The first part of this is really cute when the hair thinks the baby chick is Santa, but the ending is lackluster. Yes Santa does come but then mom owl doesn’t believe.  It was an okay book, but one I feel I don’t need to read again. 

 

Thank goodness I didn’t pay for this, I would have been extremely disappointed.  Heck to be honest, if it wasn’t for bookclub, I wouldn’t have finished.  First off is how the book is formatted. It appears to be self published, or from an extremely small publisher.  With the line breaks after every paragraph it’s hard to tell where chapters breaks are, plus they have a tendency to CAPITALIZE things that do not need to be capitalized.  A few of us in the bookclub mentioned it.  Then the font size is quite large, which is nice, but seems to be done to make a higher page count.  Then for the life of me I can not figure out what the title or the book cover have to do with the book at all.  Down the Hatch.  What hatch?  Yes this is a witchy mystery, yes it has a fluffy cat, and yes there is a cemetery scene, but that is the only similarity.  I can not connect everything, and I think that will disappoint a lot of people.  Plus the lackluster writing, the plot holes, and the wrap up that was way too quick.  This book was not for me, and if you really want a witchy mystery, I can name lots of better ones.

#Bookd2021 - Authors First Name Starts with A B or C

#ReadHarder - Book cover I dont like

 

What in the world did I just read? Maybe I would think that always, or maybe I think that because I am currently working from home because of the pandemic.  Who knows.  This is a world where a pandemic has whipped out most of the population, and new kids being born, are born with animal features.  However, Gus, aka Sweet Tooth, is older than the plague, so what is going on.  This is a very bloody book, and while it is a dark fantasy, i truly do think many of the things that happen in this book, would happen in real life if we were hit with a pandemic that kills more than COVID.  Say if Ebola gets out in the US. This story is compelling, and the art work is haunting.  I had to immediately put the next book on hold at the library.  It’s that good.

#Popsugarchallenge - Has the same title as a song

 

 

This was a fun sequel to Sunny Side Up.  I don’t think it was good.  It was straightforward instead of jumping back and forth in time like the previous book. It spans a year and the major conflict is her brother trying to get help for his addiction and bad behavior.  But that is the underlying depressing story.  It’s also about a new neighbor moving in, learning something new like band flags, and making new friends.  I did like this book, but I thought book one was better.

#SeriesRead2021

 

 

This was such a fun surprise.  I figured it would be a fun breezy book based on the cover, but I never expected it to take place in the 70s or be as deep as it was.  Sunny has been pushed off to her grandpa’s Florida retirement village for the summer.  The story goes back and forth between her summer with gramps and the year+ at home in Pennsylvania before she travels.  While most of this is a sunny fun read, it does deal with bigger and deeper issues of substance abuse and how it affects a family.  It does so in a natural way that does not wrap everything up in a tiddy bow at the end.  It shows that life has its difficulties, they are not your fault, and that you can get through them.  It was a wonderful book and I am glad there is a sequel.

#Popsugarchallenge - has 3 generations

 

 

This is one of those times when I think “what did I just read”?  Or in my case “what did I just listen to”.  I started this audiobook at least 3 different times because I kept getting lost.  But notice, I never gave up because it’s so weird you just have to see what is going to happen next.  I loved it.  It was such a different look at race, fantasy, magical realism, etc.  And it leaves itself open for a sequel.  I think this book would make for great discussion in a university class.  Heck even in bookclub, but most of the book clubs I know probably wouldn’t read it, or would lose interest before chapter 5 because of confusion.  I once had a young boy say to me after reading The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”  “I loved it.  I don’t get it, but I loved it.”  At the time I thought that was an odd statement, but this is the second time in my life, I have found a book for which I have to say the same thing.  I think before the sequel comes out I would pick up the print book.  I'm not the greatest at audiobooks, but I can say I loved it.  I don’t get all of it, but I loved it.  

#ReadHarder - intimidated to read

#musicchallenge - david bowie space oddity

#Popsugar - on a BLM booklist

 

 I was never much of a fan of the Magic Tree House books.  I much preferred Junie B Jones.  Currently it looks like the MTH has ended at book 55 which was published in 2016, but a whole new group will be introduced to these stories and characters through graphic novels.  The Graphic novels don’t seem to be as easy as the chapter books were, but that may be a misconception by the author.  The graphics were good and the story translated well.  I can not wait to read the next one. 

 I have started the novel from which this book comes at least 3 times, and I have never made it far.  But this time I made it to the end.  I think the graphic novel form really helps me for this book.  I find Cathe too whiny and scared and too unwilling to try new things.  All in all I don’t really like here.  I do find the Simon Snow storyline interesting, but mainly because I know the author went ahead, wrote and published three of those novels after Fangirl the novel was released.  This is a character story, and while I am not much into those, I would read the rest of the GN series as it comes out so that is decent praise from me.

#Readharder - Set in Midwest 

 

 This was an unusual book coming to the US from Switzerland.  A little girl feels invisible so she goes off on her own to explore.  But she meets someone new after a night out and doesn’t feel so invisible any more.  This was a sweet, quiet story that could be good for bedtime or for story time. 

 So gosh darn cute.  Baby chick has a LOT to say.  But no one has time to listen.  While playing by itself Baby Chick finds an egg and helps it hatch.  And she was lucky enough to make a new friend who likes to listen to her chatters.  This was lots of fun and would be great to do at story time.