#children's book reviews

[bookspotlight]

Book Review: Gryphons Don’t Celebrate Shavuot (2023)

https://rebeccacrunden.com/2023/04/28/book-review-gryphons-dont-celebrate-shavuot-2023/

#shavuot #judaism #gryphons #book review #children's books #children's book reviews #book reviews #jewish books #jewish authors #jewish #indie book spotlight

[liongoatsnake]

Alterhuman Review: No I Am a Wolf

Author: A.M. Lang

Illustrator: Patricia Dishmon-Caraballo

Publication Date: January 2022

Official Book summary:

George can’t be bothered with mundane human tasks; he is a wolf. Wolves and kids have many differences but they also have some things in common. Embrace your child’s wild side with this cute story plus animal facts.

So, we've been aware of this children's book for about half a year now. Upon first seeing it, we feared this might be a Johnny The Walrus by Matt Walsh situation. (That is, a thinly-veiled transphobic dig at the existence of transgender people, that accidentally also hits the alterhuman community due to its content, wrapped in the guise of a children's picture book.) But after gathering up courage hope, we finally bought a copy not to long ago. This book is NOT anything like Johnny The Walrus by Matt Walsh. No transphobia here and this book is also accidentally very alterhuman affirming as well.

The book consists of 21 illustrations with text. With each turn of the page the reader sees the left page showing George (the book's character) as a boy having to do ordinary human boy things (brush teeth, put on clothing, bathing, etc.) with text telling George to do said task, while the right page shows a wolf in George's place along with an affirmation "No, I am a Wolf" (usually, several scenes are instead in the positive, "Yes, I am a Wolf") along with additional text saying what a wolf would or would not do. The book ends with George being told: “Good night, my little wolf.”

While the author likely meant to create a cute children’s book showing a child imagining himself as an animal in the way that is common and normal among children, the book also happens to be very alterhuman. As someone who lives with a full phantom body, the illustration of a wolf stuck in situations doing everyday human things, like brushing your teeth, certainly felt very “yeah it be like that.” So, in summary, cute children’s book that is accidentally very alterhuman and is not transphobic at all! Yay!

#alterhuman book #children's book #book review #therianthropy #alterhuman #otherkin

[meltotheany]

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known (Wayward Children, #9)by Seanan McGuire | ARC Review

Goodreads | Amazon US | B&N | Blackwell’s | Bookshop 1.) Every Heart a Doorway ★★★★★2.) Down Among the Sticks and Bones ★★★★★3.) Beneath the Sugar Sky ★★★★4.) In an Absent Dream ★★★★★5.) Come Tumbling Down ★★★6.) Across the Green Grass Fields ★★★★7.) Where the Drowned Girls Go ★★★8.) Lost in the Moment and Found ★★★★★ ARC provided by Tor – thank you so much !! “The door wasn’t there because…

View On WordPress

#ARC #ARC Review #Book Blog #Book Blogger #Book Review #Book Reviewer #meltotheany #Mislaid in Parts Half-Known #novella #Review #Seanan McGuire #Wayward Children

[blackcrowing]

Book Review of 'A History of the Vikings: Children of Ash and Elm' by Neil Price

This is probably singlehandedly one of the best academic books I've read as a pagan addressing the Viking era and its people's.

The author did a PHENOMENAL job of using academic sources (archaeology, literature, historical linguistics, etc) to really paint a living picture of the peoples being discussed in their entirety. The author left room for the peoples spiritual/supernatural believes that I don't often see done by writers who are not writing specifically for a pagan audience.

It was deeply refreshing and I sincerely hope to see more academic authors following in their footsteps in the years to come

#pagan #paganism #paganblr #norse #norse paganism #norse polytheism #scandinavian #Scandinavian paganism #Scandinavian polytheism #vikings #viking era #book #books #book review #Neil Price #children of ash and elm #blackcrowing

[rheadionne]

Check out my review of Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire

#seanan mcguire #mislaid in parts half-known #fantasy #wayward children #lgbtq #book review #duncansbooks

[godzilla-reads]

🥳 How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

“There were dragons when I was a boy.”

To become a full fledged member of the Holligan Viking Clan, Hiccup and nine other young boys must find, catch, and train a dragon by the Thor’s Day Thursday Celebration. Hiccup is son to the Hooligan Chief- Stoic the Vast- but the other kids call him Hiccup the Useless. Will he be able to train his dragon?

