Uncategorized – One Chapter

Peppa Pig: Peppa’s Magical Halloween

5 stars Children’s Picture Book

Madame Gazelle’s favorite time of the year and she’s got a full day planned for the playgroup. Creating broomsticks, decorating magic wands, having a Halloween feast, and creating and casting a magic spell has Peppa and her friends all excited. Get ready to use your imagination as the group have a fun filled day.

The vibe is positive, and the energy is high. With bright colorful illustrations, this board book is sure to delight your young one. As they all gather to make the magic potion, they mix in a little bit of adventure, kindness, politeness, giggles, and fun and poof! The magic words are spoken and the spell worked! What a fun ending to the book.

Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas

5 stars Graphic Novel YA/Children’s

Resilience. If I were to describe Bree, this word should be at the top of her list. Life starts over as Bree moves with her father to Florida. Bree adores her dad and the time that she spends with him, but she knows Florida will change all that. New opportunities await her father, little does Bree know what opportunities await her. Florida, the state bursting with water, sunshine, sports, swimming, did I mention water? Negative thoughts begin rolling through Bree’s head before the move and intensify when Bree arrives at her new home. Bree likes her new housing complex, it’s the pool that catches her off guard.

Bree is excited to start a new middle school: new possibilities and the list of elective classes have got her pumped. She’s having a great morning as she runs into the girl from her apartment complex, Clara shows her around before leading Bree to the office to sign up for classes. Sorry. Sorry. Full. Full. Every elective that Bree wanted to take was full! Her only choice…..Swim 101. A huge problem considering Bree doesn’t know how to swim.

Bree handles this problem and all the other challenges that come her way, how I would expect a young teen to handle them. Avoidance, denial, hesitation, etc. but as Bree’s character grows so does the way that she handles the conflicts.

Bree tries to avoid the pool but when her homework ends up floating in it, Bree finds herself fighting against the terrorizing waters to free herself. She’s doomed, until Ms Etta comes to her rescue.

This is a great book about overcoming obstacles and watching a character develop as they become responsible and mature. This is a good clean book comprising of family, friends, and girlfriend relationships.

The graphics in this book do an excellent job completing the story. Detailed, colored framed boxes provide a good flow as Bree learns to accept Florida as her new home.

The text is easy to read, and the story is broken into 8 (eight) chapters. 5 stars

The Wager: a Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann

5 stars Nonfiction

You have to listen to this audio! Did a fabulous job reading this book as I felt a part of the action. After finishing the book, I really wondered how anyone survived the whole ordeal. The odds were bad to start and when you add in all other misfortunes and the behavior of the individuals aboard the vessels, the survivors were a tough group.

I really liked how I felt a part of the action and how realistic this book felt. It was interesting viewing the action behind the eyes of the different captains. The allies amongst the crew and how they felt about their captain, the way they felt about their mission and its success and how they manage themselves made this book one that I couldn’t stop listening to. They were fighting a battle to stay alive, to fight a war, to find treasure, to find their way home, and to serve their country. Such a great book. 5+ stars!!

Notes while listening to the Playaway:

Listening to this on a Playaway, narrated by Dion Graham. Seriously, Dion brings this book to life!! The energy and excitement in his voice was phenomenal. It was as if Dion was retelling the story from his own personal experience about The Wager and that he was not, actually reading a book to me. Phew, what a voyage!!

The Dam by David Arnold

5 stars Children’s Picture Book

The illustrations are just specular! Knowing that this story is based on a true event makes this story much more heartfelt and emotional. As the father and daughter walk into the valley together, there is this calmness in the story as he talks about how the dam will change life in the valley. No longer will there be joyous parties and dancing, the wildlife and animals will cease to come here, for this land will be forever changed. They come to a tall, brick structure and go inside. The daughter is instructed to play her violin one last time inside this structure while her daddy sings along. I can’t describe how wonderful the illustrations are as these two fill the room with their music.

The duo continues playing their music in all the buildings in this deserted community, filling “the houses with music,” until

“The birds heard.

