The kids are out but still running for their lives. Will they find the exit to the human world or are they due to be food of the demons? Another great book to keep the story moving. 

 

The kids have done it, they have escaped! We get to witness the last half of the escape and the first chance at being alone. Things are not easy, but could they be doable? Only time will tell. Another great book a great series. 

 

Shirley and Jamila are two girls with the same problem. They are destined for summer camps they don’t want to go to. Jamila is the youngest of three children: a 20 year old brother, a 16 year old brother, and her. She loves to play basketball, but she can only play it on hoop in her driveway. Shirley is unusual. Sam called her weird and Shirley does not like that. What Shirley is, is observant. She notices things that others don’t. This is a gender bent Sherlock Holmes and Watson. Jamila is fun-loving and she wants to get to know people,  and have friends. Shirley loves to read,  finding things out, and solving mysteries. Shirley,  being super smart hatches a plan to keep them out of summer camp.  Instead she has found a way for Jamila to spend the summer on the basketball court and Shirley helping the neighbors solve mysteries and find lost things. This book was an absolute joy to read. The illustrations are appropriate, they’re funny, and I think people will see themselves. I think kids will find this a lot of fun and while Shirley may not be a bumbling detective she’s bumbling through life trying to make friends and not be seen as the weird child 

 

This story is just wow. Taylor is a teenage boy who is not a teenage boy. Taylor is an alien named Galaxy hidden in a teenage boy’s body. And they know they’re not themselves as Taylor the human. They may play basketball, but they do not really fit in. They get picked on, they feel different, they are just not like everyone else. After a first glance of Galaxy, they want to be themselves more and more and more. What they are is a female purple alien princess. This story is amazing, the illustrations are powerful; they are colorful, they stand out, and they suck the reader in. When you think of DC you are usually thinking of superheroes, and yes galaxy is a superhero. She’s a superhero some kids need as they grow up not feeling like themselves in their own body. She is a superhero they want, someone to represent them and say it’s OK to be you even if it may be dangerous. Galaxy knows that if trouble wants to find you it will, but that you need to stand up to it and be who you are born to be. I loved absolutely everything about this. 

 

Jarvy and their pet cat Milo are afraid their brother is a zombie. This is a simple concept of one brother seeing another brother in different ways that all have to do with waking up in the morning. I do like the illustrations, but they tend to be a bit repetitive. This is because the background stays the same and they just change the font bubbles. Overall, it works.  My favorite part was the fart. It feels like a first or second book which it says in the afterward that it is, but I think with practice the author will get better.  The concept is fantastic and I can’t wait to see what else we get from the author. 

 

This is a simple lift the flap book where it shows a picture of puppy,  lift the flap and ask the question. What is the puppy going to do with the slipper? The next page is the answer. This book will probably be a semi popular board book, but I feel it doesn’t have 20 years of staying power. It’s a “one and done” print. 

 

Once again, I think this book is way too long. The little prince is just used as advocate instead of really going with the beloved little prince stories that have been around forever. This book sets out to showcase architectural greatness across the world, but it focuses on very common things like the Sydney Opera House the Great Wall of China, Christ the Redeemer, etc.. Overall, it is interesting but at the same time kind of a disappointment.  I would much rather have the little prince then all the info dumping. 

 
I’m not always hip on books that start out as a podcast but this has proven to be the exception. I like the format which keeps the listener engaged and wanting to move forward. Each location starts out with “hey this is the city we were in and this is what happened to us while there”. Then it tells something paranormal that takes place in and around the city and then a true crime. Sometimes these true crimes were big events like HM homes in Chicago, or the Black Dahlia in California. Other times the stories are little known things that happened in these local areas. Then it finished each section with interesting facts about the location and which podcast has more information. Overall the formula really worked for me. Some of the locales I already knew about because I had lived in and around there, like Joliet prison, but I didn’t know about the prison in Alton (that’s no longer there) when they talked about St. Louis. So there’s something for everybody. This book is very well done and well I’m not a podcast listener, they’ve made a new fan and I’m going to be checking it out and so should you. 

 
I really wanted to enjoy this book and I think if I had read it I would have. However this is the third time I’ve tried to listen to the audiobook. I’ve gotten farther than ever before, 3 1/2 hours in, but here I am the next day and I can’t tell you what happened in that 3 1/2 hours. There’s a captain who’s young, does water magic, and she’s very good at her job. But since were in historical fantastic environment women don’t normally do jobs like that, and that’s a problem. There are other characters mentioned like a girl walking around town and it’s pretty sad that in 3 1/2 hours that’s all I can remember. It’s not the book, I fully believe it’s me and the audiobook. I think if I was reading this book I would better understand and get everything that’s going on. I didn’t think the reader was soothing and maybe that’s why I didn’t pay attention who knows. I still think this book is worth checking out even though the audiobook didn’t do it for me. 

 
It is very obvious from the beginning that this is a parody of the Fyre festival that didn’t happen. The Fyre festival was supposed to be this big party on an island reminiscent of things like Coachella. However for this book they’ve turned it in to a murder mystery. Oh my god is this book boring and predictable. The first 130 pages are all about Plum. She feels inferior to her 10 years older influencer sister, and she wants a chance to just do something crazy. She steals her sister’s Pyre Festival ticket, turns it in for two business class tickets so she can take her friends with her to this party. However, from the minute they get on the boat the reader can tell something is wrong. None of the influencers are big influencers. They are people never heard of of by other characters. Then when they get to the island things are already odd. And it just goes on and on. The author tries to put in a love story between Plum and her friend but this reader was so sick of it by the time the first person died. I really wanted one of the girls to be the first to die. This book had potential it’s just not been met. The book spends so much time trying to set a scene, trying to set a murder, and trying to set a feeling, that none of it works. As an older reader, this screams of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. And by the middle of the book a character even says that this is that story. I really wanted this book to work it just didn’t. Am I glad I didn’t DNF it, however will this book be around in 20 years? No. I doubt it’s around in five years. If you really want a good mystery read the original. If you might want a horror novel try Clown in the Cornfield, or anything by Karen McManus to get a little horror and a lot of whodunit thrills.