Books & Reviews
7 Books That Keep 5-Year-Olds Interested
Not the most educational. The ones children ask for again.
2 min read
Stories
Stories about reading,
children and family life.
Personal essays and practical ideas about raising readers, reluctant readers, family evenings and relationships, and the books that sometimes help us understand all of it.
Editor's selection
Parents & Children
How Long Should a 5-Year-Old Read Each Day?
The honest answer is shorter than the guilt most parents carry about it.
1 min read
Parents & Children
My Daughter Is Five and a Half. She Hasn't Read My Books.
I write books for young adults. My daughter is five and a half and hasn't read a page of them. On reading before reading, the one trick I trust, and why I'm happy to wait.
2 min read
Parents & Children
Should You Make a Child Finish a Book They Hate?
Should children have to finish every book they start? Most adults abandon books all the time. When it's worth pushing a little, when to let go, and how to tell the difference.
1 min read
The Weekly Letter
One letter a week about reading and family life.
Once a week: a short personal note, one article about reading or family life, one practical idea to try, and a question you can answer just by replying. One email a week, never a sales pitch.
Parents & Children
Reading with children is rarely only about books.
Parents & Children
When a Child Doesn't Like Reading, Start by Stopping
Before adding anything new, take something away. Usually it's the pressure.
4 min read
What They're Reading at 2 A.M.
2 min read
Love & Relationships
Stories about the ways we find each other, lose each other and sometimes find our way back.
Love & Relationships
We Used to Talk More. Then Life Got Loud.
Nobody decides to stop talking. It happens in the gaps between everything else.
Reading Life
Our odd, changing, lifelong relationship with reading itself.
Reading Life
I Took the Stars Off ALMA
Every book I recommended had five of them. That was the problem.
3 min read
Books & Reviews
Reviews with a point of view: what a book understands about people, and what didn't work.
Books & Reviews
Funny Story by Emily Henry: Whose Story Was It, Really?
A real review, not a press release dressed up as an opinion.
Life & Us
The ordinary, unglamorous parts of being a person, and the books that sometimes help with them.
Life & Us
The Night I Realized We Were All Home, but Not Really Together
Everyone was home. Everyone was somewhere else. What I noticed that night, and what I'm trying now.
5 min read
From The Keeper Chronicles
Notes from the author's own series: Solmerith, the books, and what's coming next.
The Keeper Chronicles
The Ten Words I Buried in Book Two That Nobody's Asked About Yet
Buried in the oldest layer of a Guardian's mind, meant for someone who hasn't arrived. I wrote them two years ago and I still think about them more than almost anything else in these books.
5 min read
Latest stories
Parents & Children
How to Start a Book Club With Kids Who Don't Think They Like Reading
A book club doesn't need a curriculum or six children who already love reading. One child, one adult and one book is enough. This is the small version, and how to keep it going when it stalls.
3 min read · 11 August 2026
Parents & Children
Nobody Called It the Slow Group. Every Child Knew Anyway.
Every classroom has one: the reading group nobody names and every child can point to. This is for the children at that table, and for the parents wondering whether theirs is one of them.
2 min read · 9 August 2026
Parents & Children
5 Ways to Help a Reluctant Reader Finish a Book
A mystery instead of a chapter, a line to stop on, a ritual instead of an assignment, and two more ideas. Written from a writer's side of the page, for parents who want a reluctant reader to reach the last one.
2 min read · 30 July 2026
The Keeper Chronicles
Inside the Shadow Choice Universe: Every Symbol, Every Title, Every Secret I Can Tell You
Two books, eight symbols, a cast whose titles change between volumes, and nine last words I won't spoil. Everything I'd want a new reader to know before opening Shadow Choice.
3 min read · 29 July 2026