Dear Pop, My daughter and I recently read the Koolura Series and loved all three books. We were pleasantly surprised that an inexpensive Kindle could be so good. School will be starting soon, and I was wondering if you know where we can find inexpensive print books for Lindsay to read on the bus and…
Dear Pop, I have a teenage son who really needs hands on discipline. His father died last year and his uncle keeps offering to be his father figure and take charge of his discipline. I can’t control my son, as I have never laid a hand on him. Should I let his uncle punish the…
It’s a shame how petulant the Wrensdale Police Department treats Talia Marby. In the character’s debut in Linda Reilly’s A Deep Fried Mystery series, she confronts a man who has been harassing her boss only to find him slumped over his desk, dead. Talia eventually solves that murder mystery. In book two of the…
You’ve seen them on library and book store shelves—a book series. They are actually a book sequence having certain elements in common including characters, setting, and timeline. Some works in a series can be read in any order, like the Koolura Series. In a “Stand Alone” series each book makes few references to previous books…
The Last Starbase is book 3 in the Sons of Neptune series. Shane, Sam, and company discover an ancient starship, the Praihawk, buried in the Artic and plan to use it to get help from their ancestors of long ago. The Peak, a refugee stronghold established by Shane and Sam, is attracting survivors of the alien…
In the science fiction fantasy, Earthweeds,Shane and Sam are brothers. Shane is in college and Sam is about to finish high school. Each summer the boys escape for a few weeks into the wilderness outside of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania to hunt and evade the hustle and bustle of the real world. This year, when the boys…
Dear Pop, My grandma is always talking about how wonderful the Baby Boom generation is. I did some research and discovered they are a bunch of self-indulgent consumers. Please tell me about my generation and how great we are so I can throw it back at her. BTW, I was born in 2008. 21stCentury Kid…
March is National Reading Month and it’s up to moms and dads to instill a love of reading in their children. To encourage them to improve their reading skills and develop a fondness for books it’s strongly suggested you set some time aside a few times a week for family reading time. This means…
In 2018 Pop read and reviewed 36 young adult novels. All of the books received 5 pops because they were thought provoking, imaginative, and the author’s writing style exemplary. Below you’ll find seven of his favorites plus his award-winning novel, Koolura and the Mayans. Title: Koolura and the Mayans Author: Michael Thal Awards: 2018 eLit…
Elai Nelson and the Prophecy of the Child is book one of the Fire on the Clouds Trilogy. The novel begins when Elai’s home is broken into by two goons who kill his adoptive parents and attempt to kidnap him. But with the help of his talking toothbrush (you read that right) the sixteen-year old manages…