Here are 100 books that Griffin & Sabine fans have personally recommended if you like
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I have always loved writing, receiving, and reading letters—slips of paper that hold one person’s thoughts in order to transfer them to another person. One of my prized possessions is a short stack of letters I wrote to my parents from summer camp when I was 10 years old. Each one relays some catastrophe—a fall from a horse, a motorcycle crash, a waterskiing incident—with the relish of a wartime correspondent. Epistolary novels, diaries, and journal entries will always fascinate me. I love their immediacy. I begin reading and am immediately captivated by words that are ostensibly written for someone else but which speak directly to me.
I love the verve and charm of this story, told through a series of letters between two young Regency women who are best friends. Though the magical elements add mystery and keep the plot moving, I especially enjoyed experiencing the narrative through their correspondence with each other.
The letters add nuance to the characters, making me imagine that I am involved in the events of their lives—even though it takes days for the post to carry the letters to their destination. A side note that makes me love the book even more is the story of how it came to be: a fan met an author, and they collaborated to create this project.
A great deal is happening in London this season. For starters, there's the witch who tried to poison Kate at Sir Hilary's induction into the Royal College of Wizards. (Since when does hot chocolate burn a hole straight through one's dress?!) Then there's Dorothea. Is it a spell that's made her the toast of the town--or could it possibly have something to do with the charm-bag under Oliver's bed? And speaking of Oliver, just how long can Cecelia and Kate make excuses for him? Ever since he was turned into a tree, he hasn't bothered to tell anyone where he…
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
I have always loved writing, receiving, and reading letters—slips of paper that hold one person’s thoughts in order to transfer them to another person. One of my prized possessions is a short stack of letters I wrote to my parents from summer camp when I was 10 years old. Each one relays some catastrophe—a fall from a horse, a motorcycle crash, a waterskiing incident—with the relish of a wartime correspondent. Epistolary novels, diaries, and journal entries will always fascinate me. I love their immediacy. I begin reading and am immediately captivated by words that are ostensibly written for someone else but which speak directly to me.
This book has introduced me to some of the most amazing, unsung heroines in American history. Every diary entry opens a portal into the past, involving me in the preparation, packing, and travel across the continent—up close and personal.
These brave women’s matter-of-fact documentation of incredible difficulties and hardships never fails to remind me of how fortunate I am to live in the 21st century.
More than a quarter of a million Americans crossed the continental United States between 1840 and 1870, going west in one of the greatest migrations of modern times. The frontiersmen have become an integral part of our history and folklore, but the Westering experiences of American women are equally central to an accurate picture of what life was like on the frontier.
Through the diaries, letters, and reminiscences of women who participated in this migration, Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey gives us primary source material on the lives of these women, who kept campfires burning with buffalo chips and…
I have always loved writing, receiving, and reading letters—slips of paper that hold one person’s thoughts in order to transfer them to another person. One of my prized possessions is a short stack of letters I wrote to my parents from summer camp when I was 10 years old. Each one relays some catastrophe—a fall from a horse, a motorcycle crash, a waterskiing incident—with the relish of a wartime correspondent. Epistolary novels, diaries, and journal entries will always fascinate me. I love their immediacy. I begin reading and am immediately captivated by words that are ostensibly written for someone else but which speak directly to me.
The Great Gatsby is one of my all-time favorite books, so I was thrilled to get to spend more time with Nick Carraway (not my favorite “Gatsby” character, but still…) I love so much about this hilarious, inventive book. Would Fitzgerald approve? Possibly. Would Papa, likely not.
Regardless, I love the letters, memos, transcripts, and other ephemera that come together to make for an entirely novel reading experience.
America in 1953 seems hell-bent on squandering the flood tide of international goodwill earned in WWII. Senator Joe McCarthy is on a red-hunting rampage in Washington, and the fledgling CIA under Allen Dulles is starting to dabble in nation-building.
Into this moment of history wander Nick Carraway and Jake Barnes, refugees from Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. They begin a correspondence that leads to a close friendship, and widens to include a bizarre cast of characters. From the classic fiction of the period come Larry Darrell (The Razor's Edge), Alden Pyle (The Quiet American), Lady…
Delve into this internationally best-selling series, now complete! A fast paced laugh-out-loud mix of Urban Fantasy and Mystery.
