I am not sure what I was expecting from this book, but I loved most of it.  I am not a devote of Demi Lovato, so I didn’t know that “Cool for The Summer” was a song about sexually experimenting in summer.  I also did know Demi changed a lyric from “don’t go” to “no go”.    Hopefully, I didn’t just give the book away. 

 

Lara has had the biggest crush on Chase Harding for as long as she can remember.  Her senior year, he finally has a crush right back.  Everything should be prefect, but there is a nagging that things are just not right.  You see, over the summer, Lara hooked up with a girl.  Her mom’s boss’s daughter to be exact.  

 

This story is told in two time periods consecutively.  The “now” is when Lara is with Chase, and the “then” is how Lara and Jasmine went from acquaintances to much more.  Both parts of these stories are interesting, but the “now” timeline gets a kink when Lara walks into school and finds out that Jasmine has moved in with her dad, and now goes to her school too.  Chase is her dream. Jasmine was just her summer.  But why does she fell so awful.  

 

I loved this book.  It is heavy on tropes such as mis communication, but it’s the ride of the story that makes it worth it.  It does have some dry points, and one does get a bit tired of the two ladies trying to upstage, ignore, but also make each other jealous.  But it’s teenage love.  That is the drama for which one picks up this book.  Now is this the best sapphic teen romance there is, no, but it was well done, a bit sappy, and just fun.  It left this reader with a smile on their face at the end, like a good romance should. 

This was an amazing surprise. I did not have any hopes based on the cover but inside you find not only an interesting story but a relatable math lesson. And the math shows it’s work. Tt’s something that a kid could follow and understand. Greatly surprised this works well and I’d like to see more from this collection. 

 

I really wanted to like this book. First, this book is way too long. It feels like it will never end. Then this book tries to rhyme, but the wordiness to get the rhymes makes them fall flat. There’s also zero cadence. Zero. If on is going to do a rhyme in a book that is this long, a cadence makes it easier to read. Like I said I wanted to like this book, but I don’t. 

 

This was a super fun story. A bunch of vegetables are getting together to figure out who was the greatest vegetable of the year. Broccoli totally thinks it’s not going to be them. They’ve not done anything exciting but just the trip from home to the event is exciting on its own. And it’s definitely agreed upon when we meet the other vegetables. I think one of my favorite things is the Aubergine (eggplant) because I’ve never seen a kids book mention that vegetable. I loved it all! It’s great fun and would make a really fun puppet show. 

 

This book is a simple alphabet definition book on concepts and ideas around pride. The illustrations are bright and colorful to keep the reader interested. And most of the definitions work quite well. Personally, I have issues with the way some of them are worded or how they put things. Things like “W is for wig. Fake hair that some people wear for fun.” I wish this had something in there instead of saying they wear it for fun or just say a wig is fake hair that people wear. Or A wig is hair that does not grow on their head.  Overall, it’s a great book. 

 

Lily and Milo have moved into a new house but they need help unpacking.  The reader is supposed to help place things in the right area. I like this book.  It asks questions like what would you put in the kitchen, then gives a possibility of an answer.  Then on the next page it puts the right things in the kitchen.  Overall, Lily and Milo books just work.  

 

This story seems to end halfway through. Poppy is a flower, and she gets blown to a new location by the wind.  She meets her mom and her dad and asks why no one can move. The story then tells you why they do not move and how everyone her helps everyone else. The story isn’t much however the illustrations are vibrant, bright, and beautiful. 

 

This book tries to be a nice compendium of working with various inks and how to make art your own. I wanted to look at the samples and maybe how they artist made their shapes. It was very informative, bright, colorful, and good information, especially if you have not worked in inks before. It was easy to understand so overall it works. 

 

This feels like two books instead of one. The first half of the book is white fish and his friends finding an old boot and trying to figure out what it is. If they had left and ended the book at “it’s a playhouse” and they’re all having fun it would be fine. But then white fish goes on one page adventures that don’t seem to match anything. I’ve liked white fish books in the past but not this one this one can stay at the printers. 

 

This book is just so-so. It is set up as a simple board book about a family going camping. They are going to do an activity; they’re going to see some animals. If this book had rhymed or had a cadence it would’ve been 100% better. The first stanza on each left-hand page had a bit of a cadence and it was blown when it got to the right-hand page. It just altogether did not work however the illustrations are cute and welcoming.