library – Page 9 – One Chapter

One Crazy Summer: the Graphic Novel by Rita Williams- Garcia

4.5 stars Middle School Graphic Novel

This was so much better than the book. I enjoy graphic novels but I think the presence of the illustrations helped make this book more meaningful to me.

Three young sisters, yet only two of them get to be children while the oldest, eleven-year-old Delphine, must take the place of their mother Cecile. Vonetta, Fern, and Delphine were left behind with their Pa, when Cecile decided she needed a new life. Pa and Big Ma cared for the girls, but it was Cecile who took over being the mother to her younger sisters. It’s now been seven years, and the girls are about to be reunited with their mother. Mom has been living in California, being a voice with the Black Panther movement since her departure.

Delphine has high hopes for California. Sure, she will meet her mother again, but Delphine has never forgiven her, even after all these years. Having read about California, Delphine’s excited about all the different sights and sounds that await her in this new environment, experiences that she can’t wait to try.

So much emotion is wrapped up inside this book. Arriving, the girls have high expectations and see an endless list of possibilities before them. They start to see their true mother immediately and their expressions, thoughts and comments tell us their true feelings. Whether Cecile is trying to teach the girl’s independence or she’s a strict, unconcerned parent is a decision that needs to be made as you read the pages and capture the spirit in the illustrations.

There are a lot of eye-opening moments for the girls as they experience their mother’s world and the girls start to see the life of young children like themselves, in California, when they go to a Black Panther’s Community Center.

It was a womp, womp, womp moment as the girl’s get a dose of reality. Their mother has no plans to take them to any of the wonderful, fun-seeking places that Delphine has read about. No, the children must entertain themselves while mom works and later, when they’re sent to the community center, they’re introduced to the Black Panthers.

Character development and growth occur almost overnight as the girls are thrown into the mix. They soon find their strength and voice which caused me to laugh and smile as they finally got over their culture shock. They didn’t slink away or cower in a corner, their bond remained strong.

I thought this was a great book about the Black Panthers and it gave a great story which young readers could connect with. The illustrations were bright and colorful and added a great deal to the storyline. I highly recommend this graphic novel.

Fireworks by Matthew Burgess

3 stars Children’s picture book

I was all excited about this book as I had read so much about it. The words flowed off the page as the excitement of the summer is in full bloom as everyone has been looking forward to this day.

It’s summertime at its finest – July 4^th –a time to celebrate – the time where the sky lights up and everyone gathers.

This book portrays the excitement, the energy and the sounds of the day. As the sky lights up at the end of the night, the pages explode in color, and I just had to stop in awe at the illustrations on those pages as they are truly spectacular!

The excitement, the energy, and the colors just burst out the page!! With the text accompanying the page, you just have to get excited and electrified as you watch the fireworks light up the sky.

My disappointment with this book was in the illustrations at the beginning of the book. I enjoyed the text, but I wasn’t a fan of how the illustrator portrayed it. Overall, a 3-star book for me

What is Inside THIS Box? (Monkey & Cake #1) by Drew Daywalt

5 stars Children’s Reader

Cute, simple story for young children. Simple short sentences for beginning readers and a great book to introduce graphic novels to young children. It’s also a great story about using your imagination and the concept that anything is possible.

The story is about Monkey and a box that he has. Monkey claims that inside the box is a magic cat. Cake wants to see the magic cake and that is where the issues come into play. See, Monkey claims, “the cat disappears when” the box is opened. Hum?

Technically, the cat is in the box when the box is closed but how can Monkey prove it? Monkey makes a drawing of this, and I had to laugh when Cake tried peeking into the box.

