2018

Caleb and Kit

2018, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Fiction /

Another middle grade fiction from the Cybils shortlist, Caleb and Kit wasn’t bad but it also wasn’t as good as I think it could have been. I wasn’t drawn to either Caleb or Kit, something was just missing. I think the CF information was good, certainly better than the other novels I’ve read with characters who have CF. I think the neglect and abuse issue was not well covered, and that was disappointing. This was really Caleb’s story and not Caleb’s and Kit’s together story, which was also disappointing.

Again, not a bad book but not great either.

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Power Plates: 100 Nutritionally Balanced, One Dish Vegan Meals

2018, Books in Bed, cookbooks /

TW asked me to reserve Power Plates at the library. Only problem with that was that it wasn’t at our library and it wasn’t on order at our library. So, I did what I always do, I suggested our library buy it. And they did.

Aside: It’s actually kind of cool to suggest a book for your library and have them take you up on that suggestion. You get to be the first one to read it and then any time you see it on the shelf, you get to say “Hey, I’m the one who suggested that book!” It’s really kind of cool. I’ve suggested four books since we moved back to this area and the Alachua County Headquarters branch has bought them all.

Back to the book… it’s the perfect vegan cookbook for our vegan foodie. Lots of different flavors, lots of different ingredients but not TOO MANY ingredients (not that too many ingredients ever stopped that kid.) It didn’t really make me happy because I don’t like things like fennel or kale or sweet potatoes for breakfast but I certainly saw recipes that interested me, particularly when the vegan kid is here for a visit. Definitely a cookbook worthy of the bookshelves at my library.

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Armstrong and Charlie

2018, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction /

My first thought was “Oh look, another book about desegregating schools, but hey this one is in California and not the south, woot!” my next thought, 20 pages in, “Oh man, I love these kids!”

Armstrong and Charlie is a surprisingly good book. The characters are wonderful, the setting was spot on (being a child of the era, I found myself reminiscing about Clackers and Tootsie Pop Drops, and the SRA box, to mention just a few), and the book “told the truth.”

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Alice Paul and the Fight for Women’s Rights

2018, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Feminism, Non-Fiction, Women, Young Adult /

OK I think Alice Paul and the Fight for Women’s Rights is the last non-fiction Cybil I’ll read this year. Probably. I’m kind of glad I finished on such a high note.

This was a pretty comprehensive history of Alice Paul’s life and work. It was a quick read but not a simple read. Well done, I highly recommend it to kids (or adults) who don’t know much about Alice Paul.

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Reading in April

2018, Books in Bed, Reading /

Nine, hahaha. Oops. It was a long month with more TV watching than reading there at the end. Whatever.

Five were children’s picture/board books (lol)
Two were middle grade non-fiction (lol)
One was middle grade poetry (lol)
(That means I only read one adult novel in April and I didn’t even like the damn book. lol)

Six were Cybils (and they were mostly good Cybils, too!)

May probably won’t be much better for reading since we’ll be taking two trips (on top of the one I’m already on right now.)

*One was written by an Asian man.

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Three from the Cybils Shortlist

2018, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Queer /

I reserved I’m Just No Good at Rhyming because I thought it might be fun to play with while the boys were here. hahaha. As with many of our big ideas around kids and poetry, this didn’t happen. I, however, enjoyed it a good bit once the boys went home. I’m not a huge fan of extra-silly poetry so I was worried — but, it wasn’t too silly, just clever. (Mostly.)

I reserved the only two books that I was really interested in, from this year’s non-fiction shortlist, Motor Girls: How Women Took the Wheel and Drove Boldly Into the Twentieth Century and Queer, There, and Everywhere. As expected, I really enjoyed Motor Girls and have a love/hate/disappointed/frustrated thing going with Queer, There, and Everywhere.

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Five Children’s Books

2018, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction /

While the boys were here for Grandma Camp, we read some books – obviously. Here’s what we read:

Hiding Phil — we bought this at the Wild Iris closing (sniff). It was cute, if you like elephants and hide-and-seek (which Squishy does.)

Circle Triangle Elephant is a board book (from the Cybils shortlist) and Squishy liked it because elephants and boats and BLUE (he likes blue!)

The Book of Mistakes is also a Cybils shortlist book and I LOVED IT. I’m not sure how the boys felt about it but this is about me and I LOVED IT. It’s all about how a “mistake” in a drawing can turn into something amazing. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED IT.

Another Cybils shortlist book, Peek-a-Moo was a hit. Turns out they own another book in the series, Peek-a-Who, and it’s a favorite. Also turns out Jenn didn’t know it was a series at all so Grandma had to buy them all. Had to!

And because they are moving, and Pippin is a bit sad about it, I had to pull out an old favorite from the days when my kids moved (and moved and moved), Mitchell is Moving. Pippin liked it and he was thrilled when I told him that I’d bought that for him and he could take it home with him.

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