Category Archives: Book Review and Content

Review: Alex Approximately by Jenn Bennett

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,
Alex Approximately by Jenn Bennett

Alex, Approximately
Jenn Bennett
Simon Pulse
Published April 4, 2017

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About Alex, Approximately

Classic movie buff Bailey “Mink” Rydell has spent months crushing on a witty film geek she only knows online by “Alex.” Two coasts separate the teens until Bailey moves in with her dad, who lives in the same California surfing town as her online crush.

Faced with doubts (what if he’s a creep in real life—or worse?), Bailey doesn’t tell Alex she’s moved to his hometown. Or that she’s landed a job at the local tourist-trap museum. Or that she’s being heckled daily by the irritatingly hot museum security guard, Porter Roth—a.k.a. her new arch-nemesis. But life is whole lot messier than the movies, especially when Bailey discovers that tricky fine line between hate, love, and whatever-it-is she’s starting to feel for Porter.

And as the summer months go by, Bailey must choose whether to cling to a dreamy online fantasy in Alex or take a risk on an imperfect reality with Porter. The choice is both simpler and more complicated than she realizes, because Porter Roth is hiding a secret of his own: Porter is Alex…Approximately.

My Review

This is another book that’s been on my shelf for a while, and the second book by Jenn Bennett that I’ve read. I remember hoping to get a pre-release copy when I heard about this book, but I wasn’t able to. At some point I bought the e-book, and it’s been sitting in my Kindle app patiently waiting for me to finally sit down and read it.

Which I did! I read ALEX, APPROXIMATELY right after reading P.S. I LIKE YOU by Kasie West, which might sound weird because it’s a really similar plot line. What can I say? Zero regrets!

I really enjoyed the characters and the cheesy museum workplace. I remember this book being compared to the movie YOU’VE GOT MAIL, and I hoped for a cool reveal moment like that. Happily, I will say that the book delivered on those hopes.

The classic movie references were also awesome. I knew most of them, so it definitely let me feel like I was in on the story a bit more, though I think it’d be plenty enjoyable without understanding the references.

Apparently I love Rom Com. Who knew? This makes two in a row that I really enjoyed and lifted my mood. I liked it a lot.

If you’re new to Jenn Bennett’s books, you may also want to check out my review of STARRY EYES.

Content Notes for Alex Approximately

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Porter’s mom is Hawaiian (Chinese and Polynesian).

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing and making out between boy and girl. Reference to masturbation and brief description of sex.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Description of a brutal shark attack. A character shares a childhood memory of getting shot. Boys get into a brutal fistfight twice.

Drug Content
References to drug use. Bailey notes that teens drink alcohol and smoke pot at a big beach party.

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Review: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , , ,

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Barbara Robinson
HarperCollins
Published April 12, 2005 (Originally published 1972)

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About The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Laughs abound in this bestselling Christmas classic by Barbara Robinson! The Best Christmas Pageant Ever follows the outrageous shenanigans of the Herdman siblings, or “the worst kids in the history of the world.” The siblings take over the annual Christmas pageant in a hilarious yet heartwarming tale involving the Three Wise Men, a ham, scared shepherds, and six rowdy kids.

Ralph, Imogene, Leroy, Claude, Ollie, and Gladys Herdman are an awful bunch. They set fire to Fred Shoemaker’s toolshed, blackmailed Wanda Pierce to get her charm bracelet, and smacked Alice Wendelken across the head. And that’s just the start! When the Herdmans show up at church for the free snacks and suddenly take over the Christmas pageant, the other kids are shocked. It’s obvious that they’re up to no good. But Christmas magic is all around and the Herdmans, who have never heard the Christmas story before, start to reimagine it in their own way.

This year’s pageant is definitely like no other, but maybe that’s exactly what makes it so special.

My Review

I think I maybe read this book in school back in the day? I’m not totally sure, but I know I read it when I was in elementary school, and had wanted to read it again.

This year I’ve been addicted to Tim Curry’s audiobook performance of A Christmas Carol, but I wanted to read another Christmas story that left me feeling more centered on things that matter at Christmas. I’m super glad I remembered this one.

I love that the story is so simple. It’s literally 7 chapters, and I think I read the whole thing in maybe 30 minutes? It would easily be a great book to read aloud with a family over the holidays.

I also love that the story centers around kids that are outsiders, kids who are judged to be “undeserving” of starring roles by the good Christian church members. Yet, it’s their performance that so calls to mind the truth that Mary and Joseph and Jesus were outsiders and refugees themselves.

