Goodreads Blurb
What’s left when your kids grow up and leave home?
When Tom Layward’s wife had an affair he resolved to leave her as soon as his youngest daughter turned eighteen. Twelve years later, while taking her to Pittsburgh to start university, he remembers his pact, and keeps driving West.
An unforgettable road trip novel, The Rest of Our Lives beautifully explores the nuance and complications of a long term marriage.
Goodreads Blurb
Young dancer Sofia wakes up to a quiet, white world—it’s a snow day! She makes her way outside to the neighborhood park, where a field awaits her, white and shining and open. It isn’t long before the rest of the neighborhood wakes its sleepy head—and the other kids make their way to the park, scattering all of Sofia’s beautiful silence. But with the help of a new young friend, Sofia is ready to show everyone what a snow dancer can do on a perfect day like this. With lyrical language and gorgeous art, this book sparkles with all the joy and beauty of a snow day.
My Review: Rated 5 out of 5 stars
A snow day turns to a peaceful place to enjoy a dance. This book brings those beautiful moments when there is fresh snow that no one has stepped on yet. Can you hear the crunch of snow on your shoes? A girl finds it so peaceful and quiet that she starts dancing around the snow, enjoying the peace, until all the children from the town arrive. They start playing and enjoying the snow, but the girl finds a little girl who loved her dancing. They both dance around the other children until a game of snowball fight begins. I loved this beautiful book that brings us to those beautiful days that snow magically makes the world peaceful and beautiful.
Goodreads Blurb
When our brilliant Catch Club Kids hear about the legendary Yeti, they head to the mountains to catch a glimpse and prove it really exists! Full of hilarious high jinks, bright illustrations, and clever STEM traps, this funny picture book for kids is a fun-filled ride you won’t want to miss! Will our Catch Club Kids prove the Yeti exists, or will he remain a mystery to the world? We’ve all heard unexplained tales of the Yeti, Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and more… do YOU have what it takes to catch one? Find out in this action-packed story for children, the perfect read aloud all winter, as a Christmas gift for kids, for classroom activities, and beyond!
My Review: Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Adventures await all the children who want to catch a Yeti. This book has some fun moments when a group of friends decide to go hunt for a Yeti. They come up with some fun ideas in hopes of catching a Yeti, but those Yeti are just way too fast and smart. Children are really going to love joining in this adventure and having a blast with all the tricks the group of friends have to capture the Yeti. The illustrations are so colorful and eye-catching. Very detailed illustrations. Everyone will enjoy this fun book. I think all of us would be super thrilled if we were able to see a real life Yeti.
Goodreads Author Biography
Adam Wallace is a New York Times, USA Today and Amazon Bestselling author of the How to Catch series!
Adam’s passion is to bring excitement and energy and humour and joy to children (of all ages!) through his books and videos.
He spends his non-writing time thinking about writing and going to as many live music shows as he can. He’s also teaching himself piano, and plays golf too.
Goodreads Blurb
“Once there was a tree…and she loved a little boy.”
So begins a story of unforgettable perception, beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted and versatile Shel Silverstein.
Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk…and the tree was happy. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree, and the tree gave and gave and gave.
This is a tender story, touched with sadness, aglow with consolation. Shel Silverstein has created a moving parable for readers of all ages that offers an affecting interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another’s capacity to love in return.
My Review: Rated 5 out of 5 stars
It is such a captivating story that is still relevant today. Mother Nature gives, and we take and forget to give back. Our greed has got the best of us. We are destroying our environment with pollution and destroying our eco system. We will eventually be like the tree, nothing left to take and survive. This story is a classical childrens literature that will have us think how we can give back and preserve earth.
Goodreads Author Biography
Shel Silverstein was the author-artist of many beloved books of prose and poetry. He was a cartoonist, playwright, poet, performer, recording artist, and Grammy-winning, Oscar-nominated songwriter.
Shel Silverstein will perhaps always be best loved for his extraordinary books. Shel’s books are now published in more than 47 different languages. The last book that was published before his death in 1999 was Falling Up.
Goodreads Blurb
Roz Nay’s Our Little Secret is a twisted tale of love, pain, and revenge that will stay with the reader long after they turn the last page.
