Rhapsody in Books Weblog

This epistolary book for kids features a young boy writing to his Grandpa about how his summer has been going. He assures Grandpa he is not forgetting about school; in fact, he avers, he reads every day. And he is expanding his vocabulary with big words like “tornado” and “explosion.” Kids will see from the author’s whimsical illustrations that the boy’s learning is coming fr...

This historical fiction novel takes place in Afghanistan in the period between 1964 and 2003 and has several overarching themes: misogyny for, and abuse of, women; the mutually destructive and bloody internecine conflict among competing warlords in Afghanistan after the departure of first Russia, then America; and how love and respect can provide unexpected strength to help e...

This is the 3rd installment of a trilogy about a deep friendship between two very different beings who would ordinarily be “enemies” – Orris the rat, and Timble the owl.

In the first book, we learn that Orris and Timble met when Timble flew into ...

This is the first book in a crime series featuring 39-year-old Police Chief Benoît Courrèges, known as Bruno. The series was recommended to me as an entertaining way to learn more about the the Dordogne region in France, known for medieval castles, picturesque villages, and delicacies of French cuisine like black truffles, foie gras, and walnuts.

Bruno had been abando...

Children’s book author and poet Eloise Greenfield (May 17, 1929 – August 5, 2021) was well-known and much loved for her positive depictions of Black family life. When she first started writing poetry, she saw there were too few books for children that showed African Americans in a favorable light.