Archives for March 2016

FROM PANEL TO PANEL | First Second’s Kids + YA Recommendations

March 10, 2016 Comment : 1

from panel to panel

I love comics and graphic novels, so what do I do with that love? Well, I turn it into a feature!

From Panel to Panel is a new feature where I talk about the awesome (and perhaps not-so awesome) comic books and graphic novels I’ve read. Basically, this will be me pushing them onto your laps. You’re welcome.

All throughout 2016, First Second is celebrating their tenth anniversary! Wheeeee.

For those who do not know what First Second is, it is an imprint under Macmillan that publishes graphic novels that ranges from fiction to visual essays. Have you heard of American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol, and This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki? First Second published those!

Reviews

(ARC) REVIEW | It’s In His Blood (The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner)

March 8, 2016 Comments : 5

The Serpent King

Dill has had to wrestle with vipers his whole life—at home, as the only son of a Pentecostal minister who urges him to handle poisonous rattlesnakes, and at school, where he faces down bullies who target him for his father’s extreme faith and very public fall from grace.

He and his fellow outcast friends must try to make it through their senior year of high school without letting the small-town culture destroy their creative spirits and sense of self. Graduation will lead to new beginnings for Lydia, whose edgy fashion blog is her ticket out of their rural Tennessee town. And Travis is content where he is thanks to his obsession with an epic book series and the fangirl turning his reality into real-life fantasy.

Their diverging paths could mean the end of their friendship. But not before Dill confronts his dark legacy to attempt to find a way into the light of a future worth living.[/note]

myreview

[note note_color=”#BFD1D1″ text_color=”#ffffff”]I received this book for free from Random House for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.[/note]

First sentence: “There were things Dillard Wayne Early Jr. dreaded more than the start of Forrestville High.”

With serpent in the title, you know The Serpent King will be a gem.

The Serpent King follows a group of friends—Dillard Early Jr., Lydia Blankenship, and Travis Bohannon—who just want to escape their rural Bible Belt town of Forrestville in Tennessee. However, it’s harder to do so when your family, life, and history is thoroughly rooted to the town. See these teenagers navigate their senior year of high school and the vipers that try to suffocate them.

Reviews

(ARC) REVIEW | Dumped, Deserted, Trapped, and Stuck (Where You’ll Find Me by Natasha Friend)

March 6, 2016 Comments : 3

Where You'll Find Me

The first month of school, thirteen-year-old Anna Collette finds herself…

DUMPED by her best friend Dani, who suddenly wants to spend eighth grade “hanging out with different people.”

DESERTED by her mom, who’s in the hospital recovering from a suicide attempt.

TRAPPED in a house with her dad, a new baby sister, and a stepmother young enough to wear her Delta Delta Delta sweatshirt with pride.

STUCK at a lunch table with Shawna the Eyebrow Plucker and Sarabeth the Irish Stepper because she has no one else to sit with.

But what if all isn’t lost? What if Anna’s mom didn’t exactly mean to leave her? What if Anna’s stepmother is cooler than she thought? What if the misfit lunch table isn’t such a bad fit after all? With help from some unlikely sources, including a crazy girl-band talent show act, Anna just may find herself on the road to okay.[/note]

myreview

[note note_color=”#BFD1D1″ text_color=”#ffffff”]I received this book for free from Macmillan for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.[/note]

First sentence: “I used to think your friends were your friends no matter what, but that’s not how it works.”

We’ve all had that school year that was the absolute worst.

For Anna Collette, eighth grade may be the worst of it all. She doesn’t have her best friend anymore; her mother can’t be a parent to her because she’s currently recovering from a suicide attempt; she has to live with her dad, stepmother, and stepsister; and she has to make friends with people who she doesn’t really want to befriend. Anna’s really struggling.

Holy Mother Cover

HOLY, MOTHER COVER | Trend: Magical Lamp

March 4, 2016 Comments : 7

holymothercover

Inspired by What She Reads, Pure Imagination Blog, and Stacked.

I admit I’m a book cover snob. Who isn’t though?

Book covers are the first thing that attracts readers to a book. A good cover can draw someone is, just as a bad cover can easily draw someone away. It can essentially make or break a book. Holy, Mother Cover! is where I showcase the book covers that stand out (or make me cringe) and discuss cover changes.

