Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Book View: Seesaw Girl

Seesaw Girl is the story of Jade, who is not allowed to leave the inner court of her family’s home. She should be focusing on learning skills that will benefit her future husband, but instead she daydreams about what is beyond her walls all the way to the mountains. Also, Jade would rather pull pranks than sit sewing all day and wishes she were one of the boys. So when her best friend is married and sent off, Jade cannot resist the risk to see her. Her adventure takes her outside the wall into a world where woman are allowed […]

Posted July 16, 2014
Book Review, Book Views

Book Review: Independent St..

Going into Independent Study, my hopes were very low. I had liked The Testing, but it left me with a watered down copy cat taste in my mouth. The Testing felt like déjà vu. Every element, every little secret felt like a repeat. Not like I had seen it once, but over and over again, somewhere else. Those events that did feel new felt cheap in a way. Most added purely for the shock value. So, at the end of The Testing, I was not feeling good about continuing with the series. But since you can’t always judge a series by just one book, I […]

Posted June 7, 2014
Book Review

Book View: Enchanted

Short & Sweet: Mixing together several fairy tales, Enchanted is about a young girl named Sunday who meets a frog and cannot write down anything or it comes true. She is the sixth daughter, all of which are named after days of the week. Little does she know her own fairy tale is beginning as she gives her frog friend a kiss after telling him a story one night. He turns back into the prince he really is after she leaves and searches her out, but does not know how to approach telling her how he knows her as a frog […]

Posted April 21, 2014
Book Review, Book Views

Graphic Novel Review: The G..

The Great American Dust Bowl is a graphic novel that brings the Dust Bowl to life through fantastic graphics. I picked this one up at the library based on the cover alone, and was not surprised to find it already getting quite a lot of praise from librarians everywhere. The cover itself has such a impacting image of what the Dust Bowl looked like in the dirty 30s. Giving a lot of information throughout the book, it makes it an ideal in graphic nonfiction. I didn’t feel stifled by the information, rather it tied in so well with the images […]

Posted April 13, 2014
Book Review, Graphic Novel Review

Book Review: How to Catch a..

How to Catch a Bogle is the story of orphan Birdie, apprentice to London’s bogler Alfred, a man who destroys the monsters during the Victorian era. It’s Birdie’s job to lure the monsters out of their lairs so Alfred can kill them. It may seem a dangerous job, but she could be worse off. She feels that way until distinguished Miss Eames comes along to watch the mysterious business of catching and disposing of bogles. Miss Eames tries to convince her to pursue another line of work and even offers her a place to stay and singing lessons as she […]

Posted March 5, 2014
Book Review

Book View: Boston Jacky

Short & Sweet: Boston Jacky is the reason I resubscribed to Audible, needing the audiobook and not willing to wait any longer. The narrator of these books is Katherine Kellgren and her level of awesome is through the roof. Jacky is back in Boston as is her love Jaimy. Again there's a wedge drawn as Jaimy finds a painting from her latest travels that makes him believe Jacky's innocence has been compromised. Instead of letting her know he is in Boston, he decides he will stay undercover as a hunchbacked man sent to Boston for trading. I love Jacky and […]

Posted February 18, 2014
Book Review, Book Views

Book Review: Parched

Parched is a book that took me by surprise. Told from the point of view of a girl named Sarel, a boy named Musa, and also Nandi, a dog, it's set in a desert setting where the water has dried up and gangs are willing to kill for any source of water. Parched opens to such a scene, Sarel's parents being killed and Sarel herself escaping with the help of the dogs, especially Nandi. Her source of water is running out and her mother's garden was destroyed in the struggle and resulting fire, giving her little food. Not wanting to […]

Posted January 4, 2014
Book Review

Book Review: The Mysterious..

I love books like The Mysterious Woods of Whistle Root, that have the right formula of scary and adventure all wrapped in to one. I also loved the musical aspect of the book, as our main character Carly meets a rat playing the fiddle on her roof one night. She's an unusual girl already, who cannot seem to sleep at night no matter what and falls asleep constantly during school. What she finds out is that the wonderful, harmless music-playing rats are now disappearing into the claws of the owls, who used to enjoy their music. Carly must help figure […]

Posted October 30, 2013
Book Review