(This review contains minor spoilers for The Blood Guard series, because I can’t figure out how to tell you what I liked/didn’t like without mentioning them. They are things that come to light fairly early in the first book, mostly, so I’m don’t feel like I’m ruining anything by mentioning them, but if you like to go into a book with a blank slate, then you should probably not read this. I will spoil my own review and tell you now: I liked them.) The […]
After reading Jewell Parker Rhodes’ most excellent Ninth Ward, I was excited to learn that her newest children’s novel, Bayou Magic, was released this year. So I quickly requested it from my library and devoured it on my train ride to my in-laws’ house. I’ve come to decide that Ms. Rhodes is one of my new favorite children’s book authors. She is a terrific writer with incredible capabilities in character development and mythology construction. Bayou Magic takes place in the bayous of Louisiana, in more […]
This book is the literary equivalent of fuzzy slippers, a soft sweater, and the best cup of hot chocolate. It is pure comfort and takes me to a happy place every time I reread it. Actually, I feel that way about most of the Harry Potter books (not you Chamber of Secrets, not you), but Half-Blood Prince is my favorite of the series. I’m not going to bother giving a synopsis and there will be spoilers ahoy, just warning you. I’ll assume most cannonballers have […]
It’s an understatement to say that poetry is very much not my thing, but friends kept telling me that I HAD to read Brown Girl Dreaming and now I’m telling everyone here that they HAVE to read it. Well, no one’s going to make you, but you won’t regret it if you do. A book in verse sounds ominously pretentious, but Brown Girl Dreaming ended up being a refreshing and honest coming-of-age tale, simple enough for middle schoolers to understand and complex enough for adults […]
Briar’s Book is the final book in Tamora Pierce’s Circle of Magic quartet, which of course is ending just as I’m getting used to the format Pierce wrote them in. Naturally, it focuses on Briar, the former thief and street rat, now plant-mage of Winding Circle Temple. He and the three girls are now a year older than they were in the first book, but still quite young. They’ve adjusted to their new lives and are learning in heaps and loads. For Briar, a large […]
Daja’s Book is the third in Tamora Pierce’s children’s fantasy book series, Circle of Magic. I was previously classifying this as young adult, but this book has firmly set my mind on the subject. At the end of these books, I keep wanting more from them. More development. More sophistication. More actual content (they’re very short). More time spent (they take place over very short periods of time). And I finally decided, basically just about five minutes ago, that the expectations I was placing on this […]
