A Court of Mist and Fury

I just have to preface this review by stating that I love Sarah J. Maas.  I’ve never met her personally or anything, but so far every book I’ve read by her, I’ve loved.

A Court of Mist and Fury is the second book in the newest series by Maas.  I just finished the first one a week before I decided to delve into the second.  Maybe I should be reviewing the first book, but that one came out a year ago, and I’m sure there’s already tons of reviews out there, so that’s my main excuse, but really it’s just because I like this one a lot better.

In the first book, I really only started to get into the story about halfway through, and the ending only made me excited about the next one in the series. Let me tell you, this sequel does not disappoint.  I’m over here biting my nails hoping that Maas will write her next book in this series and forgo the Throne of Glass series (even though I love that series, and I can’t wait to see where Celaena’s path will lead.)

This book had all the hallmarks of a great romance book.  There was a tragic hero who pretends to not be in love with our heroine in order to let her come to her own decision about her future.  There was lots of flirtation, there’s a love triangle, and then there’s fate.

In the first book, I never really believed in the love between our main character Feyre (a former Fae-hating human, who has become High Fae after passing a brutal test and defeating an evil queen.)  The moment Rhysand stepped into the picture, I found myself rooting for him, even though Maas masterfully makes us believe that she is meant for Tamlin.  Even at the end of the first book I just assumed she was going to end up with Tamlin, after all, she gave up her humanity to be with him…but when this book opens you realize that Tamlin was never the right man for her, because he doesn’t understand the person Feyre is fundamentally.  It’s in his protection that she feels like a prisoner.  When Rhys rescues her, he almost throws her into danger headfirst, because he understands that she can’t be coddled and wants to be of use, or she will go insane.

Right from the beginning the chemistry between Feyre and Rhys practically jumped off the page.  Near the end, when they finally acted upon that chemistry (seriously, this book is for older teens, we’re talking explicit stuff here…) I breathed a sigh of relief and may have shouted “Finally!” out loud to my cat.

This is a great series for people who like fantasy and for people who like romance and adventure.  There’s great world building and character development.  I was rooting for the background characters as much as our heroes.  I really can’t wait to see what’s going to happen in the next book now that the King of Hyburn has finally come into the picture.

-Leala

 

Avast me hearties!

This week’s storytime theme was pirates!  ARRRRRR!

I actually found so many pirate books that I wasn’t able to get through them all, so I’ll only post the ones I actually got to read.  I think I’m going to have to do another pirate storytime soon, just so I can do the books I didn’t get to this time.

 

Here goes:

Pirate’s Lullaby: Mutiny at Bedtime by Marcie Wessels

The Pirate Jamboree by Mark Teague (who’s always hilarious)

The Night Pirates by Peter Harris

Peg Leg Peke by Brie Spangler- This was so cute.  A little Pekingese puppy with a broken leg plays pirate.

There Was An Old Pirate Who Swallowed a Fish by Jennifer Ward

Treasure by Suzanne Bloom

This Little Pirate by Philemon Sturges

 

 

For our craft this week, we made sensory bottles filled with sand, seashells, gold glitter, baubles and a drop of blue food coloring added to the water.  The kids loved them.  And just to keep them busy while I was filling the water bottles with water, I had them glue on some feathers to a parrot I found here (I got the idea from the blog Sturdy for Common Things.)  I also googled “treasure map coloring sheet” and printed out a cute one, and gave the kids some pirate stickers to place on it.

Pi

This was such a blast, the kids loved it! If they were a little older, I may have been able to get them to wear eye patches, but I had a feeling they’d be a little too fussy for that.  Oh well, maybe next time!

-Leala

Paper Girls

I just finished reading the Young Adult graphic novel Paper Girls and I absolutely loved it.   I’m stoked for the next volume to come out.

This graphic novel is written by Brian K. Vaughan, who’s best known for the comics Y: The Last Man, Runaways (which is another great YA series) and Saga (definitely for adults).  In my opinion, Brian K. Vaughan is one of the best comic writers working right now.  Once I saw Paper Girls was written by him, I had to check it out.

The story follows a group of teenage paper girls as they make their rounds.  It’s late at night Halloween night, and the era is the 80’s.

Usually, each girl delivers to her own section of the neighborhood alone, but considering how dangerous it could be on Halloween, they meet up and deliver together.

At first, I thought this was going to be a coming of age, female empowerment kind of story, which it is in a way, but then comes time traveling spaceships, flying monsters, and what appears to be a war from the future involving teens vs adults that’s rippling through time.

