Week in Review #18

This week I reviewed three books.

 If You Lived During the American Revolution. Chris Newell. Illustrated by Steffi Walthall. 2026. 88 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, history, nonfiction]

Board book: 1, 2, 3, Can You Count Along? Alice Hemming. Illustrated by Nichola Slater. 2026. 10 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars]

 Board book: Edwina The Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct. Mo Willems. 2006/2026. 38 pages. [Source: Library] [animal fantasy]


Century of Viewing #18

1980s

• 1981 Caveman Am I the target audience for this movie? No. Did I enjoy elements of it? For the most part--to some extent. Atouk loves Lana. Well, love is an extreme exaggeration. I don't think love has a bit to do with it. At all. Lana 'belongs' to Tonda. Lana seems more than okay with being 'his' woman. When Atouk is kicked out (literally) from the clan, he teams up with a series of misfits and outcasts. Together they discover, fire, musical instruments, sling shots, etc., Meanwhile, Tala is developing romantic feelings for Atouk. But he's all Lana, Lana, Lana. Can this cave romance have a happy ending? ALSO: there are dinosaurs.
• 1987 Robocop Apparently the YT free with ads version of Robocop is heavily censored and missing quite a bit of the movie (a difference of at least ten minutes). I am glad I watched Robocop. It was a fun action movie.

1990s

• 1990 Robocop 2 I liked it just as much as the first movie!
• 1993 Robocop 3 I definitely enjoyed this one!!! Each of the Robocop movies is unique in some ways. This one is set at Christmas. It has new villains. What I appreciate most about this one is that this is the movie where Robocop 'finds' his own 'found' family. There are some sweet, tender scenes in this one. Plenty of action, mind you. IT is Robocop after all. But I like these three movies.
• 1994 Without Warning This is a modern twist on the 1937 War of the Worlds scare. It is BLEAKITY-BLEAK which felt right.

2000s

• 2004 Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I have not read the book. But the movie was super fun! I loved, loved, loved baby Sunny! And all the characters were fun. It is a dark comedy for sure, but, it had some moments with all the feels.

2010s

• 2014 Robocop. Is it a copy of the original movie? No. The movies are very different from each other--in almost every way. I liked them both. THIS one does have its strengths. I liked many, many, many things about it! The characters do feel more human AND the wife and child play a much larger part in the story.

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Century of Viewing, April

In April, I watched 27 movies!

My five star movies:

Ever After
Forrest Gump
Frequency
Gospel of John
Home
It's You I Like
No Time for Sergeants
The Moon
The War of the Worlds
What About Bob?
You Can't Run Away From It

My four and a half and four star movies:

Empire Records
Trust Me The False Prophet
Sirius
Robocop
Robocop 2

My top five movies from ALL of 2026:

Galaxy Quest
Ever After
What About Bob
Forrest Gump
Ivanhoe

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

April Reflections

This month I read sixteen books. (Two were Bibles!)

Books reviewed at Becky's Book Reviews

30. The Littlest Elephant. Katherine Applegate. 2026. 36 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, picture book, animal fantasy]
31. Scarlett. Alexandra Ripley. 1991. 884 pages. [Source: Library] [2 stars, historical fiction, sequel, adult fiction, adult romance]
32. Magnitude. Jennifer A. Nielsen. 2026. 304 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, historical fiction, mg historical]
33. Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography. Laura Ingalls Wilder. Edited by Pamela Smith Hill. 2014. South Dakota State Historical State Society. 400 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, nonfiction, memoir]
34. If You Lived During the American Revolution. Chris Newell. Illustrated by Steffi Walthall. 2026. 88 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, history, nonfiction]

Books reviewed at Young Readers

23. Wake Up, Grouchy Bear! David Ezra Stein. 2026. 48 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, animal fantasy, picture book]
24. Board book: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Adapted from C.S. Lewis. Illustrated by Joey Chou.. 2021. 32 pages. [Source: Library]
25. Olive and Oscar: The Favorite Hat. Ariel Bernstein. Illustrated by Marc Rosenthal. 2026. 32 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, early reader, animal fantasy, friendship]
26. Bad Banana. Michael Rex. 2026. 32 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars, beginning reader, early reader, humor]
27. Board book: Just Because. Mac Barnett. Illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault. 2026. 32 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, bedtime book, board book, imagination, creativity, curiosity]

28. Board book: Fix This Book! A Dinosaur Broke It! Silver Dolphins Books. 2026. 10 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, board book, interactive]
29. Richard Scarry's Great Mystery Collection. Richard Scarry. 2025. (1969, 1975) 96 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars, picture books, mysteries]
30. Board book: 1, 2, 3, Can You Count Along? Alice Hemming. Illustrated by Nichola Slater. 2026. 10 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars]
31. Board book: Edwina The Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct. Mo Willems. 2006/2026. 38 pages. [Source: Library] [animal fantasy]

Books reviewed at Operation Actually Read Bible

none!