I can tell when you’re lying. Every. Single. Time. I’m Jinx, a PI hired to find a missing university student, I hope to find her propped up at a bar–yet my gut…
I have always loved writing, receiving, and reading letters—slips of paper that hold one person’s thoughts in order to transfer them to another person. One of my prized possessions is a short stack of letters I wrote to my parents from summer camp when I was 10 years old. Each one relays some catastrophe—a fall from a horse, a motorcycle crash, a waterskiing incident—with the relish of a wartime correspondent. Epistolary novels, diaries, and journal entries will always fascinate me. I love their immediacy. I begin reading and am immediately captivated by words that are ostensibly written for someone else but which speak directly to me.
One of the things I love most about this book is the fact that it’s the author’s debut novel—when she was in her 70s. The letters that form the story are engaging, witty, and sweet. All of them have a deep underlying awareness of the passing of time. (“It must have occurred to you that what you thought would happen when you were young never did.”)
The writing is beautifully poetic, with phrases that tickle the reader’s inner ear and remind me anew of why I love falling into a good book.
I’ve loved children’s books for as long as I can remember. When I became a Kindergarten teacher, I often used children’s books to springboard lessons and activities with my class. Years later, when I became a mom, I wanted children’s books to be a special part of my children’s lives as well. Reading to my kids before bed became a nighttime ritual we all enjoyed. Another activity we regularly enjoyed was baking. As such, children’s books that have food at the forefront were a natural bridge to kitchen adventures with my children. Here are a few of our favorite books to help spark cooking and baking fun with your kids!
It’s no wonder it's a classic and enjoyed over and over again by families all over the world. There are so many ways to use this book in the kitchen with kids, but my favorite way is to use it to learn about fruit.
I used to read this book to my children and students and then review the many types of fruit in the story. Afterwards, it was fun to make a rainbow fruit salad and munch away just like the hungry caterpillar! It is also helpful for identifying and discussing the differences between healthy vs. unhealthy foods.
The book also includes: early learning for babies and toddlers of first food recognition, especially fruits; learn days of the week, numbers 1-5, and primary colors; review beginning, middle, and end of a story arc; and scientific process of metamorphosis.
There are so many ways to spend a sunny summer day. Join The Very Hungry Caterpillar and explore everything the season has to offer!
Celebrate summer with The Very Hungry Caterpillar and his friends in this exploration of the season. Young readers can learn all about seasonal sensory experiences, like listening to noisy bugs, feeling the warm sunshine, smelling the yummy scents of a cookout, and so much more!
I’ve always been interested in the intersection of STEM and art. When I was younger, my parents thought I’d grow up to be a scientist. Imagine their surprise when I chose to attend art school! Even then, my love for science topics never faded. I’m a frequent listener of science news podcasts like Science Friday and Science Quickly. As a graphic designer for a research university, it’s my job to take technically dense scientific information and make it interesting for the public. This list is full of inquisitive, four-legged scientists that stole my heart. I hope they’ll do the same for you!
She’s still a little too young for actual picture books but loves board books. Anything with lift flaps is a huge hit. Where’s the Astronaut? does one better, it has lift flaps and a mirror! The flaps are made of felt which makes them extra durable. I’ve been fueling my little girl’s love of space from birth, so this board book was a must. I love the bold, geometric art style and all the big, smiling characters (including a space dog!).
When we get to the page with the mirror, she likes to lean in, almost touching her nose to the page, and giggle at her reflection in the book.
Part of Ingela Arrhenius's best-selling felt flap series, which has sold over 2 million copies. Perfect for babies and toddlers!
Celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing with little ones by lifting the felt flaps to discover four hidden space-themed friends. Then find the mirror under the final flap! Parents love these books because they are simple yet robust, and little readers adore them because they're fun and easy to play with.
On the morning of December 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The resulting tsunami killed an estimated 230,000 people across fourteen countries, from Indonesia to Sri Lanka to Thailand to the Maldives to India and all the way to East Africa.…
Researching my novel Set in Stone, I did some hands-on carving in Jurassic limestone—I loved the fact that the materials and techniques are fundamentally unchanged over hundreds of years. My tutor is an expert in letter-cutting, and soon I wanted to try that, exacting though it is. This became an ingredient of my new novel. I began to think of a female character, dedicated to her solitary craft, very independent, but becoming involved in complicated relationships nevertheless. She walked into my mind very confidently as Meg, one of my three viewpoint characters. I hope you’ll enjoy my book selection!
I love Sue Gee’s writing; she is such a keen observer of the natural world and of the complexities and nuances of human relationships. This, set in the years following the First World War, concerns a group of artists who meet at the Slade School of Art, then form enduring relationships.
Painter Walter Cox and wood-engraver Sarah are joined by sculptor Euan, whose carvings explore the deep trauma of warfare and loss; watching him work in stone, Walter knows: ‘This was the real thing...a marriage between man and material which felt entire, complete.’
