Book Review: The Girlhood Journeys (similar to the American Girls books, dolls, etc.)

The Girlhood Journeys series is like the American Girls series: several girls, each with books. We read Juliet, Book One, and Marie, Book One. The girls depicted each have a talent or a special animal, from dancing to raptors, but they also are typical growing girls, learning how to be patient along the way. In addition, some surmount obstacles as a result of growing up such as getting lost, but finding their way home again.

Juliet: A Dream Takes Flight, by Anna Kirwan (Aladdin Paperbacks, 1996, ages 7-11, 71pp, $9.99, grades 3-4) Review by Skye Anderson

Juliet, loyal and courageous, and Marguerite, a young lady of the manor, live in medieval England in 1339. One is destined to live a life in court and the other, to become a servant. Best friends, they are nearly of the age to marry but will they have to part ways?

Marie: An Invitation to Dance, by Kathleen Kudlinski (Aladdin Paperbacks, 1996, ages 7-11, 71pp, $8.99)

Marie, a graceful young dancer in the stylish and dangerous city of pre-Revolutionary Paris in 1775 takes dancing lessons and is quite talented but needs a sponsor in order to continue her career path. Read about the trials and tribulations in pre-civil war France of Marie, her best friend Joelle, and a young girl from the American colonies, Prudence. 

Both books relate real history of the times in the back of the book, with facts and illustrations.

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Other Girlhood Journeys books include Kai, a determined young girl on an important journey for her Yoruba tribe in southwestern Nigeria in 1440,

Shannon, a lively, spirited Irish immigrant making new friends in bustling Victorian San Francisco of 1880, and

Isabella, in A Wish for Miguel, Peru 1820

Book Review: Avenging the Owl (Oregon, California surfer boys, raptors, recovery)(OT)

Avenging the Owl, by Melissa Hart (Sky Pony, 224 pp 2016, $15.99HB, grades 5-8, ages 11-13) Review by Skye Anderson 

About Family and Everything Else!

You live the ideal life of a 13-year-old boy, surfing it up in California when, all of a sudden, to save your writer dad, your family moves to Oregon and lives frugally. The boy next door has Down Syndrome and is a pain in the you-know-what, your mom can't find a good-paying college teaching job, and your dad succumbs to depression. 

To top it all off, an owl commits a "crime" and for revenge, you make a serious mistake and consequently have to spend summer days volunteering at a raptor (bird) sanctuary under bossy Minerva (whom we never really get to know) and know-it-all Lucas. You don't like birds and, as a matter of fact, are afraid of raptors.

Avenging the Owl is a book you will read faster and faster as the pages fly by about a dysfunctional family or two, and a myriad of facts about raptors woven in seamlessly so you don't realize how much you are learning amidst the backdrop of a move to the country, leaving friends behind. Only when a crisis occurs and turns out OK, does everyone value our protagonist, Solo Hahn (yes, it's a play on words - Hans Solo).

And yes, there is a slight foray into boyfriend-girlfriend at the end, helped along by our budding screenwriter and truant-turned-savior. 

You will also want to read Wild Within by prolific author Melissa Hart, the true tale that started her love affair with raptors.

Wild Within: How Rescuing Owls Inspired a Family

Book Review: A Very Marley Christmas (lab trouble, children's book)

A Very Marley Christmas, by John Grogan (Haper Collins, 2008, $17.99, 40pp HB) ages 2-8 years, preschool to grade 3. Review by Skye Anderson.

The book (Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog) 

and the movie (Marley & Me)

stole our hearts in 2008, and 2011, respectively, and every year thereafter. And after that came the paraphernalia - the stuffies, the Tshirts, the pillows and sheets, and more. And even more books and DVDs like Marley & Me: The Puppy Years.

And now we have a series* of 16 Marley books for the younger set (like the movies) that follow Marley through the year, culminating in Christmas with A Very Marley Christmas.

Everyone's Favorite Blond

What is more lovable than a puppy, and a blond puppy to boot! We love Marley even though he is the world's worst dog (because his family lets him) but also the word's most loved dog. 

Marley teaches the world about forgiveness, about love, and about family through his antics and adorable blondeness.

In the Christmas book, Marley attacks the paper snowflakes that little Cassie cuts out, thinking they are snow snakes. He "helps" Baby Louie decorate the tree and all three turn in for the night, to dream of a white Christmas.

This is a book to keep while adding to your collection of Marley books and movies.

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* Including Marley Steals the Show,

and Bad Dog, Marley!

Book Review: A Dog's Perfect Christmas (dogs, Christmas, crises)

A Dog's Perfect Christmas, by W. Bruce Cameron (Forge Trade, 304pp, 2022, $14.99PB) Review by Skye Anderson

Social Dramas, Teenager Style

Everything happens to this family - mom gets sick, dad has job problems, 8th grade daughter hates everything and everybody at the drop of a hat (typical moody teen), grandpa is still mourning grandma after two years, grandpa's old dog . . . .what could possibly make for a dog's perfect Christmas? Well, there is time since our saga opens in November when everything breaks loose: friends no longer, a hospitalization, grandpa's new lady friends (three), and more - much more.

