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I recieved a free pdf copy for the purpose of review. I have not been otherwise compensated. All thoughts and opinions expressd herein are entirely my own. Ginnie West leaps before she looks when the school bully Pierce Owens tries to pick a fight with her twin brother. Besides getting suspended for fighting, and the consequences that brings from her dad, her brother is less than happy at her chivalry. Not to mention how angry Pierce is after being bested by a girl in the middle of the cafeteria. Ginnie and Toran come face to face with some big choices. What makes a bully? Can a bully change? Do they deserve a second chance? I like the character development in this second Ginnie West Adventure, all the main characters are faced with difficult choices, and navigate some very harsh realities. There are some intense scenes between Pierce and his dad. But, this book can be a really good way to open up a dialogue between kids and parents/teachers about subjects like violence, bullying, and...

I received a free pdf copy for the purpose of review. I have not recieved any other compensation. All thoughts and opinions expressed herein are entirely my own. I finished reading the first book in the Ginnie West Adventure series a couple of weeks ago.  The basic plot: Ginnie and Tillie are BFFs, but they would love to also be sisters. So they hatch a plot to try to get Ginnie's widowed dad and Tillie's divorced mom to fall in love. Along the way their own friendship is tested, and Ginnie begins to question the plan when she finds her mom's old journals. When her dad suddenly takes the journals away, she feels like she looses the mother she was only just beginning to get to know all over again. Operation Secret Sisters just might be over soon no sooner than it began! My thoughts: First off, I really like the characters, Ginnie, Tillie, Ginnie's Dad, and Tillie's mom especially. The girls are well written. They are flawed, they have big...

I recieved a complementary pdf copy of this book for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions expressed herein are entirely my own, however. I was very excited to sign up to review this book as I am always on the lookout for books written for children pertaining to Autism/Asperger's. This book was interesting and different than I expected it to be. I like the approach of learning to accept oneself rather than trying to change to fit in. "No matter what I did, I could not change what made me uncomfortable...I decided to go to the river, the place where I knew I could be happy, and learn how to be myself...Rosie, a pink hippo." That sentence is so very powerful. That lesson was, to me the most profound, and I relates to it both as someone who has struggled to "fit in" many times in my life, but also as a mom to kids on the Autism Spectrum. I felt the illustration of the river choosing it's own path was not as clear or concise as the...

So here is just a few books the big kids and I have been reading lately. This is a very partial list, the highlights mainly.  I got several books in the mail a couple of weeks ago from Amazon. The one below, is a fast moving, fun story about an average son of a superhero dad. Quin's dad is set on trying to "encourage" his sons powers to manifest themselves, while Quin is on a mission to survive adolescence and get his dad to accept him as he is. I read through it first and enjoyed it, now Zak is making his way through it and seems to be enjoying it as well. Zak made his way through a few more Amelia books recently. Both he and Grace really enjoy these.  They are both also big fans of the Dork Diaries series.  While I was out of town on retreat , I was able to dedicate some serious time to pleasure reading. In the evenings I enjoyed slowly reading out loud some of these. I love how he describes nature as a character in his poems. I a...

I've decided to divide and conquer this week. This post will highlight some of the preschool books that we read over the past few weeks, while the next post will contain the favorites for young readers and myself. To start us off we have a family favorite that was so well loved it literally fell apart, and we finally replaced it, with the board book version. I am very pleased as it is the entire story and not a condensed version. We love Wooly! Kit said this was her favorite page, the one with all the Kitty Kisses! My personal fave is the the duck lullaby, the kids go crazy giggly when I belt out my quacky rendition. Fun times. I have to confess that I have never really been able to get into the How Do Dinosaurs series for reasons I can't exactly pinpoint. I think the artwork is great. I love that they write the names of each dino on the various pages. I think it a very clever way to help kids sort out their own feelings in a funny and non-accusing ...