Christmas Picture Book Review (1)

 

Just a few new to the library this year:

Carrot and Cookie are best friends - but they haven't figure out what to give each other for Christmas yet. They're friends are not helpful. But when disaster strikes, presents are the least of their worries.

This is a cute story about friendship, helping, and saving the day!

Santa released these letters from his files. 

These letters are funny and the illustrations are cute. This is a great book to pour over together. 

Betty realizes that she doesn't have money for Christmas presents. She's so unhappy. But she has a brilliant idea, In the summer her lemonade stand was a huge hit. She decides to create a cookie station. But disaster strikes and she's forced to rethink everything.

This is a cute story, and I love how it turns out. The illustrations are charming. 

Santa Mouse and Santa are out spreading Christmas cheer when they hear a little kitten. 

This is a sweet story about a unique friendship!

All the ways kids travel to their grandmother's house for the holidays and what they do there.

I love all the families in this book - each other is different and each is in a different location. This is a fun book to pour over and see all the details. 

I love new holiday books! It's my favorite season of books. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Storm Books

 This week's topic is books to read during a storm. Since it's winter (it snowed here last week), I'm going to focus on books with blizzards.

Romance:

Thrillers:

Hope to read soon:

Have you read any of these?

Middle Grade Review: Let It Glow

Aviva Davis and Holly Martin meet at a holiday pageant tryout session. 

Aviva wants to be a star, but Holly's more interested in working behind the scenes. Aviva wants to create a Hanukkah song, but she's not sure that she feels Jewish enough. While her family is Jewish, they don't celebrate. But her Bubbe insists that she is. Aviva asks her parents to celebrate Hanukkah this year. 

Holly lives with her grandfather (a famous author) and her mother. She's been waiting to go get the tree, but her mom's been busy working. Lately, her grandfather hasn't been feeling himself. Her mom is worried about him being by himself so much with her at work and Holly at school. Maybe it's time for him to move to a senior community.

Once the girls meet, it's like looking in a mirror. They're both adopted. After texting with each other for a week, they decide to switch places. Will their families notice a difference?

My Thoughts: I loved this book. I'm a huge fan of the Parent Trap, so this was right up my alley. Plus, I adore holiday stories. I loved how the twins were so alike and yet so different. I loved the texts between the two of them and how they started to get to know each other. It was so cute! I loved how they both explored Christmas and Hanukkah. I loved Aviva's siblings. I enjoyed the close moments between the two families - and how the girls escaped them. One of my favorite middle grade reads this year! 

Cover Thoughts: Adorable

Source: Book sent for review

Library Recommendation: A must have book for your school and public library

**Check out the awesome activity packet with a word search, recipes, and so much more! 

Mini Holiday Movie Reviews (1)

I started watching Christmas movie in October.

Here are several mini holiday reviews

From Netflix:

This was super cute and funny

I Love Lacey Chabert

I didn't know the lead male. And IMO, he looked sickly. But he was funny.

I loved the Mean Girls nod and the nod to Hallmark movies.

Highly recommended 

From Hallmark:

Best Friends

All the lies - these were pretty funny at times

I really enjoyed this one

Although the secondary storytime was a little annoying with all the tips for event planning. But I liked the secondary love story. 

Recommended

This was a fun movie - although I take issue with the library portions. No one seems to know how to create a storytime and that wasn't the book they were reading. All the library parts were wrong. But I did enjoy the training and the fake friendship. And that ending!

Recommended

This was cute even though in the beginning, I kind of hated the guy.

Most of the details were glossed over here.

The scenery was lovely.

I didn't get why she never asked anyone if they knew her mother

I loved the comradery that formed between the folks at the inn. 

I would love a spin-off from the pop star's perspective! 

Recommended

A cross between Amazing Race and Christmas Trivia

I loved this one - from the Meet Cute til the ending

Highly Recommended

I watched this after viewing the first move again. 

And it was good, but it wasn't as good. 

I loved the moments between the brothers and seeing where they ended up. 

Recommended

Have you seen any of these? What did you think?

Holiday Review: Make My Wish Come True

Hollywood Star Arden James has an image problem and it's one she created. She left her hometown for Hollywood and never returned. Now she has a chance for the roll of a lifetime, but the Director isn't sold on her. When Arden and her agent mention the fact that she's going home for the holidays plus the fact that Cosmopolitan will cover her holiday dates with her girlfriend, he agrees to think about it.

