100 books like Betsy-Tacy

At a whopping 1,152 pages, Stephen King’s The Stand was just too much to capture in a single movie.

That’s why, in 1994, CBS adapted it across four, ninety-minute episodes of a limited run “mini-series” (a fancy way of saying “a really long movie”). In all fairness, it had a great cast and was better than it had any right to be, and was far more enjoyable than CBS’s 2020 attempt at a do-over.

But even with a total six-hour runtime, it couldn’t capture all the story, heart, and nuance that made the book so incredible. It’s a feat to read, one I did to pass the time when bored in school, and one I will surely do again in the future.

Yarrow by Charles de Lint (okay, pretty much anything by Charles de Lint, my introduction to urban fantasy. This was the first of his books I read, about Cat Midhair, a writer whose inspiration comes from her very vivid dreams, and who is suddenly cut off from those dreams by a “vampire” who feeds on them. I love de Lint’s writing style, the combination of the real world and fantasy, and some horrific elements that raise the stakes for the characters.  

This is the first book of the three-book Darwath Series. A powerful wizard, in an attempt to save his world, winds up pulling a couple of people over from Earth. The relationships and the struggles, along with the wry humor, make this book great. All of Hambly’s fantasy books that I’ve read have worlds where magic does not come easy, and I always appreciate the price that magic users have to pay. This series of hers has a frighteningly good tale—that ending!

Ooooh, my goodness. Kane is possibly the best anti-hero ever created, and the combination of cosmic horror, swords, sorcery, action, and awesome storytelling make these books/story collections stand out for me. Kane is an immortal, cursed by a mad god to wander the Earth “until he is destroyed by the violence that he himself has created,” and is a take on the biblical Cain, but a lot more fun. Kane inspired one of the characters in my book series and he may just edge out Conan as my favorite lead in the sword & sorcery genre.

Calliope June has Tourette Syndrome and is one of the stars of this dual-POV novel – with Calliope’s chapters told in verse and Jinsong’s in prose.

At times it’s a tough story to read as it doesn’t shy away from Calliope’s struggles and the bullying she experiences at school and at home, but it’s also jam-packed with hope and beauty and small moments that can change a life forever.

I also think this was the first book I read starring and written by someone with Tourette, and it challenged virtually everything I’d ever known about the disability. I read it in an hour several years ago and it still has a firm place in my heart and soul.  

Eight years ago, when I was living in Brooklyn and looking for direction in my children’s book career, I was lucky to know this wonderful artist who gave me a signed copy of her book. It’s been a great inspiration to me professionally, and has a very sweet story as well. It’s about a girl who has a ‘Totoro’-esque best friend in her dreams, and then uses that friendship to make a new best friend in real life. I can really relate to the new-kid-in-town anxieties around friendship, and I love the illustrations. The dream-like images and colors in this book are cozy and sublime, making for a perfect bedtime read.  

I love Gibberish for the brilliant way that Voh portrays how it feels to be the new kid at school, in a new country, with a new language. It’s a familiar story arc but told in such a unique way! Voh’s use of speech bubbles and emojis to represent the new language as gibberish is such a powerful tool to convey the confusion of the unfamiliar. I love how easily children relate to the text and the images—and in so doing, connect with the new kid. Masterfully done, I highly recommend this!

Margaret’s Unicorn is full of atmosphere and a feeling of place. From the golden, beautifully rendered light, to Margaret’s woollen sweater, the book is like a warm hug. The animal friend in this story is a young unicorn. Margaret, a girl who is adjusting to a recent move to the countryside, witnesses a ghostly, mysterious herd of migrating unicorns on her first walk exploring her new landscape. Moments later, she finds a baby unicorn who was mistakenly left behind. Over the year of waiting for the herd to return, Margaret looks after her little friend and experiences the seasons in her beautiful new environment. By the time she has to say goodbye, Margaret has settled into her new home and the unicorn is ready to return to his family.

I enjoy this book particularly for the lovely, convincing depiction of the countryside mixed with the touch of magic. Readers will… show more.

How can baseball, math, salty snacks, and Shakespeare fit together in one book? I’m not entirely sure, but somehow, Rajani LaRocca has combined these seemingly disparate elements to create Much Ado About Baseball, a delightful retelling of Much Ado About Nothing. This magical summer adventure features two equally lovable main characters, Trish and Ben, math rivals turned baseball teammates who come together to solve a problem. I love that there’s a female pitcher on a team of mostly boys, and I love all the connections LaRocca makes between baseball and math. Whether kids are baseball fans, math whizzes, or neither of these things, they’re sure to enjoy this charming novel, which also features an extremely sweet dog.

This is a lovely story about a young boy named Peter who has just moved to a new house and takes it upon himself to make two new friends from blankets and pillows and piles of leaves. He names his new friends Lenny and Lucy, and they are the guardians of the bridge keeping out the dark woods on the other side. As Lenny, Lucy, Peter, and his dog Harold guard the bridge and collect rocks, a neighbor girl joins the group, creating a real and true friendship that blossoms as they discover the woods are no longer dark and spooky, but a place of wonder for interesting things to see and discover.