The rhyming couplets and colorful pictures in this book are sure to please little readers (or listeners, as the case may be). The parade is full of colorful characters, some in fancy dress, others in outfits that can be found at a Village People concert, but all happy and excited to be a part of this celebration. The illustrator […]
Melissa (Formerly Published as George) by Alex Gino: Book Review
Oh my goodness. I inhaled this book in just a few hours and it left me with so much joy for George, I was almost in tears. George is afraid to tell anyone that she’s really a girl. What will they think? But as she slowly starts to share her secret, she finds so much love and acceptance. The road isn’t perfectly smooth—that would […]
Top Ten Favorite Banned Books
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt at That Artsy Reader Girl is “Favorite Book Quotes.” Now, I love some good book quotes. Back home, I have journals filled with them, now I have some saved on my computer, and I have a lot on GoodReads too. But this is Banned Books Week and I try […]
A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo: Book Review
Marlon Bundo is the BOTUS, the Bunny of the United States. He lives a lonely life in a big, boring house until one day he meets Wesley, the most bunny-beautiful rabbit in the garden. It’s love at first sight. They decide they want to get married and hop together forever. But the Stink Bug tells them that boy bunnies can only
marry girl bunnies. What can they do? […]
Banned Books Week 2020
It’s time for Banned Books Week 2020! This is the reading community’s annual campaign to bring awareness to the problems of book banning and censorship. I normally plan a full week of reviews and posts but it snuck up on me this year. As I write this, I have a review of One Flew Over […]
Weekly Update for September 27, 2020
Welcome to my weekly update for September 27, 2020! The rain has continued this week here in Portland, Oregon so that means the smoke has stayed away. Yay! According to the fire map I check, the Riverside fire, which is the one closest to where we are, is at 138,000 acres burned and 34% contained. […]
Fable by Adrienne Young: Book Review
This was exactly the kind of book that I needed right now. It was fast-paced with characters I liked who acted in ways that largely made sense to me. Fable is a survivor who will do a lot of things to get by but she does have her own set of morals. She has a bit of the hopeful optimist about her. Most people would hate the…
Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary: Book Review
I’m 42 as I write this so it’s been 30 – 35 years since I read any of Beverly Cleary’s books. I always enjoyed them as a child, and can clearly picture exactly where they were on my local library’s shelves. I called it a good library day when I found a new one. Who am I kidding? Every library visit was a good library day, but…
Top Ten Books I Read in Elementary School
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt at That Artsy Reader Girl is Books On My Fall 2020 TBR. I’m not that organized; I just read whatever looks good when it’s time to choose a new one. So I decided to list the Top Ten Books I Read in Elementary School. Beverly Cleary has been on […]
Weekly Update for September 20, 2020
Welcome to my weekly update for September 20, 2020! We finally got rain in Portland on Friday! Woohoo! Air quality has improved a lot. We’ve still got an air quality warning in place as I write this but our numbers on the Weather Channel app have dropped from 535 on Tuesday (I think that was the day I took the screenshot) to 32 […]
Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles: Book Review
I wanted to like this. The concept is strong and I couldn’t help comparing it to The Night Circus, another book I wanted to love. But there was way too much description, infinitely too many unanswered questions, and too little actual plot to please me. This is author Janella Angeles’s debut novel and unfortunately, it shows. She…