This book details how to use the Curly Girl method, no shampoo, conditioner-washing method for babies, toddlers, children, and teens. There is a lot of useful information with beautiful pictures, and helpful home recipes for hair products.

I really appreciated that this book details all the harmful chemical ingredients found in basic shampoos that are especially harmful for curly hair. Curly hair is way more sensitive to harsh chemicals like sulfates, and it dries out the hair creating that dreaded frizz. This book gives such good advice about looking for sulfate-free shampoos and silicone-free conditioners. Children's hair can be especially fine and fragile, and the tips in this book help to manage unruly hair without damaging it.

There are sections in the book for baby hair, toddler hair, and how to teach grade school children and teens to care for their own curly hair. There is even a section about trimming your child's hair yourself using a dry-cut method to accentuate and tame their curls.

The only thing I didn’t care for was all the “Curly Kid Inspiration”sections with women telling about their worst hair days and how traumatized they were by their curly hair as a child. So you had horrid hair in the 80s? So what? We all did!

I really loved way this book is organized, and the gorgeous photos.

I like the CG method and I like this book, but I don't like the DevaCurl hair care products that Lorraine Massey has created. Those products have a very bad reputation for damaging hair and causing allergic reactions, and the one time I tried to use them, my hair was like straw after one use. Great book though.

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

These books never get old, no matter how many times you read them! I love it!

I especially love the Meredith family because I am a Pastor’s daughter, so I know what it’s like to grow up in a fishbowl with everyone criticizing everything you do. Those poor Meredith children are just vivacious and full of energy, and everyone thinks they should behave like solemn angels.

I don’t mind that the main focus of the book is on the Merediths instead of the Blythe family. There are still many good scenes with the Blythe children and with Anne.

Gotta love Tom and Huck!

I loved this short story about Castle Glower during the Winter Feast holidays. The Castle creates a special magic feasting room, and everyone prepares to party and feast for several days. The princesses have new dresses for each feast day, and the royal family purchases gifts and presents for everyone. Princess Celie is worried that her older brother, Bran, will be too busy with his new Royal Wizard duties to attend the feast. If Celie can't celebrate with her entire family, her perfect holiday will be ruined. But Bran has a surprise in store that will change the holidays forever.

This was a very short story. Just a little snippet of Castle life, but with all the things I love about the Castle Glower series. The royal family and especially the royal siblings working together as a close-knit and loving family. The magical Castle and all the corridors and rooms moving around. Princess Celie being so lovable and cute.

I enjoyed this very much, and I only wish it were a bit longer!

Two children wake up and decide to play a whole bunch of imaginative games. They play birthday party, sand castles, stormy seas in the bathtub, chefs and restaurant, busy towns with cars and trains, snowmen, and artists. As the two children pretend and imagine each game, their two trusty stuffed animals, a zebra and a penguin, are by their side in every scene.

It was fun looking for the details in each illustration, watching for the stuffed animals in the background, and delighting in all the special little objects they use to play. There are boats and rubber duckies for the bath, toy trains and cars for the busy town roads, and grass and leaves served on the plates at the imaginary restaurant.

I like the soft style of the illustrations and all the vibrant colors. The children look like they are having the time of their lives playing and imagining together.

This board book is adorable from start to finish!

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

Maddy was born with a rune mark on her hand, and the people in her village despise her as a possible witch. As she grows up, she discovers that she does have a small amount of magic. Most of the magic in the land died with the old gods hundreds of years before, but there are small traces of it to be found. An old peddler begins to teach Maddy how to use her magic, but he has plans of his own to retrieve a magical artifact from deep within the Underworld.

I loved this imaginative story! It takes elements from old Norse mythology and legends, and weaves them together with the world of faerie and fae. The world has a deep history and I loved discovering the magic along with Maddy. The story starts out in this little country village, but then the scope gradually widens and becomes more and more epic until the fate of the entire universe is hanging in the balance.

One of things I enjoyed about the history of this world is the etymology of certain words. For instance, people with magic were originally called "Fieries" because their magic is like a flame. But through the centuries that turned into "Fury" and then "Faerie" or "Fairy". Another one is the change from "rune" to "ruin" as people begin to distrust magic. So a lot of legends have come through the years, and there are several words like that with a history showing the depth of this world. It's almost Tolkienesque, and I love it!

I was happy that there was no romance in the story at all. It's refreshing to have a main character and falling in love is not their main goal in life.

I really loved Maddy's character, and several of the supporting characters that I can't mention by name without major spoilers. I loved seeing how Maddy interacts with them, and gradually begins to trust them, until eventually she thinks of them as family. The character development is so incredible and really grabbed my heart. It was especially intriguing because, like Maddy herself, you never quite know who to trust. You want to believe that character, but what are they hiding? Fascinating characters!

However, there are way too many POVs. I think there were at least 13 different character points of view, and it was tiresome to be constantly switching from one to another. Sometimes there would be five different perspectives in ONE scene! It wasn't too badly written. I mean, it was clear who each different voice was, but gosh, it was just too much.

The adventure and action really kept me interested, but the pacing of the book sometimes breaks up the scenes in an odd way. We'll be in the middle of a scene and Maddy is talking to Character A. Then Character A sees someone walking up behind Maddy. Maddy sees Character A's expression change and they get angry and walk away, but Maddy has not yet looked behind her to see who is coming. The reader doesn't know who has entered the scene either.
The scene cuts off, leaving us wondering, and we go to Character B who is off on their own adventure with someone else. We follow Character B through a few pages, and then Character B walks up behind Maddy. Aha! Now we finally find out who was behind Maddy in the previous scene, and we can continue with the "present" storyline.
I can understand that this is a great writing tool to create suspense and to juggle a lot of different simultaneous storylines, but it was overused. Every other scene was cut off this way, and it was exhausting to be constantly jumping through time to another character's perspective.

