I shared a book activity with some children in a local school recently and after the session I gave each of the eight participants a book and I also gifted a small bundle of books to their school library - mostly books I purchased at a recent charity book fair (in mint condition) plus a couple of advance reader copies of books I have talked about here on this blog. One of the books was Leeva at Last by Sara Pennypacker. When I mentioned the name of the author - Sara Pennypacker - I was dismayed that the Teacher-Librarian looked at me with a very blank face. Coming home I pondered - how could this Teacher-Librarian have missed this author - she has SO many great books and such a fabulous name too. I have some hope that Teacher-Librarian and lots of others will find this post and then go on to discover all the books by Sara Pennypacker. She has written 17 books far.
Sara Pennypacker was a painter before becoming a writer and has two absolutely fabulous children who are now grown. She has written more than twenty children's books including Pax (illustrated by Jon Klassen), Here In The Real World, the Clementine and Waylan series (both illustrated by Marla Frazee); Stuart's Cape and Stuart Goes to School (both illustrated by Martin Matje), Meet the Dullards, and others. Sara splits her time between Cape Cod, Massachusetts and Florida, USA.
I first met Sara Pennypacker through her Clementine series:
Then I read and shared Sparrow Girl with my Grade 6 students and we all learnt so much about Mao and his plan to eliminate all the sparrows which then led to a dreadful famine and the death of many thousands of people. My Grade 6 students at the time were reading picture books with an Asian focus but this one took us into a true story which was well beyond anything we could have imagined.
I asked the parents to send in old men's ties and then a kind parent sewed them together into a cape - the perfect accompaniment to Stuart's Cape and the sequel Stuart Goes to School. Later these two stories were combined into one book - The Amazing World of Stuart. Around this time I also discovered the
Waylon series.
Then I read Pax and the sequel; The Summer of the Gypsy Moths and Leeva at Last.
I have read Here in the Real world but for some reason I didn't do a blog post.
Author page blurb: Ware can’t wait to spend summer “off in his own world”—dreaming of knights in the Middle Ages and generally being left alone. But then his parents sign him up for dreaded Rec camp, where he must endure Meaningful Social Interaction and whatever activities so-called “normal” kids do. On his first day Ware meets Jolene, a tough, secretive girl planting a garden in the rubble of an abandoned church next to the camp. Soon he starts skipping Rec, creating a castle-like space of his own in the church lot. Jolene scoffs, calling him a dreamer—he doesn’t live in the “real world” like she does. As different as Ware and Jolene are, though, they have one thing in common: for them, the lot is a refuge. But when their sanctuary is threatened, Ware looks to the knights’ Code of Chivalry: Thou shalt do battle against unfairness wherever faced with it. Thou shalt be always the champion of the Right and Good—and vows to save the lot.
Sara Pennypacker has a new book coming in 2026.
Here is the bookseller blurb for The Lion's Run illustrated by Jon Klassen: The New York Times bestselling author of Pax delivers an incredible WWII animal rescue adventure, about an orphan who discovers unexpected courage when he becomes involved with the Resistance. Petit eclair. That's what the other boys at the orphanage call Lucas DuBois. Lucas is tired of his cowardly reputation, just as he's tired of the war and the Nazi occupation of his French village. He longs to show how brave he can be. He gets the chance when he saves a litter of kittens from cruel boys and brings them to an abandoned stable to care for them. There he comes upon a stranger who is none too happy to see him: Alice, the daughter of a British horse trainer, who is hiding her filly from German soldiers. Soon Lucas begins to realise they are not the only ones in the village with secrets. The housekeeper at the German maternity home and a priest at the orphanage pass coded messages; a young mother at the home makes dangerous plans to keep her baby from forced adoption; and a neighbour in town may be harbouring a Jewish family. Emboldened by the unlikely heroes all around him, Lucas is forced to decide how much he is willing to risk to make the most courageous rescue of all.
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