4 stars Children’s Picture Book
Is there or is there not a bear? Talking to the reader directly, the girl is convinced there is a bear outside her door. Trying to prepare her readers, she is excited about what is happening outside her door.
Yet, when someone comes rattling her doorknob, guess who wants to answer the door? Yes, the girl! Did she forget about the bear? The ending was cute and I loved the tie-in with the story we all know. 4 stars
5 stars Children’s Picture Book
The books in this series are so cute. I think kids love how they go on forever until they loop around to the beginning again. The dog in this story is cute and of course, who doesn’t like donuts.
So, give the dog a donut and of course, he’s going to need something to drink. He loves the juice so much, he needs more but of course, you have no more, so he’ll make his own. Throwing the apples from the tree, the dog is reminded how much he likes to play baseball and of course, he wants to play baseball! Playing baseball involves a lot of equipment and dog is such a great player, that a celebration is in store when they are finished this celebration creates more fun, and they go on an adventure with a treasure hunt and kite flying. Did I mention a kite? Yup, a kite which so happens to get caught in a tree. What kind of tree? Yup…. you got it and now….we shall start dog all over again on this wonderful story.
Cute, fun-filled illustrations that complement the storyline. I love the little boy who is trying to keep up with the dog in the story as he runs about making the dog happy. The colors are a nice shade of brightness, and the shapes are simple within the illustrations so not to take away from the text. A fun and adventurous story that everyone will enjoy. 5 stars.
5 stars Children’s Picture Book
You start with one pancake with sticky syrup and a pig….yes, a pig who doesn’t want to be sticky. To solve this, the pig takes a bubble bath with a rubber duck. Oh, a duck, that little duck brings back memories to the pig who now gets homesick and off you go! The pig wants to go on a trip to the farm where she was raised. Pig now has to get ready to go to the farm and that is an ordeal involving clothes, dancing, photos, and treehouse building. So many activities to get ready to go!! Has pig started on her trip to the farm yet? No, but now she’s feeling sticky again and you know what that means. Pig wants another pancake …….and you know what that means….. start reading this story over again.
A fun and lively story that will leave you smiling. The little girl is cute that is trying to keep up with the pig throughout the story, running and cleaning up and assisting the pig wherever she can. The pages are busy, yet the shapes are simple so not to take-away from the text on the pages. I love the colors used on the pages as they’re a toned-down shade of brightness.
5 stars Thriller
Ha! That was definitely a great read for me! Talk about some twists and turns. I’ve enjoyed Freida’s books in the past but the way that she’s able to spring her twists and turns in her stories are grabbing me in awe. I knew something had to be coming my way as I was reading but I was not ready for the deer-in-the-headlight stop I got. Unscrambling everything that I knew at that point was a process, a process that thanks to Freida was just the beginning of this rollercoaster of a book.
Blake was living the dream. He had a nice job, a girl on his shoulder, and he was trying to get his cards all aligned for the life that he wanted to lead. He could see his future unfolding in front of him, a prosperous future, one that could lead to many possibilities. It happened suddenly. Doors started slamming and Blake’s prosperous land of opportunity was now being taken away from him. Why? Blake didn’t know but he was trying desperately to hold onto every last bit of what was left. It was a downhill spiral and Blake is tumbling hard. To help financially, Blake and his fiancé decide to open their home to a tenant, someone who could help take part of the burden off temporarily. Whitney seemed to be the perfect fit for their household, sweet young Whitney.
I could feel the tension and stress as they all adjusted to this new living arrangement. Blake thought he had problems before, but now with Whitney in the mix, they’ve just complicated things. Whitney arrives with her own stories and history, and boy, does she shake things up! Don’t start thinking that you can put this book aside or concentrate on your own issues once Whitney joins the household. The escapades and finger-pointing intensify, and I could think of nothing less than the characters inside this book and the who and why associated with that.
I liked how I started to question my own thought process and how I began to wonder where the holes in this story lived. Were the characters’ actions and words matching up? Had I overlooked something? Was I rooting for someone I shouldn’t be? This was a fun, twisted book which I really enjoyed. Wowza – a 5 star read for me, for sure.
5 stars Children’s Nonfiction
Poop! Yes, poop. A book centered around poop. It is more important than you think and now, we can read about its importance, the history of poop, and why you can’t live without it. A nonfiction children’s book, I guarantee that you will learn something about poop before you get done reading it.