The beast heard.

The earth heard.

The trees heard.

The ghosts heard.

The day was darkening.

Out of the valley they walked.”

Water slowly covers the land, until, “This was covered over. This was drowned. The lake is beautiful.” The father and daughter return to the land, the land they had last visited and played their duet. It is new, yet it’s the same.

The music is still there and it will continue and so will the memories. Life changes but it’s still the same. Fantastic story!! Check out this beautiful picture book! Definitely a 5-star read for me!

Dangerous Dolls of Delaware #12 (American Chillers) by Johnathan Rand

5 stars Children’s Chapter

I bought a few of these American Chiller books when I saw a display of them a couple years ago and I’m finally reading one of them. The cover of the books is what drew me in and I liked that the titles had different states in the U.S.A. in them. I have a thing for creepy dolls so naturally I started with this book. On a sidenote, I bought a handful of creepy dolls once at an estate sale and I bought them home. I was real excited about my purchase, thinking I’d stage them around the house or outside and post pictures of them on social media, well…….that plan didn’t work. My husband saw them and he told me to get them out of the house. I didn’t think he was serious at first but he was – absolutely, dead serious! Dang! I found some people who loved creepy dolls and handed them off and now, I know my husband can’t handle creepy dolls.

What a great read! I have to say that for a children’s book, it really was a terrific read. I found that it was a fast-paced book with a handful of characters and a solid story. I liked that most of the chapters ended in a cliffhanger so that it pushed me to read the next chapter and it was hard to put the book down and do something else. Each chapter was only about 2 to 5 pages in length so I could commit to a short reading time slot, if I had to but with this story, I wanted to continue. The book wasn’t gory or difficult-to-read with complicated words or scenes that I had to configure inside my head. This book had an entertaining storyline that felt realistic and I could see myself in the shoes of one of the main characters, if I was only younger. Depending on the reader and their maturity level, I think a third grader could handle reading this book.

Spencer (11) and his sister Serena (12), were out digging for fishing worms for Spencer. Digging deeper, Serena’s shovel made a dull thud. Whatever was down there, it had been down there a long time. Hoisting the box out, they pried the lid off, and the siblings discover two ordinary-looking dolls. What a disappointment! This was no buried treasure but perhaps they might be able to sell the old dolls and make some money. That was the logic they used to take those old dolls home and this was their first big mistake.

You can imagine where this story is going as the siblings take the dolls home. Soon, the siblings begin to feel that the dolls are taking on a life of their own. They’re no longer the ordinary plain dolls that they pulled out of the muddy hole. No, these dolls are something else. Needing to get some information on these dolls, they locate a woman who knows a great deal about dolls including the two dolls that they should have left in the box, buried down in the dirt.

As this lady tells the story of the two dolls that the siblings have in their possession, I’m planning my own course of action as I felt the kids were too. Putting this plan into play became more difficult than anticipated though and the story becomes more exciting as the pages flew by. These were only dolls, right? Two dolls and two siblings, they should be able to get this under control quite quickly, right? The answer would be yes, if the dolls were just plain ordinary dolls but they’re not. They’ll need a calm day of fishing if they can ever get rid of these dolls. 5 stars

Too Many Pigs and One Big Bad Wolf: A Counting Story by Davide Cali

3 stars Children’s Picture Book

Seriously? I loved the colorful pages wow; they were very colorful and bright! I loved how the pigs were climbing all over the abacus and being acrobats. I thought the wolf was funny in his yellow raincoat and hat. How funny was that?! The illustrations inside this book were very entertaining!

I think to take these illustrations and create a new storyline would be a good writing project. I did like the tone of the writing. I liked how the storyline was written on one side of the page in black print and on the other side of the page, a response from a reader was written in red print. I didn’t care for the storyline in this book at all and I don’t see how a young child could like it either. A counting book? I just couldn’t see this as a counting book either.

