From The Mixed Up Files

It was a thrill to interview Ally Russell, author of thrilling books, including IT CAME FROM THE TREES; MYSTERY JAMES DIGS HER OWN GRAVE; and now its follow-up, MYSTERY JAMES RETURNS FROM THE GRAVE. Readers will love Mystery’s – and Ally’s – return to the chills of the Olde Ellis Town Cemetery and the mysteries contained within. Here, Ally discusses writing the second part of a duology, crafting sharp dialogue, and coming up with perfect names – and what thrills await! This is the second book in the Mystery James duology, after the tremendous success...

As recently covered in the fascinating Vox article “The promising race to get kids reading again” by Constance Grady, kids read and read and read up until about age 9, when they drop off a reading cliff. There are plenty of theories for this, as outlined by Grady, including: Middle-grade books getting too long, due in part to the success of the billion-page-long Harry Potter series. Kids having less free time to sit and read because they are more scheduled than earlier generations. Covid-19 threw off reading habits, along with access to libraries and books in school. Potential readers putting...

The recent rise of books being taken out of libraries has made an impact on young readers. Now, more than ever, young people have less access to titles representing diversity. “The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked that of the 4,235 unique titles challenged in 2025, 39 % represent the...

  Welcome to STEM Tuesday: Author Interview, a repeating feature for the last Tuesday of every month. Go Science-Tech-Engineering-Math! Today we’re interviewing Laura Mucha, author of Kaleidoscope: Step into a world of color. Kaleidoscope paints a vivid and often creepy picture of humankind’s quest to create coloful art materials. The history and science...

It was a thrill to interview Ally Russell, author of thrilling books, including IT CAME FROM THE TREES; MYSTERY JAMES DIGS HER OWN GRAVE; and now its follow-up, MYSTERY JAMES RETURNS FROM THE GRAVE. Readers will love Mystery’s – and Ally’s – return to the chills of the Olde Ellis...

As a young child picking strawberries alongside his family, Pedro Martin learned that hard work is survival. Even then, he loved to draw cartoons when he wasn’t in the fields and especially loved Saturdays when he could watch cartoons and draw. While in the fields, he imagined the characters of...

Back to school means back to great stories! Here’s a variety of books coming out in September—from mysteries to magical worlds to sci-fi—to pique your imagination and curiosity this  school year.  BAD THINGS HAPPENED HERE  by Moniza Hossain. 208 pp. (Sept 1) Lonely twelve-year-old Sam Wells has never known his...

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.” This famous quote by Stephen King encapsulates an important truth for writers: We should always be reading, and the parenthetical in that quote tells us why. Reading gives us tools, and the only...