I think it’s a super cute book and instead of Cake getting mad at Monkey, Cake tells Monkey he doesn’t believe him and why. Monkey is not upset. It’s a cute ending and that’s why Monkey and Cake are great friends. My grandkids liked it too and we talked about the book as we read it. 5 stars

A Taste of Cowboy: Ranch Recipes and Tales From the Trail by Kent Rollins

5 stars Cookbook

This is more than a cookbook. This book is packed with information about being a cowboy and cooking with a chuckwagon. Kent starts the book by explaining what a chuckwagon is and how it came to be. Chuckwagon cooking is simple, and I was surprised at the variety of food that it consisted of. “Cowboy cooking is made from ingredients you’’ already have on hand” and most of the ingredients were canned ingredients except for the spices and the meat. Chuckwagon cooking reminded me of good-old family gatherings as it brings folks together over a meal where stories and the day’s events can be discussed and everyone can be themselves and feel accepted. Inside this book, you will find Kent’s recipes from his chuckwagon, stories, and interesting articles about being a cowboy in the lower United States.

This book is sectioned off into 9 sections. From the introduction to the index, there are 248 pages in this hardcopy book. Again, Kent discusses the first chuckwagon, then he discusses taking care of your cast iron pans, as those are respected tools of the trade for great chuckwagon cooking. Whether they are brand new pans or ones that you have saved from the depths, these treasures will be with you forever, if you keep them looking nice. Now Kent starts into the food part of the book. We have Breakfast, Lunch (dinner), Appetizers, Supper, and Dessert. Each of these sections, Kent came up with a cute title for. Each of the sections has 10-23 recipes. You will not get pictures for all of the recipes, but you will get detailed step-by-step directions, yield size, list of ingredients, and a couple paragraphs explaining the recipe. There is an estimated prep and total time given in case you need that too. Start your morning with some Sourdough starter so you can make Kent’s cinnamon rolls or his pancakes, cowboy coffee, or how about a breakfast egg bowl with a smoky cream sauce. Want to try some Smoky Mac & Cheese, or Sloppy Cowboy Joes, or Sweet Heat Barbeque Chopped Pork Sandwiches for lunch? Appetizers are normally a part of the cowboy’s menu, but they can happen, and Kent has recipes for Cowboy Sushi, Bite-Sized BJT’s, or Red River Smoky Chip Dip. Supper can pack a hearty meal and Baked Potato-Stuffed Pork Chops with Creamy White Gravy, Garden Harvest Stir-Fry, Brown Butter and Bacon Pasta, or Creamy Beef and Parmesan Company Casserole. I’m not a huge dessert fan but if you are, there is some Jan’s Spiced Wine Cake, Cowboy Coconut Cake, Buttermilk Pie, Raspberry-Apple Crumble or Cowboy Fry Bread. I’ve only included some of the recipes that are inside this book, as there are plenty more to choose from.

I’m thinking that this would be a great cookbook to have, one that doesn’t require a lot of fancy ingredients, and the recipes offer something different without a lot of time requirements. It would also make a good gift for someone who likes to cook, and you want to give them something different. The index in the back is very helpful too.

Dear Manny by Nic Stone

5 stars YA

It’s coming to an end. A white, privileged male faces the hard truth of life. Now that he’s in college, running for office, he’s having to face the reality of a life that has led him to where he is today. Everything that he has learned and been instilled comes into play. What kind of a life had he really been living?

Up against the other candidates, the struggle gets real, and his awareness grows. This powerful story is a three-book series, which I have enjoyed since the beginning. I do think you should start at book one to fully appreciate this story.

The Crash by Freida McFadden

5 stars Thriller

The scene: you’ve had enough and you’re ready to start over, you jump in your car planning to visit your sibling until you can figure out what to “do next.” Sounds like a good plan until you’re on the road and then, it hits you. It’s winter and you’re in a rural country; Maine to be exact. Your car, not the most reliable and rugged vehicle to be driving in these conditions. But it’s too late now, she’s committed and there’s no going back.

Yes, “The Crash.” Tegan suffers a crash while out on the rural roads while driving to her brother’s house in Maine. Tegan was not aware that she was driving into a winter storm. That’s not the worst of it, she’s also 8 months pregnant and now, she’s hurt. I love how Tegan is on high alert when someone finally approaches her as she is pinned inside her car, this girl knows her thrillers and knows from a distance that this shadowy figure could be hiding some secrets. Helping Tegan from the car, Tegan discovers this shadowy figure is a large man who is very friendly and offers to bring her home until the storm passes. With a wife at home, the couple seem very friendly and try to make Tegan comfortable but Tegan senses something else.