The whole story is about how this unexpected turn of events takes a tradition that everyone sort of goes through the motions repeating and brings it to life and makes us experience it in a fresh, new way.

It reminds us that the Christian Gospel is supposed to be accessible to everyone, not just the church people. That God has starring roles planned for people we wouldn’t expect him to choose.

At any rate, this is one of my favorite Christmas stories, and I’m glad that I was able to read it again this year.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Few racial details given.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Most of the story takes place in a Christian church, with kids putting on a Christmas pageant centered around the story of Christ’s birth.

Violent Content
Some reference to arson and bullying by the Herdman kids.

Drug Content
References to the Herdman kids smoking.

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Review: With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , ,

With the Fire on High
Elizabeth Acevedo
QuillTree Books
Published May 7, 2019

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About With the Fire on High

With her daughter to care for and her abuela to help support, high school senior Emoni Santiago has to make the tough decisions, and do what must be done. The one place she can let her responsibilities go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness.

Still, she knows she doesn’t have enough time for her school’s new culinary arts class, doesn’t have the money for the class’s trip to Spain — and shouldn’t still be dreaming of someday working in a real kitchen. But even with all the rules she has for her life — and all the rules everyone expects her to play by — once Emoni starts cooking, her only real choice is to let her talent break free.

My Review

It’s probably weird that the first book by Elizabeth Acevedo that I’ve read is the one that isn’t a novel in poetry? I usually gravitate toward those, and I do have hard copies of both THE POET X and CLAP WHEN YOU LAND, but somehow I wound up reading this one first. (Truthfully it happened because I needed to sit in my littlest’s room to make sure she didn’t sneak out of bed, and I needed something to read from my phone.)

I loved Emoni right from page one. Her experience cooking and her understanding of it, her love and instinctive approach all had me spellbound. I loved that everyone has such an emotional experience eating her cooking, too. It’s not quite magical realism, but it made the story feel bigger than just contemporary.

The journey Emoni takes in learning to go beyond cooking by instinct and how to sort of put that together with cooking as part of a team was really powerful and felt so realistic. I wanted to try all her recipes and visit an unusual upscale restaurant to try dishes with unusual pairings (though we are not eating at restaurants right now… someday!).

Also, and many people have already said this, I appreciated her experience as a young, single mom. She tries to do all the right and admirable things. She knows the stakes are high, for herself and for her daughter. I love that she consistently puts Emma first, and that her challenge is learning how to be a mom without limiting herself to being just a mom.

Her relationship with ‘Buela also totally got me. The protectiveness on both sides. The love. I never doubted ‘Buela’s role as the parent in the relationship, and it’s so clear that it’s not easy for her, but she loves her family so much.

On the whole, this is a phenomenal book. I love it so much, and I feel like this is one I might read again soon, just to experience it all again. I absolutely recommend it to anyone who enjoys cooking or stories about following your dreams.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Emoni is Black and Puerto Rican. Her best friend is Black and a lesbian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently. Emoni doesn’t like anyone swearing near her daughter, and she tries very hard not to swear at all.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some references to Emoni and her ex having sex. She also talks about how once people know she has had a child, they sometimes treat her a certain way. With men, sometimes this means treating her like she will have sex with anyone, which isn’t how she is. A couple scenes show a boy and girl kissing. One scene shows them taking off shirts and touching and references them doing more, but doesn’t describe.

Spiritual Content
Malachi mentions that he has studied Islam.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
Emoni and her friends visit a bar in Spain. It’s legal for them to drink there, but against the agreement in the field trip forms they’ve signed. A couple students get very drunk. One girl gets sick and is super embarrassed about her behavior later. Emoni does not drink alcohol.

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Review: Thomas Jefferson and the Return of the Magic Hat by Deborah Kalb

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Historical, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , ,

Thomas Jefferson and the Return of the Magic Hat (The President and Me #3)
Deborah Kalb
Schiffer Kids
Published September 28, 2020

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About Thomas Jefferson and the Return of the Magic Hat

After almost six months in Maryland, fifth-grader Oliver still misses his friends back in New Jersey. But things start to change one day, when his neighbor–and possible new friend–Sam lends Oliver a magic hat that takes him back to the 18th- and 19th-century world of Thomas Jefferson. Oliver and his sisters–Cassie, the nice one, and Ruby, the annoying one–end up learning more about Jefferson than they’d expected. And Oliver finds that his new neighborhood might not be so terrible after all. 

