Here are 78 books that The Boy with Two Shadows fans have personally recommended if you like
The Boy with Two Shadows.
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My family and I moved from America to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2019. As a children’s author, one of the best parts has been discovering a new world of literature. New Zealand is a very small country, so bookstores, libraries, and schools are filled with books from the U.S., the UK, Australia, and more. As one New Zealander so eloquently put it, “Kiwi kids read the world.” On the flip side, it’s extremely rare for books from New Zealand publishers to make it to other parts of the world, no matter how great they are. I hope this introduction to Kiwi KidLit makes you eager to seek out even more!
Forget Clifford and Snoopy. When it comes to fictional dogs, the most famous of all in New Zealand is Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy. (“Dairies” are what New Zealanders call corner stores.)
Hairy Maclary—a black, shaggy dog with a spring in his step—goes off for a walk with some of his cleverly named friends, like Bottomly Potts covered in spots, and Schnitzel vom Krumm with a very low tum. With a fun, sing-songy rhythm, cute dogs, and one very scary cat (the notorious Scarface Claw!), it’s no wonder this book’s been delighting “wee ones” for forty years.
Join Hairy Maclary and his friends on their first ever adventure in this golden 40th anniversary edition of the beloved rhyming classic!
Hairy Maclary is off for a walk in town, and on the way he's joined by many furry friends of all shops and sizes, from Bottomley Potts (covered in spots) to Schnitzel von Krumm (with a very low tum). But when they suddenly find themselves face-to-face with Scarface Claw - the toughest Tom in town - it's time to run all the way back home!
The brilliantly clever rhyme and vivid, engaging pictures have made this story into…
My family and I moved from America to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2019. As a children’s author, one of the best parts has been discovering a new world of literature. New Zealand is a very small country, so bookstores, libraries, and schools are filled with books from the U.S., the UK, Australia, and more. As one New Zealander so eloquently put it, “Kiwi kids read the world.” On the flip side, it’s extremely rare for books from New Zealand publishers to make it to other parts of the world, no matter how great they are. I hope this introduction to Kiwi KidLit makes you eager to seek out even more!
With all the gorgeous scenery in New Zealand, my family and I have thoroughly enjoyed getting out into nature by hiking on weekends.
In sparse but skillful rhyme, this book follows a group of families that go exploring together. A gentle story with soft illustrations, this contemporary picture book feels like a cozy classic.
Come exploring with our campers as they spot treasures along the track to their campsite. Don't forget to keep an eye out for the cheeky kea along the way! But what happens when the curious campers take a wrong turn?Praise for A Stick and a Stone:'It inspired us to go outside and do a nature treasure hunt. Something in this gorgeous book for everyone!' - Gleebooks'Reminiscent of We're Going on a Bear Hunt and A Summery Saturday Morning, this beautifully illustrated story will delight parents and children alike. 3+'…
My family and I moved from America to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2019. As a children’s author, one of the best parts has been discovering a new world of literature. New Zealand is a very small country, so bookstores, libraries, and schools are filled with books from the U.S., the UK, Australia, and more. As one New Zealander so eloquently put it, “Kiwi kids read the world.” On the flip side, it’s extremely rare for books from New Zealand publishers to make it to other parts of the world, no matter how great they are. I hope this introduction to Kiwi KidLit makes you eager to seek out even more!
New Zealand is known for its sheep—there are five times more sheep than people!
In this book, popular author and illustrator Donovan Bixley takes four classic nursery rhymes about sheep and gives them a thoroughly modern treatment, full of energy and humor.
A (baa-baa) black sheep sees its wool knitted into an All Blacks rugby jersey, and Mary takes her little lamb on a dirt bike and to school, in uniform. From the farm to the dairy to the beach, these clever, boisterous illustrations celebrate the Aotearoa I’ve come to know and love with true Kiwi ingenuity.
My family and I moved from America to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2019. As a children’s author, one of the best parts has been discovering a new world of literature. New Zealand is a very small country, so bookstores, libraries, and schools are filled with books from the U.S., the UK, Australia, and more. As one New Zealander so eloquently put it, “Kiwi kids read the world.” On the flip side, it’s extremely rare for books from New Zealand publishers to make it to other parts of the world, no matter how great they are. I hope this introduction to Kiwi KidLit makes you eager to seek out even more!
