Becky's Book Reviews

Thursday, December 19, 2024

106. Little Christmas Carol

106. Little Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens. (This is a lightly adapted/abridged edition). 1843/2024. 144 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, illustrated read aloud, classic]

First sentence: Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it, and Scrooge's name was good upon anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a doornail.

Premise/plot: Little Christmas Carol places Charles Dickens' classic Christmas tale within an animal woodland. (All the animals are woodland creatures.) The text adds in a little here and there in reference to that. (It isn't so much that it is obnoxious). This is an illustrated edition of A Christmas Carol.

My thoughts: I love, love, love, love, love, love, love the illustrations in Little Christmas Carol. I have read A Christmas Carol dozens of times, I always find it enjoyable and compelling. I am so glad I read it.

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

105. Grenade

Grenade. Alan Gratz. 2018. 270 pages. [Source: Review copy] [3 stars] [historical fiction, world war II, mg historical]

First sentence: An American bomb landed a hundred meters away--Kra-KOOM!--and the school building exploded.

Premise/plot: Grenade is set towards the end of the second world war in Asia; Okinawa to be precise. It has dual narrators--for a bit--an American soldier (Ray) and an incredibly young drafted from [middle] school boy (Hideki). These two will come face to face--each with a grenade--and well, you can guess the rest.

War is front and center in this one, namely how horrible, atrocious, evil, horrifying, terrifying, traumatic, and always, always, always wrong it is. Each chapter features another layer of trauma.

My thoughts: Grenade is super-intense and heavy. I personally did not care for it. The reason why I did not like it probably (may not) bother you. So this one may still be a good fit for you.

One reason why I didn't particularly care for this one is the spiritualism. Maybe that is not the right word. There is a character that speaks with the dead, communes with the dead, gives messages from the dead, etc. There's also a strong belief in generational curses. It's just--for me--an odd read.

104. Quagmire Tiarello Couldn't Be Better

Quagmire Tiarello Couldn't Be Better. Mylisa Larsen. 2024. 240 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars] [mg fiction, realistic fiction]

First sentence: When Principal Deming asked Quagmire Tiarello what he was planning on doing with the first day of his summer vacation, Quag did not tell him that he planned on sleeping in until at least noon.

Premise/plot: Quagmire (Quag) is NOT having the best summer ever, or even a decent summer--not really. His mom's mental health is spiraling out of control [again] and Quag is barely holding the family together. He is spending some time with the girl of his dreams at art camp, all the while pretending to have a great interest in birds. But for the most part, he's dreading the ultimate crash that will come. Will he get the help he needs when it does?

My thoughts: I don't know that every library has a division of just two categories--a book is either J for juvenile or Teen for teen. I do wish there was an MG section. I can see why teens might not want to read about an eighth grader [almost ninth grader]. But the main character seems WAY too old for juvenile. Does it matter where it's filed? Maybe. Maybe not. Probably not. Just that this is definitely a book with teen characters dealing with hard life issues. That might be appealing for younger readers. I don't think the main "problem" is exclusively a problem that only teens deal with. Quagmire's mom's mental health is a MESS and it is really effecting Quagmire on every level. This is a coming of age story of sorts about how he finds the help he needs even if it isn't easy or natural to ask for help and be honest about how awful things are at home.

Monday, December 16, 2024

103. Velveteen Rabbit

103. The Velveteen Rabbit. Margery Williams. Illustrated by William Nicholson. 1922/2014. Random House. 48 pages. [Source: Review copy] [5 stars] [fantasy, children's classic]

First sentence: THERE was once a velveteen rabbit, and in the beginning he was really splendid. He was fat and bunchy, as a rabbit should be; his coat was spotted brown and white, he had real thread whiskers, and his ears were lined with pink sateen.

Premise/plot: Do you know what it is to be real? One little Christmas bunny will learn this and plenty of other life lessons in Margery Williams' classic tale The Velveteen Rabbit.

The Velveteen Rabbit opens with a young boy receiving a rabbit for a Christmas present. All is lovely for the rabbit that first day. But the toy is quickly forgotten. He becomes one toy of many, many, many toys. He's not exactly special to the boy or the other toys. In fact, I'd say the other toys bully him a bit. All except for the Skin Horse, the oldest toy in the nursery. It is this horse that tells the Rabbit all about being real, what it takes to be real, what it feels like, how it changes you, etc.

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real." "Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit. "Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt." "Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?" "It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." "I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled. "The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always." (5-8)

My thoughts: The Velveteen Rabbit is one of my favorite Christmas books. I love the nursery magic. I love the ending. It was originally published in 1922. The story and illustrations in this edition are original. This is a beautiful edition of the book. One of the best I've seen.

The Velveteen Rabbit was published several years before A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh and House at Pooh Corner. Chances are if you enjoy one, you'll enjoy the other.

Do you have a favorite toy-come-to-life fantasy?

Thursday, December 12, 2024

102. Christmas Eve Love Story

Christmas Eve love Story. Ginny Baird. 2024. 416 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars] [adult romance, mostly clean romance, holiday, Christmas, time loops, fantasy]

First sentence: Annie Jones hurried out of the snow and in through the employee entrance at Lawson's Finest in her red knitted pom-pom hat and peacoat, clocking in on her department store app, and---ahh!--almost mowing down Santa.

Premise/plot: Annie Jones is entering the twilight zone. Mostly. This holiday romance features a time loop [on Christmas Eve] where the heroine has twelve chances to make a good 'first impression' on security guard, Braden Tate. Of course, that isn't the only thing she must get right to make it to Christmas morning. There are twelve cycles of Christmas Eves. Some things change. Some things are inevitable.

My thoughts: I enjoyed this one. I did. Did it *need* to be 416 pages? Probably not. Honestly I think it would have been better at about 350-ish pages. However, the repetitiveness helped me at times get caught back up of the story. The truth is, I started this one in mid-November, it got moved in the library stack, I forgot about it completely, then picked it up yesterday and read the rest of the book. So I read the first half of the book in one sitting and the last half of the book in one sitting--but three weeks in between. Again, I enjoyed this one. If this was a movie, no doubt, I'd watch it--probably again and again depending on how well it's done.