I’ll sadly admit that I watched all the movies before I even picked up the book. I religiously followed when each movie came out and loved them, so I was so thrilled to have a good reason to read this book for March. It’s fun, it’s adventurous, it’s got humor, and wit!

I love the dragons and how they speak dragonese, I love how the story differs extremely different from the movie. Both are good in their own rights. My favorite character in this book was Thuggory the Meathead because he believed Hiccup was meant to be a hero.

#godzilla reads #how to train your dragon #httyd books #cressida cowell #book review #childrens books #bookish #book blog #reading #dragon books #booklr #bookworm

[whilereadingandwalking]

The newest Wayward Children book from Seanan McGuire, Mislaid in Parts Half-Known, brings us back to the school and to many of our favorite characters. Antsy, of McGuire's last book Lost in the Moment and Found, is the protagonist. She's the newest student, and rumors say that she can find anything. Which gets some students thinking. Can she find doors? As Antsy struggles with what the doors have already cost her, a 9-year-old in a teenage body, students seek her out in hopes that they can trick her, convince her, pay her, anything, to take them to their door.

But what does Antsy actually want to find?

I don't recommend this novella to newcomers! Unlike some of the others in this series that work as standalones, this one is for the faithfuls who have read every Wayward Children book so far. It features many of our favorite characters—Sumi, Kade, Cora, Chris. And while Antsy doesn't want to, and can't, find everyone's doors...that doesn't mean she won't find some of their doors as the protagonists dive and dip between worlds in their quest to get back to school. There are a lot of very satisfying moments for our favorites in this edition as well as a seriously satisfying conclusion to Antsy's story.

Content warnings for misgendering, manipulation, trauma.

#mislaid in parts half-known #seanan mcguire #wayward children #bookworm #book review #my book reviews

[the---hermit]

Something is killing the children volumes 1 - 5 (reread)

I think I started reading this series last year but I might be wrong. I heard about it online and was fascinated by the concept. Horror is one of my favourite genres, and I have a big love for graphic novels, so any combination of the two is surely going to get my interest. The base concept of this series in simple, monsters are real and they eat children. No one but children can see them, exceopt for those who hunt these monsters, and they have very strict rules that our main character Erica doesn't fully agree with. Since last month the sixth volume finally came out in Italy I decided to do a big reread of the volumes I had read so far while I waited to get it, and I loved my time doing so. I forgot a lot of the details, and reading them back to back is a really cool reading experiece. I did my best so savour them a couple of chapters each night, and now I cannot wait to finally read the next volume. It's a series I highly recommend if you're an horror fan, but also consider that this is very graphic and gory so if that makes you uncomfortable it's not the series for you.

#i finally got the 6th volume i cannot wait to read it!!! #book #bookblr #book rec #book review #book recommendation #graphic novel #reread #reading #book cover #something is killing the children #booklr #mine #the---hermit

[dokushoclub]

Currently reading: それでも人のつもりかな

I'm currently reading the Japanese children's book それでも人のつもりかな by 有島希音（ありしま きおん）about an isolated middle schooler named Hoshi Arisa. The target audience are children in the upper years of elementary school and first year of middle school, so 11-13 year-olds.

This book has been on my shelf for a while. What got me interested was that the main character is multiethnic Japanese and I was interested how this would be depicted for that age group. I've read the first two chapters now and so far the book talks mostly about the severe bullying and Arisa's estranged relationship to her mother. Her homeroom teacher is trying to reach out to her, though, and I'm curious to see how this unfolds.

The titel is based on an haiku, btw:

ハンノキの それでも花の つもりかな

(by Kobayashi Issa)

#my book reviews #reading in japanese #japanese books #japanese children's book #それでも花のつもりかな #有島希音

[franticvampirereads]

This was different than I was expecting. It’s fun and adventurous but also bittersweet. I loved that Lundy found and lost herself in the Goblin Market. And found that her choices had more consequences than she anticipated. It was also nice to be reminded that Lundy wasn’t always the villain and that she had a door too.

Somehow this book had more of a fairy tale feeling than the previous books, which was really nice. I really enjoyed getting to explore the Goblin Market and would love to explore it more. Maybe we’ll get to visit it again in another book? I’m giving In An Absent Dream four out of five stars. And as always, I’m looking forward to the next book in this series!