There are a dozen chapters in this book, an introduction, a glossary, and an index so this book can be used as a reference tool also. The last few pages of the book are full of fun interesting facts which along with the rest of the book make for some interesting reading. Let me entice you with some interesting facts: elephant poop is often used to fill up holes in the game reserve in South Africa, there is a dog park in Massachusetts that fuels their park’s street lamps with dog’s poop so don’t carry your dog’s poo out, dump into the convertor so you can see on your way home. Guess how many rabbit pellets a rabbit can poop in just 1 day? 500!
Now that I got you intrigued, this is just a bit of the fun and interesting information that is inside this book. You’ll learn what human and animal poop is, the hazards of poop, how the world uses it, and what we poop teaches us. Do you ever wonder, what happens to all the poo when individuals go to the bathroom? Does it go in space? Down inside the ocean or what? The answers are inside this book. The answers are not lengthy, and the author doesn’t use difficult terminology, yet this is not a book for preschool children. I think this is a good fit book for mature readers who have inquiring minds from the grade school level and up. The illustrations inside the book range from detailed drawings to cartoons explaining the text.
4 stars Crafting
Rock painting. This has become a popular activity, and I am intrigued with all the different designs being painted so I thought I would check this book out. I was hoping to see some unique and fun ideas inside the book vs. what I am finding online.
The book begins by talking about getting rocks, maybe even making your own rocks, preparing your rocks for painting, and then finishing the rocks up after you have painted them. Next, there are about 20 different designs explained with step-by-step directions, plans, ideas, and variations. Each of these designs is spread out on 2 pages and they even give you a detailed item list for each design. I did like the following the step-by-step directions complete with photos and word directions as it helped to get layering and the details just right on each rock. I think for the beginner rock painter, this book is perfect as it is simple and thorough. It gives a lot of details, and the colorful illustrations are a great help. I think the designs were simple and not too difficult to follow also. If you need a beginning rock painting book, this would be a great one to use. 4 stars
4 stars YA/Middle School
I knew I had to read Away after reading the book Alone, as I wanted to know more about what happened to the individuals who were gone in Alone. I was ready for answers and more of the emotions and tension that had me speeding through the chapters of Alone.
In Away, this book gave me the answers that I was looking for, as an emergency relocation camp is set up for those who have been evacuated. With no warning or reason, residents in a section of Colorado had been rounded up and relocated to a temporary camp until a hazardous situation can be eliminated. The authorities keep the citizens up to date on the situation but the future of returning home starts to look hopeless. As the days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months, a group of teens at the camp start to question exactly what this “emergency” really is.
The voices of four teens Ashanti, Grandin, Harmony, and Teddy use a variety of methods including prose, diary entries, movie script, letters, poetry and newspaper bulletins to describe the camp and their investigation into the emergency. I enjoyed this variety, and I felt it helped to keep the teens’ voices separate. This was an interesting and entertaining story. This book was more like a mystery than Alone was so unfortunately, I didn’t feel the emotions and tensions that I had felt with Alone. 4 stars
4 stars Children’s Chapter
For being a thick graphic novel, this book went fast. I liked the combination of text bubbles, text and diary entries. The variety of fonts made the story move along quickly too.
The illustrations were simple, cute, and sometimes took up a lot of the page but that was okay as the text bubbles, or some text was added onto the page. If you like dogs: talking dogs, this story is for you.
4.5 stars Children’s chapter
Not always understanding one another, Bear and Bird are best friends. This children’s book consists of 4 short stories about the two friend’s adventures that are cute, entertaining, and fun. Young children will enjoy listening to this one.
Each of the stories in this book is around 15 pages long with colorful illustrations that compliment the text. Imaginations and the desire for an adventure are required as the two friends discover a cave, surprise one another, get lost in the Woody Wood, and give each other a test.
I liked how they liked to do things together, even when things were unpredictable. They wanted to make each other happy but they also had times where they did things on their own. I did feel sorry for snail though and I had hoped to see something about him later in the book. A cute storybook and I hope to read more about their adventures in the future.
4 stars Children’s Picture book
Why had I not read this before? This was a funny yet great tale. The illustrations took a bit to get used to but after reading the story, I understood their use. With dark tones, the book tries to explain the reasoning behind why wolves howl.
Mouse has been eaten by Wolf, so he tries to make the best of the situation and begins to make himself at home inside the stomach of Wolf. Mouse discovers Duck, tucked into his own bed, inside the stomach of Wolf and the two individuals decide to cook up some breakfast. Mouse discovers that Duck is quite content living inside Wolf, and he is quite clever.
Having Duck and Mouse living inside his body is hard on Wolf yet Wolf discovers that perhaps it’s better than not. So, that’s why Wolf howls at the moon, “oh, woe!” 4 stars
One Chapter 