Year: 2019

Sep 20
Picture Book Spotlight: Sulwe and Smarter Than a Monster

Picture Book Spotlight: Sulwe and Smarter Than a Monster

Reviews 2 ★★★★★

Today I’ve got two soon-to-be-released picture books under the spotlight. Check out these two adorable reads! This book is stunning in just about every way imaginable. The story follows little Sulwe, who struggles to see her own beauty because of the darkness of her skin. Sulwe wishes she could look more like her parents, more like her sister, more like the other boys and girls at her school. Like most children, she doesn’t want to feel different—and her dark skin doesn’t make her feel special or unique, no matter what her mother might tell her. It takes a beautiful fable about day and night to make her see how she brings beauty to the world. As a reader, your heart goes out to Sulwe, and it soars with hers as she discovers her true worth. The depth and detail of every illustration in this book is incredible. I’m amazed at how… Read more »

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Sep 18
Fun with Spam #8

Fun with Spam #8

Let's Discuss, Spam 16

I’m excited to say that spammers have figured out ways around those pesky checkboxes in the comments section, and I now have plenty of new material for these spam posts again! So… It’s time for a new installment of Fun with SPAM, where we peek into the abyss of the Spam folder to find a few gems and imagine … what if I were really going to reply to these random crazy comments?  Take a look at what I might say: Fantastic put up, very informative. I wonder why the opposite specialists of this sector don’t understand this. You must continue your writing. I’m confident, you have a great readers’ base already! I put up with a lot, let me tell you. I have no idea why my opposition doesn’t understand all the brilliant points I’ve made! They’re obviously just jealous. This book blogging world is cutthroat. But you have inspired… Read more »

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Sep 15
Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 9/15/19

Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 9/15/19

Sunday Post 29

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): The back yard is looking really great!! It’s still in process, but here are a couple of pics so you can see how it’s going: The first shows the patio mostly finished (there’s upside down decking on that bottom stair, which is why it looks weird). The second two show the landscaping so far (the patio looks strange in these because they put a layer of sand over the patio for while they work—I guess it protects it?). I’ll try to have better pics next week, when hopefully it should be finished! Actually, last night we were so excited… Read more »

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Sep 12
Top Ten Books on My TBR that Terrify Me

Top Ten Books on My TBR that Terrify Me

Let's Discuss, Top Ten Tuesday 45

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. I know I’m late for TTT this week, but I love this topic, so I thought I’d just post a Top Ten Thursday instead (I mean, it still uses the same acronym, so it works, right?) Top Ten Books On My TBR I’m Avoiding Reading and Why (AKA Top Ten Books on my TBR that Terrify Me) Oh, I have plenty of books I’ve been avoiding for various reasons. I will do my best to puzzle out why! I realized that I basically just could have put my list for The Official 2019 TBR Pile Challenge here (I include the list in my monthly wrap-up every month). I specifically chose the books for this challenge because I’d wanted to read them for FOREVER but had been putting them off for one reason or another. I’m happy to say that out of… Read more »

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Sep 09
Bite-Sized Reviews of Vow of Thieves; Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss; The Okay Witch; and Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea

Bite-Sized Reviews of Vow of Thieves; Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss; The Okay Witch; and Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea

Reviews 19

I’ve got four reviews for you today: a YA fantasy a YA contemp, and two MG graphic novels. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! First off, I didn’t realize when I started reading this that the series is a duology. So I was expecting perhaps a bit of middle-book syndrome and was surprised when the book didn’t feel sluggish in the least. In fact, I found myself eager to read this book every chance I got. The book starts out with Kazi very hurt and in captivity and then moves back a couple of weeks to show us how she got there. So, of course, I was eagerly reading to find out what happened and how she was separated from Jase. Surprisingly, it wasn’t one of those cases where it took us half the book to get back to where we’d started, though. No,… Read more »

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Sep 08
Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 9/8/19

Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 9/8/19

Sunday Post 50

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): Sorry I was late with the Discussion Challenge link-up this month! Shannon wrote the post right on time, and I had it all ready to go. Except apparently I didn’t hit the schedule button. And I didn’t even notice until the 4th that it was missing! Yikes! (I blame the fact that we were working on the deck so much this weekend and then I’ve had a cold—my brain’s been fuzzy all week!) Now that we’re done with the deck, the landscaping company that we hired has started on the patio and landscaping. In addition to the patio, we’re… Read more »

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Sep 05
Tiger Queen by Annie Sullivan: Review & Giveaway

Tiger Queen by Annie Sullivan: Review & Giveaway

Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 25 ★★★★

When I heard that Annie Sullivan had written a retelling of “The Lady or the Tiger” I was incredibly excited! I’d loved her unique retelling of “The Midas Touch,” and I had no doubt she’d do one of my favorite short stories justice. I distinctly remember reading this story when I was a teenager and being left with that agonizing open ending. I read the story again with my own students when I taught at my homeschool co-op, and one of our exercises was to write their own ending (and, yes, a few of my students did have the princess sick the tiger on her lost love). I was curious to see if Sullivan would leave us with an open ending as well or give us her own version of closure. Of course, I can’t tell you the answer to that. You’ll have to read to find out! Sullivan has created… Read more »

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Sep 02
August 2019 Wrap-Up & Best of the Bunch

August 2019 Wrap-Up & Best of the Bunch

Best of the Bunch, Monthly Recap 34

My Goings On in August: I made a few changes on the blog. (In case you didn’t notice.) I asked your advice (in the comments and in the form of a poll) and ended up deciding to go for it. I was nervous about the change, but as many of you pointed out, it doesn’t have to be permanent if I decide I preferred the old look. But, I don’t think I’m going to regret it. My little fox girl is just a little bit more “me” now.  🙂 I went on vacation with my family to LA and then stuck around for the SCBWI LA Conference. We went to Universal Studios! We’ve been there before (the one in Florida), but the kids weren’t really old enough to remember it well. My youngest listened to the Harry Potter Series in the past year, so he was especially excited to see… Read more »

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Sep 01
Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 9/1/19

Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 9/1/19

Sunday Post 22

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): As you can see, I decided to go ahead with the change to my blog header. As several people pointed out, the absolute worst thing that can happen is that I end up not loving it and I go back to the blond fox girl. I think I love her this way, though, so I doubt I’ll go back. We’re almost done with the deck! We’ve got basically everything but the fascia up, which we’ll hopefully finish today, assuming it doesn’t rain (there’s a 40% chance of rain, so…). Here’s what you may have missed on the blog since my last… Read more »

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Sep 01
September 2019 Discussion Challenge Link-Up & Giveaway

September 2019 Discussion Challenge Link-Up & Giveaway

Book Blog Discussion Challenge, Current Giveaways 4

Welcome to the September monthly link-up for the 2019 Book Blog Discussion Challenge hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight! Well, it’s back to school time here, and almost fall. How do we feel about fall? (I personally like the cooler weather, but dislike the impending winter doom, so 🤷‍♀️) The winner of our June discussion challenge giveaway was Kristen @ Metaphors and Moonlight! She chose Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell. Hope you love it! If you don’t know what this challenge is all about or haven’t signed up yet (but want to), head on over to the challenge sign-up page to learn more! Even if you’d rather not join, we hope you’ll stop by occasionally to check out the MANY discussion posts that are being linked up here – there are lots of great discussions going on! Looking for even more… Read more »

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