I really liked All the Broken Pieces – so sad. Kids and war. Adults and war. Sad, sad, sad. I’d kind of like a sequel – what happens to Matt? Does he go to Vietnam and look for his mother? His brother? But then again, going back would quite probably be even sadder.
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I didn’t expect to love Carter Finally Gets It… a book about a dumb male freshman? Please. Boys. Are. ANNOYING. In. HIGH SCHOOL. And Carter was annoying, as were his dumb friends. But Carter was also endearingly annoying in that he has no idea what he’s doing sort of way. It was cute. And funny. Also, it was a nice change from the books about dumb female freshman. Because Girls. ARE. Annoying. In. HIGH SCHOOL.
Loved the book. I wish I could convince all three of the younger kids to read it. Maybe I should get it on audio and force them to listen to it in the car…
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First, Mr Putter & Tabby Spill the Beans is an easy reader that’s really, really easy. I tend to like these less than any other type of book and I felt the same way about this one except…. As Mr Putter and Mrs Teaberry are learning 100 Ways to Cook Beans, I began to think in my head “I bet there will be bean Jell-o”. I turned the page and…. Yep, Three Bean Jell-o and from then on, the book was a hit. That’s all it needed. Oh the real story about having to try new things (particularly things that don’t sound fun) because those new things will make someone else happy” is a good lesson and it’s told in a cute way. But really, if there had been no bean Jell-o, I’d have been bored. As it is, I’m thinking about buying this silly book. Heh.
Captain Nobody is a middle grade fiction that feels a little young for MGF but it certainly wasn’t an easy reader/early chapter book. Oy, genre classification is hard. It started slowly but after The Big Tackle, it moved quickly and I was hooked. Captain Nobody became the town’s hero and his sidekicks get some of the spotlight too. Nice book. I liked it.
I’m a big fan of Roscoe Riley (and his rules). I particularly like #7 – Never Race a Runaway Pumpkin because it’s true! You shouldn’t. And I do not care what anyone says, bad stuff can happen if you break a mirror or if an evil black cat crosses your path (the problem is knowing whether a cat is evil or not, lol.)
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Damn I love Lauren Willig. And I love Turnip most of all, though Arabella is probably high on my love list too. Brilliant use of Jane Austen (and The Watsons) as the foundation for Mischief of the Mistletoe. Brilliant. I couldn’t put it down and didn’t want it to end – and I laughed out loud, over and over again.
I can hardly wait for The Orchid Affair.
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The Underpainter was not the best book to take on a quick trip to California. It’s not the best book to read in an airport, on an airplane or in a Holiday Inn Express with very loud music and even louder male voices blaring from the rooms next door. The Underpainter is a book you want to read while lounging under a tree or in a really plush and comfortable lounge chair. It’s also a book that needs a lot of highlight markings or at least the previous owner of my copy seemed to think so. That’s the problem with buying used books, sometimes I get distracted by the words and phrases previous owners felt it necessary to highlight.
Anyway – beautifully written. I hated Austin, which is probably as it should be. I felt sorry for him too, which is also as it should be.
One more book for my From the Stacks Challenge and I’ll be done! Yay me. Yay me.
I am… troubled… very troubled… by The Live Oak Motel. The author has spent most of her life in Gainesville, Florida. Her husband is an English Professor. This book… not funny. The racial stereotyping and the stereotyping of “southerners” wasn’t funny – and I’m a pretty un-PC kind of person. I didn’t find it amusing. I’m just very, very troubled.
I really need to be more selective about the books I put on my challenge list – and by the books I buy.
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The last from the Fiction Picture Books, The Listeners. I like Gloria Whelan and this book was nice enough but it didn’t really grab me the way most of her books do.
Then, I jumped to Easy Readers and Short Fiction…
When I saw Mo Willems on the list, again, I wasn’t thrilled. I’m getting a little tired of Elephant and Pig but I was very pleasantly surprised by Watch Me Throw the Ball. I laughed. Out loud. And it’s been awhile since Willems has really made me do that.
I like Mercy and I really liked Mercy Watson Something Wonky This Way Comes – not just for the use of the word wonky, either. Maybe I’m just a fan of buttered toast?
Last but not least, How Oliver Olson Changed the World. Oy. Parents who worry too much about their kids. Parents who do too much for their kids. And the kids who hate it. Brilliant book. Brilliant story. Brilliant use of Pluto the non-planet in this tough story. I like. A lot.
And Dexter really was Delicious in this book. Thank goodness. I really didn’t love Dexter by Design so I was worried that Dexter is Delicious wouldn’t make me love Dexter (and friends) the way the first three books did. I was afraid I’d feel about it the way I feel about the Showtime series – which is cold, bored, and longing for the Dexter of the old days. Thank goodness Lily Anne changed Lindsey’s writing as much as it changed Daddy Dexter. It could be that I just don’t love Cody and Astor very much and I do love Brian. It could also be that I love Sgt Deborah and this book gave us another look at Debs. This book also brought back the funny Dexter which I think was really lacking in the last book. That’s probably the real problem – I need the sarcastic humor that IS Dexter.
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Unicorns FTW!
Last night when I was just a wee bit into Zombies vs Unicorns, Michelle wandered into my bedroom and plopped herself down on my bed – which led me to gripe about kids always laying on my darn bed. My griping didn’t send her away so I figured I’d try asking her some stupid question, a normal surefire way to get her to wander off to do something more interesting… “Zombies or Unicorns?”
She said Unicorns (smart girl) which led TW to try and argue that Zombies were better… unfortunately TW is not very good at debating and she proved the Unicorn’s side over and over and over again with her arguments, which caused Michelle to continue to lay on my bed laughing her a** off. So much for surefire ways to get a kid to get off of your bed.
The zombies vs unicorn debate seems like a good debate but it isn’t. Unicorns win hands down. They’re smarter. They’re magic. The stories about them are better. Not that that zombie stories in Zombies vs Unicorns were bad, they were excellent – but they just proved that Unicorns are just plain smarter, meaner, more magnificent and BETTER.
Don’t believe me? Read the book. Princess Prettypants, the prettiest, sweetest, rainbowyest (that’s totally a word) unicorn in the entire book will kick your ASS and make you like it. No zombie would stand a chance.
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Wolves, Boys and Other Things That Might Kill Me is another book that I picked up while walking through a strange library. The title called to me but I was worried about whether I’d like it or not – no worries, I loved it. It was almost midnight and I had about 70 pages to go – I wanted to keep reading and see what happened to the wolves – and the boys – and the town. Great characters – kids who seem real and not too perfect or too flawed either.
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