Spring is here at last in the northwoods, with the grass finally starting to grow and all the birds returning. There’s still a tiny bit of snow here and there, but not much. And now I’m back to writing in my studio, Golden Moon Cottage. It’s not insulated and was buried under snow for four months! But now it’s accessible again, and it’s a joy to get to write in there again.

My reading has been rather sporadic so far this year, but April has been a better reading month. A few recent favorites: Ginnie and the Wedding Bells by Catherine Woolley, which was a total delight; Coal Camp Girl by Lois Lenski, and The Ghost Rock Mystery by Mary C. Jane.

I also started re-reading Elizabeth Enright’s The Four-Story Mistake, which I often read in the spring! (Even though it mostly takes place in the fall, LOL!)

I’ve been reading a chapter of Gladys Taber’s Stillmeadow Daybook each month, and this month I’m reading (of course!) the April chapter. Taber’s writing is soothing, gentle, and witty, and it’s perfect for perusing a few pages before bed.

The weather should be perfect for front porch reading soon! I have fond memories from last spring/summer reading What Katy Did Next by Susan Coolidge, The Well-Wishers by Edward Eager, The Growing Summer by Noel Streatfeild, and many others. What else will I read this spring? We will soon find out!

I’d love some book recommendations for spring, if you have any! Any fun vintage books or sweet new middle grade novels would be especially appreciated!

I read some wonderful new (and old!) middle grade books in 2024, and I wanted to share some of my favorites with you, in no particular order. (And there are more I could talk about! I found so many great stories this year.)

• The Secret Sisters by Avi (2023): A delightful follow-up to The Secret School, one of my longtime favorites! I waited years to see what would happen to Ida at high school, and this is a worthy sequel.
• Somebody Else’s Summer by Jean Little (2005): I’m so glad I saved this to read in the summer! It’s a Parent Trap-type mix-up where two girls swap places during visits to family members.
• Mustang: Wild Spirit of the West by Marguerite Henry (1966): An incredible novel based on a true story of a woman who dedicated her life to saving mustangs in Nevada.
• Lily’s Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff (1997): This book was completely not what I was expecting based on the plot description, but I was actually pleased with that. It’s a quiet, gentle, yet powerful World War II home front story.
• The Grey Family by Noel Streatfeild (1951): What a joy to read a Streatfeild story I’ve never read before! Written for a slightly younger audience than most of her books, it was episodic, fun, and (of course!) about a young ballet dancer and her family.
• Ferris by Kate DiCamillo (2024): I almost think I liked this story more than Because of Winn-Dixie–it’s humorous and heartwarming and full of well-crafted characters. There’s been a lot of talk about this book winning a Newbery–could it be??
• Marjorie’s Vacation by Carolyn Wells (1907): Sweet, funny episodes in the life of a mischievous girl and her friends during a summer at her grandmother’s.
• Drina Dances Again by Jean Estoril (1959): Another great installment in the Drina series, which I’ve talked about before. I’m sad that the rest of the books in the series are so hard to find!
• Strawberry Girl and Flood Friday by Lois Lenski (1945 and 1956): I really enjoyed both of these books in Lenski’s series that features different regions of the U.S. throughout history.
• Summer on the North Star by Elsa Pedersen (1960): Originally titled Alaska Harvest, this story follows a girl who lives with her family a boat as they harvest crabs in order to earn enough money to buy their own house.
• Maudie in the Middle by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor and Lura Schield Reynolds (1988): Based on a true story, this gently comedic book is about Maudie, a middle child living on an Iowa farm in the early 1900s.
• Absolutely Truly by Heather Vogel Frederick (2014): For me, binge-reading is reading a long book in three days, so this counts as a binge-read. 🙂 It’s about a girl whose family moves to a small town and she helps run the family bookstore, solving a mystery along the way.

Favorite Rereads:

I reread tons of books every year, so this category is JUST the rereads that I vividly remember having a blast with. 🙂 There’s no rhyme or reason as to what will end up being a brilliant re-read for me, it just depends on finding the perfect book to fit my exact mood.

• Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery
• The Four-Story Mistake and Spiderweb for Two by Elizabeth Enright
• The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall
• Party Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
• The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser
• Sister of the Bride by Beverly Cleary
• What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge
• Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo
• Hey, World! Here I Am by Jean Little
• Family Sabbatical by Carol Ryrie Brink

My 50 State Reading Challenge

This was my big reading goal in 2024! I decided to read a children’s book set in every U.S. state. It was such a joy, even though it was hard to find books for a handful of states! It was such a fun challenge that in 2025, I want to read books set in 20 different countries.

Here is my final list of the books I read for the challenge! I’ve noted which ones were picture books (PBs), chapter books (CBs), middle grade (MG), or young adult (YA).

Alabama (Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai)–MG 
Alaska (Summer on the North Star by Elsa Pedersen)–MG
Arizona (Trixie Belden and the Mystery in Arizona by Julie Campbell)–MG
Arkansas (The Girl with the Mind for Math by Julia Finley Mosca)–PB
California (Sister of the Bride by Beverly Cleary)–YA
Colorado (The Secret Sisters by Avi)–MG
Connecticut (Flood Friday by Lois Lenski)–MG
Delaware (When Washington Crossed the Delaware by Lynne Cheney)–PB
Florida (Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski)–MG
Georgia (Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo)–MG
Hawaii (Growing Up with Aloha by Kirby Larson)–CB/MG
Idaho (Moving the Millers’ Minnie Moore Mine Mansion by Dave Eggers)–PB
Illinois (The Light in the Cellar by Sarah Masters Buckey)–MG
Indiana (Rosetown Summer by Cynthia Rylant)–MG
Kansas (May B. by Caroline Starr Rose)–MG
Kentucky (Happy Little Family by Rebecca Caudill)–CB
Iowa (Maudie in the Middle by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor & Lura Schield Reynolds)–MG
Louisiana (Meet Marie-Grace by Sarah Masters Buckey)–CB
Maine (The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall)–MG
Maryland (Chesapeake Duke by Gilbert Byron)–MG
Massachusetts (Little House by Boston Bay by Melissa Wiley)–MG
Michigan (The Star That Always Stays by Anna Rose Johnson–yes, my own book!! It was fun)–MG
Minnesota (Carney’s House Party by Maud Hart Lovelace)–YA
Mississippi (Daddy Played the Blues by Michael Garland)–PB
Missouri (Depend on Katie John by Mary Calhoun)–MG
Montana (The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White)–MG
Nebraska (Elsie’s Bird by Jane Yolen)–PB
Nevada (Mustang, Wild Spirit of the West by Marguerite Henry)–MG/YA
New Hampshire (Absolutely Truly by Heather Vogel Frederick)–MG
New Jersey (The Slipper Point Mystery by Augusta Huiell Seaman)–MG
New Mexico (Secrets in the Hills by Kathleen Ernst)–MG
New York (The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright)–MG
North Carolina (My Great-Aunt Arizona by Gloria Houston)–PB
North Dakota (Fly Away by Patricia MacLachlan)–MG
Ohio (What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge)–MG
Oklahoma (Angels in the Dust by Margot Theis Raven)–PB
Oregon (Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary)–CB/MG
Pennsylvania (Pie by Sarah Weeks)–MG
Rhode Island (The Automobile Girls at Newport by Laura Dent Crane)–MG
South Carolina (Honey Butter by Millie Florence)–MG
South Dakota (Judy Bolton and the Discovery at the Dragon’s Mouth by Margaret Sutton)–MG/YA
Tennessee (Lizzie by May Justus)–CB
Texas (The Boxcar Children and the Mystery at the Alamo by Gertrude Chandler Warner)–CB
Utah (Iron Horses by Verla Kay)–PB
Vermont (Lumber Camp Library by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock)–CB/MG
Virginia (Meg and the Secret of the Witch’s Stairway by Holly Beth Walker)–CB/MG
Washington (For the Love of Autumn by Patricia Polacco)–PB
West Virginia (A Piece of Home by Jeri Hanel Watts)–PB
Wisconsin (Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink)–MG
Wyoming (I Could Do That: Esther Morris Gets Women the Vote by Linda Arms White)–PB

A few other books to share …

I had the joy of providing endorsement blurbs for the books of three friends: Writer on the Wall by Joanne Bischof (a sweet contemporary Christian novel), Road Trip Return by Becca Wierwille (a heartfelt contemporary MG story), and Beyond Mulberry Glen by Millie Florence (a beautifully written, character-driven fantasy MG). Definitely check them out!

