★★★★★ In short? It is exhausting being me. Jenny Lawson (the Bloggess) has lit up the literary scene with her debut novel - Let's Pretend This Never Happened. Jenny lives the sort of life where... well... hmm... maybe you will just have to read this book yourself. I really don't think I have anything that can adequately sum… Continue reading Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir – Jenny Lawson
Monty and the Monster – Rhonda Smiley
★★★★ ½ ...I'm paralyzed with disgust as I stand before the ugliest house I've ever seen. Monty, his dog (Watson), his older brother (Kyle) and his dad have moved...again. And Monty is absolutely sick of it. He has to make new friends, deal with a new school and live in a new house. And of course, Kyle… Continue reading Monty and the Monster – Rhonda Smiley
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – Sherman Alexie
★★★★ Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community. Junior, a teenager on the Spokane Indian Reservation (the "rez"), spent his entire life trying to blend in. He was a smallish kid who used to have seizures. He was picked on and bullied almost constantly. And then...something snapped. There… Continue reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – Sherman Alexie
Meet the Planets – John McGranaghan
★★★ Welcome to the first ever, Favorite Planet Competition... In this fun, short book, we see the planets as we've never seen them before. These planets have been around for billions of years ...and yet they have never been in a competition to figure out which of them is best. We go through every planet and… Continue reading Meet the Planets – John McGranaghan
Chemistry – Weike Wang
★★★★★ As a graduate student.... this one got to me. It was real. Painfully real. The burnout. The depression. The loss of feeling towards something you once loved. And yet, it was funny.A down-to-earth humor brought out in the darkest of times. I was constantly blown away by the accuracy of Wang's novel. There's so many times where I… Continue reading Chemistry – Weike Wang
Christmas Train (board book) – David Miles
★★★★★ All aboard the Christmas train! Hold your ticket tight. We'll count our way from 1 to 20 all throughout the night. Grab your hot chocolates - we are going for a wild ride! This Christmas train is going all through the village, and we are along for the adventure - counting all the fun things… Continue reading Christmas Train (board book) – David Miles
Aunt Severe and the Dragons – Nick Garlick
★★★ ½ Daniel just lost his parents (quite literally lost them - they're explorers and haven't found their way home yet). And because society generally frowns on children living on their own, Daniel is shipped off to Aunt Severe's place. And at first, it is JUST AWFUL...until he finds four dragons living among her garden...but the Gotcha… Continue reading Aunt Severe and the Dragons – Nick Garlick
Caddie Woodlawn – Carol Ryrie Brink
★★ ½ Disappointing and yet marginally charming. How far I've come! I'm the same girl and yet not the same. I wonder if it's always like that? Caddie Woodlawn, a fiery redhead growing up in Wisconsin in the 1800s, has always been a tom boy. Her mother is at her wits end but her father enjoys his daughter's plucky… Continue reading Caddie Woodlawn – Carol Ryrie Brink
Seedfolks – Paul Fleischman
★★★★ The word "paradise" came out of my mouth, without thinking. An old Romanian woman keeps a keen eye on the neighborhood. Her suspicious glance falls upon a young Vietnamese girl squatting in a vacant lot, poking at the ground. Upon further inspection, she realizes that the young girl was planting lima bean seeds. You have to have faith, especially… Continue reading Seedfolks – Paul Fleischman
The Gifts of the Animals – Carole Gerber & Yumi Shimokawara
★★★★ The gentle beasts of sky and earth prepare their stable for Christ's birth. Everyone knows that in a little stable in Bethlehem, Christ is born...but what happened before that? How did the manger get its straw? Was there a little pillow for His head? In this sweet and charming Christmas tale, we learn how the animals… Continue reading The Gifts of the Animals – Carole Gerber & Yumi Shimokawara
Miranda Reads 