Tegan begins to question the friendliness and hospitality of the couple while the couple begin their own assessment of Tegan. Is the couple keeping secrets, did Tegan notice something while staying in their basement? Tegan seems to be giving all the correct answers, but the couple senses that Tegan is keeping something from them. What is she hiding from them? As each character gives voice to the predicament playing out, the situation changes, making me wonder what exactly the outcome might be.

Tegan wants to go to the hospital for her injuries and to make sure her unborn child is okay. The wife sees Tegan as a gift, an opportunity, something to fulfill a need that she has. Her husband, he seems to be caught in the middle. See, he loves his wife, and he wants to make her happy but he’s wondering about her need, and he’s concerned about the welfare of Tegan. It’s a balancing act and the clock is ticking.

I really enjoy these thrillers. They get my blood pumping and get my mind off of my everyday life because isn’t that what reading is supposed to do- give us an escape. Sure, some of the characters are predictable but so are some of the people in our life but then again, some of the characters throw something into the mix and I’m off. I’m off into another world, a world where you just don’t know where you’re going to land. 5 stars.

Also Here: Love, Literacy, and the Legacy of the Holocaust by Brooke Randel

5 stars Memoir

It was almost too late. The memories and history were almost buried in the past as the family didn’t want to press the issue. They knew she had lived through one of the most important and traumatic experiences in history, yet she didn’t and wouldn’t talk about it. It only took one phone call to change all that.

This was such a great book to read. I could understand why her family didn’t press her to share the details of her experiences during WWII and yet, Golda had so much to offer her family when she finally does open herself up to them. We know that our own history shapes us and what Golda experienced as a young girl during the Holocaust definitely affected her life. As her granddaughter Brooke brings Golda’s story to light, Brooke struggles herself. Both parties are struggling to bring light to Golda’s past. What a unique story. I commend Brooke for sharing this book with us readers.

The recipes and photographs in the back are an added bonus. 5 star read

The Pasta Queen: The Art of Italian Cooking by Nadia Caterina Munno

3 stars Cookbook

After reading the other cookbook by Nadia, I had to pick up this one. There were similarities among the two cookbooks, yet the recipes were somewhat different. This cookbook was not for me though.

Nadia begins this cookbook just like her other one. She introduces herself and explains her cooking journey. It is an interesting journey from her family to where she is today. Next, she spends a great deal of time talking about tools, terms and items that you might need to create great Italian dishes. This section is very detailed, and it does provide some good information but there is a lot of reading and information. The recipe section begins next, and it is sectioned off into 7 categories. They are: Aperitivi, Antipasti, Primi, Secondi, Contorni, Dolci, and Street Food.

With each recipe you get: a list of ingredients (grams and cups), total prep and cooking time, how many it will serve. Some recipes have an icon to scan so you can watch the recipe if you scan the icon with your phone. Some recipes also tell you how much/how many the recipes make. Some of the recipes are titled in their Italian name which left me boggled sometimes but Katie puts on the page what it means in English.

This cookbook begins with some interesting alcohol beverages. Nothing hard or too fancy but they are simple and sound delicious. The appetizer section had a recipe I might try: Insalata Pantesca (Sicilian Potato Salad). The first course is next, and this is the section that I thought I would like the most, but it had a lot of seafood in it and I’m not a huge fish eater. Zuppa Di Pesce, Scialatielli Alle Vongole, Baked Seafood Linguine, and some risotto recipes were some of the offerings in this section. The second course comes next, which had more meat, chicken, and fish recipes. Cozze Alla Tarantina, Abbacchio Alla Scottadito, Piccata Di Pollo, and Frittura Di Pesce were some of the dishes offered here. Side dishes were next, and I couldn’t find anything in here for me. Cicoria in Padella, Carciofi Alla Romana, and Broccoletti in Padella were a couple of the dishes in this section. Desserts, yes. Ciambelline Al Vino looks tempting and easy to prepare. For those coffee drinkers, there is Caffe Alla Panna. Nothing in the street food section caught my eye. Tiella Alla Scarola or the Pizza E Fichi just wasn’t something that I would eat.

Nadia closes the book with some comments and a great index. The illustrations in the book were great. Not every recipe had a picture with it and some recipes had multiple pictures.

I don’t understand why there were so many photographs of Nadia throughout the book when there weren’t photographs of all the recipes included. I’m not against a couple individual shots but I think this cookbook had too many photographs of the author and not the food. It’s a cookbook, right? 3 stars

The Pasta Queen: 100+ Recipes and Stories by Nadia Caterina Munno

4.5 stars Cookbook

I’m a pasta lover! Seriously, I love my pasta! Ok, let me rephrase that, I love pasta that doesn’t have anything to do with fish. I’m not a fish person. Nevertheless, I was excited to get my hands on a few of the pasta books at the library. From how she got started cooking, to what a cook needs to make pasta, to recipes, this book has a little bit of everything in it.

I enjoyed reading how Nadia began her career and learning about her family’s history. Sharing these recipes, she hopes that she is keeping her family’s traditions alive and bringing together her family’s history with society today. Nadia explains the tools, terms and items that are needed to make good Italian recipes even before providing any recipes to her readers.

She then puts her recipes into 6 chapters in this book. There are also some closing remarks from her, a resource guide (where to locate items), a pasta by category page, and a great index. The six chapters are:

Pasta Basics, Where It All Began, Be My Guest, Family First, Falling in Love With America, The Pasta Renaissance.

I liked that this book spends a lot of time discussing and showing how to make the different kinds of pasta. I’ve been meaning to do this, and I think I can tackle this now. I also like how most of her recipes don’t take a lot of ingredients to make. Using fresh tomatoes, I like how she adds a few more ingredients, her pasta and there’s a new dish. There are not a lot of fish recipes, and I think I could tweak most of the recipes to make them something I would enjoy. What I didn’t like about this cookbook was that every recipe didn’t have a picture. Now, I’m not expecting a huge picture each time but something small would be nice.

I think around 80 % of the recipes had their accompanying recipe pictures with them. Some of the recipes had no pictures and some had pictures of Nadia or Nadia and her family. I still think this cookbook is a keeper. 4.5 stars for me

Choose Your Own Adventure: Eighth Grade Witch by Andrew E.C. Gaska

2 stars Children’s Chapter/Middle School

I was excited when I came across this book while volunteering at the library last week. Once a month, I clean the children’s graphic novel sections at two of the branches that our library has in town, and when I came across this graphic novel, I immediately snagged it up. This book brought back so many memories of reading the smaller paperbacks of Choose Your Own Adventure stories with my own children when they were younger. I really had high hopes for this graphic novel. Unfortunately, this book didn’t work for me.

I was totally lost in this book, I mean really lost. I started it multiple times and took many of the different options that were offered within its pages, but it still didn’t make any sense to me. I even backtracked and thought that perhaps I had landed on the wrong page and had read the “If you want …… go to page XX” wrong but nope, I was just lost. It felt that when I page hopped, there was no connection to the previous page that I had just read, which was unfortunate.

I liked the storyline as I thought it could have lots of different possibilities. Thirteen-year-old Rabbit has just moved into a new city, into a new house, that has been rumored to be haunted. From day one, things are a bit weird and I’m not sure if she’s a witch or if she’s not but that’s just one of the questions that she’s confronted with. There seems to be a lot happening in Rabbits new surroundings, bits and pieces that I tried to put together, but it was the illustrations that drew me in.

The illustrations were great, and I liked the variety of text fonts that were used throughout the book as they made the scenes pop.

I remember loving the original Choose Your Own Adventure books in fact, I still have some of the books that I used to read with my own children. I will try to find another one of these graphic novels and try it again, as perhaps it was the story itself that I couldn’t follow. Perhaps I am better off imagining these books in my head instead of seeing them in a graphic novel. This book, I’m not a fan. 2 stars