The storyline centers upon “three little pigs and the wolf that ate them, The End.” The reader wants a longer storyline so the writer adds more pigs to the storyline but the result is still the same (the wolf eats them, The End.) and again, the reader is not happy. The writer adds more pigs, only this time the pigs are doing a variety of activities but the results are still the same (the wolf eats them, The End.) and again, the reader is not happy. The storyline gets added to over and over again and I was hoping something would change at the end of the story but nope, the wolf ate them, The End. This was not a story that I enjoyed. The illustrations were great but the storyline was a no for me. 2.5 stars for me.

Lost by Sam Usher

5 stars Children’s Picture Book

You just never know how your day will go. It was a gray, cold and snowy day outside and all this young boy wanted to do was nothing. His granddad had other plans, so they bundled up and set off for some quick errands. The young boy makes inquiries as they make their journey to the different stores and granddad gathers supplies for a surprise for his grandson. Arriving back home, they set to work creating a homemade sled. Immediately, the young boy wants to take it outside for some sledding in the falling snow. Spotting a missing dog poster on a street lamp, the duo begins to call for the missing dog as they make their way. The snow begins to fall heavily and it now turns into a blizzard. As they try to outlive the storm, hunker down together, never giving up on locating the missing dog. Calling the dog’s name, as the wind whistles out on the white landscape, they hope the dog is okay.

Their day is far from over when finally, the weather calms back down. I enjoyed how this book ended as this young boy and granddad had quite the full day. I’m sure it was one day that they both will never forget.

There was something about the illustrations inside this book that I really enjoyed. Some pages the illustrations were very simple and then, on others the illustrations were very detailed and I had to spend a few minutes looking at everything that was spread across the page. The energy that granddad had in the book pulled the young boy through the beginning of the story and then, they worked together through the rest of the story. A sweet story, one that will be read again and again. 5 stars

Crocodile Hungry by Eija Sumner

Oh, he’s hungry! Crocodile knows what he wants but everyone runs when he gets close. This book is funny but I think the illustrations help it achieve that. The illustrations are funny and I like how they pop out of the page at the appropriate times.

When crocodile opens the refrigerator, he starts to chuck out everything he sees. Why? Because everything in there is too difficult to eat. Ah, he knows what he wants, it’s at the Farmers Market. Yikes, it’s a crocodile!! Everyone at the Farmers Market runs and all the food is ruined. Now what? Ah, the store. Yup, you can probably guess what happens when crocodile tries to go the store. Where else can crocodile get some good food? He keeps trying but he can’t find any good food and he’s getting angry. Crocodile needs some good food soon, how can he do that?!? The ending is funny and kids will laugh when crocodile finally gets something for his stomach. 5 stars

The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin by Kip Wilson

It still amazes me how an author, under such tight constraints, can paint the picture so accurately. With a limited use of language and the power of space, Kip Wilson carried me back to the 1930’s where being yourself, whoever you were, was still acceptable, even in the city of Berlin. Although, not a city void of criticism, for there would always be wolves ready to attack, this brief time period gave individuals the opportunity to find their crowd and be embraced. Written in verse, it was an incredible journey where the sights and sounds of Berlin, were at my fingertips.

Through the use of language and space, Hilde’s story was composed on 397-pages, words arranged so strategically that it reads like a work of fiction. Hilde’s gates were finally open as she leaves her controlled world and enters a world where she can find her own niche. She must find employment to begin her new life but with the economy in shambles, Hilde’s options are limited. When Hilde finds Rosa, I think she was able to fully breathe and embrace who she was. This was an emotional read for me as Hilde finally gets to see the world behind her own eyes. 5 stars

So, how much do you really know?

I get totally wrapped up in most of the books that I read yet, my memory is not so good. I’m one of those individuals who say, “I remember reading that” or “I’ve heard of that,” but most of the time, I bet I couldn’t tell you where I heard/read it. Trivia games, ha! You don’t want me on your team.

When I saw this, I had to read it. Interesting…… Let’s see how you do.

Even More Literary Jeopardy To Test Your Bookish Knowledge