Reading Challenge Prompt Fills:

PopSugar 2023: historical fiction (starts in the 1960’s)

Shop Your Shelves: my precious (aka a fantasy book)

#booklr #in an absent dream #wayward children #book review #reading #books #read #book #bookish #bookworm #portal fantasy books #fantasy books

[bookspotlight]

Review Roundup: The Orc Who Saved Christmas (2023), No Period (2020), She Was the Storm (2018), Super Gay (2022), Symphony of Secrets (2022)

Book reviews here.

#books #book review #book reviews #children's books #poetry #poetry reviews #children's book reviews #book blogger #indie books #indie book spotlight #book spotlight

[insomniac-dot-ink]

Hi, so you said that Iron Widow has really bad gender politics, what did you mean? I heard some pretty rave reviews for the book and was considering picking it up so that's pretty disappointing

Here is my full review (please read) also my most popular book review I've written.

There is a lot of genuine feeling in Iron Widow and well-met rage. A potent power-fantasy with earnest fury, but like all power fantasies, it can be ego-obsessed to the point it obscures the functions of power itself. The overwriting, simplistic ideology, and poor storytelling are just . . . not good. This isn't a good book.

The individualist framework of feminism and "Single Strong Man" version of history is reductive. Zetian comes up with her Empowered Thought by herself. The storyline provides no female friends or female mentors or many good things to say about women outside of Zetian. In real life, feminism and other movements are fueled by community organization and institutional push-back using collective action. I mean, did you enter into feminism on your own? Or are you standing on the shoulders of giants? History is much more of a passing of the baton than anything.

Women, obviously, can suck too and reinforce the patriarchy, but also I love them and women are wonderful and I just don't care for these kinds of individualistic rhetoric that puts on the skin of feminism without actually thinking deeply about it or embodying the reality of its work.

The narrative is self-justifying via the clothing of feminist rhetoric, but internal monologuing does not a revolutionary make.

On a technical level, the writing itself is a bizarre combination of overwriting and underwriting. I found myself gliding over entire paragraphs since there's just metaphors with no purpose stacked on top of each other. Somehow things are described without being developed. Telling instead of showing is a big issue as the relationships, plot, and worldbuilding are all told to the audience instead of shown. It was written like a movie instead of a novel.

Finally, this book is supposed to take inspiration from Pacific Rim and anime and have feminism at the forefront, but they're not even going to give me a little power of female friendship? As a treat? :(

#Iron Widow #hate this book so much No Children Plays #biting and scratching #IA reviews #like many books recently I don't think the book would have gotten published if the author didn't have a huge unrelated platform (Youtube) #the writing is just real bad folks

[newreads]

Enola Holmes and the Missing Marquess by ⁓ Nancy Springer

Review of the book here 🕵️‍♀️

*:･ﾟ✧

💫 @newkidonthebook tumblr ~ book blog ~ goodreads 💫

#enola holmes and the missing marquess #enola holmes #enola and sherlock #viscount tewksbury #millie bobby brown #nancy springer #sherlock holmes #mycroft holmes #dr john watson #book review #book moodboard #moodboard #book aesthetic #book cover #book illustration #aesthetic moodboard #academia moodboard #middle grade book #childrens book #booklr

[elleventures]

Hi everyone! Since black history month is almost coming to an end (this does not mean we should stop celebrating and honoring the achievements of black Americans. We should continue to learn and educate ourselves). I thought I share one last book which caught my interest — In Your Hands by Carole Weatherford.

In Your Hands • {Carole Weatherford | 2017}

In Your Hands is a 32-page picture book written by Carole Weatherford. The picture book was published in 2017 for young children between the ages of 4 - 8 years old.

In the picture book, the story begins by introducing a new mother, describing her hopes and dreams for her newborn son. The mother knows that as her child grows older, she won't be able to protect him from the all the dangers and difficulties from the world, so she sends prayers to god to protect her black son; this book sends a reminder that all lives matter, reinforcing the Black Lives Matter movement.

This picture book tells a powerful, heartwarming story which touches on important themes like motherly love, social justice issues like the Black Lives Matter movement and discrimination, the struggles and fears of people of color, and many more.

Overall, the picture book is accompanied by beautiful illustrations by Brian Pinkney. Pinkney's illustration was very captivating and somewhat abstract with the use of loose sketchy illustrations with the use of watercolor and gouache. Another thing I loved about Pinkney's illustrations is the dominant use of yellow, green and blue to symbolize the idea of hope.

