Otto’s Orange Day by Frank Cammuso
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Cute early reader graphic novel. Otto loves orange. When he receives an orange lamp, a genie appears from the lamp. Otto wishes that everything were orange and the entire world turns various shades of orange. It becomes a problem when there is a criminal on the loose who is orange and wearing orange along with everyone else.
Read September 27, 2011
Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
3 1/2 stars. The perfect book when I needed a break from YA books. A smarter book than a lot of chick lit but definitely a woman’s book.
I enjoyed the stories of the different women but found their search for “Mr Right” a little tiring even though that’s how 20- and 30-something women are most of the time. I was irritated that a couple of women stayed with such jerks who made them either miserable or feel less than wonderful.
Read August 14- 18, 2011
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A strange tale woven around odd old photographs. The photographs seem as though they were created for the book when the story was actually created around the photographs.
I thought the book started really strong and lost steam about half way. It started to feel a bit far-fetched but it was enjoyable nonetheless and the story was completely different than I expected.
Read July 28-August 11, 2011
Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born by Jamie Lee Curtis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A sweet adoption story about when the little girl’s parents get the call that their new baby was born. My favorite of the adoption picture books I’ve read.
Read August 10, 2011
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I’m sad that I am giving this 3 stars. I wanted to enjoy it more after my being so excited for its release but it just didn’t hold my attention like Linger did, which I think I enjoyed more. This book at times felt a bit too wandering to me and like it was taking me “forever” to read. This book didn’t hold my attention like Linger did and I’m not sure why. I wasn’t as attached to the characters as I had been in the past. They felt distant like I was just was getting a glimpse of their lives and not being fully included into their lives. The hunt didn’t feel as impending as I thought it might and it just felt like there was something missing with this book. I’ve read others feeling like their book was missing a page at the ending and I felt the same way. I read the last half page again just to make sure I hadn’t missed something important.
Read July 8-22, 2011
The Biggest Frog in Australia by Susan L. Roth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A funny tale about the biggest frog in Australia drinking up all the water from the ponds, the lakes, rivers, oceans and clouds leaving the animals and plants parched. With no water to be found the animals decide if they can make the frog laugh he’ll spit out the water and they will have water to drink.
The artwork in this book is torn paper. It’s beautiful and the kookaburra bird is so cool with the different techniques used to get the feathery look.
Read July 21, 2011
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My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A very quick read that I didn’t want to put down. I don’t know what made this book so addictive but it was truly enjoyable.
**Spoiler alert**
It’s May 1996 and Emma and Josh live next door to each other. Josh gets a CD-ROM in the mail for 100 free hours on AOL. (Oh, how I remember being excited to add another AOL account for 100 free hours.) He gives the disc to Emma who has recently received a new computer from her dad. She loads the AOL disc which takes several hours and they log on to AOL through the phone line. While they are exploring AOL they come upon a website called Facebook where they find themselves 15 years in the future. Future Facebook Emma is unhappily married and Josh is happily married to one of the hottest girls from high school.
As time goes on Emma realizes that she’s not happy with the future husband and does things to change her future but as she soon realizes what she does in the present won’t make her happy in the future. She must find a way to be happy in the present.
This brought back memories of spending a lot of time and money to be online back when you paid by the hour. And how I don’t miss dial-up service. I remember having to get separate phone line in 1995 when I was in college because I was tying up the phone line to our house with six girls living in it.
I loved this book but a few things that seemed to not sit well with me were the references to 1996. I graduated from college the same day that the book starts (May 19, 1996). I did some fact checking online and found a few problems with the references. AOL at that time was sending out tons of 3 1/2″ floppy discs for free access, not CD-ROMs. AOL wasn’t released for Windows 95 until June 1996. A reference to DVDs also didn’t sit well as DVDs weren’t test marketed in the U.S. until March 1997, nearly a full year after this story takes place. And I don’t remember a lot of people in May 1996 having cell phones, especially ones that weren’t attached to their car.
Read July 7-8, 2011
Sisterhood Everlasting (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants #5)
by Ann Brashares
The summer I graduated from graduate school I listened to all four of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books. When I had moved away from my friends Tibby, Lena, Bee and Carmen became my friends. To revisit them in this book was bittersweet.
The book starts ten years after the last book when the girls are 29. They are all split up living in different cities all over the world – Carmen in New York, Lena in Providence, Bee in San Francisco and Tibby in Australia. They seem to have lost touch with each other. Then Tibby arranges a reunion in Greece and the events there change their lives forever.
I was so absorbed in this book that I didn’t want it to end! It could have been 300 pages longer and I probably wouldn’t have noticed. I had to keep reading to find out what happened next and what happened to each girl and to find out the one secret that ties the entire book together.
If you’ve loved the other Sisterhood books, you’ll love this book. This is an adult book obviously written for those who grew up with the four girls in the first four books.
Read June 16 to 19, 2011
Fashion Kitty and the B.O.Y.S. (Ball of Yellow String)
by Charise Mericle Harper
Reviewing for Net Galley
Fashion Kitty is back and her fans will still love her.
In an illustrated novel format Fashion Kitty has a new challenge. Leon Lambaster III, who comes from a long line of inventors, creates the CKF club (Catch Fashion Kitty), he even designs his own t-shirt.
Then the teachers, including the librarian, come up with a t-shirt fashion show idea. They want the kitties at school to design their own t-shirts based on something they’ve read in a book.
One day, Kiki (aka Fashion Kitty) sees Leon’s CKF t-shirt with Fashion Kitty’s face crossed out and wonders “why would he not like Fashion Kitty?” Is there a super villan wanting to hurt Fashion Kitty?
The day of the fashion show Leon steals all of the kitties’ t-shirts and plans to catch Fashion Kitty using his father’s inventions. (Inventions that were meant to be used only for good.) Then it’s Fashion Kitty to save the show.
At the back of the Advanced Reading Copy are Creative Ideas for Creative Kitties. This has ideas on how to make your own t-shirts using fabric paint or fabric markers. And also ideas on what to make out of old t-shirts. I’ll be interested to see if there are illustrations to go along with the suggestions.
As with the other Fashion Kitty books I’ve read the action is fast along with some silliness as to how Fashion Kitty saves the day. Fashion Kitty fans won’t be disappointed.
Read June 21, 2011
Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol
I loved this book! Anya falls down a well and doesn’t expect that she’ll actually meet a friend at the bottom of the well. Let alone a friend that’s a ghost who has been dead for over a hundred years. After Anya is rescued her ghost friend is with her at all times. It’s just what she needs while she’s miserable at school and pining over a boy. But things with her new friend take a very strange and eerie turn to something I didn’t expect.
What I loved about this book was not just the amazingly original story but also the little details that caught my eye, such as the posters hanging in Anya’s room of some of my favorite bands. It made Anya more authentic and a relate-able character.
If you like ghost stories or paranormal stories and graphic novels, and haven’t picked this one up, you really should.
Read May 4 to 5, 2011
