The Skull by Jon Klassen

 Jon Klassen is an author/illustrator of children's picture books. His books are unexpected and surprising and just really good. In 2013 he won the Caldecott Medal as the author/illustrator of This is Not My Hat and in 2015 an Caldecott Honor as the illustrator of Sam and Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett. 

Over the holidays I was in a bookstore browsing with my son (an activity I need to do much more often) and saw this book by Klassen. I immediately picked it up added it to my "look for it at my public library list". This book is more of a chapter book format and not so much like a picture book. It is a very quick read, just 103 pages, with not a lot of text on each page. He took this from a Tyrolean Folktale. Tyrol is state in Austria, so it's essentially an Austrian tale. He put his own spin on it and includes in the Author's Note how his story differs from the original tale. 

The story left me with lots of questions that I discussed with two of my boys as they read it as well. But I don't believe a good book should give you all the answers, just lead you to imagine and discuss the possibilities. 

Recommend: yes please!

Children's fiction, illustrations, runaway girl, skeleton. 

A Hidden Magic by Vivian Vande Velde

 Christmas morning as a child always had my father receiving a book and him reading and finishing the book on Christmas Day. Like father, like daughter. My sister gave me this book, which I have read in the distant past, and which I was all too happy to read again today. Vivian Vande Velde is a favorite of my fantasy authors. It's a quick read, but oh so enjoyable. 

This story mixes bits of many fairy tales: Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, Sleeping Beauty, Jack and the Beanstalk, to name a few. Like all fairy tales it has a moral and a nice one at that. Don't judge a book (or a person) by it's cover. 

Recommend: yes.

Children's fiction, fantasy, forest, magic. 

The Menagerie by Tui T. Sutherland and Kari Sutherland

I was motivated the other day to spend the morning cooking: bread, burrito filling, chicken breasts, etc. and I wanted to listen to something. As I scrolled through my Libby app I saw this title and was intrigued as one of the reviews said it was for fans of the series Fablehaven by Brandon Mull. Perfect, I thought, my time in the kitchen cooking will fly by as I listen. 

It is similar to Fablehaven in that it involves a secret place where magical and mythical animals are safely kept. And of course, there are those who want to expose them and who want to close down these safe havens. There are three young people who will do almost anything to keep them safe and adults who seem to not mind that they are often put in danger. Besides the basics in the plot line, that is where the similarity ends. The Menagerie plods along. I wouldn't call it boring, but it's also not exciting!  It was a bit wordy for my tastes and the main characters were a bit blah. I wouldn't recommend it to a reluctant young reader, but for an avid young reader of fantasy it may be fine. 

Recommend: not really

Children's fiction, fantasy, mythical animals

Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter

 My teenage daughter loves to read teenage romance novels and gushes about them to me when she is finished. She bought this one while at a bookstore with her brother. I picked it up and read it in nearly one night as I was waiting up for her to come home from her Homecoming date. It was pretty average and I admit I did enjoy the storyline and the characters, at least they kept me awake past midnight!

Liz is a hopeless romantic being raised watching rom-coms with her mother. Sadly, her mother passes away and those romance movies are Liz's connection with her mother. She frames all her relationships in the context of her beloved movies. Liz has a best friend who tries to ground her in reality and a neighbor, Wes, who tormented her as a child and continues to do so as a teenager. Between these two Liz starts to see things as they really are and is able to deal with the continued sadness of missing her mother and finds her happy ending. 

Recommend: Yes

Young Adult fiction, realistic fiction, romance, loss of a parent

Murder, Magic, and What We Wore by Kelly Jones

 Browsing my library's online library I saw this title and was especially interested when the summary compared it favorably to one of my favorite titles, Sorcery and Cecilia by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede. I enjoy a bit of magic and mystery intertwined with some romance with a backdrop of regency England. 

The story started out well, but after at least 6 or 7 chapters I was still waiting for something to happen. A few more chapters and still not a lot of action. The characters were fine and the setting up of the plot seemed to work well and had great potential. But I was disappointed overall. It seemed the book was in need of a fast forward button to get to the suspense and intrigue which all happened in the last few chapters. 

Recommend: Probably not

Mystery, magic, fantasy, regency England

Once Upon a Royal Summer by Teri Wilson

Needing a quick read that I could not think too much about I found these books that Hallmark puts out that are like the movies on their channel and since I enjoy cheesy Hallmark movies I downloaded this book. I recognized right away that the writing style was all about what the main two characters were thinking and the actual doing of the book could have been written in a couple chapters and there was almost zero conflict which together equaled a boring read. I quickly speed read over many pages trying to find something plot worthy and just didn't find it. The characters weren't frustrating or inconsistent, just uninteresting. 

Here is the book in a nutshell: young woman works as a princess at a theme park, young prince with young daughter escape across the pond for the young princess's birthday before she has to get back to being a royal. Young prince's wife died years ago. Theme park princess is just what the young princess needs to have a mother figure in her life and bring lightness into the heavy royal responsibilities. Prince invites theme park princess to his castle for a celebration. She goes. Wins over the queen mother. Former love interest of theme park princess graciously bows out of her life seamlessly. The book ends with a marriage proposal that is accepted. 

Romance, royalty

Recommend: Nope

Long Lost by Jacqueline West

 Sibling relationships can be joyous and difficult, hilarious and frustrating, fun and annoying. This story is about two sets of sisters, born 100 years apart. Fiona is in the present and is dealing with a new move, lost friends, and a sister she thinks likes her about as much as a bump on the head. Taking refuge at the library she finds a book that does not seem to belong to the library. As she reads it she is entranced by a story of two sisters that lived years ago in her very town that are inseparable until one of them goes missing. Fiona, with the help of a new friend, is determined to solve the mystery once and for all and in the process discovers her own sister is not the enemy she had believed. 

Children's fiction, ghosts, family relationships, siblings, mystery

Recommend: Yes

The 13 Clocks by James Thurber

 James Thurber was an accomplished author and humorist who published short stories and cartoons in The New Yorker magazine. This book was published in 1950 which he wrote while completing another novel. There is a princess under a spell, a disguised prince trying to rescue her, and an evil duke trying to thwart him and marry the princess himself. 

This book has many quirky characters and is written with a poetic like cadence. I think it would be best read aloud to children and enjoyed by adults as well. It's a short book, only 124 pages with large print in the edition I read. 

Children's fiction, fairy tale, prince, princess, good versus evil

Recommend: Yes

Nightbooks by J.A. White

 My three boys like to go to the library and then check out books for each other to read. Mostly these books sit around my house unread until it is time to return them. I picked this one up and unexpectedly really liked it. I realized halfway through that it is a retelling of the fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel. Alex and Yasmin are two children "trapped" in an apartment with the witch, Natacha. Alex finds out that the key to survival is to read aloud to her stories--scary stories, each night. Together Alex and Yasmin discover much more about the witch and uncover the final mystery around the magical apartment they can't seem to leave. It is a bit scary as they are trapped and as they find out the demise of other children. 

I also found that Netflix made this into a movie in 2021 and it received good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. 

**I have since watched the movie and I liked it. Of course as is the case with books made into movies there are changes to the plot, with an especially big one at the end. Still, not a bad watch. 

Young adult fiction, fantasy, fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel, horror

Recommend: Yes

Miracle Creek Christmas by Krista Jensen

I have a slight weakness for cheesy Hallmarkesque Christmas movies. (I blame my daughter for getting me involved.)  Miracle Creek could have been a screen play for a Hallmark movie. It had all the ingredients including a cute young girl, niece of male character, and older friend of  female character that also has a small romance on the side with male character's father. There is the irritating, slightly dysfunctional family of female and supportive strong family of male character. Despite all the traditional tropes, the one thing that was very unHallmarkish was the up front honesty of both people. There was no misunderstanding of random conversations or misunderstood hugs. Both Riley and Mark are surprisingly forth right about their past and their expectations for the future.  There was, however, a lot of CHRISTMAS throughout, trees, carols, traditions, snow angels, snow, food, etc. Overall it was a really nice enjoyable adventure. 