Thomas Jefferson and the Return of the Magic Hat is the third in The President and Me series that began with George Washington and the Magic Hat and John Adams and the Magic Bobblehead. This new adventure brings back previous characters Sam, Ava, J.P. (blink and you might miss them, though!), and of course the cantankerous talking hat itself.

My Review

Oliver is a sweet character with a big family who’s still acclimating to his new school. He struggles with a couple classmates who bully him for blurting out little known facts about presidents. I found him pretty easy to identify with.

He time travels backward to Thomas Jefferson’s lifetime and witnesses some key moments in his life: seeing him working on the Declaration of Independence, meeting him as he’s looking at the land which will become his estate, Monticello, and eavesdropping on the meeting between Jefferson, Hamiton and Madison to discuss the US capital.

It was neat to get to see snippets of those moments. The historical scenes always seemed really short to me– whenever Oliver removes the hat from his head, he returns to the present, and he seems to do that a lot!– so sometimes that felt a bit choppy. But it also kept the balance of the story focused on Oliver and the things he learns about friendship and family through his time traveling experiences.

One of the things I was really interested in is that early on in the story, Oliver and his friends discuss the fact that though Thomas Jefferson wrote about equality, he owned slaves. In fact, some were his own children. It seemed like the story might have intended to explore that issue more deeply, perhaps even to discuss it with Jefferson himself.

Oliver does meet Jefferson’s son, Madison Hemmings, and there’s a brief drive-by of a sort of explanation that Jefferson moderated/removed overt anti-slavery words in the Declaration of Independence because the Revolution needed the support of colonies who depended on slavery.

The obvious contradiction in his belief to be against slavery and the fact the he owned slaves is acknowledged. But on the whole, the issue isn’t deeply explored, and I was a bit disappointed by that because of the setup.

I thought the book was interesting, and enjoyed the present-day conflicts that Oliver had to navigate with friends and sisters. I think readers who have just outgrown the Magic Treehouse books, but still enjoy that type of story will enjoy this series.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 10.

Representation
Main characters are white. Oliver has brief encounters with a young Black slave in Thomas Jefferson’s house.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
A talking hat guides Oliver and his friends on time travel adventures.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of THOMAS JEFFERSON AND THE RETURN OF THE MAGIC HAT in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog.

Review: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

Book Review and Content, Coming of Age, Historical, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, , , , , , ,

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce #1)
Alan Bradley
Delacorte Press
Published April 24, 2009

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About The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

It is the summer of 1950–and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath.

For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”

My Review

A long time ago, after I reviewed and enjoyed a mystery featuring a young narrator, someone suggested the Flavia de Luce series to me. I borrowed THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE from the library but only got maybe halfway through before having to return it. I liked what I’d read, but got sidetracked by other things and didn’t pick it up again until now.

Flavia is spunky and whip-smart. She has an interesting relationship with her two older sisters which mostly consists of giving each other a hard time and playing tricks on one another. There’s an undercurrent of protectiveness and caring in there, too. Sort of the only-I-can-mess-with-my-sister type of thing. It was kind of sweet.

I thought Flavia cleverly followed the thread of the mystery, having her own child-like moments here and there between highly analytical research, experiments and deductions. I feel like it should have been harder to believe that she’s eleven years old, but for some reason, I wasn’t really bothered by that as I was reading.

One section shows her listening to a long recounting of her father’s life at school. It’s interesting because it’s some of the only real interaction we see between them, but it goes on for a long time and sort of shifts the focus of the story to be about him from there on out.

Another thing to note is that there are a couple of racially insensitive (at best) situations or comments in the story. I’ve listed them below in the contents. To be honest, these are the kinds of things I have the most trouble with as a reviewer. This book is set in the 1950s and published in 2009 (which isn’t that long ago). I feel like the face-painting and Flavia’s comment could have been easily left out. They may have been historically accurate representations of ideas at the time, but including them feels insensitive to me, and none of them were critical to the story.

I enjoyed the mystery elements, and felt like the characters are believable and interesting. I wish it hadn’t included those few references.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Takes place in England.

Flavia’s father and a friend had a performance routine in which they dressed up as a Chinese man using make-up and an unflattering accent. Flavia later makes an off-hand comment about colonization “civilizing” the indigenous people– though it’s unclear if she says this sarcastically. These things may have been historically accurate representations of feelings and behavior at the time the story takes place, but are at the least racially insensitive and prejudiced.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Flavia sees a young man kiss a young woman.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content – Trigger warning for bullying, suicide and murder.
Flavia is the youngest of three sisters, and her older sisters boss her around and bully her sometimes. Flavia also commits pranks against her sisters. She also learns of a student her father knew who was bullied.

