OH, this is one of my new favorites! King Henry is so fabulous and dashing and debonair and courageous and honorable and quite polite when he wants to be. I love his jokes and his speeches and oh, everything! He might be my favorite Shakespearean character, (after Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing.)
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Book Review: Queenie Peavy
Queenie’s father is in jail, and the kids at school tease her about it. Queenie pretends not to care, but she always end up in trouble for fighting, throwing rocks, and skipping school. On a field trip in the woods, Queenie sets up a log to be a trap for the boy who teases her the most. He falls and breaks his leg, and Queenie is forced to pay the doctor’s bill. Queenie starts to wonder if being bad is really all that good. It might be better for her to behave herself, but she has all this anger inside that needs a way to get out.
Continue readingBook Review: Water Sky
Water Sky
by Jean Craighead George
Lincoln Noah visits Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost town in all of the United States. He stays with some friends of his father, the Ologak family. The head of the family, Vincent Ologak, is the captain of a whaling team who camp out on the ice. They have a quota of only a few whales that they are legally allowed to hunt each year. Lincoln’s uncle came to Barrow years ago to protest against the whales being hunted, but Lincoln hasn’t heard from him in a long time. Lincoln is hoping to find out what happened to his uncle, but no one will talk about him. Lincoln joins the Ologak whaling team and finds out why whaling is so central to the Iñupiat culture.
Continue readingBook Review: Be Ever Hopeful, Hannalee
Be Ever Hopeful, Hannalee (A Troll Book)
by Patricia Beatty
Hannalee and her family move to Atlanta after the Civil War, hoping to find work. Her brother, Davey, lost his arm fighting as a soldier in the Confederate Army, and there isn’t much work available that a one-armed man can do. Hannalee and her mother both get jobs to help the family, but Atlanta is overrun with Yankee soldiers and all of Georgia is under martial law. Hannalee worries that the Yankees will be rude and violent, but she discovers that many of them are kind and friendly people.
Continue readingGraphic Novel Review: The Divided Earth
The Divided Earth (The Nameless City, #3)
by Faith Erin Hicks (Goodreads Author)
In this final book of the graphic novel trilogy, Kaidu and Rat are trying to recover the lost secret weapon of the ancient people of the Nameless City – a formula for exploding fire. They think it will be easy to sneak into the palace and steal back the book containing the formula; after all, they have snuck in and out of the palace many times before. But their only route past the walls has been demolished, and they will have to find some other way to get past the guards and into the inner library. Meanwhile Kaidu’s father is trying to reach the other nations and gather military support to take back the city from the traitors among the Dao.
Continue readingGraphic Novel: The Stone Heart
The Stone Heart (The Nameless City, #2)
by Faith Erin Hicks (Goodreads Author), Jordie Bellaire (Colorist)
In this second book of the graphic novel trilogy, Kaidu and Rat are doing everything they can to protect the monks of the Stone Heart. The monks are the keepers of knowledge in the Nameless City, but the Dao military leaders think they must be hiding the secret weapon that the ancient peoples used to blast through the rock of the mountains. Kaidu and his father are loyal to the Dao general, but they are forced to choose between their loyalties or the truth.
Continue readingGraphic Novel Review: The Nameless City
The Nameless City (The Nameless City, #1)
by Faith Erin Hicks (Goodreads Author), Jordie Bellaire (Contributor)
Kaidu moves to the city to visit his dad and attend soldier training along with other young students. His people, the Dao, conquered the Nameless City thirty years before, but tensions still run high between the Dao and the native people. He begins to explore the city and befriends a native girl who calls herself Rat. They uncover some secrets about the city and their loyalties are tested. Kaidu’s father is a counselor to the ruling General of the city, and Kaidu and Rat get involved in the shifting politics of the Dao.
Continue readingGraphic Novel Review: Outpost Zero
Outpost Zero: The Complete Collection
by Sean McKeever, Alexandre Tefenkgi (Illustrator), Jean-François Beaulieu (Illustrator)
Alea has grown up in the Outpost, a massive spaceship that crash-landed on a frozen planet generations ago. So much time has passed that Alea’s generation has forgotten how to use most of the technology their ancestors had, and much of the spaceship is inaccessible because it’s buried underground. Alea believes that her society needs to push themselves to do more than just survive in the frozen wastelands of the planet. She wants to explore and find new innovations so that society can thrive. But people are afraid. Alea’s friends are struggling too. Some have given up, seeing no hope in the future. When one of Alea’s friends commits suicide, she knows she has to find out the truth about the Outpost.
Continue readingGraphic Novel Review: The Ballad of Ronan
The Ballad of Ronan: Part One
by John Walsh, Jim Walsh, Remy Jackson (Artist), Vito Delsante (Goodreads Author) (Editor)
Aisling is an orphan with no idea who her parents are. She runs away from the orphanage and meets Ronan, who can’t even remember who is he or where he is from. They both seem to have some strange connection to magical energy that they can’t explain. The priest from the orphanage is involved with a secret society, and he seems to know something about the strange creatures Aisling has seen.
Continue readingBook Review: Hickory Dickory Dock
Hickory Dickory Dock (Hercule Poirot, #34)
by Agatha Christie
4.5 out of 5 stars
Hercule Poirot’s efficient secretary Miss Lemon is upset and distracted, because there have been some strange thefts at the student hostel that her sister runs. Poirot agrees to investigate the petty thefts to help out Miss Lemon’s sister, Mrs. Hubbard. At first it seems like random little things that have gone missing, but there are a few items that stand out from the list: a valuable doctor’s stethoscope, a diamond ring, a rucksack that was slashed to pieces, and all the lightbulbs in the common rooms. Only Poirot can sift through the clues and find a connection between the missing items. He begins to find out more about the students who board at the hostel, wondering which of them could be thief, or perhaps… a murderer.
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