Sue Gee’s characters are so real that we feel thoroughly immersed in the period and their lives, both in the London art scene and in the Kentish countryside.
In the aftermath of the First World War, the painter Walter Cox cherishes the place of his childhood to keep the pulse of his art alive. Haunted by his work, his young daughter Meredith has her own fight: to quell the power of her inner life.
Deeply affecting, shot through with a shimmering apprehension of the natural world, EARTH AND HEAVEN is about life's fragility, and the power of love and painting to disturb, renew and reveal us to ourselves.
I’m a novelist, essayist, and journalist who’s written extensively about the problems and consolations of faith, about belonging in and out of faith, and about the tribes of what I think of as the In Between. When you’re in between, you’re neither in it nor out of it, whatever “it” might be for you. You bear an “infinity of traces,” as the writer Antonio Gramsci called these formative influences. My first novel looks at these influences directly, while my second one looks at them indirectly. I’m late in the game with a third novel now—a detective story that investigates a murder along with these same themes.
Indispensable. And the scandal of this autobiographical novel hasn’t worn off in a hundred-plus years. Stephen Dedalus is our young man, the self-appointed artist-priest. We see turn-of-the-century Ireland through his eyes and Irish Catholicism, too, each with its special richness and oppressiveness. Ultimately, it’s Stephen’s desire to escape "these nets" that drives his story. He’ll find God in his own way or, failing that, replace him with Art.
A masterpiece of modern fiction, James Joyce's semiautobiographical first novel follows Stephen Dedalus, a sensitive and creative youth who rebels against his family, his education, and his country by committing himself to the artist's life.
"I will not serve," vows Dedalus, "that in which I no longer believe...and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can." Likening himself to God, Dedalus notes that the artist "remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails." Joyce's rendering of the impressions of…
I am an award-winning children’s book author who writes stories about ordinary people, like you and me, that discovered their unique gifts and used those gifts, plus perseverance, to make the world a better place. All my books come with free teacher guides, resources, and projects on my website where kids can share photos of the great things they do.
Many kids love the Disney animated film Bambi, but how many know they have a Chinese American immigrant to thank for its lush and lovely look? Author Julie Leung tells the moving story of a boy named Wong Geng Yeo who traveled across an ocean from China to America with little more than the immigration papers he needed to start his new life. Chris Sasaki’s delicate illustrations detail how Wong dreamed of making art even as he worked as a janitor at night to pay the bills. The love and care that Tyrus Wong poured into what would become one of the great movies of love, friendship, and, years before The Lion King, of the circle of life, Paper Son is an exquisite reminder of the great gifts that immigrants have brought to America.
Winner of the American Library Association's 2021 Asian/Pacific American Award for Best Picture Book!
An inspiring picture-book biography of animator Tyrus Wong, the Chinese American immigrant responsible for bringing Disney's Bambi to life.
Before he became an artist named Tyrus Wong, he was a boy named Wong Geng Yeo. He traveled across a vast ocean from China to America with only a suitcase and a few papers. Not papers for drawing--which he loved to do--but immigration papers to start a new life. Once in America, Tyrus seized every opportunity to make art, eventually enrolling at an art institute in…
Nelson West, a former Chicago homicide detective, is hired by wealthy heir Lionel Bing to discreetly help “fix” scandals and legal problems for his father’s wealthy friends.
Bing, a brilliant but troubled investigator, suffers from PTSD symptoms as a result of being kidnapped and witnessing the murder of his mother…
I’ve always been interested in creators who convey intensely personal stories through dynamic visuals, whether it be animation, illustrations, or comics. And even better: tales of people who lived in the past! Although trained in screenwriting and creative writing, I started making art twenty years ago–and that gave me a newfound respect for those folks who combine great stories and memorable drawings. Nowadays, I can’t read enough graphic novels!
Basquiat is one of my heroes, and although this book is a bit disjointed at times, I give it full credit for visually representing his creative genius (and torment) in dynamic and interesting ways. The Downtown New York art scene of the 1980s was nuts–and this book takes you there!
The dazzling, provocative work of Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) would come to define the vibrant New York art scene of the late '70s and early '80s.
Punk, jazz, graffiti, hip-hop: his work drew heavily on the cultural trappings of lower Manhattan, to which he fled-from Brooklyn-at the age of 15. This stunning graphic novel captures the dramatic life and exhilarating times of this archetypal New York artist, covering everything from the SAMO graffiti project to his first solo show, from his relationship with Andy Warhol to the substance abuse that would cost him his life.
