Oh, my! I wish I were skilled enough to review this in Seussian meter. It really does get everything so right. I bought this as a bit of fun, as I’m a long-time Lovecraft fan, and enjoyed Dr Seuss’ books as a child, and then again reading them to my (now 19-year-old) daughter when she was little. I’ve also played more than my fair share of Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game in my time. Ivankovic manages to richly capture the look and feel of […]
Not Just History
I was raised in an interfaith household, and I read a lot of books about young Jewish girls when I was growing up. There was Judy Blume’s Sally and Margaret, Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars, and the All-of-a-Kind Family, of course, but there was also the lesser-known Rachel Bloom and Sashie from The Night Journey. The Night Journey is a simple story–Rachel is 13 years old, growing up in Minnesota with her parents and her great-grandmother, Nana Sashie, who lives with them. Sashie tells the story […]
I never really liked JTT. Not my thang.
Another switcheroo, here. I was surprised when I realized that childhood favorite The Forgotten is not actually very good, and that this one, which I didn’t like very much when I was a kid, is actually super enjoyable. Maybe it’s just that it’s a Rachel book, and those are always intense, but where in the last one I found that the narrative voice felt off, like it was trying too hard, this one immediately felt on and sure of itself, just like Rachel. There’s nothing […]
The Animorphs pull out the reset button.
I remember loving The Forgotten when I was a kid, but it really is pretty useless in the grand scheme of things, other than to establish that time-travel is a thing (this is achieved by falling through a Sario Rip, literally a hole in space-time, as the Andalites call them). That lazy genre classic, the Reset Button, shows up here and shows up hard. By the end, no one but Jake even remembers most of the events in the book. Actually, most of the time-travel […]
Officially Did Not Finish, 2016
A few years ago, I came to the realization that I did not have to finish a book, if I wasn’t enjoying it. This was – to say the least – a startling revelation for me, because I had previously trudged through every. single. word. of every. single. book., even if I despised it. It led to some pretty miserable reading days. But since I’ve stopped doing that, I not only read more, I enjoy what I’m reading more, because I know that I’m reading […]
Picture books, helping me get closer to Cannonball
Maxwell The Monkey Barber by Cale Atkinson – Super cute, quick read, catchy refrain, and a smart, caring monkey barber make this title a good addition to your kid’s library. I’m a Lot of Sometimes by Jack Guinan – The subtitle (A Growing-Up Story of Identity) is apt, the art work cheery and entertaining; the story, informative without being too preachy. Definitely fits into the “what the heck are feelings and what do I do with them” genre of picture books that’s essential if you’ve […]
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