Explore Reviews

The illustrations are nothing to write home about but I suppose the simpleness of the art works with the story in a way. (I will admit that the drawings of the ducks and others without wings are some of the cutest images I've ever seen.) The story itself is rather beautiful. When God first created the world, before the winged creatures we know had their wings, there was a little boy. No one knows where he came from or why he did what he did. A few ideas are mentioned in the story, among them the idea that possibly God "forgot" to give these creatures their wings and sent the little boy to do so, that the little boy was born inside a flower one morning, etc. It's never directly said and is left to the readers imagination which I liked very much. The little boy covers the world over, handing out all sorts of different wings to different creatures. His bag of wings never empties. Another special part of the book for me and Julia (she didn't like the beginning she said but by this time was fully invested) was about how the animals reciprocated. The nightingale sang him a song. The bullfinch gave him a wink. And so on and so on. Very nice chance for discussions about how "thanks" don't always have to be in the form we may want them to be. After all of the animals and insects that we know with wings had their nice, shiny, new wings, the little wing giver grew tired and stopped to rest. The wind had grown jealous of the wings given out so he took the basket and blew it out into the ocean. The story goes on to say that those wings, stirring and mixing in the ocean water, are what gives the oceans it's rushing waves. The wings are trying to raise themselves to fly away... and can't. The little boy is filled with sadness when he wakes to find his basket of wings missing. A caterpillar helps him put things into perspective. 'Instead of thinking about what you *can't* do, think about what you *can* do.' One of the poppy flowers hears this exchange and offers the petal

Does anyone else find that reading reviews is sometimes more entertaining than the actual reading of the book? This is especially true with a lot of children's books. This book mentions the "potty". Heart attack alert! The book has a character that - jokingly - "imagines" the parent(s) as an evil sorcerer. I bet if an experiment was conducted murderers have had a book like this in their part at some point! I can't get over how uptight people are - namely parents. Get over it! With all of the things wrongs with this world - this country - and all of the things we have to worry about is the word 'potty' seriously that bad? Does that really even make it on the scale of worrisome things? Believe me, I'm all for calling out things that need to be called out. Read my reviews are any genre and you'll see that. But I tend to only do this with it's necessary. Not over a bathroom joke. Not over dumb things. I can't count the number of times I've played imaginary games with my daughter where I'm the witch or dragon or some other evil characters. Just as I can't count the number of times I've been a good witch or a queen or some good character. And the same can be said - both ways - about her. Check back in 15 or 20 years - I doubt she'll be a murderer/pervert/molester/etc. Now I'll put these idiotic things out of my mind and concentrate on the book. This is one instance when a book actually deserves the praise it gets. Don't get me wrong - it's nothing to scream about - but it's a good book, with good characters, in a good series, by a good author with great illustrations. Pinkalicious has a fantastic imagination which I believe should always be encouraged. I loved the joke about Peter stepping in unicorn poop. (This is mostly because I don't have any sticks up my butt.) I love the playful, back and forth banter between Pinkalicious and Peter also. Kann really came up with some good but simple stories with the series and she definitely has talent with illustratin

It is surely one of the greatest fears of a book-lover to return to a childhood favourite and find it changed and diminished. This made me wary as well as enormously excited when I saw the author and illustrator of my beloved Katie Morag (978-1849410885 PS9.99 Red Fox Picture Books http://www.amazon.co.uk/Katie-Morags-...) had produced a book about a family of otters. Katie Morag was distinctive in its beautifully detailed, realistic watercolours of the Scottish islands in which it was set, and in the hilarious family dynamics around which each story centred. My personal favourites were the Bad Boy Cousins, in whom I recognised brothers and cousins of my own. My mother particularly enjoyed dour Grandma Island and prim Grandma Mainland's feuds- I suspect she recognised her mother in law and mother in them. I was delighted to find these key elements still at work in The Utterly Otterleys. The lobster pots, seaweed ropes and general detritus of the coast that Hedderwick specialises in depicting are not typical of children's book illustrations, and perhaps unrecognisable to children who have not encountered working British harbours. However, these are the backdrop for characters many children will instantly identify with. Pa Otterley is determined to do the best for his family, so determined that he leads long suffering Ma Otterley and little Otto and Ottina on an eventful tramp through the surrounding countryside. Similarly to Katie Morag, there is a map at the beginning of the book- I should emphasise here I feel strongly that any map has a whiff of adventure about it- and a hand drawn map which you can follow alongside a story holds a magical appeal for child and adult readers. The varied dilemmas and challenges which face the Otterleys appear here, as well as others you can invent your own stories around, although initially I was peeved not to find everything on the map was included in this story. The Otterleys are more simple creations than the human characte