There was some profanity, about five curse words in the entire book. I didn't like it, but I can sort of see how it served a purpose in the story. It was used in dialogue to show how certain characters are villainous and nasty. It was only a few, so it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the book.

I was not exactly happy with the ending. Their immediate problems were solved, but I feel like the solutions just brought up the possibility of more problems in the future. Imagining those characters moving forward into their new lives, I can see a lot of holes in the ending that are questionable.

Plus one of my favorite characters died, and I'm just not okay with that.

Overall, a fantastic fantasy adventure! I enjoyed it, and I might read more from this series.

Gem’s parents are made of beautiful and colorful minerals, but Gem’s skin is plain gray rock. She is teased for her gray skin and leaves mineral school to go to the rock school where she tries to fit in. But when her rock friends find out that her parents are minerals, Gem loses her only friend. She sets out on a quest to find the Great Diamond, and ask him why she was born as a rock. She is joined by other misfits searching for answers, and they travel through exciting adventures across the country, until they discover the truth about rocks and minerals.

I loved the premise of this story! The world building is phenomenal, and so detailed with plants, people, and animals all made from different stone and crystals and minerals.

The characters are cute and I liked their friendships. The plot has good pacing and a simple storyline that is just right for a children’s book.

The best thing about this book is the fantastic design and illustrations. There is a cool map at the beginning, and the end papers are a colorfully illustrated list of all the types of rocks and minerals. I loved flipping to the end papers to see the color and texture of each gemstone and crystal described in the story. It made the story so special!

However, the writing has a terrible problem with “telling” instead of “showing”. I was never immersed in the story, because the writing is always pointing out the obvious or “telling” what the characters are thinking and feeling instead of “showing” it.

There are about a dozen plot holes that annoyed me, and the characters act in unnatural ways that made the story unbelievable. For instance, they are specifically told to stay away from a certain dangerous lake, but they go there anyway. Why don’t they just walk around it? Why? Apparently, they are dumb. For some idiotic reason, they must cross the lake. Why? No reason. They find a way to cross the lake, but worry about falling into the poisonous water. The narrative says, “Soon they were having so much fun, they forgot all about what would happen if they fell in. ... they landed on the opposite shore, relieved not to have fallen in.”
How could they be “relieved” if they forgot to be worried? That doesn’t make sense. It’s a complete contradiction!
The writing is full of contradictions and plot holes like that. The plot is sometimes poorly organized and needs a little more careful thought to smooth out those inconsistencies.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, and I think a child would probably not notice the plot holes.

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

Lois and her best friend, Kristen, are entering the neighborhood bike race, but the fireworks for the big event have been stolen. Lois only wants to record the event for her online channel where she hopes to create a viral video. She's so focused on her own project that she doesn't understand how anxious Kristen is feeling about leaving for camp the day after the race. Can their friendship survive when Lois is so determined to be an internet star?

I loved the artwork and the cute designs! The story is vibrant and the plot is interesting. I really liked how Lois learns about the moral differences between journalism and detective work. "Journalism isn't about justice. Journalism is about the truth."

However, I didn't really understand the characters in this book. Lois is up and down all the time. One minute, she doesn't want to be a detective because she says that's for "babies", and then she throws herself into the detective work with all the enthusiasm in the world. The story doesn't explain what happened to change her mind. I guess she realized that she could use her detective work to make a viral video? It's never really clear. She insists that she doesn't want to join the bike race, and then it becomes her main goal to win the bike race. I can't figure out why she suddenly cared about the bike race when she spent half the book telling everyone that she didn't want to race.

Her whole personality changes in fits and starts through the story without any clear reason. She's annoying and she's always bragging about herself. She doesn't do any actual detective work. She just runs around randomly accusing people and making trouble for innocent bystanders.

Lois has a mean attitude. She doesn't take anyone else's feelings into consideration. Through the whole story she is assuming the worst of everyone. She argues with her best friend, accuses innocent people, and bullies a little girl.

I understand that the story was trying to create character development as Lois learns not to be so selfish, but she didn't really develop that much. It was a very unsatisfactory character arc. I think the author was trying to show Lois' tenacity and intensity, but it only came across as an obnoxious and harsh personality.

There is one supporting character who is extremely shy and who literally runs away when she sees Lois and Kristen on the street, but later in the story, she is suddenly un-shy and talkative and ready to join in their adventures. It's a sudden personality shift that felt jarring and strange.

The friendship between Lois and Kristen is way too dramatic. They fight and make up several times through the story, and I got tired of it. How are they still friends if there is that much conflict in their relationship?

Overall, I am disappointed in the characters, but the design of the book is lovely and the basic plot is good.

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

I loved revisiting these characters and seeing how they deal with being in a quarantine situation! Each of their activities and reactions was so true to their personalities.
This made my heart so happy!

This always used to be my favorite of the Anne books, but after rereading it for the 20th time, I'm not sure it is my absolute favorite. I still love it, of course, but it is so heart-wrenching to read about the first World War. There is a lot of gloominess in this story. There is humor and fun and romance too though!
Rilla is a fascinating and beautifully developed character. It's so easy to relate to her and her emotional journey.
Walter is another favorite character, because of his beautiful soul and his courage. He is so sensitive and full of dreams.
The writing really pulls you into the story and tears your heart into pieces.