It’s been one year since I began the Mousehold. What started as a general kidlit blog has turned primarily chapter book focused. I guess that’s where reading hundreds of chapter books gets you. One of my friends suggested a “Top 5” sort of deal, which I liked. I can cover a large amount of the […]
So I finally did it. I dipped my toes in the vast ocean that is the Heidi Heckelbeck series. And I immediately had to stop and write this article because the first two books are insane. You have to hear about this. Spoilers for Heidi Heckelbeck books one and two incoming fast. Those Names I’ll […]
When writing for a specific age group, you want to be relatable. If you’re writing a chapter book series, you’re going to have to be relatable a lot. Can you cover ten topics? Twenty? Here’s a shortlist of fifteen common topics I’ve seen across different chapter books series. More importantly, we can see how each […]
Chapter books tend to be in series, but how much does that really matter? If a kid is expected to be able to pick up any book in a series and not be missing anything, what do you need to repeat? What can you reference without confusing a reader? And Princess Pulverizer is one of […]
Yeah yeah, it’s not chapter books. My blog has “mouse” in the name, so this counts. Kevin Henkes is my favorite kidlit author, bar none. He writes mice characters and doesn’t shy away from subjects. Premise(s) Each book deals with a very common subject. Not like mermaids or unicorns or teeth falling out. Really deep […]
So I don’t know how I’ve gone my whole life not knowing about this series. I’ve had a lot of friends and coworkers go “Oh I read that when I was a kid!” with some fondness when they found out I was reading it. This has happened with a lot of the series I’ve read […]
So recently a friend of mine made the mistake of informing me that Magic Tree House was a thing. Like, one the best-selling chapter book series of all time kind of a thing. Sixty-six books not counting supplement books and graphic novels kind of a thing. So of course I’m gonna read them all. For […]
There. I said it. It’s hard to talk about books when nobody’s on the same page. You think somebody would have unified format names by now. Different groups have different ideas. From publishers to stores to libraries to teachers and of course, kids. Things can’t help get a little muddied. But I can still complain […]
Happy new year everyone! What have I been doing over the holiday season? Oh not much just finishing all of Junie B Jones. I’m not even done yet, but I’ve read all the mainline books and I really wanna get this article up on time. I missed December and all. “Why would you subject yourself […]
This is the first article I’ve been requested to write. Don’t let that make you think this topic isn’t exciting, because it super is exciting. I went off about it in a critique group and had to pull myself back from ranting for hours. This article isn’t hours long though. Don’t worry, I kept it […]
The Mousehold 