those around her closely like family.
By Mark Grahamabout a year ago in Critique
We Disagree About the Tree
Ross Collins has written a picture book entitled 'We Disagree About the Tree' that is about two friends who see how to decorate their tree in two ways. This is a good book to teach children about making compromises and a few other skills that one needs to learn well.
By Mark Grahamabout a year ago in Critique
Dasher Can't Wait for Christmas
Matt Tavares has written 'Dasher Can't Wait for Christmas' a picture book about one of Santa's reindeer and his adventure on Christmas Eve. His adventure will maybe show him an aspect of Christmas that he enjoys, but he runs into trouble on his way home to the North Pole. Why?
By Mark Grahamabout a year ago in Critique
Beulah has a Hunch! Inside the Colorful Mind of Master Inventor Beulah Louise Henry
This is a picture book written and illustrated by Katie Mazeika entitled 'Beulah has a Hunch! Inside the Colorful Mind of a Master Inventor'. There are inventions galore in this colorful book that tells all about this incredible person her inventions to what she has overcome in her living life.
By Mark Grahamabout a year ago in Critique
The Unreal of Preservation
How can one think of preservation in terms of what is real? I think this while sitting in the main reading room of the Abbot Library at the University at Buffalo. I had been meaning to come to this library for some time after seeing a picture of it. Books are a passion of mine and thus so are the repositories of knowledge that we simply call libraries. Gone, it seems however, are the days of the beautiful library. Filled with grandeur and craftsmanship to be an edifice of thought itself imbued in structure. A space in which one can think, connected to the history of Mankind. A space that could anthropologically be called a place; that is, imbued with history, emotion, tradition. I could just as easily now be writing of the strangeness I experienced walking through the very modern, yet not all unpleasant, 39th Street Stavros Niarchos Public Library in New York City that felt the need to display photographs of the world’s most beautiful libraries on their walls. A strange display of the past in a space in which the past is abandoned, if only preserved within the books themselves, and yet, how real is the copy of Flaubert’s Madame Bovary or Joyce’s Ulysses that is printed in 1994, covered in its protective plastic laminate? In fact, the main 5th Avenue library that is imbued with history and beauty has lost its practical purpose and has become a museum that is its own relic.
By Daniel J. Guercioabout a year ago in Critique
Masala Chai Fast and Slow
Rajani LaRocca and illustrator Neha Rawat has created a children's picture book entitled 'Masala Chai Fast and Slow' which is a book in my eyes as a book for all generations to share. This is a book that will teach us all one lesson we all need to learn well.
By Mark Grahamabout a year ago in Critique
A Few Beautiful Minutes Experiencing a Solar Eclipse
Kate Allen Fox and illustrator Khoa Le has created a children's picture book entitled 'A Few Beautiful Minutes Experiencing a Solar Eclipse'. This is a story of a little boy who experiences this phenomenon. It also makes for a great science lesson for all who have experienced such an event.
By Mark Grahamabout a year ago in Critique
A Spider named Itsy
Steve Light has written a children's picture book entitled 'A Spider named Itsy'. This is adapted his version from the classic finger play 'The Eensy Weensey Spider'. In this story Itsy is looking for a new home and you can probably guess what happens, but still a very cute adaptation.
By Mark Grahamabout a year ago in Critique
Major Taylor World Cycling Champion
Charles R. Smith and illustrator Leo Espinosa have created a children's picture book that is based on a true story about Major Taylor and who knew a small colored boy in the 19th century that like to ride bikes, and will Major Taylor and society give him a chance to.
By Mark Grahamabout a year ago in Critique