Grandpa Sander, father Hunter, mother Juliana, teen Ello (Eloise), 3-year-old twin boys Garrett and Ewan, old dog Winstead and puppy Ruby, and would you believe author Bruce Cameron dedicated this book to Eloise, Garrett and Ewan? But it is fiction! I wonder if Sander and Hunter and Juliana are the author's relatives, too - in name only, of course. And what about his other books?

Perfect Christmas is a fast easy read with characters you really get to know and love, including Winstead, the old dog, and what he understands. And doesn't.

A Classic

W. Bruce Cameron's books are modern-day classics: he is a classy classic himself - a true dog lover who understands dogs and the people who love them. As a matter of fact, he has donated to more than 300 shelters and rescues, and you could spend all day on his website.

Cameron is prolific, the author of 15 books for adults, 10 books in the Puppy Tales category like Ellie's Story, 7 Lily to the Rescue books, 6 in A Dog's Purpose titles plus The Repro Madness series and other fiction and humor books!

And, did you know he wrote Eight Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter?

From a Book Reviewer

I am the rare person who reads the dedication and the introduction and the preface and the acknowledgements, and looks at the notes and the index and even the pre-publication quotes from other authors and reviewers. 

You, dear reader, simply must read the Acknowledgements in the back of this book - absolutely funny and explains a lot.

This reviewer has read and watched several of Cameron's works and find them to be somewhat spotty in quality as a whole. The good ones are very good, though - classics even. This book will keep you guessing for a long time even if the turning point is a bit unbelievable, but, after all, this is for Christmas, right?

DogEvals reviews here so far (and my goal is to read the rest of the books!):

The Dogs of Christmas 

Ellie's Story 

W. Bruce Cameron movies:

A Dog's Journey 

A Dog's Purpose 

A Dog's Way Home  

Book Review: The Morningside: A Novel (a most unusual book)

The Morningside: A Novel, by Tea Obreht (Random House, 286pp, 2023, $29 HC) Review by Skye Anderson

The Setting

The Morningside seems to be a sparsely-populated apartment building sometime in the future after a quite destructive war - whose caretaker is a grandmother, then her daughter. The granddaughter and her mother arrive in this town as selectees from a repopulation program (food is rationed and meat is non-existent). The school waiting list for 11-year-old Silvia (Sil) is a couple of years long so she learns vicariously in the meantime, also helping her mother in maintenance duties.

The Plot

The "Dispatcher" broadcasts a few times a day and reads responses to a 3-question survey about how respondents like their life here. Sil figures out who he is (a former resident of The Morningside) and together they venture out into town at times. Sil also manages to steal keys and sneak into apartments which reveal some breath-taking moments.

This reviewer had a bit of difficulty discerning the plot and recommends that you read the slow parts quickly but not miss the few words that describe what happens at times almost in one sentence (that quickly!) - or you will have to backtrack!

The book ends a few years down the road (timewise) and catches us up on what has happened to the various characters, including a girl Sil befriends. Sil believes in omens and that she has special powers (what child doesn't) that cause things to happen. Or perhaps they are just explanations of why something happened?

Nevertheless, I would not have finished this book had it not had a dog, or two, or three. Perhaps they turn into young boys at night. Or perhaps they don't.

Book Review: Penelope Gets a Birdhouse (OT)(making friends with birds)

Penelope Gets a Birdhouse, by Pauli Libsohn* (Page Publishing, 98pp, 2023, $31.95 HB, ages 5-9) Review by Skye Anderson

Penelope Gets a Birdhouse will serve as bedtime stories for many a night if the 'reader' is 5 years old. If the 'reader'  is 9, it will keep that child quiet for quite some time - a long and large book that only gets better as one reads further into it.

Penelope wants a birdhouse: she seems to have a special way with the birds in her backyard who come to play in the birdbath and fly through the water spray from the hose that Penelope and her mom hold.

Join Penelope as she goes shopping for a birdhouse, as she picks the perfect spot, as she befriends a chipmunk and many many birds but especially one that she names Wendy. And learn about birds and learning to fly and where they spend their winter vacations!

Follow Penelope

Read along as Penelope goes (and grows) through the spring, summer and the beginning of autumn, day by day, with her backyard buddies and human friends who come for a bird party. Live her excitement with lots of words in all caps and lots of exclamation points. And plenty of illustrations. 