 Fiction, romance, Christmas, fire fighters

Recommend: Yes

Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede

 I had a lot of sitting at a desk/computer work to do last week and so found a quick audiobook to listen while I worked. This is the first in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles which I have previously read. I enjoy children's fantasy fiction because of the plucky characters that I find there. 

Princess Cimorene is not happy that she has to be a princess. She sees so much more to life than doing needlework and knowing which fork to use. Dragons are known to carry off princesses to work for them which then spurs knights and princes to rescue them. Cimorene decides to volunteer to be a dragon's princess and lets her rescuers know in no uncertain terms that she is happy in her new role and does not need to be rescued. Her bravery and intelligence help the dragons thwart the wizards and Cimorene finds something she is both good at and loves. 

Children's fiction, fantasy, dragons, independence

Recommend: Yes.

The Winter Companion by Mimi Matthews

 When I fly, which is not often, I like to have a regency romance book to read on the plane. It seems to distract me from the cramped quarters I'm forced to be in for the few hours I'm experiencing the miracle of flight. 

I've read other of Matthews' books and enjoyed all of them. This is the 4th book in the Parish Orphans of Devon series. You don't need to read these in order as each of them is about a different orphan boy as he matures and enters adulthood. This was a short enjoyable read. It had all the predictabilities of regency romances which is just what I needed to make the flight relaxing. 

Neville has had a traumatic brain injury that causes his speech to be a bit slower. Clara is trying to find a way to receive an education for which she feels is out of her reach. Together they are able to find peace and joy that they both felt would only be for others. 

Fiction, Regency romance, brain injury

Recommend: Yes. 

Love and Other Train Wrecks by Leah Konen

 On a recommendation from my daughter I opened this book. I have read, The Romantics by Konen, which I enjoyed. Konen's teens are multi-layered and their reactions to unforeseen situations are unformulaic. When I read YA fiction, especially romantic fiction, the characters often take the road most traveled and easiest. Not so with Konen's books, at least the two I've read. And the ending is not neatly tied up in a bow with all the conflict eased and erased by the last page. At the same time it's not a depressing read or unhopeful. It's real. 

Ammy (like Sammy without the S) and Noah are on a train in New York state. A snow storm hits, the train is delayed, and they decided to band together to get to their destinations sooner than the stalled train promises. Within 24 hours together they have a life time of experiences and emotions and each has some hard decisions in front of them. 

Young adult fiction, romance, realistic fiction, New York State, trains

Recommend: Yes

The Mariposa Hotel: A Tangerine Street Romance: a Novel in Three Parts by Heather B. Moore, Julie Wright, and Melanie Jacobson

 This is the third book in this series and I have to admit it was disappointing. The other two had plots that were believable and characters that were realistic and I enjoyed the intertwining of characters and places. This one seemed as if the writing was a bit rushed and things were either not resolved or wrapped up too neatly. The three stories seemed to focus more on kissing than storyline. 

There is one more book in this series and I'm on the fence whether to read it or not. They are short stories so I don't have to invest a lot of time to find out if this last book is more of the same. 

Fiction, romance, beach life

Recommend: maybe

Wyoming Wild by Sarah M. Eden

 I've read several of Sarah Eden's historical romances and enjoyed them all. I've been missing Wyoming lately so this one was an obvious choice for me to read. It was just published in March so I was excited to see my library here had a copy. 

I didn't realize until I was reading it that it is the third book in the Savage Wells series. I had read the first one, The Sheriffs of Savage Wells a while ago and remembered liking it. Wyoming Wild has the same characters from that first book, but they are now only supporting characters. This book focuses on US Marshal, John Hawking, and his efforts to bring peace to the small fictional town of Sand Creek, Wyoming, which is run by a corrupt sheriff and his cronies. The sheriff's daughter, Liesl, knows of her father's wicked ways and would like nothing better than a safer and calmer life for her and her mother. But her father is a man without scruples and will stop at nothing to keep his hold on Sand Creek and it's inhabitants. 

