I have always loved mysteries. If you have followed Jackie and me for a while, you will know that The Westing Game has always ...

The 2026 Reading Challenge is here! This will be the 9th reading challenge since Jackie and I started Beyond the Bookends. We love seeing how much the challenge has grown and how much all of you have ...

In addition to in-person and virtual speaking events, Jackie and Kirsten have contributed to podcasts and articles. A sampling of their media appearances can be found below. Today, I am joined by ...

The Harry Potter books may be the series that started the trend of books with magical schools for kids, but it is not the ...

Each colorful block below represents the best book in a subgenre. Click on the arrow to reveal my “best” pick in any category. You’ll also be able to use a page jump to see more books in that section.

Finding historical fiction books for middle school aged children can be a little more challenging than you think. Kids ages ...

Forty is the new thirty, so it is not surprising that in recent years, there are more books with older protagonists. It is so ...

Family inheritance novels have become a popular subgenre of books in the last few years, and I am all for it. These are my ...

The GMA Book Club List 2025 is a complete list of the Good Morning America Book Club picks for 2025. I wanted to make this ...

This is the Oprah Book Club List 2025, with short descriptions of all the books and reviews of the books I have read.

Jackie and I created the summer reading challenges in 2021, when we kept hearing people say they didn’t know what to read. The pandemic was starting to fade out, but everyone’s reading habits were ...

One of the things Jackie and I are known for is our seasonal reading challenges – the fall reading challenges below! Released at the start of each new season, we work hard to come up with fun and ...