Now, the war part has me raising an eyebrow…why would there be a war of teens vs adults?  The adults used to be teens, the teens will soon be adults…I just didn’t really get that part, but then again, this is only volume 1, and that whole story arc has only just been introduced.  I’m really curious to see how this plays out in upcoming volumes.  I may just have to go to the comic book store and grab the individual issues as they come just so I don’t have to wait for the publication of volume 2.

I would definitely recommend this graphic novel for older teens (13 and up), and its great for either boys or girls (as long as the boy isn’t deterred by the female main characters).

 

-Leala

Turtle Power!

Teenage mutant ninja… sorry, I’m not talking about those turtles!

We had fun this week.  I started off by telling my kids what the difference between turtles and tortoises are (I had to google this, but now we all know something new!)

Turtles live in the water, tortoises live on land!

Scoot! by Cathryn Falwell- A simple book with a look at all the animals by a pond and the fun sounds they make.

 

Tortoise Brings the Mail by Dee Lillegard- An adorable story about a slow, but very conscientious tortoise who loves his job as a mailman, but he’s too slow for the other animals so they get faster animals to deliver it.  Too bad they aren’t as good as tortoise is at his job!

 

Hurry Up and Slow Down by Layn Marlow-  Tortoise and Hare are good friends, but they each have their own way of doing things.  Hare wants to rush, rush, rush.  Tortoise likes to take his time and enjoy things.  Though they both slow down when it comes time for the bedtime story!

 

Hi, Harry! by Martin Waddell- An adorable story of a slow tortoise who just wants to be friends, but all the other animals are in too much of a hurry to play, but then snail comes along!

 

The Foolish Tortoise by Eric Carle- Tortoise decides he’s tired of being slow, so he throws off his shell only to realize that the world is much a scarier place without its protection.

 

The craft this week was super simple:

 

It’s amazing what you can do with a paper plate!

 

-Leala

Raven Boys

So I finally just got around to reading the 4th installment of Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Cycle books, The Raven King (I know, I know, it’s been out 3 weeks already, what took me so long?!)

Like I said, it’s the 4th (and last book) in the series, and since I’ve never reviewed the other ones (this blog is too new) I’m not going to review this one either.  This post will just be me gushing about it trying to get you to read the series yourself!

I loved everything about it this last book.  Blue and her Raven boys saved the day.  This installment had everything fans could’ve wanted.  There’s the romance we’ve all been waiting for, plus the one we’ve been crossing our fingers hoping for.  There’s supernatural suspense, an emotional sacrifice, and….ok, I have to stop before I spoil anything (I laughed, I cried, etc. etc.)

Seriously, if you like fantasy, romance, stories of devoted friendship, and adventure all wrapped in a beautifully written package then this series is for you.

 

-Leala

YA Book list.

I love books and lists of books. I have about 4-5 different journals filled with books that I want to read, so I thought I’d share a new list that I’m working on, with you guys! Grab your library card and get yourself to the library and check these out.

• Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway
• The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson
• The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle
• The Killing Woods by Lucy Christpher
• The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney
• The Memory of Light by Francisco X. Stork
• Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt
• Stolen by Lucy Christopher
• The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
• This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
• Eleven Things I Promised by Catherine Clark
• Where You’ll Find Me by Natasha Friend
• Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina
• Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

Hope you find your next great read with these suggestions! Happy Reading!

To Infinity and beyond….

This week’s storytime theme was Space!  I really had no idea how many cute picture books there are about space and astronauts.  It was a little difficult to weed down the pile of books I’d collected.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I work in a small library, so these are just the ones we had in our collection.  There are tons of other ones out there, but these are the books I used (and I was quite pleased with them).

I did two different storytimes.  The first was 2-3 year old, the second group was 3 1/2-5 year olds.  So I organized the books here according to the age group.

Group 1-

Astronauts Are Sleeping- Natalie Standiford

This is a cute, simple book that goes through what the astronauts are dreaming off.  What is it?  Earth,of course!

 

Sheep Blast Off!- Nancy Shaw

Sheep find a strange contraption on their farm, and suddenly they find themselves shooting through space with strange green buddies.

 

Happy Birthday, Moon- Frank Asch

Ok, no astronauts here, but the moon’s in space!  This is an adorable story about a very nice bear who wants to do something nice for his new friend, the moon.

 

Waiting Is Not Easy!- Mo Willems

Seriously, I really love Elephant and Piggie!  If you’re not familiar with this book, you may be wondering why this is on a list of books about space.  Well, the two friends wait around all day until finally, the sky is full of stars!

