Friday Book Report 3

Hooray!
More books for you!
Every Friday I recap what I’ve read during the week.

I post the picture of the book
that I took when I finished reading it,
and underneath, my thoughts.

This week I concentrated on getting back into a routine, including working out, writing, making art, and writing letters. So I didn’t read too much!

CAMP REX
By Molly Idle

 

This is such a delightful picture book! This time the dinosaurs are going camping and hilarity ensues. What I love about this one and the companion book TEA REX is that the text says one thing and the pictures tell another story. This is a great way to relay humor in picture books, and it works wonderfully here.

Molly Idle creates the best characters! Her illustrations are playful, sweet, light and complex at the same time. She puts lots of visual jokes in here. I really loved the dinosaurs using a tree’s roots to roast tons of marshmallows!  YOO-HOO, LADYBUG!
By Mem Fox, illustrated by Laura Ljungkvist

This is such a cute book! In the book, you are calling to ladybug, trying to find her. On one side of a spread are the words “there you are” and on the other side, there is a page full of illustrations. You have to find the ladybug.

Kids will love searching for the ladybug, and will probably find her quickly. Mem Fox has done it again, with a simple rhythmic story. The illustrations are really sweet, and playful. I can see this one getting a lot of re-reads.

*I shared this with my friend at capoeira, who has the nickname Ladybug! (We all have nicknames at capoeira. Mine is Morango, meaning strawberry!) She loved it and read it to her 2 month old, with her husband looking on. I took a sweet picture of the whole family bonding over the book; it was great!

GOODBYE STRANGER
by Rebecca Stead

I LOVED this book! It’s the story of Bridge, Em, and Tab, great friends, navigating 7th grade. And there’s Sherm too, in their grade and becoming close with Bridge. But how close? She’s not sure she wants to be anything more than friends. Em’s got a crush too, and then a sort of scandal breaks out at the school that tests the friendship of the girls.

At the same time this story is being told there’s a second person narrative happening. It’s Valentine’s Day, and someone is skipping school. You don’t know why and you don’t know who this person is but you find out as you read.

What did I love about this book? The relationships. We see tons of families; families that have split apart, families holding themselves together, grandparents, siblings, cats! We see tons of friendships and more-than-friendships too.

I also love how these important things that happen to the characters are things that we, as adults, would look at now and say, “oh that’s not such a big deal” but when you are in 7th grade, ALL of those little things are a big deal. That’s just the reality.

There’s a lot of love and understanding in this book too. I’ve always loved the way Rebecca Stead writes, and this book is no exception. A great one for an older MG reader or a young YA reader, or, you know, anyone. THE TERRIBLE TWO
By Mac Barnett and Jory John, illustrated by Kevin Cornell

I LOVED this book! Miles Murphy moves to a new school, and hopes he can have the same role he had at his last school: the prankster. Until he gets to school and sees the principal’s car is parked right in front of the door. Great. Not only are there tons of cows in this town, there’s already a prankster.

Who is it? Will there be a prank war or a prank team? What kind of pranks will be pulled? All questions will be answered!

I loved the characters. Miles, Niles, Josh, Holly, Ms. Shandy, and Principal Barkin. This book is laugh out loud funny, and the illustrations are awesome too. They add so much and enhance this whole fun experience. Can’t wait to read the second one! Kids will love this. It would be a great read aloud too.

 POISONED APPLES: POEMS FOR YOU, MY PRETTY
By Christine Heppermann

This is a great book of poems! It’s a mashup of fairy tales and the modern teenager! Some are very funny, some are serious, and they are all provocative. Girls will see something of themselves reflected in these poems, for sure. Topics covered range from eating disorders to love to friendship to being a feminist in these sassy poems. They sure turn the fairy tale world upside down! In the end it’s a very inspiring and empowering collection. YA girl readers will love it, and hey, the boys may like it too.

Alright that’s it!
All the reads for the week. Have you read any of these?
I’d love to hear what you thought of them!
See you next Friday with more books!

Bye for now,
KE

P.S. Full disclosure: The links above go to Indiebound and are affiliate links. If you buy at Indiebound, I’ll get a little kick back. That would of course be nice, but really I’m happy to be linking to an Indie site 🙂