Mr. Willy Wonka, the eccentric owner of the greatest chocolate factory in the world, has decided to open the doors of his factory to five lucky children and their parents. In order to choose who will enter the factory, Mr. Wonka has five golden tickets hidden inside the wrappers of five of his famous chocolate bars. The newspapers descend on each of the winners of the golden tickets. Augustus Gloop, a fat child whose only hobby is eating, gets the first ticket. The second ticket is "won" by Veruca Salt. Veruca is a spoiled obnoxious child and is only in possession of one of the winning tickets because her rich father employed his factory of peanut shellers to unwrap chocolate bars until they found a ticket. That's not very fair, is it? Third ticket is discovered by Violet Beauregarde as she takes a break from gum chewing. She is trying to set a world record for gum chewing - lofty goal indeed. Ticket #4 belongs to Mike Teavee, a boy who is obsessed with television. Get the play on words with his last name? Teavee = TV The last ticket is found just the day before the tour of the chocolate factory is scheduled and it's found by our unlikely hero - Charlie Bucket. Charlie is very poor and he lives in a drafty shack with his parents and both sets of grandparents. . There are just two rooms and the grandparents share the only bed while Charlie and his parents sleep on mattresses on the floor. They barely have enough food to fed the lot of them and then, Charlie's father loses his job. It looks as if they will starve to death. Fortuitously, Charlie finds a dollar one day, just sitting near the roadside in the snow. To celebrate his good fortune he purchases two chocolate bars. The same sort he gets once a year on his birthday. In the second chocolate bar he finds the last golden ticket. The very next day the five children, accompanied by their parents and Charlie accompanied by his grandfather, line up at the gates of the factory. There is much fanfare over th

This book has a . . . mood or presence that simply permeates it in a way that I expect is powerful for those who connect strongly to it. The sense of isolation from your crowd, of wanting to belong even while knowing it is impossible and, worse, existing on a fringe where you are accepted and welcome but still just that wee bit off is extremely strong in this book and conveyed with an understanding and depth that is very evocative. I had a couple problems connecting to the book, though, and not any of them the obvious ones. Two problems, to be specific. First, and most significantly, Emily's experience is very close to my own but with an important and significant difference that made it difficult for me to relate. Moving around as much as I did in my childhood meant that I know something of existence on the fringe. So in that way, it was very like. But for whatever reason, I just didn't care that much about being on the fringe and was content with doing my own thing. So Emily's concerns are familiar, and yet completely alien at the same time. I think being that close and yet off kept me from connecting more than if I had been closer to the poles of popularity (and yes, I'm conscious of how deeply ironic that is given the book is about being so close and yet off). The second problem is Don. That guy was a complete poo and Emily's obsession with him diminished her. Further, I think Lovelace showed exactly how much it did so very clearly and that Emily couldn't see it was a little maddening. He didn't deserve the time of day from her and that she considered herself in love with him was simply silly. And it persisted for freaking ever. The book isn't helped by the distance in time or Jed's way, way too gentle "courtship" (though can it really be a ship if it doesn't actually ever move???) , either. Some of the customs and language are enough foreign, now, that it takes a conscious adjustment to meet it half-way. That may actually play in the book's favor, though,

Read for the 2016 YA/MG Book Battle. Mai's summer is ruined when her parents ship her off to Vietnam to be company for her grandmother, who's received word that her husband, lost to The War decades ago, might still be alive. Ba is returning to the village where she and Ong lived, which means Mai will have the chance to "discover her roots" as her mother puts it. Mai can only see a summer away from Southern California, which is the only roots she knows--her friends and her life and the boy she has a crush on. Learning otherwise is going to change her. Unfortunately, Mai's bratty attitude makes her really unsympathetic to this adult reader. Her parents aren't asking all that much of her--not even an entire summer--and I never felt that they were being terribly unfair. And what Mai leaves behind doesn't seem like much to sacrifice, particularly her "best friend" Montana, who comes across as more of a frenemy than anything else. Mai's worried that Montana will steal the boy she has a crush on (whom she invariably refers to as HE and HIM, not quite able to say his name even in the privacy of her own head, which became seriously annoying) because that's the sort of thing Montana does. And yet Mai's supposed to be a smart girl, all honors classes and SAT vocabulary. Possibly I'm expecting too much of a twelve-year-old, and intelligence doesn't translate to emotional maturity. But it was very difficult to feel sympathetic. On the other hand, the writing is extremely evocative, bringing to life the summer weather of Vietnam (or Viet Nam; Mai realizes how differently she sees the country when she thinks of it with those different names). I felt every moment of sweaty, wet heat and every mosquito bite. I enjoyed Mai's developing relationship with her cousin (however distantly related) Ut, whose friendship makes Montana's false, shallow relationship more obvious. Ut and her love of frogs made a fun recurring theme, particularly the scene where she and Mai go illegally at

Liesl & Po radiates utter brilliance. But not in a loud way. This book will enchant a person with a quiet beauty that will circle around you for a little bit of time, and then grip onto your heart in an unbreakable hold. Lauren Oliver has created a flawless novel that not only sparks with magic, but also with friendship, hope, and love. For me, this was a novel whose story made the eager, curious child in me to surface. The adventure just had a certain feeling to it that made me want to find the best adventures in the littlest events. It's hard for me to describe the story of Liesl & Po since there is just so much going on, but just know that it will telaport you to a world filled with whimsy. The most remarkable thing about this novel was how the author progressed the story by using the carefully woven relationships of the many characters. It was truly amazing and worth a mention in this review. The three main characters of Liesl & Po will always be dear to me. Liesl is an incredibly endearing protagonist. Her bravery and sweetness had me smiling in adoration. The quiet, thoughtful, and enigmanic Po is the perfect kind of ghost, and the adorable, loveable Will completes the story with his hesitant but true to the heart feats of bravery. There were also many other characters that were dragged into the adventure by the chain of events. And oh my goodness, were these characters colorful. They just lit up the dark corners of the story that were somehow missed by the brightness of Liesl, Po, and Will's light. Lauren Oliver's writing enhances the story with it's unique way of painting the world. I couldn't help but notice how Oliver puts to use the colors of the world to beautifully describe the many settings: "The sky was still a velvet purple, with just a thin line of gray ringed around the horizon." But Oliver doesn't just use the beauty of colors in her descriptions. She uses many other ways to present the world of Liesl & Po with ultimate finesse. Th

This review is for an uncorrected proof. Also, I had typed up a better review, but technology malfunctioned and I had to write this review all over again, and I had already lost my train of thought so I'm not sure how successful this one is. When I first heard about this book, I was definitely intrigued. It references the Beatles and my favorite Beatles song for the title. And being a Filipina, I won't deny that I wanted to see what a fellow Filipina has to offer to other nationalities about our own culture. However, I was VERY disappointed with this book and all the misinformation it contains. Maybe I'm just not the right audience for Blackbird Fly, but I will definitely NOT recommend this book to anyone. But if you're curious about it, I won't stop you from reading it. Apple immigrated from the Philippines to Louisiana, America when she was very young. And she has always felt different. What I find odd is that she's the only Filipina or noticeable Asian in her whole school. Her mom had a Filipina friend who has been there for many years and even has her own children. She helped Apple's family to move to America. Are they really the only 2 Filipino families or Asians in that area? And I doubt that this book was written in a distant past setting as she owned a laptop and some sort of music player with earbuds. I feel like their situations were a little too outdated for a modern setting. It makes me quite curious how many places are still quite ignorant of Asian cultures, and whether the portrayal is accurate at all in this book. There was this one scene that I can't seem to wrap my head around. Apple invited over her American friend for a sleepover at her house, and her mom served them garlic rice for dinner. One, Filipinos do not JUST eat rice. There's usually something else that goes with it. And two, Filipinos are very accommodating towards their guests, especially traditional ones like Apple's mom. They usually put a lot of effort in feeding visitors. An

It occurs to me that though I finished my last reread quite a while ago, I haven't yet typed up my review. Well, here goes. It's difficult for me to know how to describe my feelings about this book. On the one hand, it's the closing volume to my favourite L.M. Montgomery series starring my favourite heroine, Emily, whom I've always felt close to and who was one of the principal helpers in getting me through the pre-teen and teen years when I felt quite alone in my love of books, writing and beauty and in not wanting to meld into the crowd. Having paragons like Emily made it much easier to be me, and so these books will always hold a very special place for my heart; and also just for the immense beauty of their writing and the fascinating characterisations. This book, too, has much that's wonderfully written, and many interesting psychological moments. At the same time, I know I'm not even alone in feeling that this conclusion to the Emily series is less satisfying than it could be. It's so sad, dark and painful, there's so much trouble and relatively little happiness, that it departs from the hopeful and comforting tone of the previous books and makes the reader feel the author puts her characters through way too much trouble for no clear reason. I've always felt that this volume concentrates too much on Emily's romantic difficulties and too little on other aspects of her life and personality, and the result is a little dissatisfying especially as her chosen romantic partner is not characterised deeply enough to make you really feel they belong together. Montgomery generally has difficulties creating interesting love interests, and especially in the Emily books I find that the strongest relationship is between Emily and her best friend Ilse, not between Emily and any of the men interested in her. These criticisms aside, I still love this book greatly. There's a haunting beauty in it, and some bittersweet, mature feeling which I only found myself able to apprec