 

Group 2-

Mousetronaut- C.F. Payne

A cute story about the littlest mouse of the bunch traveling to space and becoming a hero.

 

Otter In Space- Sam Garton

Otter keeper takes Otter to the museum where he finds a moon rock.  He decides to take his own journey into outer space and bring back his own rock!  Very cute, imaginative story.

 

The Sun Is My Favorite Star- Frank Asch

Simple story about all the wonderful things the sun does in a day.

 

I also found some cute aliens I cut out and laminated then glued a small piece of felt to the back for a simple flannel board story.  

The rhyme for the flannel board was:

5 Little Aliens

5 little aliens went out to play over the moon to the milky way. mama alien went hep hep hep 4 little aliens came floating back. Continue counting down until you get to 1 Then Father alien went HEP HEP HEP and the 5 little aliens came floating back

 

And of course we had to have a themed craft. I found a really cute, simple craft online using simple shapes to form a rocket. And just because it was fun, and most kids love to color, I googled “alien coloring page” and printed out one of the cute ones that come up for them to either do if they finished fast, or to take home.

 

 

 

-Leala

 

 

 

April Showers…

It’s April so it was kind of a no-brainer to do a “Rain” storytime!

I work in a small local library.  This means that we don’t have a huge amount of funding for newer books, so I’ve come across some older books I’ve never heard of in my 16+ years of working around children’s books.  This actually works out for me, since I don’t get bored doing the same books over and over again.

Books I found:

Red Rubber Boot Day by Mary Lyn Ray-  A simple book about the joys of a rainy day

Here Comes the Rain by Mary Murphy- This was a short and cute book about a little kitten who hates the rain, but at the end of a hot summer day, he realizes that cool rain is refreshing.

 

The Rain Came Down  by David Shannon-  Silly book about a town falling into chaos when the rain starts to fall.

 

In the Rain with Baby Duck by Amy Hest-  Cute story about Baby Duck who gets cranky having to walk to Grampa’s house in the rain for pancakes, until Grampa gives Baby rubber boots and a red umbrella and they go out in the rain to play together.

 

Are You Ready to Play Outside? by Mo Willems-( I love Elephant and Piggie!!)  Piggie hates the rain at first, and just when she starts to like it, it stops!  Good thing she has an elephant for a best friend!

 

The Puddle by David McPhail-  A little boy plays with his boat in a puddle until a frog wants to play, and along comes other animals like an alligator!  Cute imaginative story.

 

Other books you may want to use:

Mud by Mary Lyn Ray, Who Likes Rain by Wong Herbert Yee, Rain! by Linda Ashman

 

My storytime group consists of children between the ages of 2 and 3 1/2 so it can be a little complicated to find a craft simple enough for them to be able to do.  I could’ve just printed a coloring sheet, but I like to keep them busy for the remainder of the time we have.

 

This was super simple.  Just cut a paper plate in half, add the “ripple” edge and glue on a bent pipe cleaner for the handle.

 

-Leala

Carry On

Ok, so Carry On has been out for a while, but I’ve only just gotten the chance to read it, and boy am I glad I did.

I’ve been a fan of Rainbow Rowell ever since I read Eleanor and Park.  Rowell has a way of writing teenage angst and first loves in a way that really pulls on the heartstrings.  When I was reading Carry On, I found myself reliving my own teenage years, and remembering that feeling in your gut when you find your first love, or go through your first relationship.

All of those feelings were invoked again in this fantasy novel, but this time its for the love between two boys who thought of themselves as enemies for years until something “magical” happens and it brings them together.  I found myself smiling like a giant idiot when they finally have their first kiss.

This book is weird (and kind of “meta”) in that it’s sort of a continuation, or a spin-off, of the book Fangirl.

In Fangirl, the main character Cath is obsessed with a Harry Potter-esque fictional character named Simon Snow.  She’s so obsessed that she spends all of her free time writing fan fiction about Snow and his “evil” roommate Baz falling in love.  This is the book Cath was writing in that book (see…totally meta).

I really loved this book, and I really recommend it for anyone who likes fantasy, teen angst, and beautifully written romance.

Also, you may find yourself craving sour cherry scones while reading this,  I know I did. Right from the beginning Simon Snow spends a good amount of time describing his favorite food served at Watford School of Magicks, and his description made my mouth water like crazy, so I went a-googling and found a few recipes, but this one seemed to be the simplest, plus I already had a bag of dried cherries laying around.  It was fate!

 

 

-Leala