Bloggin 'Bout Books Blog

Chasing Secrets by Gennifer Choldenko Published: August 4, 2015 Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books Received: E-galley for review through Netgalley (Thanks Wendy Lamb Books!) Lizzie doesn't have friends at school--Miss Barstow's, a school for young ladies to learn how to become perfect wives. Lizzie would rather read books or accompany her doctor father on visits to patients. That's why Lizzie can recognize the problems with the quarantine of Chinatown. Nobody is wearing protective gear, for one thing. But nobody will admit that the plague is in San Francisco. What lengths will adults go to in order to keep the news of plague quiet? I remember reading Al Capone Does My Shirts  when I was younger, and I enjoyed it. This book left me feeling a little unfulfilled. It was good, but I also felt like Choldenko tried to encompass too many threads without deeply exploring any. I thought the book was about the plague, but really that's tangential. It only becomes ne...

Hello Lovelies!! Sorry I've been away. I thought I was gonna be better when my semester finished, but it turns out the condensed summer classes are even more intense than regular semester classes. So I've been prioritizing my education. Of course, now that I have two papers due this week, I have no interest whatsoever in working on them, so I thought I'd catch up on a few reviews. So in this particular post, I'm going to sum up my rereads of Harry Potter: Sorcerer's Stone, and Chamber of Secrets, and Goblet of Fire. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling Published: June 26, 1997 Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books Received: I own the whole set, but I borrowed this particular copy from the library Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone introduces readers to Harry Potter--a young orphan taken in by his aunt and uncle. The Dursleys are terrible people and Harry suffers under their upbringing until his 11th birthday, when he receiv...

Hello Lovelies! I'm going to a two-books-one-post today. I had to read both of these for a class, and I wasn't impressed with either of them, so I thought I'd just stick them together here, okay, alright? A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn Published: April 28th, 2009 Publisher: HarperTeen Received: Borrowed from the library "Can pity be turned into love?" Apparently, yes, according to Alex Flinn. First of all, this is a Sleeping Beauty retelling. And let's be honest, Sleeping Beauty isn't really the best fairy tale to start with (cause of its creepy rapetastic plot line), and then Flinn's characters are just awful--not to mention the frankly, amateur writing.  Talia is a spoiled brat of a princess in the early 18th century. She hasn't been allowed to leave the castle because of the looming spindle in her future. Of course, she was destined to prick her finger on one, so one finds her. Three hundred years later, we meet up with Ja...

Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar Published: August 4th, 2015 Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers Received: E-galley from Publisher--Thank you, Delacorte!! Tamaya Dhilwaddi is in the fifth grader. She loves school. She loves learning. She doesn't love walking home with her neighbor Marshall, who used to be her friend before starting seventh grade. Marshall's been dealing with a bully. And when Marshall tries to take a shortcut through the wood to avoid his bully, that's when everything falls apart. I loved Holes --but then again, who doesn't? And in comparison to Holes , Fuzzy Mud  falls dreadfully short. Sachar's writing is equally as fantastic. However, the plot doesn't weave together as perfectly as Holes . Fuzzy Mud  leaves a lot to be desired plot-wise. There are a lot of unanswered questions.  Overall, I found Fuzzy Mud  to be an entertaining read. It would be a decent book for middle-grade readers and fans of environmentally based ...

The Giver by Lois Lowry is the phenomenal story of one young boy's transition from child to adult and from mindless drone to individual making choices. The Giver has been around for 22 years, and in that time, it has been banned, it has been read, it has been adored.  I first read The Giver in 4th grade. I remember loving it. I remember feeling like it was the greatest thing ever written. I remember reading it several times that year. But I didn't really remember the book itself . Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk by Lois Lowry about The Giver, so in preparation for that talk, I wanted to reread the book that I had loved. I'm so glad I did. One of the biggest things I noticed in this reread was my reaction to the end. As I got older and people talked about the ambiguousness of the ending and what happened to Jonah, I always thought they were stupid. But this time, I was like oooooh. I could see either interpretation of the ending. I also notic...

Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman fantastically describes a father's adventure on his quest for milk. I've been a fan of Gaiman since I read Good Omens in high school. His younger works have been hit or miss for me (loved Blueberry Girl, but The Wolves in the Walls just leaves me adrift). Skottie Young's illustrations definitely drew me to this book as well. Look at that cover! It's so beautiful and intriguing! The story is delightful and creative. Gaiman ties off every loose end except for the ultimate question of: is the father making up the trip? I loved his open ending. The illustrations accompany every twist and turn with exactitude.  This would make an excellent read-aloud in a classroom or at home. Perfect for beginning readers or those who have moved on to transitional novels (think Alvin Ho!). I read a library copy and bought one for myself within days of reading it. Favorite Quotes: We have spoons. Spoons are excellent. Sort of like fo...

I received an advance e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Nightbird by Alice Hoffman is a delightful bit of magical realism for middle grade readers.  Twig lives in Sidwell, MA--a town known for its pink apples and its monster. But Twig knows more about the monster than anyone else. And when someone starts framing the monster for grafitti, Twig finds herself hanging out with the new girl next door to help solve the problem. While I know Hoffman works usually in adult fiction, I would have never guessed that this was her first foray into middle grade. She pulls it off perfectly. I was enchanted by Twig's story. There's a touch of nostalgia too it. It doesn't seem to be set in contemporary times--there're no cell phones, and basically no computers. It's not a historical novel: there are cars and sewing machines and regular phones. But Twig and the other young people don't have the electronic addiction which most kids today have....

Hello Lovelies! Today's TBT is about a series which I adored as a child (pre-Harry Potter days of course). Referred to in many different ways, the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder were my jam when I was six or seven.  I seriously read the first book like five or six times. I always tried to keep reading, but I'd get stuck on Farmer Boy (because I was like who's this weird boy and what's he doing in my book?). Little House on the Prairie, I enjoyed, but I didn't like as much as the Big Woods. And I tried to read On the Banks of Plum Creek but for some reason, kept not finishing it.  This last semester, I had to read Little House in the Big Woods for one of my classes, and it made me remember just how much I adored the book when I was younger. It made me want to reread (or read) the rest of the series.  These books are not unproblematic. Their treatment of Native Americans and Black people is especially disconcerting to my grown-...

Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by K.G. Campbell is a precious novel about parents who don't understand and squirrels who do. If you've been following my reviews, you'll know that I adore Kate DiCamillo. Her works always make me feel delighted, and I usually cry a little bit (or a lot, looking at you Edward Tulane). Flora & Ulysses was no different. Flora is a 10 year old girl who is obsessed with comics. She sees her neighbor vacuum up a squirrel. But when Flora resuscitates the squirrel, she finds out that he is strong enough to lift the vacuum up one hand. She immediately assumes he's a superhero. What follows next is the impossibility of trying to keep a squirrel as a friend when your mother can only see it as a dirty rodent.  I love squirrels. They are definitely one of my favorite animals. So it was thrilling to see a squirrel protagonist. And I know that this is a book, not a documentary, but...

Hello Lovelies!!!! Oh my goodness, it's been ages since I've posted. I'm so sorry. Let me catch you up on my excuses as to why it's been so long. First of all, I did manage to move all the way across the country. Almost as far as I could get from good old Missoula, MT -- Boston, MA. So that was an adventure. And then school started right away, and I'm not going to lie, it's been a little rough. I've been out of school for two years, so it's been an adjustment getting back into the swing of classes and no work and bizarre free time which isn't really free because I should be doing homework or writing papers. Sigh. But! I have a little bit of time right now where all the homework that's due today and tomorrow is done, and I don't have what I need to finish for Monday, so I can catch up on my blog. Woohoo!! The good news is I've been reading a lot. Like A LOT. I have an hour commute (that's one way), so I basically have two hour...