They say you never forget your first love. What they don’t say though, is that sometimes your first love won’t forget you…
A police interview room is the last place Angela expected to find herself today. It’s been hours, and they keep asking her the same inane questions over and over. “How do you know the victim?” “What’s your relationship with Mr. Parker?” Her ex’s wife has gone missing, and anyone who was close to the couple is a suspect. Angela is tired of the bottomless questions and tired of the cold room that stays the same while a rotating litany of interrogators changes shifts around her. But when criminologist Novak takes over, she can tell he’s not like the others. He’s ready to listen, and she knows he’ll understand. When she tells him that her story begins a decade before, long before Saskia was in the picture, he gives her the floor.
A twenty-something young professional, Angela claims to have no involvement. How could she? It’s been years since she and H.P., Mr. Parker that is, were together. As her story unfolds, it deepens and darkens. There’s a lot to unpack… betrayal, jealousy, and a group of people who all have motives for retribution. If Angela is telling the truth, then who’s lying?
My Review: Rated 4 out of 5 stars
wow, what a beautifully written novel filled with secrets, hurt, jealousy, and revenge. Roz is an amazing storyteller who marvels each characters words while twisting the lie with the truth. I loved how the story is built off from the beginning she met HP and how the plot twisted at the very end. It kept the readers intrigued at this love story that doesn’t always have a happily ever after. Sometimes, the ones you love the most are the ones that hurt you the most. A thriller that will keep you from putting the book down.
Goodreads Blurb
The path to the altar has never been so dangerous!
Not long after Batman announces his engagement to Catwoman, he and Wonder Woman are called to honor an old commitment requiring them to fight for Earth in a distant, magical realm. But time flows strangely in this new land, and an hour in our world could be years there. The storied friendship between two great heroes begins to unravel–while the universe itself does the same around them!
Next, the Bat and the Cat find themselves isolated as Poison Ivy seemingly takes over the rest of the world, including the Justice League! Can they nip Ivy’s plans in the bud before the whole world falls under her dominion? After all, there’s still a wedding to plan…
The big day approaches in these stories from Batman #38-44, from author Tom King (Mister Miracle) and artists Mikel Janín (Grayson), Joëlle Jones (Supergirl: Being Super) and Travis Moore (Fables: The Wolf Among Us).
My Review: Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Will we finally see a wedding between Batman and Catwomen? To be continued. Love the illustrations throughout the comic. The romance between Batman and Catwoman is romantic. Love how Superman is always fighting with Batman. Poisob Ivy illustrations are great. Her character grows through each scene. Comic has romance, fights, death, and flashes of the future. Will love catch the bats’ heart, or will he turn to the dark?
Goodreads Blurb
Grisha is a dragon in a world that’s forgotten how to see him. Maggie is a unusual child who thinks she’s perfectly ordinary. They’re an unlikely duo—but magic, like friendship, is funny. Sometimes it chooses those who might not look so likely. And magic has chosen Grisha and Maggie to solve the darkest mystery in Vienna. Decades ago, when World War II broke out, someone decided that there were too many dragons for all of them to be free. As they investigate, Grisha and Maggie ask the question everyone’s forgotten: Where have the missing dragons gone? And is there a way to save them? At once richly magical and tragically historical, The Language of Spells is a novel full of adventure about remembering old stories, forging new ones, and the transformative power of friendship.
My Review: Rated 3 out of 5 stars
A magical story with dragons, sorcerers, and humans. A dragon named Grisha was turned into a tea pot and lived many years with no mobility but hearing and seeing. He was released from the spell, but after being free, other rules had to be obeyed. Dragons were divided and hidden with a sleeping spell. Grisha and Maggie work together to free the dragons, but by doing so, Maggie had to give up something she cherished. Garret is a good storyteller. It is an easy read for young readers. I loved the illustrations.
Goodreads Author Biography
Garret Freymann-Weyr (rhymes with ‘I’m on fire”) is a novelist and teacher whose seven books have been banned, translated into a multitude of languages, and included in college curricula. She is a Printz honor award recipient and her short stories have been published in the Greensboro Review, the now sadly missed Christopher Street, and the anthology Starry Eyed. Her next book will be published under the name Garret Weyr (Divorce. Painful. Don’t ask.)