Historical fiction, romance, western fiction, crime fighting

Recommend: Yes. 

The Rumpelstiltskin Problem by Vivian Vande Velde

 Has the Rumpelstiltskin story ever bothered you? There are so many problems with this fairy tale which is full of bad parenting, short sighted royalty, inept magical people, and foolish girls. This book addresses all the problems in 6 short stories. I read this book aloud to my kids and we had fun voting for our favorite version. Vivian Vande Velde recognized the problem and wrote 6 different ways to solve all the questions. 

Short story, fantasy, fairy tale

Recommend: Yes. 

Beauty Reborn by Elizabeth Lowham

I love fairy tale retellings. Always have. Especially Beauty and the Beast versions. I realize the original story has disturbing attributes and themes. Yet, the retellings seem to eliminate these troublesome tropes. This was an interesting view on this familiar tale. I liked how Beauty took choices that were her own, not forced, or manipulated by anyone, Beast or otherwise. I liked how the author illustrated well that emotions, such as jealousy, infiltrate thoughts and actions to the point of harming oneself. And I'm a sucker for endings that give birth to hope and happiness amid troubles and trials and that joy can be a part of it all. 

Young adult fiction, fantasy, fairy tales

Recommend: Yes

 

Eyes of the Forest by April Henry

Here in Missouri there are book awards given each year. One of them is called the Truman Award after Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, who was born in Missouri. I often browse the award shelf to see if any of the nominees look interesting. This one is one of the current year's nominees for the Truman Award. 

Bridget is invested in a fantasy series of books called Swords and Shadows. So much so that she is the author's research assistant, even though she is a teenager. She keeps all the places, names, and objects in a database so that all the books have continuity. The last book in the series is long overdue and the author seems to have stalled out. Some fans of the series take this as a personal affront and take matters into their own hands to force him to finish the final installment. Bridget senses something is wrong and may be his only hope for rescue. 

This book read quickly and I enjoyed it. The plot moves well and the characters are authentic. 

Young Adult fiction, fantasy, writers

Recommend: Yes

23 Minutes by Vivian Vande Velde

 I picked up this book from one of my very favorite authors, Vivian Vande Velde. Zoe, age 15 and a half,  has an unusual ability to travel back in time for exactly 23 minutes. There are restrictions. No one remembers the previous 23 minutes but her and she can't take anything back in time with her. Once time starts to replay she only has those 23 minutes to decide to replay them again. Once she hits 24 minutes then she has to wait another 23 minutes before going back in time another 23 minutes. AND she can only repeat the same 23 minutes 10 times. Got all that?! To make matters worse the repeated 23 minutes usually turn out worse. She has usually used this only when she has had embarrassing moments or wanted to impress a guy. This time, however, the stakes are a bit higher. 

This is a young adult book and has some violence as the crime scene is described. 

Science Fiction, time travel, crime, action

Recommend: Sometimes

The Boardwalk Antiques Shop by Julie Wright, Melanie Jacobson, Heather B. Moore

Three short stories that weave together in the small fictional seaside California town of Sea Shell Beach. It is part the series, Tangerine Street Romance. I had read another one that I enjoyed and this one was similar. I was drawn to these because I had read other stories by Melanie Jacobson and liked her light, sweet romances. These three stories are a quick read and reminiscent of Hallmark romances with a bit more realism to them. 

