Review: Map from Here to There

Paige's getting ready for her senior year in high school. She had a great time in New York City during her screenwriting course. She met great people, enjoyed living in the city, and has lots of thoughts about her future. Now she's back home waiting for Max to return from Italy while she works at the movie theater.

As senior year moves on, Paige's anxiety worsens. She's struggling to make the huge decision about college - knowing that she's talking about the rest of her life. When Max talks about applying to colleges in the same city, she freaks out. She doesn't want to be responsible for his future too.

As high school starts being about the last chances, Paige realizes that she wants everything to stay the same. She's not ready to say goodbye. She's not ready to make the big choices. Her worries and anxiety put strains on her relationships. Can she stop overthinking ever decision and start living in the moment?

My Thoughts: Another great read from Emery Lord. I was so happy to have more about these characters. I loved spending more time with these characters. I loved the writing. There were so many sentences that I re-read because they struck a chord with me. I felt terrible for Paige as she attempted to deal with her anxiety. I wanted to hug her and tell her everything was going to be ok. I loved her moments in the theater and her love for screenwriting. Big moments happen during senior year of high school and they capture big emotions.


Cover Thoughts: Adorable
Source: BEA Arc 201
Library Recommendation: Grab this one for your school and public libraries - especially for the moments about college. 

Review: Library of Lost Things

Darcy Wells has a book shaped heart because she spends her life reading and escaping the real world. She's desperately trying to escape the embarrassment of her home life and her biggest secret.

Her mother is a hoarder.

Darcy's been really great at keeping the secret, but the outside world is pushing back. The secret is crushing Darcy. After spending her life pushing most people away, Darcy meets a boy that she wants to open up to. But giving away her secret is scary.

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed this book. Although I confess the hoarding parts were hard to read a bit.  I loved Darcy's bookishness and the book references. I loved her friendship with Marisol - and how she challenged Darcy. I enjoyed Darcy's chats with Asher. I really liked her like in the bookstore and her moments with the building's owners. I loved Marisol's big family and how they embraced Darcy too. The secrets and family drama hit me in the heart. A great debut novel and an author to watch.

Cover Thoughts: Cute
Source: BEA arc
Library Recommendation: A great book for school and public libraries

Picture Book Wednesday: Just Like Beverly

A biography about the amazing children's author Beverly Cleary. This was a short biography (48 pages) but it was full of information. I loved learning more about her childhood and how that influenced her writing. I love learning about her childhood experiences with books and how that led her to become and librarian. Her time as a librarian also influenced her writings. I loved learning how her first book became a book.

An inspiring read about the importance of books!

Library Recommendation: A must have book for school and public libraries.

Top Ten Tuesday: Covers

This week's topic is all about covers. I'm taking a took at the back again trend of cartoon covers. Yup, they're back. Here are some upcoming books with cartoon covers that I'm excited about reading.

And it's also a trend across ages.

YA:

Adult:

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Summer Reading Ideas Kids (3)

Even though it's winter outside, in the library world, it's time to start planning summer reading. This year's theme is all about fantasy and fairy tales in Imagine Your Story.

Two weeks ago I looked at Castles, last week I looked at Fairy Tale Crafts, and this week I'm looking at STEAM programs.

All the ideas come from Pinterest.

Unicorn Experiments:

Fairy Tale Creation:

Help Jack Escape from the Beanstalk

Design a Fantasy Creature:

Working Drawbridge:

I did these two last year and they worked well:

Catapults:

Goldilock's Bed:

Movie Review: 1917

Last week, we saw the war movie 1917 - which was good.

There were some hard to watch parts but not the usual amount of hard to watch parts in war movies.

The story threw me for a loop, but it was very interesting.

I loved the camera work and the cinematography. It was impressive and amazing.

I loved the cameos by various actors.  

Re-Read: The Start of You and Me

I don't often re-read books because there are SO MANY books that I want to read. But I remember loving this book. And I wanted to refresh my memory of this book before the sequel (which I actually thought was a companion book at first). 

It was just as good as I remember. And not just the story. The writing was amazing and I found myself re-reading sentences because I loved them. I wish I had written them down, but I didn't.

I fell back in love with the characters and the story and the writing.

I didn't want it to send and luckily, I had the next book to keep myself immersed in the story and these characters. 

I loved the friendships in this book.

I loved how Paige leaned on her friends and how they supported each other.

I loved her bookishness.

I loved how Paige started to move on.

Review: Every Stolen Breath

Lia's father died two years ago and she's the only one stilling trying to uncover the truth about his murder. She knows it wasn't a random accident. Now all she has to do it prove it. But when she's discovered at the scene of the next murder, everyone wants to know why she was there.

She can't tell them that she knew the attack was coming. No one listened to her.

She can't tell them that she's close to uncovering the truth. No one will believe her.

Lia isn't sure who to trust, but she knows she's in danger and that she could be next.

My Thoughts: It took me a little bit for the story to hook me and once it did, I didn't want to put the book down. I felt terrible for Lia as she dealt with grief over her father. Of course she had trust issues. I liked watching her figure out who to trust. I loved her friendships. I loved how she wanted her life to have meaning. I admired the reporter. I enjoyed watching Lia find the strength uncover the truth. Of course, I enjoyed the romance as life does go on even through trauma. There were lots of plot twists that kept me on the edge of my seat.

Cover Thoughts: Great
Source: Book sent for review
Library Recommendation: Great for school and public libraries looking for more thrillers

Picture Book Review: Day for Skating

A fun picture book all about winter fun and ice skating. There's many different ways to have fun on the ice together with friends. This diverse picture book is short and great for storytimes. Plus the bedtime reading scene at the end of the book melted my librarian heart. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Recent Library Books

This week's topic is recent additions to your bookshelves. Since I get most of my books from the library, here are a few sitting on my bookshelf just waiting for me to read them. (And I won't tell you the number of books I have checked out on my card right now because it would blow your mind.)

Summer Reading Ideas: Kids (2)

Even though it's winter outside, in the library world, it's time to start planning summer reading. This year's theme is all about fantasy and fairy tales in Imagine Your Story.

Last week I looked at Castles, this week I'm looking at Fairy Tale Crafts.

All the craft ideas come from Pinterest.

Snow White's Apple:

Frog from Princess and the Frog:

Glitter Wands:

Magic Wand:

Cinderella's Carriage:

Snow White (or Belle's) Magic Mirror:

Another Magic Mirror

Big Bad Wolf:

Not Fairy Tale, but I couldn't resist:

Unicorn:

Dragon:

Dragon Face: