Category: review

All Four Stars: A Deliciously Sweet Novel About Pursuing Your Passion [Review]

19 August 2018 / review, thoughts / 0 Comments
All Four Stars: A Deliciously Sweet Novel About Pursuing Your Passion [Review]

All Four Stars by Tara Dairman Format/Source: Hardcover/ library Published: July 2014 Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Length: 288 pages Genre: Middle grade fiction ★★★★         Gladys Gatsby has been cooking gourmet dishes since the age of seven, only her fast-food-loving parents have no idea! Now she’s eleven, and after a crème brûlée accident (just a small fire), Gladys is cut off from the kitchen (and her allowance). She’s devastated but soon finds just […]

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Middle Grade Backlist: Wish Girl by Nikki Loftin [Review]

12 August 2018 / review / 0 Comments
Middle Grade Backlist: Wish Girl by Nikki Loftin [Review]

Wish Girl by Nikki Loftin Format/Source: Hardcover/Library Published: February 2015 Publisher: Razorbill Length: 256 pages Genre: Middle grade fiction ★★★    Peter Stone’s parents and siblings are extroverts, musicians, and yellers—and the louder they get, the less Peter talks, or even moves, until he practically fits his last name. When his family moves to the Texas Hill Country, though, Peter finds a tranquil, natural valley where he can, at last, hear […]

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The Turnkey of Highgate Cemetery: Not the Ghostly Story I’d Hoped For [Review]

18 July 2018 / review / 0 Comments
The Turnkey of Highgate Cemetery: Not the Ghostly Story I’d Hoped For [Review]

The Turnkey of Highgate Cemetery by Allison Rushby Format/Source: ebook/Netgalley Published: 24 July 2018 Publisher: Candlewick Press Length: 256 pages Genre: Middle grade historical fiction ★★½       Flossie Birdwhistle is the Turnkey at London’s Highgate Cemetery. As Turnkey, it’s Flossie’s job to ensure that all the souls buried in the cemetery stay at rest. Not an easy job for a young ghost, but a task made especially difficult by World […]

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Claire King Writes an Effective 5 Year Old Narrator in The Night Rainbow [Review]

5 July 2018 / review / 0 Comments
Claire King Writes an Effective 5 Year Old Narrator in The Night Rainbow [Review]

The Night Rainbow by Claire King Format/Source: ebook/library Published: April 2013 Publisher: Bloomsbury Length: 224 pages Genre: Contemporary fiction ★★★★  Under the sweltering heat of the summer sun, five-year-old Pea – and her vivid imagination – run wild in the meadows behind her home on the edge of a small village in Southern France. Pea’s father died in an accident, and now she only has her little sister, Margot, for company. […]

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Spirit Hunters is a Properly Chilling Middle Grade Novel [Review]

26 June 2018 / review / 0 Comments
Spirit Hunters is a Properly Chilling Middle Grade Novel [Review]

Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh Series: Spirit Hunters Format/Source: Hardcover/ Library Published: July 2017 Publisher: HarperCollins Length: 288 pages Genre: Middle grade speculative fiction Cybils 2017 finalist  ★★★★½  Spirit Hunters, the first book in an upcoming series, is a classic haunted house tale with a Korean American perspective. (This book is #ownvoices for Korean American representation.) Harper’s family has just moved from an air conditioned apartment in New York to a stuffy old house […]

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