Arden flies home; a home she left behind. She left behind her best friend, whom she was starting to develop feelings for, and her grandmother. Arden isn't sure who she's happier to see. Now she just has to convince her former best friend to be her girlfriend for the next two weeks. 

My Thoughts: I Loved this book. I'm a sucker for Hollywood stories and the best friends to lovers trope and fake dating trope. And this one was amazing. I loved the 12 dates of Christmas - especially around town. This is a Christmas story - but it's also a Hanukkah story. I love Caroline's siblings; they were adorable. And her friends were amazing too. I loved all the feelings -angst, reconnecting, and romantic. As I'm a basketball fan, I liked the moments on the court (even though neither character was playing basketball.) I didn't want this book to end! 

Cover Thoughts: I do like the little touches - the coffee cups, the dog, and the lighted tree. 

Source: ARC sent for review

Library Recommendation: A must have book for your public library!

Holiday Romance: The Ex-Mas Holidays

Maya lost her job, her boyfriend, and her place to live. She's headed back home for the holidays. She's not broken up about losing any of those things - she had drifted apart with her boyfriend. She hates her job as an accountant and she realizes that she loves her hometown. Now she's struggling to figure out what to do; she doesn't want to go back to accounting but her dad is pressuring her greatly. 

Maya returns to an old job as a ski instructor - filling the gap someone vacated. However, it means seeing her ex. The ex that broke her heart when she was younger. Now she's spending more time with him - part of it is wonderful and part of it is tense. They're becoming friends, but they have a lot to work through. 

Plus, Sam has a girlfriend - the same girlfriend he dumped Maya for. Cat isn't interested in being friends with Maya again and she doesn't want Sam talking with her either. Could their break-up have been a mistake?

My Thoughts: I really liked this book - it's perfect for Hallmark movie watchers. There's lots of family and relationship drama. I loved watching Sam and Maya become friends again. Lots of small town charm in this second chance romance (plus my best friend's brother) book. 

Cover Thoughts: Very cute

Source: My Library

Library Recommendation: Highly recommended for your public library 

 

Picture Book Wednesday: Winter Books

Are you ready for winter? These books will help you get into the spirit of the season.

Bizzy Bear has so much fun during the winter. These board books are so cute and interactive.

A board book about Hedgehog getting ready for winter with all their friends. Some friends hibernate, some fly south for warmth, and some enjoy the cold.

An interactive picture books allows these four friends to build a snowman. 

This book is fun to share. 

Squirrel doesn't understand the snow, but luckily for him, Bird does. 

There's lots of information about snow and weather. The ending sets the book up nicely for a Spring story. 

The squirrels notice that the mice have got missing. Where did they go? They hurry to solve the mystery! 

There are lots of animals in this book. At the end of the book, the authors talk about all the animals mentioned in the book. This is a great animal story and a mystery story. 

Count down from 10 to 1 with this fun snowman book.

This isn't the most exciting snowman book storywise, but it's a fun read-aloud. The kids get into counting backwards together. The toy snowman are really cute too. I love the concept of this series. I love all the animals in this one.

Top Ten Tuesday: Reading Before Year's End

 This week's topic is a freebie. I'm choosing what books I hope to read before the end of the year.

* Reading this for review

** love her books!

* read about this graphic novel in a review journal

* have to finish the trilogy

* new to my library and I just checked it out

** I'm a fan of the series

Also checked out from the library

enemies to lovers YA

* new to my library and I just checked it out

** a winter thriller 

* this one is overdue at the library, but I need to read it.

* checked out from the library

** I've heard such great things about this one

* I'm a sucker for a Hollywood Story

* Another Hollywood story - this one sent for review

Have you read any of these? Which should I read first??

Christmas Picture Books

 If you're on TikTok, you can find me talking about Christmas Picture Books. 

I've always loved Christmas Picture Books, so here's my second annual project:

@yabooknerdlibrarian Get ready for 24 days of Christmas picture books!!! #kidlit #christmasbooks #booktok #christmaspicturebooks #christmas ♬ original sound - Jennifer @YA Book Nerd 📚📚📚

 I hope you follow along!