Bibles reviewed at Operation Actually Read Bible

2. New King James Version, Sovereign Collection, Wide Margin. God. (Thomas Nelson Publisher). 2022. 1696 pages. [Source: Bought] [Bible] [5 stars]

3. KJV Chronological Life Application Study Bible, Second Edition. God. 2025. 2128 pages. [Source: Bought (Gift)] [5 stars, bible review]

Yearly and monthly totals

Totals for 2026
Books Read in 2026	79
Pages Read in 2026	19309
January Totals
Books Read in January	21
Pages Read in January	5119
February Totals
Books read in February	24
Pages Read in February	4225
March Totals
Books read in March	18
Pages read in March	4099
April Totals
Books read in April	16
Pages read in April	6386

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

34. If You Lived During the American Revolution

34. If You Lived During the American Revolution. Chris Newell. Illustrated by Steffi Walthall. 2026. 88 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, history, nonfiction]

First sentence: Colonization by European peoples of what we now call the United States of America began as early as the sixteenth century.

I read a few "If You Lived...." books growing up. There is a newer series of books similarly titled that are being published now. This is the first I've read of the newer series. It is on a heavy, complex topic. Heavy because it's about war. Complex because every conflict, every war, has at least three sides. It is also written to line up in accordance with modern sensibilities. For better or worse. There are certainly some benefits, I'm sure, to a modern take on the past. But if exclusively or overly so, it can come across as super judgy. In other words, America should never have been colonized and all wars were a result of us unnecessarily colonizing. And the colonization of America could never be justifiable, etc. And sometimes I just want my history to be, you know, just record what was without comment or bias or opinion. Neither obnoxious praise or condemnation.

As for the facts in this one, I am too long out of school to know how accurate or inaccurate it may be. OR if the emphasis is rightly placed. It could be perfectly, perfectly fine as far as facts are concerned. OR it could have a mistake here or there. I wouldn't be able to distinguish. I last studied the American Revolution in college, and I found it fascinating then.

What I liked about the original series was how the questions were answered concisely and were full of I didn't know that facts. But this one is on a more complex, darker topic. It is probably easier to read than a textbook. (At least the textbooks of my past). BUT it isn't "fun" or "light" or "casual." (And it would probably be wrong if it was.)

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Week in Review #17

This week I reviewed two books and two Bibles!

32. Magnitude. Jennifer A. Nielsen. 2026. 304 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, historical fiction, mg historical]

33. Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography. Laura Ingalls Wilder. Edited by Pamela Smith Hill. 2014. South Dakota State Historical State Society. 400 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, nonfiction, memoir]


2. New King James Version, Sovereign Collection, Wide Margin. God. (Thomas Nelson Publisher). 2022. 1696 pages. [Source: Bought] [Bible] [5 stars]


3. KJV Chronological Life Application Study Bible, Second Edition. God. 2025. 2128 pages. [Source: Bought (Gift)] [5 stars, bible review]


Century of Viewing #17

1940s

• 1942 Sirius. Did I expect to watch a Hungarian film this year? No, not really. This is a Hungarian science fiction film, a Hungarian Count, Akos Tibor answers an ad in the newspaper. A professor is looking for a man to marry his daughter. He goes because it might be an offer too good to refuse. The professor shows him a strange machine--a flying machine. Almost like a helicopter but missing some key details. He promises the young man that it has the power to travel through time--circle the globe in less than a second. Akos goes back in time to 1748, meets his great-grandfather (who is HORRIBLE) and falls in love with an opera singer (as one does naturally). But a duel turns into a nightmare...and his opera singer may be 'lost' to him forever. Good thing the professor's daughter is played by the same actress. So a happy ending of sorts. There's music. There's dancing. There's sword fighting. There's head-tilting.

1950s

• 1958 No Time for Sergeants. I love, love, love this comedy with Andy Griffith! Will Stockdale wants to get transferred with his 'buddy' Ben to the infantry, but, things don't ever go as planned!!!!

1960s

• 1968 Countdown. In this version of the space race, America is sending a man to the moon to wait for an Apollo flight to come rescue him. Sound like a bad idea? How about sending someone unqualified. After the Russians have already sent a man to the moon. What could go wrong? We don't know because the movie ends before anything exciting could happen.

1980s

• 1983 Brainstorm. I neither loved nor hated this 80s sci-fi. It had its ridiculous moments for sure--the water activated foam in the factory, for example. BUT it is something I watched. Mike and Karen are estranged but assigned the same project at work. Mike has been involved from the beginning. Something about a helmet that captures emotions, memories, sensations, experiences, all the feels. These can be shared helmet-to-helmet live or recorded on tape and played back through the helmet. There are evil guys, unsavory sorts, but seeing each other's memories proves to reunite this couple. Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood are the leads.

1990s

• 1998 Ever After. Is Ever After the absolute best, best, best Cinderella adaptation. MAYBE. Probably. Perhaps. Is it one I could watch eight million times and still adore. YES. I love the soundtrack. I love the characters. I love the story.

2000s

• 2000 Frequency. This was a GREAT movie. I absolutely loved it. It is set in 1969 and 1999. A father and son are communicating with each other via ham radio though it takes a little convincing on both sides. Can a son save his father? What happens when you change the past? How far would you go to be with family?

2010s

• 2018 It's You I Like. I love, love, love this documentary on Mister Rogers (Fred Rogers). I love all the clips! I love all the interviews! It's such a GREAT balance.

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews