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The Children of Blood and Bone

2018, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Huh. I thought The Children of Blood and Bone was a Cybil. I wonder why it isn’t a Cybil. It’s very Cybil-like. Oh, published in 2018, that’s why it’s not a Cybil. Next year! 😉

The very beginning of the book reminded me of something else. I don’t know what, but something… but then the three kids went off to save magic and I was no longer strongly reminded of another story. Except, later in the book when the Prince begins to figure out his magic and there’s that whole magical dreaming thing with Zélie – that reminded me of another story. I can’t quite put my finger on the title/series but there’s something about this one that just feels familiar and that distracted me from this story more than I would have liked.

I’m definitely looking forward to reading the next book in the series. Will Amari really be queen? I am guessing there will be obstacles there.

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Noir

2 Comments / 2018, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Queer, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Woot! A new Christopher Moore book! (Sure was a long time coming, wasn’t it?) Noir was a lot of fun but not so much funny. That’s not to say it wasn’t good, because it was. I liked it a lot, more than Sacre Bleu and Serpent of Venice. He did a good job with the genre and didn’t let the humor overshadow the genre or the story. I’m not sure I loved the Moonman story line but it worked well enough that it didn’t annoy me.

I’m definitely a fan and wouldn’t be opposed to seeing Sammy and Stilton again, someday. (Or Lone, or Jimmy, or Moo Shoes, either.)

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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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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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The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat

2018, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

Last week, the second book in this series was on the new arrivals shelf at the library and instead of grabbing it, I went back to the stacks to find the first one. I’m so glad I did. I absolutely loved The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat. I laughed and laughed and I might have maybe been close to tearing up there at the end. I really hope the second book is still on the shelf when we go back to the library — if not, I’ll be reserving it.

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Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation

2018, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Non-Fiction /

The first thing you have to know about Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation is that it’s an over-sized coffee table type of book. I knew that when I reserved it and I expected it to be mostly pictures with few words. Turns out, it’s more words than pictures (though there are amazing pictures on every page) and it’s not an easy book to read in bed or in a chair or on your couch in front of your coffee table (not that I have a coffee table because coffee tables are from the devil) but still… it’s not a book I could sit comfortably and read. That was frustrating. So, I set it on the bar in my kitchen and I read a page or two at a time, while I ate lunch or while I waited for dinner to be ready. This means it took MONTHS for me to read this book.

The next thing you should know is that it’s more of a history of Walt Disney’s animation with a focus on the women of Ink & Paint. So you learn a lot about men in animation and the men who worked at “Disney’s” as they seem to call it in the early, early days. (You also learn a good bit about Walt but not as much about Roy.) There were a TON of women working for Walt Disney in the early days of animation and the book includes a yearbook style section of all of the women who worked there. Pretty cool stuff, (and it’s Women’s History Month, so this is a great time for you to dive into this book.)

Last, but not least, you should know that this is a really interesting book. If you’re like me and you don’t really know a whole lot about how animation used to work, then this is a great crash course. It may also make you want to look at a zillion old Disney shorts and commercials and maybe watch all of the Disney full-length movies in the order in which they were released (up to the move to computer animation.)

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