Keely is a faithful member of our Book Owls book club and has written her review of young adult author Jessica Warman’s new book, Between:

Between by Jessica Warman is a thrilling novel with romance and drama is one of the most unique ideas in teen fiction. The book is a page turner that you can’t put down. Jessica has written a book that will make you cry and laugh at the same time.

Between begins with a regular eighteenth birthday slumber party on a yacht for a snobby stuck up girl. When they go to sleep, there are seven people on the boat, but when they wake up Liz, the snobby stuck up girl, is missing. They find her dead body floating in the water. What they don’t know is that Liz is there watching them. She’s stuck in Limbo. She lives among them but they can’t hear or see her. With her is Alex Berg, a student at her school who died months ago.

After Liz dies she doesn’t have clear memories of her life. She spends most of the book trying to figure out how she dies and remembering her life’s memories. During this time she finds her life was getting twisted before she died. Her boyfriend had been cheating on her with her best friend/stepsister and she found some disturbing pictures of herself that she doesn’t remember taking. She finds that her life had been full of lies and her dad had been cheating on her mom before she died. She also finds that she played a part in Alex’s death and that she wasn’t as good of a kid as she thought she was. She realizes the changes she should have made in her life and herself.

The book is about moving on, family and forgiveness. Jessica Warman has written a couple other young adult novels. A couple that look really interesting are Breathless and Where the Truth Lies.

Once upon a time former (and much missed) Lemurian, Kaycie, and I posted a couple of blogs that were inspired by Emily Winfield Martin’s Black Apple’s Paper Doll Primer.  I made up scenes from the provided characters and landscapes and Kaycie came up with tales to accompany the paper dolls.

This image is from a blog titled Once Upon A Paper Doll in which Tom and Hedgie go on an adventure to a circus.

And this is from A Day in the Life of Hedgie where we join Hedgie in a day filled with mermaids and narwhals.

As exciting as the paper doll book was, now Emily Winfield Martin has written a children’s book titled Oddfellow’s Orphanage.  It includes many characters from the paper doll primer and several new ones.  The story is of Headmaster Oddfellow Bluebeard and his ragtag team of Professors, groundskeeper, school nurse and the amazing children that have made their way to the orphanage.

Martin takes you on many wonderful adventures with some very whimsical and memorable characters.

by Zita

I wanted to tell y’all about a new picture book that I absolutely LOVE, One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo, illustrated by David Small.

During a visit to the aquarium, the precocious Elliot realizes that he has always wanted a pet penguin. He know that if he is to get a penguin, he must ask his father, who without much thought, says yes. We as the reader know that Elliot should have realized that when fathers say yes to getting a penguin, they usually mean a stuffed one from the gift shop. This clever story by Toni Buzzeo is absolutely adorable and David Small’s illustrations complete the hilarity of this tale. With a surprising ending that is completely unexpected, this book gets an A+ in my book.

I personally love David Small. His art is iconic and whimsical. He is also highly acclaimed. He has won a Caldecott Honor for his book The Gardener and a Caldecott Medal for So, You Want To Be President. I think he did an especially good job with this story. The simple color palette highlights the logical, if not off base Elliot when he decides that he wants a penguin–and decides to liberate a real penguin from the aquarium. This story is fun for kids and adults all the way to the unexpected ending.

All this to say, I am very happy to announce that we have a small supply of One Cool Friend signed by the author, Toni Buzzeo, AND the illustrator, David Small! I hope that y’all enjoy this book as much as I did. It is a hoot!

I have talked about my to read stack at my house before, how it just never seems to get any shorter, no matter how fast I read.  I swear I go home everyday with a new book.  I continually have the conversation with my customers about “so many books…so little time”.   I think that I have found an answer that works for me.  In fact, I am now addicted to audio books!!

This started in November all because I had some friends getting married in New Orleans.  Normally, Steve is driving and I read but I was going alone and upset I was going to loose three hours of reading time.  Then the idea struck me…audio book! With Emily’s help I decided to listen to Wildwood by Colin Meloy.

She and some other co-workers had read it and been raving about it so I thought I would give it a shot.  I have never had so much fun heading down the ‘double nickle to the dime’.  All of a sudden, I wasn’t on the highway anymore. I was with Pru and Curtis, who had ventured into the Impassable Wilderness, tracking down Pru’s baby brother, who had been swooped up by a murder of crows and disappeared into this mysterious place.  While there, we encountered an army of coyotes, a nation of birds and magic.  I became just as entwined as Pru and Curtis did with the struggle in Wildwood.  I found myself talking back to the CD and one night even sat in my car, listening and eating Pizza Shack a little too long.  My battery was dead the next morning!!

My next foray was a little different,  I decided to go with ‘real life’ instead of fantasy.  I feel like I am now best friends with Keith Richards or at least I was ‘hanger on’ with the Rolling Stones.  You would not believe how alarmingly honest he is in his autobiography, Life.  My curiosity was piqued after hearing some of my friends talk about reading this for their ‘rock-n-roll’ book club.  They were just raving about it so Life was on my list. I had the best time…it was like the British Invasion was in my Envoy!  It was great listening to Keith talk about the Blues and Mississippi musicians and Johnny Depp reading is not so shabby either.

The following review is by an 8th grader from St. Andrew’s Episcopal School. Millie is one of those readers that every librarian and book seller hopes will walk through their doors. She is an opinionated, voracious, choosy reader, and I love talking to her about books. She has read Anna Carey’s debut novel Eve, and as always, is here to tell if this book held her interest:

Eve is unlike any other Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic novel I have ever had the pleasure of reading. From the get-go Eve had me wrapped up in the world and lives of Caleb and Eve. This exquisite page-turner is practically impossible to put down! The world of “New America” is extremely addicting and an eye opener to how love can survive even the toughest situations with characters as inexperienced as they are. Rather than having brain-craving zombies running amuck, the world’s run with an extremely oppressive totalitarian government, which runs on subordination, ignorance, and the willingness of the people to serve.

Sixteen-year-old Eve lives in the dystopic, post-apocalyptic world, which was devastated by a plague ten-year prior. The plague killed the majority of women in New America, including Eve’s mother. With a dead mother and a father who abandoned her at a very young age out of the picture, Eve was sent to government run boarding school, as were many other girls her age. In 2025, she is valedictorian and ecstatic about crossing the lake, where all sixteen year olds go to learn a specific trade. Days before graduation the school outcast, Arden, tells Eve that across the lake is a mass reproduction hospital for the dying country of New America. Arden was right and Eve runs away the night before graduation, leaving her friends and world behind. Eve is a story of living in a broken world with misconceptions, tyranny, and pure, innocent love. It is survival of the fittest. She soon discovers the fears and secrets of the perilous, sexist, outside world with Arden and her love-interest Caleb.

Eve is unforgettable story of uncovering the truth, and rediscovering the true meaning of love in a practically barbaric world, and learning how to survive in a dilapidated, scary world. Eve is the first of The Eve Trilogy. I cannot wait for the second installment of this promising series!