Matariki, the Māori new year, comes in late June, winter in New Zealand. It begins when the star cluster known as Matariki first appears in the sky. It’s a time of honoring ancestors, being with family, reflecting on the past, and dreaming for the future.
This moving story by Brianne Te Paa is about a boy who takes the lead in honoring his koro (grandfather), who dies shortly before Matariki. The sadness and warmth come through the night-sky color palette and the grown-up-feeling illustrations. To an American still learning about Matariki and Māori culture, this story feels unique, yet the way it captures the bonds between whānau (family) makes it feel universal.
A young boy learns about the customs around celebrating Matariki from his grandfather. They watch the stars from the top of a mountain, prepare their offering of food for the gods, and the boy learns about Te Waka o Rangi and the tradition of calling out the names of loved ones who have passed away so that they can become stars. Just before Matariki the following year, the boy's Koro suddenly dies. He gathers and prepares the food offering and asks each family member to come with him up the mountain when Matariki is due to rise, but they all…
I’ve been a fan of horror stories since I was a kid. As an introverted and shy kid, I used to joke with my best friend about how I felt like a ghost and wished I had the power to be invisible. After I became a children’s book author/illustrator, I became fascinated with ghost picture books and started collecting them. Ghost picture books not only fulfilled my spooky necessities but also gave me warmth and heartfelt emotions.
It’s a heartwarming book about how a friendship could cross any barrier. I love how Cat contrasted the world of Shinbi—the ghost, and Greem—the shadow. The dark, starry night and the colorful, greenish day.
I adore Cat Min’s watercolor artwork and how she handled the colors. The book is so beautiful and delightful!
Shinbi is not a particularly ghosty ghost. At night she likes making tiny bouquets of things, and gazing at the far away stars. Haunting? Not so much. Even if that’s what the other ghosts like.
In the daytime, in a meadow, sits a single rock, casting a single shadow, named Greem. He’d really like someone to talk to. But who? He writes one word on his lonely rock: “Hi” and hopes someone will see it. Sure enough, in the darkness of night, Shinbi finds the note! But who could have written it?
Fer over ten years I skippered a small book publishing company. During them years I inspected countless book proposals, most which got tossed overboard. I kin quickly gauge whether a manuscript be ripe fer publication. I bring that same skill ter reading YA and middle grade fiction. Ter be honest, it be a good deal easier ter judge the work of others than write great ficiton. But since “voice” be the reflection of the author’s soul, it helps ter know that those who be crafting the tales ‘ave thar moral compass aligned ter true north. These four authors be stand up in my book.
So I got this book recommendation from an alert reader, Samantha Zlobotnik, with the alarming news that pirates are now stealing ebooks and selling them on the web. I swear I am not making this up. My policy with alarming news that arrives unsolicited in my email is the same as my policy with updated privacy policy alerts. I trash them. But in this case, I bought the book recommended by Samantha Zlobotnik because it was, after all, a Dave Barry novel and written for YA boys. (Maybe also for YA girls, though I cannot confirm this.) It's funny, features pirates, includes bumbling pirates (if you're down to one good leg and a peg you're going to bumble and stumble about), and in my opinion way too long. Still, I can't stop re-reading it. Humor, pirates, ships, treasure, Peter Pan... Samantha Zlobotnik had me at "Aaarrrr! you still reading pirate…
A ship draws near Mollusk Island, bringing an eerie passenger - a cloaked stranger who makes even the desperate pirate crew shake in fear. Lord Ombra is coming for Peter and the Lost Boys...Peter and Tinker Bell must travel to the mean streets of Victorian London on a mission to save the world from the forces of darkness - but can they survive the sinister Shadow Thieves? A must for Peter Pan fans - young or old - this action-packed magical adventure reveals even more of the boy-who-never-grew-up's past!
My passion for old-school genre fiction began as that of a writer learning to write. What started out as self-education soon turned into a love of all things thrilling and fantastic. I was able to truly enjoy reading, something I felt discouraged from in school (beyond the classics and a few exceptions). I discovered a great many works and writers in my studies who I look up to now, for they taught me some key ingredients, from creating intelligent, dynamic heroes to captivating world-building to, above all else, well-paced prose, whether in action, dialogue, or exposition. These five are not only great teachers; they are simply great fun.
To read an adventure of The Shadow is to white-knuckle a trip through the underworld, upon whose end there is only justice for the guilty. Much like the dark avenger’s dual identities, “Maxwell Grant” is, in reality, Walter B. Gibson, reporter, magician, and author of hundreds of Shadow magazines across 18 years.
