Welcome! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.
Happy Family Day to everyone! Here in British Columbia, it's a day off. I hope you all find time to spend with the ones dear to you.
Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.
Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.
This summary from my library's website tells nothing about how gorgeous and important this book is. I struggled with the pronunciation of many of the names. It's a good thing Joanna Ho shares how to say them so people like me can practice them before reading the book to a group of students.
A young boy wakes up to discover snow outside. As he waits to go out and play in it, he imagines himself going through the steps to build a perfect snowman. At last he is dressed and heads off to start. Things don't go as planned, but in the end he realizes that his creation is good enough.
As I read this book, especially the step by step snowman building process, I wished I was still teaching so I could use it as mentor text for procedural writing.
NON FICTION PICTURE BOOKS
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| 5 stars |
Thank You, Moon: Celebrating Nature's Nightlight by Melissa Stewart, Jessica Lanan (Illustrator)
This beautifully illustrated book taught me things I didn't know about the moon and how it influences different creatures on our planet.
Henry likes routines. He likes things to stay the same. He likes to know what is going to happen when. So when their regular class schedule is disrupted and share time is switched to a different time to make space for a parade, he isn't happy.
Thankfully, Henry finds a way to participate in the parade on his own terms.
Henry's anxiety ratchets up as the week progresses and the day of change draws nearer. Bailey and Song show us how his dread affects him at a physical level. He has volcanoes in his stomach and not even his friend Katie can help him feel better.
I appreciate the diversity of Henry's classroom. I can't recommend this book enough!
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| 4 stars |
The Librarian of Auschwitz (Graphic Novel Version) by Antonio Iturbe, Salva Rubio (Adaptation), Lilit Zekulin Thwaites (translator) & Loreto Aroco (Illustrator) January 2023
This is is a graphic adaptation of the book by the same name. It's a brilliant retelling of real-life Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus, who kept books alive while living at Auschwitz. The artwork is just brilliant.
I haven't read the original book, so I can't compare the two versions of the story. I really appreciated this one. Even though I have read many other narratives about the camps, I had no idea that the Nazi's kept a separate compound of Jewish prisoners to trick the Red Cross into thinking that all were being treated fairly.
Milo and his family have moved into a new house. He's busy exploring when his mother asks him to check the basement for his baby sister's missing pick sock that their grandmother knitted.
To be honest, I was terrified along with Milo when he first went down those dark stairs. Then he sees a rat and freaks out for a bit. Soon he discovers a key and a doorway into a new room. He spies the rat with the sock and takes off after it. In the process he discovers it is a "really big basement!" It has multiple levels full of all kinds of treasures as well as a few horrors. He meets and befriends some strange creatures in this underground world. Together they help him search for the sock. One of those horrors is a slimy green gobbler that devours whoever it comes across. When it eats his new friends, he has to come up with a way to rescue them.
This is a brilliant yarn. (pun intended) I couldn't stop flipping through the pages to see what Milo would discover next. The levels are full of stunning replicas of famous artwork. The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous.
ADULT/YA FICTION
When Dr. Sophie de Greer, a member of a government think tank goes missing, Anthony Sparrow, a bureaucrat close to the Prime Minister, accuses MI5 of disappearing her. Dianna Taverner, first desk of the agency, is their prime suspect. Meanwhile, the denizens of Slough House may or may not know where she is.
Confusion, mayhem, treachery, and the usual backstabbing shenanigans ensue.
I am now almost caught up in Mick Herron's Slough House series. I'm waiting for number 7, and then will have to wait along with everyone else for the next book to be published.
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| 4.5 stars |
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson, Bailey Carr (Narrator), Marisa Calin (Narrator) & Michael Crouch (Narrator) May 2, 2019
To be completely honest, I did not read all of this book. I don't do thrillers well, and when I came to the part where Pippa (the teen protagonist) figured out who the murderer was, I was too terrified to listen any more. I skipped to the end of the book to see how it all turned out. I do have a reserve on a text version of it so I can skim through the harrowing pages.
Aside from that, I was completely invested in this debut novel.
Pippa, who plans to become an investigative journalist, decides to examine a five year old murder for her final high school project. As she digs into the case she discovers that Andie Bell, the murder victim, wasn't the innocent she was purported to be. She discovers that many people close to her are keeping dangerous secrets, and that lies, racism, and corruption flourish under the town's patina of wholesomeness. I adored Pippa, her family, her friends, and her budding romance with Ravi, brother to the alleged murderer.
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| 4 stars |
Of Manners and Murder by Anastasia Hastings & Mia Hutchinson-Shaw (Narrator) February 7, 2023
One of the letters troubles Violet so she heads off to the village of Willingdale to meet the author, Ivy Armstrong. She arrives in the village just in time to attend Ivy's funeral. Posing as a school friend, Violet determines that Ivy's death was neither accident nor suicide and sets out to uncover who murdered her. There are plenty of suspects.
Meanwhile, Sephora is having a clandestine relationship with a secret beau. When he disappears she sets off into dangerous part of London to find him.
The story is told from the perspectives of the two sisters. Whereas Violet is educated and studious, Sephora is a social butterfly. At first their two narratives seem unrelated, but eventually they weave together.
Even though this has a number of hair raising episodes, it's also full of humour. I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series.
I am a huge fan of fairy tales of any kind. I tell you this so you know I was predisposed to enjoy this, and I did.
Emily Wilde is a adjunct professor at Cambridge who specializes in dryadology - faerie folklore. She travels to the Scandinavian country of Ljosland to be the first person to document the local faeries and complete her Encyclopaedia of these creatures.
She doesn't get off to a good start with the local townspeople of Hrafnsvik. (Emily comes across as someone who might be on the autistic spectrum, since as brilliant as she is, she doesn't do social interaction well.) Then one of her colleagues, the handsome and charming Wendell Bambleby, shows up and offers to help. He is much more than he first seems. The two of them seem like opposites so you know romance is in the offing.
She doesn't get off to a good start with the local townspeople of Hrafnsvik. (Emily comes across as someone who might be on the autistic spectrum, since as brilliant as she is, she doesn't do social interaction well.) Then one of her colleagues, the handsome and charming Wendell Bambleby, shows up and offers to help. He is much more than he first seems. The two of them seem like opposites so you know romance is in the offing.
What I like most about this book is the dark faerie lore and how it is integrated into the plot. It is full of changelings, enchantments, and all kinds of nasty faerie shenanigans.
While Emily deals competently with many aspects of faerie folk, she also ends up over her head. As experienced as she is, she ends up caught in her own kind of fairy tale nightmare and has to be rescued by Bambleby and the rest of the townsfolk.
I'm not happy with women needing rescue by men, but I'm still planning on reading the sequel.
CURRENTLY
Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
Stazy and the Magic List by Nancy Hundal October 15, 2023 🍁
Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline 🍁
UP NEXT (MAYBE)
The Faint of Heart by Kerilynn Wilson June 13, 2023
Besties Work It Out by Kayla MillerREADING GOALS
#MustRead2024 3/25 one on the go
NonFiction 4/24 one on the go
Canadian Authors 5/50 two on the go
Indigenous Authors 2/25 one on the go
Goodreads Reading Challenge: 29/200