* also author of two more Pauli Libsohn books reviewed here: Penelope Causes an UPROAR and Julie's Big Day but I would start with the wonderful Penelope Gets a Birdhouse, based on a true story

Book Review: Firewood and Christmas Potatoes (OT)(from Oklahoma to Callifornia in the 30s)

Firewood and Christmas Potatoes, by Robin Carole (Mindstir Media, 2023, 56 pp, $19.65 PB, ages 5-12) Review by Skye Anderson

Living History and Learning Compassion

Delia (the author's mother) and her family left Oklahoma for California in the 30s to find work and with it, better weather. Times were hard and food was not plentiful. Living in a camp for farm workers, the five girls all had to pitch in when their mother was working the cotton fields. 

"The Hardest Times Can Teach the Greatest lessons."

Delia thinks ahead and keeps a secret for all the nearby families she knows: she prepares Christmas gifts from the heart, but they take a long time and meanwhile, more affluent girls at school make fun of Delia. The suspense mounts, however, as nobody knows Delia's plan but, one day in Deember, it starts - and ends with the preacher using Delia's gifts as the basis for his sermon. And you just know the bullies stopped calling Delia a 'dumb Okie.'

Families

This large-sized paperback version has a lovely cover* with firewood and potatoes on either side of an old wood-burning stove, radiating warmth, all framed by lovely pine boughs and pine cones on a backdrop of foggy stars, inviting you inside for a little history and also some family history.

Author Robin Carole has included photographs of her family and, in the back, a few pages to teach the younger set about Okies and the Dust Bowl and Great Depression and even includes a recipe for potato soup (what else!).

*Found out the cover artist lives in the town I grew up in, clear across the country!

Book Review: My First Day of Kindergarten (a dog story, and 11 others)

My First Day of Kindergarten: A Beechview Elementary School Series book, by Andy Gutman* (Independently published, 2023, 28pp, $9.50)

Authors and Characters

The Most Unique, Helpful Book!

Guess who the author is of My First Day of Kindergarten? The twelve fifth-graders on the cover! (With the help of real-life author (of several books) and adult Andy Gutman.)

Each  young author also chose a teacher from the elementary school to serve as a writing mentor, so thanks also must go out to the school's teachers and their principal. And each chapter features a character from one of Gutman's books**!

Do You Remember Your First Day of Kindergarten?

Were you just a little bit nervous (yet excited) because you didn't know anyone and your mother left you? Was your best friend  in the other classroom and you couldn't see each other until after school and couldn't even eat lunch together? 

Or did you have an older brother or sister who told you what to expect (since parents are too old to remember?) 

What if you had had a book written by kids, telling about their first day of school? Now you do!

Some kids cry because they don't know anyone and they are afraid they won't have fun or make any friends but everyone does, thanks to their caring teachers. They do make friends quickly and have fun, learning new rules - they can't wait to return the next day. And your child will have his favorite chapter or two.

BD's First Day: Nerves and Tears Turn into Best Friends

Juliet writes about BD, the dog on the cover, and his first day at kindergarten in Miss Kitty's class, which is typical yet different from all the others! Your child will learn that whatever his experiences are, other kids share them, and best friends are there to be made before the day is over.

My First Day is the first in the Beechview Elementary School Series, so expect more books to help kids in the near future.

*and 12 fifth-graders!

**It was a requirement to use at least one character from an Andy Gutman book, so the reader will learn more about dogs and bugs and even kids. Some authors used the same characters but gave them different names, something else fun about this book. We especially love how the people and dogs are illustrated.

Book Review: Accidents Happen (OT) (a children's book to keep)

Accidents Happen, by Jennifer Stupey (JETLAUNCH, 2024, 46pp, $14.99, ages: baby - 18 years) Review by Skye Anderson

Accidents happen! 

And this is a wonderful book for all ages to cherish - forgiving and inspirational. With illustrations by Loren Billington, this little book is one that will help you and your children through hard times. We also love the greenish-white pages and simple yet meaningful drawings. As a bonus, most of the people depicted have red hair!

Accidents happen! 

But it is what happens after the accident that is important. What you do and how you recover.

Author Jennifer Stupey has written an almost-autobiography on two levels: one for the younger set learning that apologies go a long way to heal both people concerned, and one for older kids who may have had a recent death in the family (in the author's case, her husband in a car accident). 

We drop ice-cream cones, we spill milk, we play too rough with our siblings, we break things of value, we say hurtful things, we trip and fall: but we can wipe up spills, mend broken things, apologize for hurting a friend's feelings, kiss an "ow-ie" and bandage it.

Accidents can make us sad or mad, we can learn that it's OK to not be OK and we can learn to understand and to accept what we cannot comprehend, we can become strong and brave, we can gain knowledge and perspective, persistence and patience. We can live with grief and learn to move forward into the future together.

Accidents Happen!

And then there are big accidents, like car accidents that we can't reverse but "with a little help from our friends" (and family) and the words and pictures in Accidents Happen, we can move forward through it and come out the other side, stronger and with memories to last a lifetime.

This is such a charming heart-felt book that we are sure it will be on our Top Ten list for 2024!