Gibson is a role model of mine for both his productivity and craft, of which this is a stellar example of both. From the tightly-paced action to the dastardly eponymous villain to The Shadow’s ingenious thwarting, its a quintessential pulp thriller from top to bottom, the kind of clever crime-fighting that always leaves readers (myself included) with smile on their face, and proves to all that “crime does NOT pay!”
I’ve always delighted in stories where characters find they are not quite who they thought. I love double identities, triple identities, dual roles, and mysterious extra names…so long as they are written so I can believe in them. My own family tree is full of people using names or personas that weren’t quite what one might expect, and I follow the tradition in that although there is just one of me, physically speaking, I wear a great many hats. I have also loved hidden identity TV and film, such as Nowhere Man, and the first iteration of Total Recall. Many of my own books deal with identity, and it was difficult to pick just one!
Laura Chant knows the world can wobble. She knows the boy at school, Sorry Carlisle, is a good deal more than he seems. When her little brother is lost to a vicious predator, Laura has to find a new self, or perhaps her own hidden depths, and face the changeover, which will remake her into another form. To do this, she has to place her trust in Sorry and his strange family, but she’ll do anything to save Jacko. Margaret Mahy is one of my favourite writers, and I think this book is her best. It is beautifully written in her inimitable style.
When her little brother seems to become possessed by an evil spirit, fourteen-year-old Laura seeks the help of the strangely compelling older boy at school who she is convinced has supernatural powers
Since I was a child I have viewed the world differently. I dreamed of magical worlds, and I always was curious to find answers to questions that were hard to find. When I began to question a local legend about the Lady in White, I had to know more. I spent countless days researching to find anything about this mystery lady. Unfortunately, I never did find out who the Lady in White was, but I did find information on every one of her so-called victims. With a handful of real-life events, and a lot of imagination, my Lady in White series was born.
I love stories that are based on legends, myths, and folklore. This one is the latter.
Took is the first book that opened my mind to folklore of witches and witchcraft. If finding a cabin in the woods with bones and artifacts inside didn’t bring chills down my spine, then the mysterious storyline that followed definitely did. The suspense of the book kept my mind captive till the very end!
1
author picked
Took
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it.
This book is for kids age
6,
7,
8, and
9.
What is this book about?
Thirteen year old Daniel Anderson doesn't believe Brody Mason's crazy stories about the ghost witch who lives up on Brewster's Hill with Bloody Bones, her man eating razorback hog. He figures Brody's probably just trying to scare him since he's the new kid ...a "stuck-up snot" from Connecticut. But Daniel's seven year old sister Erica has become more and more withdrawn, talking to her lookalike doll. When she disappears into the woods one day, he knows something is terribly wrong. Did the witch strike? Has Erica been "took"?
There's magic in a book that opens a window to the lives of ordinary people who lived in a time and place very different from our own. That’s why I enjoy exploring these stories. The narratives of the famous are often polished to the point that all the odd edges of a delicious pea soup or a long trip in uncomfortable boots are worn away. But I love these little details: how certain boarding house rules meant women had no place to stay when Jack the Ripper was prowling, or how a journal might consist of rag paper with a hand-stitched binding. They show us a distant era, but also reinforce our common humanity.
Different stylistically than the other books on the list, The Witch of Eye is a collection of lyric essays about those accused of witchcraft. In its pages, we meet Lisbet Nypan of Norway, who cured patients using a “ritual of salt” only to be put on trial in the late 1600s, and the German midwife Walpurga Hausmannin, who allegedly coupled with the devil in the clothes of the neighborhood corn farmer. The sentences are dense and hypnotic, transporting readers into fields and courtrooms. One essay begins by describing the language of magic: “You begin a spell with an invocation like Hear me or I beseech you or Oh friend or Listen.” Let yourself be drawn in.
This amazingly wise and nimble collection investigates the horrors inflicted on so-called "witches" of the past. The Witch of Eye unearths salves, potions, and spells meant to heal, yet interpreted by inquisitors as evidence of evil. The author describes torture and forced confessions alongside accounts of gentleness of legendary midwives. In one essay about a trial, we learn through folklore that Jesus's mother was a midwife who cured her own son's rheumatism. In other essays there are subtle parallels to contemporary discourse around abortion and environmental destruction. Nuernberger weaves in her own experiences, too. There's an ironic look at her…
