Cybil Challenge

Sidekicked

2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I felt like I had already read Sidekicked but apparently not. So much of it seemed familiar. Weird, right?

I enjoyed it. I didn’t love love love it. Not sure I’ll read Minion but I might. We’ll see. Maybe.

I liked the sidekicks. I liked the way the Titan storyline developed (and ended.) I also liked the Fox/Silver Lynx story progression, though I would probably have liked it more if the story had been told through Jenna’s point of view. Not that I didn’t like Drew, I did. I just think it would have been a better story if Jenna was telling it.

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Conjured

2014, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Don't Read This, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Gah. If Conjured had not been on the Cybils shortlist, I never would have finished it. I hated this darn book.

The idea of it was good. The ending of it was good. The first half (if not more) was so damn slow and repetitive that I was cursing it pretty much nonstop.

Eve is in a witness protection program. She has memory loss. A lot of memory loss. The agents guarding her want her to tell them… something… what, nobody knows because the author doesn’t tell us and Eve has memory loss. Eve can do magic and when she does, she blacks out. When she wakes up, days (weeks? months?) have passed and she’s apparently been awake and interacting with society but she can’t remember anything that’s happened at all.

Rinse and repeat. Over and over and over for a good 1/2 of the book. That’s pretty much all that happens. And it’s annoying. By the time the story started moving, I was so disgusted that I barely wanted to finish. But I did. It was hard but I did it.

I hate books like this. Move a little more quickly or give us some reason to keep reading the slow mess at the beginning. Do not make a book for kids a struggle to read. Stupid.

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Rose

2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I really liked Rose, the book and the character. She’s an orphan who does not have far-fetched dreams about returning parents or marrying princes. She just wants to leave the orphanage, go into service, work hard, and earn her own way. Even when she’s given chances to be more than a downstairs maid, she turns those chances down. She just wants to be a regular person. I like that.

Unfortunately, sometimes you can’t just be a regular person. You have to step up and into other roles. That’s what happens to Rose. And at the end, it gets very dark — so if you’ve got a middle grader who can’t handle dark, scary, bloody scenes… skip Rose until later.

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7 Books from the Cybils Shortlist (Read During #readathon)

2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Fiction /

Again, in the order in which I read them:

Home Sweet Horror — not a bad ghost story/Bloody Mary story. The dead mom/ring was a nice touch.

Dragonbreath: The Case of the Toxic Mutants — I liked it. It amused me. If you like those books I recommended last year? Earlier this year? The ones about the amoeba? Heck, what are those called… I’m gonna go look… Squish! then you’ll probably like Dragonbreath.

Violet Mackerel’s Natural Habitat — I’m a fan of Violet Mackerel but this wasn’t my favorite. I liked it, I just didn’t love love love it.

Kelsey Green Third Grade Reading Queen — was cute. Good for Kelsey for helping Cody, even if her motives weren’t necessarily the best. I hope she learned something, though I’m not sure she did… which is possibly the only thing about the story that I didn’t love.

Lulu and the Dog From the Sea — I loved it. Obviously. I’ve got three darn puppies that I adopted because I had to… I’m very glad it ended the way that it did. 😉

The Life of Ty: Penguin Problems — I did not like. There were moments when I liked it but a lot more moments when I did not. The Penguin part, that’s when it sealed the deal for me… did not like that.

The 14 Fibs of Gregory K was excellent. I’m very glad I stayed up til after 1am to finish it. The only problem was that I wanted pie and it was 1am!

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The last of the August/September Children’s Books

2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction /

I’m going to get caught up today, even if it kills me. I’m going to schedule and stagger the posts so I don’t kill the people in my streams with these posts because I’m thoughtful like that.

I hope to goodness I never fall this far behind again. Someone remind me of this the next time JMP comes for an extended visit…

The Bear’s Song is cute and it’s on the Cybil shortlist. It has a Where’s Waldo sort of thing going on and I liked it but young children are going to have some trouble finding the little bear. Heck, I think there was a page where I never did find him.

Wild Animals is one of those touch and feel board books and not a Cybils book. JMP liked it. Because animals and touch and feel stuff. Obviously.

Thomas’ Milkshake Muddle was the very first Thomas book I’ve ever read and obviously not on the Cybils list. I KNOW, RIGHT? It was… fine. Don’t tell JMP but I don’t really understand the Thomas thing. I understand why a two year old loves trains but the books and TV shows creep me out a little. So anyway. This book. It was fine. JMP liked it.

Love Is In the Air was cute and a Cybil. A kite and a helium balloon. Yea, I liked it.

The Bag I’m Taking to Grandma’s House was not a Cybil — it was on a shelf at the library for Grandparents’ Day. JMP and I liked it. JMP doesn’t have to bring all the things in his bag because grandma will buy all the things, though.

If You Want to See a Whale is from the Cybils list and I apparently read it so long ago that I can barely remember it. I gave it four stars on goodreads and to be honest, I have no idea why. I assume this means JMP liked it since I can barely remember what I might have liked about it.

Journey was fabulous and obviously from the Cybils list. JMP loved it. I loved it. I will have to read it to him again next year to see if he still likes it.

Urgency Emergency is from the Cybils list and I liked it more than JMP did. Probably because JMP is not super familiar with the tale of the Red Riding Hood. Don’t worry, we’re going to change that this Christmas…

Punk Farm was a present for JMP from Aunt Michelle and I could have sworn I blogged this but either I didn’t or my search feature is worse than, well, worse than it should be. Anyway. The animals on the farm are punk musicians. They put on a show after the farmer goes to sleep. It’s a great punk show. I loved it. JMP was amused by my screaming of the lyrics. Next year I’m gonna get Michelle and RJ and Chris to PERFORM as I read. JMP’s gonna love that. Don’t worry, we’ll take video.

And that’s it for the kids’ books I feel behind on. I think. Maybe. Hah.

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Six Children’s Books From the Cybils Shortlist

2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Don't Read This, Favorites, Fiction, Poetry /

Let’s see…

JMP loved Joe and Sparky Go to School. The book was in the back seat of my car and he read it many times all by himself. I didn’t read it until last night and it’s very cute.

I read most of Sophie’s Squash to JMP and while he was not impressed, I was. It’s a very cute story. I’m going to read it to him again next year, I think he just wasn’t in the mood to read the night we tried it.

When Thunder Comes was excellent. Very well done with a wide range of civil rights leaders represented.

What the Heart Knows is a beautiful book. The illustrations. The charms, chants and blessings. The little red ribbon. I might have to buy this one.

Pug and Other Animal Poems was ok. The illustrations were better than the poetry. I was fascinated by the poem about the mouse. That’s not something you see very often in children’s poetry. What? Go read it for yourself.

The Meanest Birthday Girl was my least favorite. In fact, I hated it. Which is too bad because there’s a big white elephant in the book. There’s enough meanness in the world that we really don’t need it in a children’s book — not like this.

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3 More Children’s Books

2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge /

I think these must all be from the Cybils shortlist. Lord knows I wouldn’t read another Elephant & Piggie book unless it was on the list. Or JMP picked it out himself. He didn’t, so it must be. A Big Guy Took My Ball was one of my least favorite in the series. Mo Willems can do better and has done better. These need to stop being added to the Cybils shortlist — they’ve jumped the shark.

Penny and Her Marble, sigh, I have a fondness for Kevin Henkes unfortunately, none of the children I’ve read to on a regular basis seem to share my fondness. JMP liked this one well enough. It was long and I don’t think he knows what a marble IS (which I admit is my fault — the book is intended for slightly older children) maybe he’ll like it more when he’s older.

Open This Little Book was super adorable. JMP wanted to turn all of the pages — sometimes more quickly than I could read the words, which is saying something since you can’t really fit that many readable words onto some of those tiny pages. So far, this is my favorite (I think) from the Cybils children’s books we’ve read.

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