(A big special thanks to Georgie at What She Reads for bestowing me this fabulous name and to Charlotte at The Simple Tales for creating the beautiful feature banner you see before you.)

If you had a magical lamp, what would you wish for? How would you use your three wishes? (You can’t wish my more wishes. That’s cheating!)

That is what the magical lamp covers make me think of—those questions and Aladdin. I don’t even have an answer to those questions for myself. :P It was difficult finding covers that had this theme. I mostly found covers of Aladdin or of people with no magical lamp in sight!

Let’s check out the magical lamp covers I did find!

Reviews

(ARC) REVIEW | The Holmes to My Watson (A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro)

March 3, 2016 Comments : 4

A Study in Charlotte

The last thing sixteen-year-old Jamie Watson–writer and great-great-grandson of the John Watson–wants is a rugby scholarship to Sherringford, a Connecticut prep school just an hour away from his estranged father. But that’s not the only complication: Sherringford is also home to Charlotte Holmes, the famous detective’s enigmatic, fiercely independent great-great-granddaughter, who’s inherited not just his genius but also his vices, volatile temperament, and expertly hidden vulnerability. Charlotte has been the object of his fascination for as long as he can remember–but from the moment they meet, there’s a tense energy between them, and they seem more destined to be rivals than anything else.

Then a Sherringford student dies under suspicious circumstances ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Holmes stories, and Jamie and Charlotte become the prime suspects. Convinced they’re being framed, they must race against the police to conduct their own investigation. As danger mounts, it becomes clear that nowhere is safe and the only people they can trust are each other.[/note]

myreview

[note note_color=”#BFD1D1″ text_color=”#ffffff”]I received this book for free from HarperCollins for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.[/note]

First sentence: “The first time I met her was at the tail end of one of those endless weekday nights you could only have at school like Sherringford.”

What does A Study in Charlotte have that most YA Sherlock retellings don’t have? Well, lots of references to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, Charlotte Holmes and James Watson as real descendants of their ancestral namesake, and so much more you know you wanna find out.

Despite being descendants of their namesake counterparts who you’d think would personally know each other, James Watson and Charlotte Holmes are strangers, but it’s not until James is shipped off to Sherringford, a Connecticut boarding school, from London that he meets the illustrious detective Charlotte, the object of his fascination. There, these two teenagers will band together to clear their names when they become the prime suspects of a student’s murder.

Holmes and Watson are together again. What kind of crazy mischief do they get themselves into?

Discussion

TOO MUCH TBR · March 2016

March 1, 2016 Comments : 5

march tbr

Middle Grade March Madness, as I like to call this March, is gonna be a such a doozy of a month. I’m gonna be drowninnnnngggg. I didn’t realize how many of these books were published right after each other, and oh my god, please give me the mood to get them all read.

For those who do not know, Too Much TBR is a way to help me see which books I really need to read and tackle them. Is it effective? Perhaps. It helps a lot seeing a visual of the books on my TBR pile.

Let’s discuss what I read last month, and what I’m reading this month!

BACK IN FEBRUARY

Well, February didn’t go as I planned. The dreaded reading slump got to me. I spent the majority of the month not being able to read—not even romances—until I read You Were Here.

I managed to get four out of the ten books on my February TBR list read, and those were A Darker Shade of Magic, All the Birds in the Sky, You Were Here, and A Study in Charlotte. It’s a no-brainer that ADSOM was simply out of this world, but You Were Here was a special gem that I hope everything reads. It had beautiful writing and the visual storytelling was just so perfect. Also, that Mik, guys. *heart eyes* Go out and read this book! A Study in Charlotte is probably my favorite YA Sherlock adaptation because the characters didn’t annoy the hell out of me. It still had problems that prevented me from fully liking in, but nonetheless, extremely well written and a beautiful ode to the Sherlock/Watson stories. (I also read the comic Lady Killer, which was fun with lots of murder and blood.)

I’ve decided to put these books on a hiatus: Salt to the Sea, Riders, and The Girl from Everywhere since I haven’t been in the mood to read them.

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