Five-Star Friday: The Penderwicks

May 4

Five-Star Friday is a periodically regular (say what?!) feature that I’m planning on running on Fridays (but not every Friday) in which I talk about (or verbally drool over) a book that I’ve read and ADORED (sometimes they’ll be recent releases and other times they might be older…my piles are tall and the bottoms are old). Yay! I always feel so happy and light and wonderful when I am beside myself with delight over a book, and I want to share the love with you all in the hopes that we can all get together and have an embarrassing, squeal-filled love-fest full of lots of high-pitched “Ohmygod, I KNOW!s” and chest-clutching sighs of contentedness. Huzzah!*

Well, HELLO THERE, Five-Star Friday! Been a while, friend! Hopefully I’ll be able to make up for my long absence by talking up one of my very favorite middle grades, THE PENDERWICKS: A SUMMER TALE OF FOUR SISTERS, TWO RABBITS, AND A VERY INTERESTING BOY. Sigh. I love me some Penderwicks, guys. 

Book cover for The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall [Read more…]

Filed Under: Children's/Middle Grade, Five-Star Friday, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Moonlighting!

Mar 26

No, not the TV show, guys. (So, ok. I just realized that it’s very likely LOTS of you are too young to even know what I’m talking about just there. I am filled with ALL THE SADNESS.) I’m talking about something infinitely cooler: 

I’m going to be reviewing middle grade books over at Bookalicious.org! HUZZAH! 

This website is going to be chock full of bookish goodness, friends. TONS of columns, lots of reviews for all levels of children’s literature–including picture books, which ROCKS, publishing news, issues, giveaways. There’s literally NOTHING bad going on over there. I can’t stress how excited I am to be a part of this site with so many incredible bloggers!! Please go and check things out! 

My reviews will be posted every other Wednesday, with my first one going up THIS WEEK, and I can’t wait to spread some middle grade love all over the place! But seriously, don’t sleep on Bookalicious.org ever. There’s great stuff going up every day. See you guys over there! 🙂

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Book Review | The Humming Room | Ellen Potter

Mar 16

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Book Review | The Humming Room | Ellen PotterThe Humming Room by Ellen Potter
Published by Feiwel & Friends on February 28, 2012
Genres: Middle Grade, Mysteries & Detective Stories
Pages: 192
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
four-stars

Hiding is Roo Fanshaw’s special skill. Living in a frighteningly unstable family, she often needs to disappear at a moment’s notice. When her parents are murdered, it’s her special hiding place under the trailer that saves her life.

As it turns out, Roo, much to her surprise, has a wealthy if eccentric uncle, who has agreed to take her into his home on Cough Rock Island. Once a tuberculosis sanitarium for children of the rich, the strange house is teeming with ghost stories and secrets. Roo doesn’t believe in ghosts or fairy stories, but what are those eerie noises she keeps hearing? And who is that strange wild boy who lives on the river? People are lying to her, and Roo becomes determined to find the truth.

Despite the best efforts of her uncle’s assistants, Roo discovers the house’s hidden room–a garden with a tragic secret.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Children's/Middle Grade, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Top Ten Tuesday (18)

Mar 13

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Middle Grade Books

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. It’s awesome. Every Tuesday, the lovely folks over at The Broke and the Bookish post a top ten list topic so that book lovers like you and me can pour over our shelves and make our own lists. You can check out all the other Top Ten Tuesday‘s on their site!

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[Read more…]

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Book Review: Above World (Above World #1)

Feb 27

Title: Above World

Author: Jenn Reese

Series: Above World, book 1

Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Dystopian

Publisher: Candlewick

Published on: February 14, 2012

Challenge: Debut Author Challenge

Source: ARC from the DAC ARC Tour

Summary: Thirteen-year-old Aluna has lived her entire life under the ocean with the Coral Kampii in the City of Shifting Tides. But after centuries spent hidden from the Above World, her colony’s survival is in doubt. The Kampii’s breathing necklaces are failing, but the elders are unwilling to venture above water to seek answers. Only headstrong Aluna and her friend Hoku are stubborn and bold enough to face the terrors of land to search for way to save their people.

But can Aluna’s warrior spirit and Hoku’s tech-savvy keep them safe? Set in a world where overcrowding has led humans to adapt—growing tails to live under the ocean or wings to live on mountains—here is a ride through a future where greed and cruelty have gone unchecked, but the loyalty of friends remains true.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: 2012 Reading Challenge, Children's/Middle Grade, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Five-Star Friday | A Monster Calls | Patrick Ness

Jan 27

Five-Star Friday is a periodically regular (say what?!) feature that I’m planning on running on Fridays (but not every Friday) in which I talk about (or verbally drool over) a book that I’ve read and ADORED (sometimes they’ll be recent releases and other times they might be older…my piles are tall and the bottoms are old). Yay! I always feel so happy and light and wonderful when I am beside myself with delight over a book, and I want to share the love with you all in the hopes that we can all get together and have an embarrassing, squeal-filled love-fest full of lots of high-pitched “Ohmygod, I KNOW!s” and chest-clutching sighs of contentedness. Huzzah!*

Well, HELLOOOOO, Five-Star Friday!! Been awhile, no? I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. I hadn’t realized that I’d merely been waiting to read Patrick Ness’ devastatingly gorgeous A MONSTER CALLS first.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Children's/Middle Grade, Five-Star Friday, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Book Review | Icefall | Matthew J. Kirby

Jan 11

I received this book for free from BookExpo in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Book Review | Icefall | Matthew J. KirbyIcefall by Matthew J. Kirby
Published by Scholastic on October 1, 2011
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Middle Grade, Vikings
Pages: 324
Format: ARC
Source: BookExpo
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
five-stars

Trapped in a hidden fortress tucked between towering mountains and a frozen sea, Solveig, along with her brother the crown prince, their older sister, and an army of restless warriors, anxiously awaits news of her father’s victory at battle. But as winter stretches on, and the unending ice refuses to break, terrible acts of treachery soon make it clear that a traitor lurks in their midst. A malevolent air begins to seep through the fortress walls, and a smothering claustrophobia slowly turns these prisoners of winter against one another.

Those charged with protecting the king’s children are all suspect, and the siblings must choose their allies wisely. But who can be trusted so far from their father’s watchful eye? Can Solveig and her siblings survive the long winter months and expose the traitor before he succeeds in destroying a kingdom?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Children's/Middle Grade, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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