Monday, August 21, 2017

Swimming to the Moon - Jeff McMahon - 5 stars

I received this book from a good friend. She thought that my grandson would love it so I started reading this with him earlier in the year. We would take some time each day to read some of the poems together and there were so many that we both loved! When summer came around I did not see him as often, but I decided I would still read these poems and finish the book, and I will urge him to do the same.

What a great poet this Author is. I feel so blessed to have been able to read this collection of poetry. He knows just how to write these poems so that children can understand and enjoy what they are reading throughout the entire book. I am sure that most kids can easily relate to a lot of these poems in this book. Very well done Mr. McMahon!

Monday, August 14, 2017

Honey Girl - Lisa Freeman - 3

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. I am glad I was finally able to get to this book and I will soon also read it's sequel, Riptide Summer. I think this is the first LGBT book I have read and it was pretty enjoyable. I thought that it being set in the 70's was really fun and somewhat nostalgic. I liked the characters a lot in this story, even though some of them were annoying, it was hard to trust some of them, because I could not tell if they were being genuine to Nani or just being nice to her for their own gain, so that bugged me just a little bit. I did wish that Nani did not try so hard to fit in or to be accepted, but I do realize that was times.

I found the story to be interesting, and I was pretty engaged to it, I found that I got sucked in pretty quickly. I do have to say though that I found it maybe just a tad predictable. I could call parts of the story pretty easily, but it still was very fluid and easy to follow so I was able to enjoy it for the most part. I do look forward to getting into Riptide Summer very soon.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Hunger - Jackie Morse Kessler - 3 stars

This was another pretty quick read for me for the end of July, which was exactly the type of book I needed. This was kind of like a YA Fantasy and I did not expect it to be exactly what I read. It was such a different view of eating disorders. I have never read anything like it. Now there were of course some rushed parts, it was little predictable at times, and sometimes also pretty unrealistic, but I did really enjoy this one. It was an engaging story even though I think there could have been more to it than what I got, but for a short book it was interesting.

I liked the characters even though they were somewhat unrealistic, but I think that was the point of the story. This was to show someone what their self worth is, how there can be change only if they allow it. At least that is what I got out of it. I did hope that the ending would have been a little better, I felt a little let down at first, but it was ok. I think it was to show the growth of the character. This book is a part of a series, but different characters in each one. I believe that the purpose of these books is to bring to light, the issues that teens and YA encounter on a daily basis and our author brings it to life in a very different form. I liked that.