Source: Purchased

Operation Frog Effect by Sarah Scheerger: Review & Scheerger’s Top Ten Addictions

Operation Frog Effect is a story told in journal form–with eight (diverse) kids who are writing their experiences as the school year progresses. The kids use multiple formats. For instance, one writes mostly in verse while another does his journaling in graphic novel format. These different formats are sure to appeal to a wide variety of readers. Right from the start, I could tell that the characters were going to be incredibly relatable: the story starts […]

Posted March 21, 2019 in Author Top Ten Lists, Reviews / 6 Comments

The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord: A Dual Review with Danielle Hammelef

(No actual dueling—or even arm-twisting—was involved. Don’t worry, this is a dual review, not a duel review. Sorry if you’re disappointed.) Danielle Hammelef was the latest winner of my Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up “Make Me Read It” giveaway, and she chose to make me read The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord. I’ve been wanting to read more Lord ever since I read (and LOVED) The Names They Gave Us, so I was excited about this selection! […]

Posted March 11, 2019 in Dual Reviews, Reviews / 16 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Revenge of Magic, Hey, Kiddo, and Born a Crime

I’ve got three reviews for you today: a Middle Grade fantasy, a MG/YA graphic novel, and a YA memoir audiobook. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! This book is filled with action and adventure right from the very start, and I flew through it! The story follows Fort, who witnesses his father’s death when a giant claw reaches up through the ground and pulls him under. When he’s […]

Posted March 9, 2019 in Reviews / 24 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of Song for a Whale, A Friendly Town That’s Almost Always by the Ocean, The Color of Lies, and The Lunar Chronicles

I’ve got four reviews for you today: two Middle Grades, a YA, and a YA series . I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! This is one of those books that takes you into the heart and mind of a character whose experiences you might not be able to completely relate to—and you come out all the richer for it in the end. The story focuses on Iris, a […]

Posted March 6, 2019 in Reviews / 18 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of Firestarter, The Lonely Ones, We Come Apart and The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up

I’ve got four reviews for you today: a YA steampunk, two YA verse novels (one of them is borderline YA/MG), and a manga. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! (Check out my review of the first two books in this series and Sim’s Top Ten Addictions!) What a fabulously wild ride! Though Timekeeper is still my favorite book in this series, the very end of Firestarter made the whole series journey more […]

Posted February 6, 2019 in Reviews / 26 Comments

Things I Learned About Fairy Tales By Reading the Grimm’s Versions

I have a collection of Grimm’s Fairy Tales that I’ve owned for as long as I can remember, possibly even since birth. It was published in 1973, a year before I was born, and it seems like the type of book my eccentric dad or one of his eccentric friends would have thought was really funny to gift to a baby due to all the cannibalism and cutting off of body parts, etc. Anyway, I’m fairly […]

Posted January 8, 2019 in Let's Discuss / 53 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Lying Woods, What If It’s Us, Between Shades of Gray and The Hotel Between

I’ve got four reviews for you today, a YA mystery, a YA contemporary, a YA historical fiction and a MG fantasy. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! I always think I don’t really like mysteries, but then I read a book like this and it blows me away and I just want MORE! I have no idea how to review this book without giving things away, so I’m actually not going […]

Posted November 20, 2018 in Reviews / 34 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of Dear Evan Hansen, When My Heart Joins the Thousand, A Touch of Gold, and In Your Shoes

I’ve got three YA reviews and a MG review for you today. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! I actually discovered this musical when I saw the book listed on NetGalley. I know, that’s weird and backward, and I have to stop living in a cave (a cave filled with books?), but that’s how it happened. I saw a YA book based on the “hit Broadway musical” and […]

Posted October 27, 2018 in Reviews / 16 Comments

Bite-Sized Reviews of Shadow of the Fox, The Talon Series, Misfits, and Drama

I’ve got four reviews for you today: two YA fantasies, a MG fantasy, and a YA/MG graphic novel. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! Steeped in Japanese folklore, Shadow of the Fox is sure to please anyone who’s a fan of anime or manga or any reader who loves fantastical stories based on traditional lore. The book is dual-narrated: First we have Yumeko, who is half kitsune and […]

Posted September 27, 2018 in Reviews / 20 Comments

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu: A Classroom Reading Review

I read this book with my homeschool language arts class (last spring—for some reason it’s taken me this long to post this—I have no idea why), and the class really enjoyed it! We started out by reading “The Snow Queen,” which the book is based on. It was fun to see the parallels between the two stories and to see where Ursu strayed from the original. The book is split into two parts—the first part […]

Posted September 14, 2018 in Reviews / 10 Comments