She is a native of New York City and now lives with a large cat and a sweet dog. She reads too much, drinks too much tea, and loves listening to readers talk about their passions. She is studying Spanish. Has anyone else read “Buenas Noches, Luna?”
Goodreads Blurb
Mischievous woodland fairy Nix is up to no good. His beloved fairy queen has gone away, leaving him with a very important job: He must protect the forest from a most dangerous enemy—humans.
When a determined invader trespasses on his territory, Nix’s skills are put to the test as he invents several wicked tricks to chase the sorry fellow away. But when his efforts don’t go quite according to plan, it becomes clear that this intruder—and this sprite—may not be at all what they seem.
My Review: Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Wicked Nix is a fairy full of tricks. The protector of the fairy forest will stop at nothing to rid himself of a human. Nix uses many tricks and spells to scare the human away. Halfway through the story, you are surprised to find out the human is family and the Nix is not a fairy. Nix and the human go to Fairy Meadow to see the fairy queen. Nix realizes she isn’t who he thought she was. Nix and the human work together to get Rose back to her mom. The cottage Nix was protecting was his past home and is reunited with his family. A fairy-tale full of tricks and courage.
Goodreads Author Biography
Lena Coakley is the Toronto Star and Globe & Mail bestselling author of Worlds of Ink and Shadow, a YA portal fantasy about the young Brontë siblings and the imaginary countries they wrote about in childhood. It made both the CBC and Quill & Quire’s Best Books of the Year lists.
Her previous novel, Witchlanders, was called “one stunning teen debut” by Kirkus Reviews, won the SCBWI Crystal Kite award and was a White Pine Award honouree.
Her first middle grade novel, Wicked Nix, will come out in October of this year from Abrams and Harper Collins Canada. She lives in Toronto.
Goodreads Blurb
The adventures of Ivy and Bean continue in the latest installment from series creators Annie Barrows and Sophie Blackall. In Ivy and Bean Take Care of the Babysitter, the two girls hatch a plan to prove that Bean’s big sister is the world’s worst babysitter. Of course plans go awry, but fun ensues!
My Review: Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Ivy and Bean truly know how to have an adventure. These two know how to have fun even at their age. I enjoyed the imaginative ideas they had for playing. They are great friends who know how to keep a secret and let the adventure unravel. Never a dull moment for Ivy and Beans’ imagination.
Goodreads Author Biography
Annie grew up in Northern California, and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, with a degree in Medieval History. Unable to find a job in the middle ages, she decided upon a career as an editor, eventually landing at Chronicle Books in San Francisco, where she was in charge of “all the books that nobody in their right mind would publish.” After earning an M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Mills College, Annie wrote (as Ann Fiery) a number of books for grown-ups about such diverse subjects as fortune-telling (she can read palms!), urban legends (there are no alligators in the sewer!), and opera (she knows what they’re singing about!). In 2003, Annie grew weary of grown-ups, and began to write for kids, which she found to be way more fun.
Goodreads Blurb
As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.
Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.
Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.
My Review: Rated 5 out of 5 stars
It’s a beautiful love story to last a lifetime. Beautifully crafted with unforgettable characters that you will grow to love. Written fully in letters back and forth through characters. Could only imagine the time and difficulty it was to bring this book together. Writing a novel is difficult, but writing it with letters and being creative with each characters story brought an epic story. I loved how the story unraveled as you read. I was also impressed with the creativity of the book club at such a terrible time. This story brings people together during a time of turmoil. Books created an escape for each character. They were able to share their thoughts on the books they read, and they created a book club that brought them together. Books bring love to all.
Goodreads Author Biography
Mary Ann Shaffer worked as an editor, a librarian, and in bookshops. Her life-long dream was to someday write her own book and publish it. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was her first novel. Unfortunately, she became very ill with cancer and so she asked her niece, Annie Barrows, the author of the children’s series Ivy and Bean, as well as The Magic Half, to help her finish the book. Mary Ann Shaffer died in February 2008, a few months before her first novel was published.
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