Book two picks up right where book one left off.  Some differences: no internal thoughts from the panther, but we get lots more from Rue the orangutan.  Also we don’t hear from Felicity, this time the chapters alternate between Tress and Ribbit (Kermit Usher).   

 

There are many points in this book that will have readers uttering “oh shit”, and hitting the rewind or rereading the page to and think “did I just really hear that”.  There were so many surprises in this book.  Some expected, and some so crazy and unexpected that the reader sits on the edge of their chair not able to turn their self away. 

 

The reader gets a lot more family dynamic with Felicity, Tress, and Kermit.  After all this is a small town and everyone is related somehow.  Plus we get to see new things that happened at the party that were not previously known. 

 

Fair warning: this book has much more gore or graphic descriptions than the last one.  There are explosions, fires, burning skin, and sooooooo much other eye widening action.  I LOVED every minute of it.  I liked how it wasn’t completely predictable, had some bat shit crazy things that are still quite believable, and yet maintained itself as a story about family; the good, the bad, the birth, and the found.  

 

To be honest, was this book as good as the first.  No.  However, it was a very satisfying read, and a great ending to the story.  There is a little heart break, a little just deserts, but it works out as it should in the end.  I thoroughly enjoyed the conclusion to this story, and will be recommending the duology for years to come. 

I wasn’t sure what to make of this book by the title and cover alone.  It’s about women’s boxing in the Victorian era.  It wasn’t something that was done.  But for a “half-bread” Indian (from India) that may be the only way she can raise enough money to get her and her sister out of the Mist and keep them away from debtors prison.  This graphic novel started out quite slow.  I almost DNFed it, but am happy that I read to completion.  Once the story starts to build it moves pretty quick.  It shows how prejudice was alive and well other places than just America.  This book was about so much more than boxing, but the boxing is what makes it so intriguing and worth the read. 

 Being a kid is no easy task.  Being a kid with anxiety is even worse.  In this genera defining look at children’s mental health, Livy sees her anxiety as her shadow or her other self with its own name and personality:  Viola.  Viola is loud and mean, and really hard to ignore.  But Livy gives it her best.  Livy’s family are immigrants in Canada and things are not as easy as they thought, and the extended family is always nit picking at Livy and her parents.  Livy does a good job handling Viola, but admits she needs help.  And thank goodness her parents ignore tradition and get Livy help.  What makes this book so success is how it portrays anxiety, how it attacks, how it lets go.  It also shows it’s not only okay to ask for help but to get help in return.  Sometimes it is needed and that is okay.  This book however, is way more than okay.  It’s well done all around. 

What a fun graphic novel. This is for your beginning chapter books when they’ve worked past level four readers and are looking for a little bit more difficulty. While this is a fiction book its set up to answer those strange questions that kids ask like “can you hear a penguin fart in space”. There’s also a section on wording like knight with a “k” and night with an “n” and then we end up with some other just really fun questions.  Jim Benton’s humor comies through loud and clear with fantastic illustrations to match. Readers of any age are going to find this book to be a lot of fun. 

Wow. What a fantastic retelling of sleeping beauty. This is a short novel it leaves itself open for multiple sequels that I can’t wait to read. The modern sleeping beauty is actually a sick young woman with a fatal disease. It’s her 21st birthday and people with her disease don’t see 22. Celebrating her birthday in the top of the tall tower she pricks her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel as a joke, but that is where the joke ends. Zinna Gray is transported to another room where she has the ability to save another sleeping beauty and to learn more about the past and history of the current, future, and other world sleeping beauties. This book is part fairytale part fantasy, all adventure and all heart. It is faithful but also completely unfaithful to the Disney stories you know and to the historical stories you don’t.  This book is fantastic and I can’t wait to read what comes out next. 

This is an interesting story coming out of Ontario Canada. This story is about a Mennonite girl and her family‘s tradition of baking cookies and snacks from a cookbook they’ve passed down through generations. Two big cookie companies are in the middle of a lawsuit and the big city lawyers want this recipe book to prove that a crunchy and chewy cookie were invented well before the big-name company patented it. What’s most interesting about this story is it’s based on true events that took place in 1986 when Nabisco and another famous cookie company had this actual thing happen.  Over all this is a fun and short listen. It’s got a little bit of adventure, and a little bit of heart,. 

 

 When Goldilocks got in trouble with the three little bears she was sent away from her home to the forest with all the rest of the criminals. It’s now years later and the Charming princess have decided they want to take over the land of criminals, get rid of all the criminals. Yes, by “ get rid of” I mean murder and take the land over for themselves to gain more power. Goldilocks wants nothing to do with this. She wants to keep her home and help everybody in the forest keep their homes as well. They are after all living creatures, beings, and people too. This was a great fun story even though it made me hate all the princess. It’s an exciting and different take on fairy tales and nursery rhymes.  Plus you can read it without having read any of the other land of stories books 

This funky little graphic novel is a pop art want-to-be. Each panel takes you through how a different marvel character reacts to a cat. And some of the graphics are lost on me as the vision media watermark is quite huge and dark and make some panels harder to see than others but overall it’s interesting. They are few to little words so it’s attainable by most any reader.  I do like the pop art pops of color such as Thor being black, white, and pink; wolverine black, blue, and white. This is really a book more for fans than for casual readers.  Tt wasn’t bad but I feel no desire to add it to my collection. 

Clemmie is back with airships, pirates, Vikings, and everything steam punk. She has a new partner, a new mooneye, a bad scar, and a quest for adventure to do anything for the queen. This short novella is a great fun adventure for anybody looking for a retelling or not looking for a retelling of little red riding hood.  This is a 6 book series and number three is next 

This book has a great message, but it is long.  Way too long.  Kenzie likes to be a mermaid. She likes to spend her day at the beach but sometimes her explorations are meet with garbage.  This garbage she will help clean.