Fiction, Romance, Beach life

Recommend: Yes

Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites by Chris Heimerdinger

This was a re-read for our family. We listened to this book years ago on a road trip, but most of us had forgotten much of the details. I read it aloud to three of my kids. It takes place in Cody, Wyoming, which is where the author grew up. The landmarks that are talked about are all familiar to me and our family which was fun. This is the beginning of a series, Tennis Shoes Adventures Series. In each of the books young teenagers travel back in time to ancient America during the era of the people recorded in The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. In this first book they enter during the war chapters of the Book of Mormon with Captain Moroni, Teancum, and Amalakiah. They interact with the characters, but the author does not alter the recorded happenings in the Book of Mormon. It was fun to read and realize some of the things that were going to happen, but also see how the time travel characters were woven into their lives. 

Young Adult fiction, science fiction, action.

Recommend: Yes. 

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

 Fiction. Inspiring and thought provoking story about a boy who decides to be a shepherd in Spain but through a series of good omens travels to Egypt to find treasure.  Along the way he learns about people, nature, himself, and his destiny, or "personal legend" as he calls it. There were several quotes in this book that caused reflection on my part. Here is one of those,

"I'm alive," he said to the boy, as they ate a bunch of dates one night, with no fires and no moon. "When I'm eating, that's all I think about. If I'm on the march, I just concentrate on marching. If I have to fight, it will be just as good a day to die as any other. Because I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. You'll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living right now." 

It reminded me of a children's book that was published 10 years previous to this one, The Treasure by Uri Shulevitz. Both have similar plots and express similar ideas and both cause reflection on my life's journey.  

Recommend: Yes

Wedding of the year!

 My wonderful Emma married Ignacio on March 31st in the Mt. Timpanogos temple. It was a wonderful few days with my entire family and we love that we've added Ignacio!

All 8 of my wonderful children: Audrey, Lucy, Peter, Emma, Lauren, Palmer, Andrew, Eric

The happy forever couple!

Ignacio's friends

Extended family that came: Scott and Brenda (Brian's sister), Bryan and Susie (my sister), Bridgette and Lee (Brian's sister)

Proud father

The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West

 Teen fiction, romance. Kasie West is a go to author for teen clean romance reads without a ton of predictability. I like her characters and the story line moves along well. I was having one of those unable to get to sleep because I have a cold and my brain wouldn't shut off nights and as I went out to the couch so as to quit disturbing my husband's sleep with my tossing and turning I discovered the light on in the living room and my daughter on the couch. She had just finished this book. So as she went to bed I picked it up and read the entire book from start to finish. It was the perfect insomnia book and I finished it in a couple of hours and then, thankfully, went to sleep. 

Gia is an uber popular girl, student body president at her school, and the center of lots of attention. In the midst of her perfectly scripted world her boyfriend dumps her as they are walking into prom. In a panicked response she grabs a random guy who happens to be in the parking lot and convinces him to pretend to be her date so she doesn't have to walk in alone. This decision sets off a chain of unintended consequences that gets uncontrollable as Gia has to spin more and more lies to make everything work. To her credit she is able to own her poor choices and go forward even when things don't tie up nicely in the end. 

Recommend: Yes.

Loving Lieutenant Lancaster by Sarah M. Eden

 Yet another regency romance by Sarah Eden! This one is among the series about the Lancaster family and focuses on the only son in said family. The setup is familiar to Eden's books: a house party where the unassuming reticent girl attracts the eye of the handsome yet awkward young gentleman. Other more forward women are thrust into his attention, yet he chooses the quiet, interesting, beautiful girl instead of the obvious boisterous, flamboyant ones. It's not a bad plot to relax into on a return flight home after spending time with wedding preparations for my daughter. 

Recommend: Yes

The Fortune Café by Julie Wright, Melanie Jacobson, Heather B. Moore

 This is the first book in the Tangerine Street Romance series. I had an upcoming plane flight and I wanted to something short and easy to read on the plane. I have read Melanie Jacobson's books before and enjoyed the light hearted banter and solid characters she writes so I decided to give this one a try. It's three short stories all centered around a Chinese restaurant called The Fortune Café. Each story has some of the characters from the other two stories intertwined in a subtle way. As the title of the book suggests, the fortune cookies at this restaurant tend to come true and help the characters overcome odds to find solid relationships. 

Recommend: Yes. 

Wrestling

 Peter's freshman year of high school wrestling ended today. He ended the season with 20 wins and 12 losses and wrestled varsity for 6 of those matches winning 2 of them. He placed 3rd in a JV tournament today and did excellent!  Here is a video of the last period of his last match. He wrestled this guy first today and got pinned, then wrestled him again and pinned him, it was a hard fought match and very exciting to watch. 

Wrestling tournament at Lees Summit North High School

Diving

 Diving season is over for my Lucy Lou. Conference diving was this past Thursday and Lucy did not qualify for Districts. She was a little disappointed, but is happy to sleep in as her practices are at 5:30am. She has decided not to dive her senior year, so this was the last time we will see her dive competitively. Here are a few videos of her dives this year. 

24 Hours in Nowhere by Dusti Bowling

 Book #2 read aloud to my kids. I originally read this on October in 2021 and loved it. Bowling wrote two other books that are excellent, Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus and Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus. Both are worth the read. Bowling has a knack for telling stories that are believable and engaging. Her books take place in the hot desert of Arizona and address bullying and not succumbing to peer pressure to be someone you are not, two really important subjects for young readers and for adults as well.

Nowhere is a town in Arizona that tops all the charts: highest poverty rate, lowest high school graduation rate, most likely place to die by cactus impalement among others. Gus is stuck there like most everyone in the town and sees dead ends everywhere he looks, but within a matter of 24 hours hope blossoms in a most unexpected way. Gus discovers truths about others and himself and things don't look so bleak anymore, even though they are in the middle of Nowhere.

 Recommend as a read aloud? Yes.

 

The Unteachables by Gordon Korman

Goal for 2023: read more to my children.  I started the year out with four books for them to choose from, three of which I was familiar with and had already read. They chose The Unteachables by Gordon Korman that I read in 2021. I have enjoyed other books by Korman (Masterminds trilogy was wonderful) and didn't mind this revisit. It tells the story of a group of middle school kids who are considered "unteachable" and are lumped into a classroom together and forgot about. The teacher that is assigned to these kids is at first as disengaged as his students. Through some unexpected chance encounters both the teacher and the students see past the labels that have been applied to them and surprise everyone, most importantly themselves.

 All three of my kids (ages 14, 16, 19) and my husband listened to me read each night. This book is engaging and short enough that we got through it in a week or so. They had a good time trying to guess what would happen next and even got a few things right.

 Recommend as a read aloud? Most definitely

56 Books read in 2022!

 I was surprised as I was counting the books I read last year to reach over 50!  It was difficult to pick my favorite, but two of them do stand out. 

Duet by Elise Broach belongs at the top of my list because of the uniqueness of the narrator: a goldfinch named Mirabelle. I've read books with animal viewpoints before but this one was more than just a bird personified. I felt I was getting a bird perspective of human life and it was fascinating. I loved how Mirabelle sees the young budding pianist as a kindred spirit and how she fights for his success. It doesn't hurt that my favorite composer, Chopin, is the passion of the boy pianist and his frail teacher. And finally the ending is not perfectly tied up in a bow with a comfortable dominant to tonic ending chord. It does, however, give hope in more work to come, more progress to make and more joy to create. 

100 Days of Sunlight by Abbie Emmons. I read this by accident really. I needed a book with a yellow cover and this seemed to fit the bill. It was a wonderful surprise. A little bit of romance and some teenage angst made it a typical young adult novel, but what stood out were the lives of the two main characters and most importantly their character. Tessa has been in an accident that robs her of her sight. Weston has also been the victim of an accident which left him a paraplegic. Tessa does not know that Weston is a paraplegic and so treats him "normally". This gives Weston a much needed break from the pity he is constantly shown. Tessa wants to be left alone in her misery, but Weston doesn't give up and is constantly there for her. Together they are able to help heal each other from their unseen wounds that their very visible problems have caused. I really enjoyed their journey.