Week in Review #25

This week I read eight books.

 57. The Tiger Rising. Kate DiCamillo. 2001. 128 pages. [Source: Bought] [3 stars, j fiction, coming of age, j realistic fiction]

Read this...

• If it's the last book on earth and you are bored
• If you don't mind horrible endings
• If you don't mind horrible human beings
• If you don't like hope of any sort in your book

58. The Fellowship of the Ring. J.R.R. Tolkien. 1954/1965. Houghton Mifflin. 423 pages. [Source: Bought] [5 stars, fantasy, classic]

Read this...

• If you enjoy fantasy novels
• If you enjoy quests
• If you are a hobbit
• If you enjoy epic stories

 59. The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum. Thornton W. Burgess. 1914. 139 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, classic, children's classic, animal fantasy]

Read this....

• If you enjoy animal fantasy
• If you enjoy children's classics
• If you enjoy vintage books
• If you enjoy series books

60. Make a Pretty Sound: A Story of Ella Jenkins--The First Lady of Children's Music. Traci N. Todd. Illustrated by Eleanor Davis. 2025. 60 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, nonfiction, picture book biography, music appreciation]

Read this...

• If you enjoy picture book biographies
• If you enjoy children's folk music
• If you are looking for picture books that fall into the "music appreciation" category

62. Here is A Book. Elisha Cooper. 2025. 40 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars, picture book, book about books]

Read this 

• If you enjoy books about books
• If you enjoy books about artists

63. How Elegant the Elephant. Mary Ann Hoberman. Illustrated by Marla Frazee. 2025. 88 pages. [Source: Library] [poetry, children's poetry, poetry collection, j poetry, 3 stars]

Read this

• If you enjoy poems about animals
• If you enjoy children's poetry
• If you enjoy poetry collections

64. His Fairytale Life: A book About Hans Christian Andersen. Jane Yolen. Illustrated by Brooke Boynton-Hughes. 2025. 32 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, picture book, picture book biography, j nonfiction]

Read this

• If you enjoy picture book biographies
• If you don't mind a picture book that is just ONE SENTENCE pieced together poorly with commas and occasional semicolons

49. Jesus Loves the Little Children. Tara Hackney. 2025. 24 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars, board book, children's book]

Read this

• If you are a Christian looking for Christian board books
• If you are looking for  "fresh" updated lyrics to a classic song

Century of Viewing, Week 25

2010s

• 2016 Independence Day: Resurgence I watched Independence Day earlier this year. I didn't even know there was a sequel until I stumbled upon it on Tubi. This was a fun-enough disaster movie. I enjoyed seeing some of the original cast return to the sequel. It was entertaining enough that I'm glad I watched it. I am not such a big fan of the first movie that I think this one is particularly "lesser than."
  
• 2018 Won't You Be My Neighbor is a documentary on Fred Rogers, aka Mister Rogers of Mister Rogers' neighborhood. This documentary features many clips. It is an enjoyable documentary. Perhaps not my absolute favorite documentary. But I am glad I revisited it.
  

 2020s

• 2021 The Greatest Average American is a stand-up comedy special featuring Nate Bargatze. Stand-up comedy isn't my favorite or best genre. HOWEVER clean stand-up comedy that is actually funny, entertaining, enjoyable, relatable....is a delight. There are two other specials, I believe, on Netflix that I'll get to at some point perhaps.
  
• 2024 The Wild Robot. This children's movie WAS such an intense emotional journey. I've heard from a reliable source that the book is so much better. I hope to read the book soon. Perhaps after reading the book, I won't 'love' this one as much. But as a movie on its own, I definitely enjoyed it.
  
• 2025 Our Times. I WANT MY TIME BACK. I hated this movie so much. This one, I believe, is set in Mexico. I watched the dubbed into English version. The premise is simple: a husband-wife scientist team--in 1966--travel through time (in a device they built) to 2025. They meant to go ahead fifteen minutes into the future. The worm hole (I believe it was a worm hole?) takes them to 2025. They meet their great-niece and a former student who is now a dean of the university where they both worked. The two don't know how to fit in--at first. But after a few feminist lectures, she's all for it and decides that all men are evil scum. She even decides to end their marriage. Or comes close to it. He decides to go back to 1966. She stays. The end. Mostly. I hated this one so much. It was so preachy. It was so HIDEOUSLY awful. It started off relatively clean and then got DIRTY halfway through....which was a disappointment for me. If it had started off that way, I'd have saved myself the bother and just picked something else.
  

© 2025 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews