This book is a collection of quotes from famous people about doing your best, being yourself, striving for greatness, never giving up, and keeping positive no matter the obstacles. Each quote is illustrated with a short comic that tells a little story which portrays the concept of the quote.

I really enjoyed reading this book! The quotes are uplifting and there's a lot of good wisdom in this book. The comics are beautifully drawn with vibrant colors, and some of the characters from the first comics reappear in other comics at the end, so there's a sense of continuity and overall structure.

I was a little surprised that many of the comics are violent, depicting knights killing dragons, wrestlers taking down opponents in the ring, and even a Buddhist monk fighting a monster/demon. I thought that many of the quotes NEEDED a certain amount of violence to mirror the "fight for the right" message of the quote, and I enjoyed seeing those evil dragons taken down. (When you're quoting Winston Churchill, you probably need to show a fight of some kind. And that's good!) But there were just a LOT of them.
Couldn't some of the quotes about courage and tenacity have shown someone helping the elderly, feeding the homeless, tutoring a child, overcoming a bad habit, or taking a meal to a sick person? Courage encompasses many different things, not just battling dragons and demons.
The subject material for the comics felt a little one-sided, and all that violence is not very "zen".

The quotes themselves are from wonderful role-models with lots of wisdom to give the world, and each one really makes you stop and think about how you can apply that knowledge to your life. I enjoyed it immensely!

Disclaimer: I received an ecopy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts and are not influenced by anyone.

This collection of short biographies of famous authors focuses on each author as a child, and what childhood experiences and situations led that person to become a writer.
Including interesting biographies about authors such as Lucy Maud Montgomery, Laura Ingalls Wilder, J.R.R. Tolkien, Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Roald Dahl, J.K. Rowling, Sherman Alexie, and Stan Lee; this book covers authors from a wide variety of backgrounds and time periods for an eclectic look at what inspires readers to become writers.

I loved reading about how particular childhood experiences like being bullied, being bitten by a giant spider, or growing up on a farm, directly influenced an author's published works. It's wonderful to see how these everyday things from childhood had a profound connection to the later writing that became so famous.

I was pleased to see many of my favorite authors in this book, and at the end of the book each page is filled with short paragraphs about even more authors, including just one little factoid about their childhood. So some authors get several pages of bio, and some authors only have one paragraph at the end. I liked that they added in extra authors at the back!

The writing is engaging and fun to read. The stories are inspiring and thoughtful, and I enjoyed reading through each one. This book really made me think about my roots, what first attracted me to books, and how I first began to experiment with words and wrote my own little stories in school. Each author's childhood story is accessible and memorable, and I was able to see myself in their shoes.
I loved this book! This would be perfect to read in a classroom or as a family!

Disclaimer: I received an ecopy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts and are not influenced by anyone.

After reading this book about baking, cooking, growing herbs, creating hand-made soaps or candles, and decorating and organizing your home, I want to try it all! I want to cook every recipe, and start an herb garden, and make little gifts for all my friends! I want to organize my kitchen, and plan for holiday decorating, and fill my house with the yummy smells of baking.

The best thing about this book is the personal childhood stories of the author, detailing her mother's cooking, her father's warm spirit, and her grandmother's wisdom. With each little anecdote, the author invites us to share in her family's home heritage, and then she shows us how to create that cordial atmosphere in our own homes and hearts.

The only drawback is that some of the recipes and instructions are a little too "from scratch" making them time-consuming or difficult. Nobody cooks with lard anymore. I don't want to make my own buttermilk or sauerkraut. I just don't have 7 weeks to create yeast starter, when I could buy an active yeast packet at the store and be done with it. I'm all for being "natural", but.... ain't nobody got time for that!
Thankfully, the author usually adds a quicker recipe, a store-bought substitute, or a more tech-friendly option for those of us who don't live in the country with our own acre-wide garden and a butterchurn on the back porch.

The thing that truly made me fall in love with this book is the way the author ties in Scripture and Christian lessons with her stories and anecdotes about her childhood and family. She reminds us to let our light shine, give up on being perfect all the time, follow our truth, and trust in God through each situation. These are little lessons we hear all the time, but this author weaves them into the book in such a unique way, with her own perspective and delightful humor, and they feel new and pertinent again.

A charming and wholesome book with roots in the frugality of the Great Depression era!

Disclaimer: I received an ecopy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts and are not influenced by anyone.

The Brown children are the most ill-behaved, mischievous, naughty little children in all the world, and the only nanny who can possibly control them or teach them any manners is Nurse Matilda. With her magical walking stick, Nurse Matilda teaches important lessons like going to bed when you're told, not chomping your food, closing doors after yourself, and putting on your best clothes when you're told. Only the insane magical situations the children find themselves in could possibly teach them to say please and thank you!

I started rereading this one as a way to de-stress and help me fall asleep at night, but then I got so interested in the story that I stayed up late reading it! My favorite character is the Baby, whose diapers are always falling down, and who always remembers that "Nurge Magiggy" won't help you unless you say "please".

A rollicking adventure in the playroom of a grand house with dozens of children constantly getting into disastrous trouble for the most riotous reasons! This book always makes me laugh, and it would be perfect to read aloud to children before bed.

King Mendanbar, Monarch of the Enchanted Forest, is having trouble with wizards burning up bits of his forest. He visits Kazul, the King of the Dragons, for some advice, but Kazul is missing, and Mendanbar teams up with Princess Cimorene to find Kazul and restore the Enchanted Forest.

I enjoyed this book even more reading it for the second time! I still wish that there were a little more romance between Mendanbar and Cimorene, but I do enjoy their friendship and the way they respect and rely on one another through all the sticky magical situations they find themselves in.

There are so many delightful characters in this book! Even the side characters shine with originality and wit.
The basic plot is rather straightforward, but there are so many misdirects and twisty roads for the characters to get delayed and misguided and thrown off course, that it feels like a complex plot.

Zita is the thirteenth daughter of a king who only wanted sons, and when her mother dies during childbirth, the king banishes Zita to be raised as a servant in the castle. Zita steals little moments with her twelve sisters, but must sneak around the castle to keep it a secret, terrified of her father's anger. When the twelve princesses fall ill and their shoes are worn through every morning, only Zita knows the secrets ways to sneak into their bedrooms and watch where they go at night. The princesses are trapped in an evil enchantment that forces them to dance until dawn, but Zita can't find a prince who is willing to save them!

I loved this book from start to finish! Every chapter is wonderful!
Zita is a fantastic main character, and I was pulled along with all her emotional family experiences. She longs for her father's love, and there are so many ups and downs on that journey. She tries to please him, she thinks maybe he notices her, then she does something to make him angry, and all her hopes are dashed. She just wants to belong and feel safe in her own family, and it's heartbreaking and beautiful to read about.

I love the magic! I was in complete suspense the whole time about the nature of the enchantment, and who cast it, and how Zita could possibly break the spell. The plot really moves along with not one boring moment.

I loved the little bit of romance in this book, sweet and innocent and delightful, with ordinary fellows turned into dashing heroes, and little stolen glances and blushing remarks.

Excellent writing, complex main characters and interesting supporting characters, an energetic plot, and magic bursting out all over everywhere! I love fairy tale retellings!

I have always loved the Twilight series, and I don't care what anyone says! Meyer's writing always draws me in and holds my attention and my heart, and this book was no exception.

The story is almost exactly Twilight again, just with all the genders swapped. Most of the dialogue is the same with a few changes, and almost the entire story is copy and pasted from Twilight. The ending is changed, however, and I found that very interesting! I prefer the ending of Twilight, but seeing this "what if?" ending was like a little adventure into the possibilities of the imagination. I liked it!

Edythe and Beau are a delightful couple, and I was enchanted all over again seeing them fall in love. I wished that their personalities were a little different from Edward and Bella though. I guess I wanted the characters to be wholly reimagined, and not just the same personality placed in a different gender. There are subtle differences though, like Beau feels impossibly protective of Edythe, even though he knows she's indestructible. He wants to give her his coat, as if she could feel the cold. He wants to open doors for her and carry her books. haha! It's adorable to see him struggling with this manly protective instinct versus her obvious lack of any need of protection.

Through most of the book I was trying to keep track of all the gender swapped people. In my head they were still Edward and Bella and Alice and Jasper and Mike and Jacob, etc... So I kept stopping to think, "Wait, so Archie is... who is this? Oh yeah! This is Alice." haha! But after the halfway mark I eased into the story more, and started thinking of the characters as their own selves, instead of remembering them from before.

I'm so pleased with this addition to the Twilight universe! It has made me remember why I loved Twilight so much in the beginning.

A wonderfully insightful comic about the pitfalls and struggles of being an introvert in an extrovert-centered world. Each page has a comic with a sometimes funny/ sometimes poignant punchline. The blue/grey artwork shows all the myriad of emotions that an introvert experiences each day, and the writing cuts right to the heart of what makes introverts special.

I loved this comic! I love how the main character in this comic, Debbie, goes through a spiritual and creative journey to realize that being an introvert is okay and normal and a wonderful strength. (It took me a couple of decades to realize that I'm actually an introvert. I like to talk, so I assumed I was an extrovert, but I'm actually not. ) Once Debbie understands her own personality better, she begins to embrace her introverted tendencies, takes better care of herself, and stops trying to "fit in" with all the extroverts. She appreciates her extroverted friends as they are, and they learn to appreciate her as she is.

I love how this book blends the beautiful wisdom of knowing and accepting yourself with hilarious situations and jokes that give a lighthearted color to the sometimes difficult truth of how hard it is to find your place in society. Delightful fun!

Disclaimer: I received an ecopy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts and are not influenced by anyone.

In this second book, Charlie and his lion friends are on the run from a nasty lion trainer, and Charlie's parents are desperate to escape from the clutches of the evil Corporacy.

I loved the action and adventure in this one, and the way that Charlie begins to trust his own instincts more and more. We find out more about the mystery of WHY Charlie's parents were kidnapped in the first place, and we get to see Charlie growing up, getting stronger, and taking control of his situation.
The lions are such wonderful characters, and they get some more development in this book, along with a few other smaller cats. It's beautiful to see how magnificent they are,

I love how exotic all of the settings are in these books; Paris, Venice, Morocco, and Gibraltar are all described with such vividness that you can feel the heat of the African coastal winds, or the damp climbing the walls in a chilly Venetian hallway.

The story had me cheering for Charlie, and hating the loathsome villains. There are so many emotional ups and downs in this book, and I was fully invested in each character's plotline. The plot really surprised me several times too! So many great twists and turns and wild circumstances!

Can't wait to finish this trilogy! Loving it!