Children’s Literature

7 Cybil Picture Books

2016, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites /

I reserved these with the intention of reading at least some of them to JMP and SquishyFace when they were here and… I didn’t read them a single book. Not one. Gasp. What is the world coming too? Boo!

Oh well, some of them were really really great and they were all good.

My favorites:

Mango, Abuela, and Me – loved it. Such a great story. I’ll read this to the boys, some day.
Last Stop on Market Street – perfection.
Sidwalk Flowers – awwwww. How cute was that?

Really liked these:

Blizzard – though I wouldn’t want to give JMP any ideas about heading out for food after a blizzard, lol.
Bug in a Vacuum – hah. Totally amusing.
In a Village By the Sea – I loved the illustrations.

Good ones:

Hoot Owl, Master of Disguise – loved the illustrations, the story not quite as much.

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Three Graphic Novels

2016, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Don't Read This, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

Let’s see… which graphic novels (all Cybils shortlisters) did I read? Oh yea…

Courtney Crumrin: Volume 7 … hated it. Didn’t finish it. At first, I thought it was because I’m way behind on this series, (I think the last one I read was 4), but based on the reviews — a whole lot of series fans just didn’t like this one. I’m glad it wasn’t just me.

Next, Dragons Beware!. I love Claudette and her friends. Absolutely love them.

Last, but not least, Baba Yaga’s Assistant was really good. I didn’t expect much from it, I’m not a very big Baba Yaga fan, so this really exceeded expectations.

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Four Graphic Novels

2016, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Queer, Young Adult /

Readathons, even #fakereadathons, mean I get to spend some time catching up on graphic novels and these four were excellent. All four of them.

Roller Girl was awesome. I loved everything about it. I hope there are more Roller Girl books.

Next, I read March Book 2 and it was good, obviously, because John Lewis, y’all.

After that, Sunny Side Up. Poor kid. This was well written and well drawn. I didn’t expect much from it and was very pleasantly surprised.

Last, but not least, Honor Girl. Loved it. And, shockingly, I loved the ending. Some people probably didn’t – those “I want a happy endinggggg.” kinds of people. Nope. It ended exactly as it should have.

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Serafina and the Black Cloak

2016, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Serafina and the Black Cloak is another book I have a love/hate thing with.

It was on my TBR list FOREVER and TW ended up getting it during one of our recent library visits, which is good since my list is long and I may never have managed to check it out. I liked it a lot but I didn’t want Serafina to be a magical creature. I wanted her to just be a little girl. (which is probably a spoiler? maybe? oops!)

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Momotaro: Xander and the Lost Island of Monsters

2016, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Y’all know I love Margaret Dilloway so you’re not surprised that I was super excited to hear she was writing a book for kids. I was also thrilled that it was the last book I actually finished before leaving Chicagoland.

Xander and the Lost Island of Monsters was excellent. I really loved Xander and Peyton. I loved the strengths that each of them brought to the challenges they faced.

I’m not sure how I felt about the very end of the book, to set up the next book. We shall see what happens next.

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Blackthorn Key

2016, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Fiction /

I really enjoyed Blackthorn Key and hope I remember to look for the sequels at some point down the line. Christopher is a good character. So is Tom. I am disappointed about one thing that happened, pretty early in the book but I understand why it did… I really hate it when characters I like die very early in the first book of a series. (And as TW said, Harry Potter must have been hard for me — and yes, yes it was.)

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