About Us

Welcome to Through the Looking Glass Book Review

We are delighted to have you as our guest and hope you will enjoy the reviews, features, profiles, and the other information that we have gathered for you. We hope you find this issue interesting, entertaining, and informative.

Through the Looking Glass Children’s Book Review has been in operation since October of 2003. Our goal is to provide parents, teachers, and others with a tool to help them find truly exceptional books for the young people in their lives. We do not sell books, we just review them, and we only review the books we like, so our reviews are always positive ones. Over time TTLG has expanded this fundamental goal to include doing what we can to review books published by small houses, to publicize organizations who work for children, and to publicize the work of new authors and illustrators.

About The Editor

TTLG’s editor, Marya Jansen-Gruber, has this to say about herself:

“As the child of writers/journalists, I was always surrounded by books. The writing world was a natural habitat for me and I developed an abiding love for books and the written word.

Travel has played a big role in my life from my childhood to the present day. My parents’ lifestyle, and my adventures as an adult have afforded me the opportunity to visit many countries, such as Jordan, Lebanon, Cyprus, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Kenya, Pakistan, India, and parts of Europe. Each journey has given me rich experiences and memories which have widened my horizons. Books provide children with a wonderful means to make similar journeys to countries and places that lie far beyond their home shores.

Other influences on my life include the love of history that I inherited from my father, and my love of animals, which has taken me from studying elephants participating in the holy festivals in southern India, to working alongside the founder of the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust Zoo.

Like many writers, I have had jobs of various kinds. After getting my degree in zoology from Oxford University, my work life took me through the positions of being a research assistant; the head of an education program; a desktop publisher for a children’s book author/illustrator; a media coordinator and executive assistant to a vice president at the Center for Marine Conservation in Washington, D.C.; a sub-editor at the home desk and foreign news desk at the Irish Times in Dublin; a veterinary assistant at a veterinary hospital in Virginia; and an assistant zookeeper at the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust Zoo.

I now live and work in the lovely town of Ashland, Oregon with with my husband, my daughter, three dogs, and three cats, two of whom are completely crazy.

When I am not reading and writing I like to spend my time skiing, running in races, knitting, cooking, gardening, and exploring new places.

My life in the children’s book world is a perfect fit and I have found it to be enormously rewarding working with publishing houses of all kinds, and with the authors and illustrators who create the wonderful and beautiful books that I review.

It is my hope that through my reviews I will be able to help my readers find the perfect book to give to the special child or children in their lives. I want to make the choosing process easier and more enjoyable. I also want to introduce my readers to some of the publishing houses and the authors and illustrators who work so hard to give us these wonderful titles.”

There are two important links you might follow to learn more about us:

First, here is my blog: lookingglassreview.blogspot.com

Second, I help aspiring authors with their manuscripts, providing advice and feedback to help prepare a manuscript to be shown to a publisher. For more on my writing services please go to this site: www.childrensbookws.com