Three non-kidlit books I enjoyed this year were L.M. Montgomery’s The Blue Castle (my last new Montgomery book! <tears>) and two nonfiction books: Glad and Golden Hours by Lanier Ivester and illustrated by Jennifer Trafton (a lovely book to read during Advent) and Barefoot Summers by Faith Andrews Bedford (a collection of wonderful essays on summertime, family, and memories).

What did you enjoy reading in 2024? What are some books you’re excited about for 2025? I’d love to hear!

I wanted to do something a little different in this post and give you a quick look into two weeks (more or less!) in my reading life. 🙂

Typically I read 8-10 books a month, but lately it has been a little less because I’ve had so much going on (launching my latest novel and working on other projects), but I have been enjoying some great reading and wanted to share a bit about it!

A little over two weeks ago, I finished reading Spring Begins in March by Jean Little. It is a perfect springtime read (as the title might suggest!), even though the title is really more metaphorical than literal. It’s the sequel to Mine for Keeps, Little’s first novel. I have talked about this book before in my Best Books of Spring post, but it’s worth talking about again because of the charming, realistic characters and the delightful resolution. The best part of the book is when Meg’s grandmother reads aloud Anne of Ingleside to her. This scene was taken from one of Little’s own experiences as a child, when she “read ahead” after her grandmother finished reading for the night because she had to find out what happened to Anne!

When I first read Spring Begins in March, this scene made me want to read Anne of Ingleside, which I never had before. (I had read Anne of Green Gables countless times, but had never gotten to some of the later volumes.) So I read it and loved it! In a journal entry from that time, I wrote: “I like the little vignettes, like individual episodes of a sitcom.” Readers have criticized the episodic nature of some Montgomery books, but much of the time those ‘episodes’ make the books special and unique.

So when I revisited Spring, it put me in the mood to revisit Ingleside. But there was a catch: I have been trying to read the Anne series in order for the first time EVER. I started last April with AOGG and have been (slowly!) continuing throughout the months, and I needed to read Anne’s House of Dreams in order to read Ingleside.

I decided to challenge myself to read AHOD in three days. I have always been a slow reader—I read tons of books but it typically takes me a week to read a long-ish book like the ones in the Anne series. And I love a good challenge! So I dived in and (sort of) binged AHOD. It was terrific fun! AHOD is (like other Montgomery books) essentially stitched together from various short stories that LMM wanted to revisit, but everything is seamless. In my opinion, this is perhaps the most well-crafted Anne book because there’s nothing really extraneous—everything matters, and the various subplots all work well together in harmony.

Here is a two-page spread in my scrapbook that I created while reading AHOD:

So then I went on to Ingleside, but at the moment I am only about halfway through because of two things: life became even busier, and I also received some books for my birthday (yay!) and I am starting on those. Anne of Ingleside is such a joy to read, especially the original portions that were never short stories, LOL! I just find this to be another absolutely wonderful springtime selection.

I also recently read Lizzie by May Justus, a chapter book from 1944 that was reprinted a few years ago. I’ve embarked on a different kind of reading challenge this year—I want to try reading a book set in each U.S. state! So Lizzie was my choice for Tennessee; it’s set in the mountains and is very sweet. Nothing much happens in it, but since it’s so short, that’s okay. 🙂

I just finished one of the books I received for my birthday, Lois Lenski’s Flood Friday. I had a hard time putting it down because I had to find out what happened to all the children! It was based on a real flood in Connecticut in the 1950s, and Lenski is (as usual) excellent with bringing details to life.

The next book I’m currently reading is The Adventure of the Seven Keyholes by Augusta Huiell Seaman. I love her books—she wrote vintage children’s mysteries in the early 20th century and this one, from 1925, is quite good so far.

So that’s basically two weeks in my reading life. What have you been reading lately? I’d love to hear about the last two weeks in your reading life!