Description of a man throwing himself from a rooftop. Flavia discovers the body of a stranger in the garden who appears to have been murdered.

Contains situations of peril. Two scenes show Flavia tied up and locked away.

Drug Content
Adults drink alcohol socially.

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Review: A Sky Beyond the Storm by Sabaa Tahir

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

A Sky Beyond the Storm (An Ember in the Ashes #4)
Sabaa Tahir
Razorbill
Published December 1, 2020

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About A Sky Beyond the Storm

Picking up just a few months after A REAPER AT THE GATES left off…

The long-imprisoned jinn are on the attack, wreaking bloody havoc in villages and cities alike. But for the Nightbringer, vengeance on his human foes is just the beginning.

At his side, Commandant Keris Veturia declares herself Empress, and calls for the heads of any and all who defy her rule. At the top of the list? The Blood Shrike and her remaining family.

Laia of Serra, now allied with the Blood Shrike, struggles to recover from the loss of the two people most important to her. Determined to stop the approaching apocalypse, she throws herself into the destruction of the Nightbringer. In the process, she awakens an ancient power that could lead her to victory–or to an unimaginable doom.

And deep in the Waiting Place, the Soul Catcher seeks only to forget the life–and love–he left behind. Yet doing so means ignoring the trail of murder left by the Nightbringer and his jinn. To uphold his oath and protect the human world from the supernatural, the Soul Catcher must look beyond the borders of his own land. He must take on a mission that could save–or destroy–all that he knows.

My Review

Normally, I really struggle with longer books, but I pretty much tore through this one. There were so many things on my list of things I needed to see happen. Romances that needed to be faced. Villains I wanted destroyed. So many things.

I am going to do my absolute best not to give anything away in this review, since I know a lot of people are still reading or haven’t been able to start reading yet. So bear with me if I sound cryptic.

The author has pretty much already stated that there are some heartbreaks coming in the book. There are. Some of them were really tough. There were some big surprises that had me cheering, too. Lots of things unfolded in ways that weren’t quite what I expected, and often I was like wait, wow!

Ultimately, I will say that I loved getting to follow the story to its conclusion. I think one of my favorite things about the series as a whole is Laia’s evolution from the girl too afraid to do anything but run to the girl who not only learns combat from the Blood Shrike, but who’s like, “Hey the Nightbringer has an awesome weapon which I believe I will try to steal right off his back.”

I also love, love, LOVE Helene. She’s 100% my favorite character, though I did not like her at all at first. I think the fact that she is so committed to protect her family and so committed to her people– and so committed to doing what’s right, even if it doesn’t follow traditions or what people in power want her to do– made it impossible for me not to love her.

There are so many complex, amazing characters in the book, though. I loved that over and over one of the things that Laia and Elias and Helene have to do is learn the story of their enemies. Learn what makes them who they are. I thought that exploration made the story a lot deeper and changed how I felt about certain characters.

On the whole, I feel like this is one of those books that you’re either already planning to read or you haven’t followed the series this far or at all. This isn’t the book you’d want to start with, if you’re unfamiliar with the series. Definitely start with AN EMBER IN THE ASHES if you haven’t read it yet.

I think this one was worth the wait. I’m super glad it came out before the end of the year so that I had something to look forward to reading this month.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Tribes and Scholar people are oppressed by the Empire. Scholars have been enslaved for many years. Both have bronze skin and dark hair. Elias’ father was a Scholar, and he was raised in a tribe. Laia is a Scholar.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used fairly infrequently. Most swears are things like, “Skies.”

Romance/Sexual Content
Several scenes show couples being intimate. There are enough details to let you know what’s happening. Most are descriptions of kissing and undressing, but some brief descriptions beyond that.

Spiritual Content
Elias is the Soul Catcher who serves Mauth, or death. He is responsible to help human ghosts make peace with their deaths and pass on. Mauth first created the Jinn to serve this purpose, but they’ve rebelled against him. There are other spirit creatures like efrits who have elemental abilities and ghuls that feed on grief and wights which spy for a character.

The tribes also have a spiritual leader who passes on stories. There’s a spiritual component to how the stories are kept and discovered. There is also a leader who performs burial rites for tribe members to help them pass on peacefully.

Violent Content
Many depictions of battle violence, some pretty graphic.

Drug Content
None.

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