Bingo Square (Round 2): Award Winner (Newbery Medal) While I picked this novel up because of bothari43’s review (and cat picture), I’m using it for the Award Winner category. Overall, the tone reminded me quite a bit of Terry Pratchett aimed at a younger audience. I’ve only read two Pratchett novels so others more familiar with his work may not agree with that assessment but it certainly felt like that to me. I just felt like Xan, Glerk, Fyrian, Antain (and his uncle), and Luna […]
Teen witches, good witches, bad witches, swamp monster witches, and more!
This was a lovely little fairy tale that had just enough familiar pieces that I thought I knew where everything was going, but just enough originality that I was intrigued throughout and couldn’t put it down, even though I was pretty sure there was sad stuff coming. Plus, two truly excellent secondary characters (I want a Glerk and a Fyrian of my very own – this book should come with a swamp monster and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon). Once upon a time, there was a […]
In which my lack of knowledge of Russia may have been a problem
I’m not sure I liked this as well as I could have. Some things feel unfulfilled. I know this is part of a series, and I plan to get my hands on book 2, but some of the characters and the world seems incomplete. I liked that this novel relied in more detail on the folklore traditions it was working with than Uprooted (which I loved), and you get to meet some of the creatures like the domovoi and the rusalka. I wish there was […]
Visiting the Land of Stories
On the recommendation of a friend, I bought The Wishing Spell for my 9 year old daughter last year for our family winter solstice book exchange. She devoured it and immediately began urging me to read it. “Mom, you’ll really like it. It’s so good!” So far in her life I’ve always been the one making recommendations of what to read. She was very excited to have a book she wanted to share with me. “It’s as good as Harry Potter!”, the highest praise she can […]
Yes, yes! All of the Yes!
I ended up reading this book by accident. I thought I’d requested a book with the same title written by Victer Lavelle, but this is what showed up at the library when I went to pick it up. Since I was already there I figured I’d give it ago. And I’m glad I did as this was one of the most adorable, wonderful books I’ve read in a while. First, every single major player in this book is female. And not a whiny, incapable cipher […]
Be careful what you wish for…
Ah, the glory of the library basement book sale, where books are $0.50, or even free! Thanks to the generosity of people donating books during the holiday season, my local library was practically begging people to take their donated and overstock books to give them forever homes. I am a little sad to learn that this one was my library’s only copy, but since it hadn’t been checked out in so long it got booted to the sale bin. I had a few free hours […]
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