#black authors #black lives movement #black lives matter #black history month #black history #picture books #childrenbook #book recommendations #book review #carole weatherford #in your hands #mother love #paretnal love #art blog #children #social justice #books and reading #books to read #hope

[just-geck007]

Final Thoughts on Children of Dune & First Impressions of God Emporer of Dune

Children of Dune

Wowie-zawa...

This book fucked me in the ass, elephant cock, no lube. As I have mentioned to a few IRLs, I would rather drag my bare pussy over hot coals than read it again. To paint a picture of how difficult it was to stay engaged with this book: I read 6 books in January. I read 1/2 of a book from the start of February to early March, and that 1/2 book was... you guessed it... Children of Dune.

The book picks up nearly 8 years (iirc) after the end of Dune Messiah following Ghanima & Leto ii. Which in itself is not an issue. Although both characters are supposedly a foil for Alia, whom Frank does not characterize very well.

That is if you count being "an abomination" for the entirety of the book as ~characterization~. That, and the fact she is possessed, by Baron Harkonnen. Which I feel was Franky's last stab at making the Baron a key character, though he kinda-sorta lost the plot on this one near the end of the book.

... I mean, that is unless he brings the Baron back to possess another character...

Anywayssss...

The book itself is strangely paced. At times it jumps between different character's POVs that are happening congruently, at times it skips multiple days and weeks between chapters. The end of the book also feels relatively rushed, as if Frank has to try and fit multiple key parts into the last 10 pages. With that, it is important to note that the last 50 pages of the novel were hands down my favorite part of the book. It is hard to tell if this was because the book was almost over or because the plot actually came together.

I also think the style in this book is quite consistent with the previous 2 books (this is important as there is an abrupt style change in God Emperor). This style is very clunky and dense almost as if *it* expects you to decipher the riddles in which it is speaking. Children of Dune read in the same manner, making it a very drawn-out read, parts of it requiring one's utmost attention lest you miss a vital clue that could only be divulged by reading between the lines of Frank's shroom-filled delusions.

All in all, I found this book to be my least favorite of the Dune books, with Messiah as a close second.

This is the perfect segue to my opening thoughts on God Emperor of Dune:

As I am only about 50 pages into the book this is very much preemptive, though I already find myself enjoying this book much more than the last 2. I think this has to do with the immediate change in writing style. Frank must have taken a brick to the head to change his style this much, but after drowning in a sea of riddles for the last ~2,000 pages I find this to be a much-welcomed breath of fresh air.

God Emperor opens up about 3,000 years following the end of Children of Dune, from what appears to be the perspective of a scholar. This chapter is also unique as it does not open with a quotation, that which has been present at the start of each chapter in the previous 3 books, instead, it opens with a single sentence announcing where the piece of text originates from. In this case, it is an "Excerpt from [a] speech," that is announcing a discovery of a *presumably* important artifact.

The next chapter picks up again with the chapter-opening quotations, (Yes... That is what we will call them.) and jumps immediately into an action scene, which I found unusual as well as Franky typically writes in a more ballad-esque style. Thus far this book is very energetic & snappy and I am very excited to finish it and move on to Heretics, given that Frank continues with his newfound style!

Will update with more DUNE thoughts in the next few weeks, life is busy right now.

geck out beetches!

#dune #dune messiah #children of dune #frank herbert #dune saga #bingereading #currently reading #book blog #book review #reading #booklover #god emperor of dune #god emperor #dune books

[godzilla-reads]

⚓️ The Dragon Ark: Join the Quest to Save the Rarest Dragon on Earth edited by Emma Roberts, illustrated by Tomislav Tomić

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

With dragon numbers in rapid decline, it’s up to Curatoria Draconis, the Dragin Protector, to defend these incredible creatures from extinction, and find the never-before-seen Chinese celestial dragon.

I got this book from my friend @the-forest-library and it made me so so happy to read. The dragon art is spectacular- I love the style Tomić used, with so much line work. I thought visiting each continent was fun and a great way to meet the local dragons 😊

You’re given clues to how to find the celestial dragon throughout our journeys and it all comes together in the end when we find the answer to our worldly search. I loved this and I’ll definitely be revisiting and maybe writing my own story based off these ideas.

#godzilla reads #the dragon ark #book review #dragon books #bookwyrm #bookdragon #reading #book blog #childrens books #books #booklr #bookworm #bookish