History That Never Was

I’ve got several books for kids, including steampunk and fantasy!

The Trouble with the Tick-Tock Tabby is a middle grade book featuring girl detectives Chrysanthemum and Marigold Marsh. The setting is a steampunk Victorian era. The characters are 9 and 12 years old, which skews toward the younger end of middle grade, but the reading level is considered right for middle grade. However, for younger kids who don’t read at that level, this is also a fun chapter book for a parent or caregiver to read to or with a younger child. The plot does have a couple of scary for kids moments, including a scene in which the girls are kidnapped, but they are able to escape safely.

If your young readers like The Trouble with the Tick-Tock Tabby, they may also be interested in C. and M. Marsh, Girl Detectives, which is a collection of three short stories following the Marsh sisters adventures and mysteries! This includes two previously published stories (including the origin of the Marsh sisters), followed by a new for this collection short story! The short stories in this collection generally don’t have much scary happening in them, although the final story, “The Wearisome Worry of the Wily Waif,” does mention orphaned children living without parent figures, which may be difficult for some younger children to think about.

Finally, The Spiders of the Shifting Swamp is my children’s picture book that I also illustrated! It’s a fantasy story in which spiders run a shop and interact with other swamp creatures. The reading level is about right for younger grade school children, but it’s a great book to read to younger kids. (And it’s not a rhyming book, so maybe not too bad for adults to enjoy reading aloud!) The primary scary bits for kids in this book are a missing adult spider, but again, he’s saved safely!

Because of the illustrations, The Spiders of the Shifting Swamp is ONLY available in print, while The Trouble with the Tick-Tock Tabby and C. and M. Marsh, Girl Detectives can also be purchased as print books or ebooks!

Tags: affiliate link, C. and M. Marsh Girl Detectives, children's book, kids, Marsh sisters, middle grade, Spiders of the Shifting Swamp, the trouble with the tick-tock tabby

This entry was posted by dawn.vogel on Tuesday, September 19th, 2023 at 6:00 am and is filed under Publishing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.