Recs if you like Island of the Blue Dolphins...

For when reading a classic feels too daunting. Classics under 200 pages!

Ah yes, this ol' issue that has plagued librarians and bookstore clerks for decades.

And sometimes you find the right book, but... can you even call that shade blue?

All fiction books that appear in the Tiny Bookshop catalogue! Would sort them by genre as I read along.

Bring on those Gen Y memories! A list of books likely to give people born between 1981 and 1996 a lot of feelings.

This list is for those of us who grew up eagerly awaiting the Scholastic Book Fair, watching Reading Rainbow (or Wishbone!), and dreaming of a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut.

Note: these are not books published in 1981-1996, but books that had a hold on the millennial generation.

Also check out the Dear America series, American Girl series & Royal Diaries series.

no like….. literally

I know there are already several lists with a California theme, but I am hoping this acts as a syllabus of sorts for books that deal with the core myth, history, violence, dream, and contradiction of California. Suggestions are welcome!

Classic novels for your (inner) child, with some modern staples in the mix. For reading yourself, reading aloud to little ones, and for those learning to read. Suggestions welcome, as always!

Orphan Fantasy Fiction™. This list isn't about found family, it's about kids living independently/unsupervised and taking care of themselves.

I'm becoming a bit of an expert on curating chapter books to read aloud at bedtime for an INCREDIBLY critical audience (the bedtime story DNF rate at our house is WILD). Collecting them here to share with other parents and guardians. Suggestions welcome and encouraged (please - they are ravenous for the stories)

The books your teacher made you read between the ages of 11-14. They changed the way you saw the world, they made you realize books were more than just goofy or sentimental stories you gobbled up before bedtime, and they stuck with you, all these years later.

Suggestions welcome, especially from non-American readers!!

Note: this list was made by a Millennial, so I'd love to hear from some different generations! What did your teachers assign you?

According to the ALA, "The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children."

all books that have been adapted to another medium. mostly film and TV but other adaptations might get mixed in.

Stories of girls and women learning to ask big questions, take up space, and become themselves...again and again.

classic literature for children that's worth reading as an adult

Complete as of August 2026.

So you like dolphins?

Books to devour during readathons if you like fantasy/sci-fi, and dark adventures and/or whimsy.

So many childhood books, so little time, feel free to comment suggestions

A list of books that I read as a child, teen and young adult that shaped me as a person and a reader