What I Reviewed At Becky's Book Reviews:
The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus #2). Rick Riordan. 2011. Hyperion. 525 pages.
I'll Be There. Holly Goldberg Sloan. 2011. Little, Brown. 392 pages.
Sparrow Road. Sheila O'Connor. 2011. Penguin. 246 pages.
What I Reviewed At Young Readers:
Llama Llama Home With Mama. Anna Dewdney. 2011. Penguin. 40 pages.
Mary Poppins Comes Back. P.L. Travers. 1935. Harcourt. 315 pages.
What I Reviewed At Operation Actually Read Bible:
Ten Lies About God And How You Might Already Be Deceived. Erwin Lutzer. 2000. Thomas Nelson. 238 pages. (Newly reprinted as paperback by Kregel publications in January 2009).
© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Library Loot: Second Trip in November
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Muddle Earth by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
Johnny Swanson by Eleanor Updale
The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens
Perchance to Dream by Lisa Mantchev
Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
Here There Be Dragons by James A. Owen
Bed-knob and broomstick by Mary Norton
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Death of a Cad by M.C. Beaton
Love Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare
A Cars Christmas by Melissa Lagonegro
Leftover Loot:
Tom Trueheart and the Land of Dark Stories by Ian Beck
The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley
The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill
Gideon the Cutpurse: Being the First Part of the Gideon Trilogy by Linda Buckley-Archer
The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
The Silmarillion by J.R.R Tolkien
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
September by Rosamunde Pilcher
Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Mary Poppins Opens the Door by P.L. Travers
Mary Poppins in the Park by P.L. Travers
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol and Other Stories by Charles Dickens
Here Lies Linc by Delia Ray
Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.
© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Sparrow Road (MG)
In the shadowed glow of headlights the old pink house looked huge, rambling like the mansions on Lake Michigan. A fairy tale tower rose high above the roof. The pillared front porch sagged.
Raine, our heroine, did NOT want to spend the summer living at Sparrow Road, a private retreat for artists. But her mom has taken a job there--as cook--and that's the end of that. No amount of whining will change that. Soon after her arrival she learns how very, very strict the rules are. The NO-TALKING rule seems especially harsh--and it's in fact most of the day, six days a week. There's also no TV, no Internet, no phones. So what's a girl to do?
Raine charms many (though not all) of the artists at Sparrow Road. A few really befriend her and support and encourage her. Raine learns the secret history of the place. How Sparrow Road was an orphanage for many, many years. She sees the attic where the boys slept--sees the remnants of that past, that existence. And what she sees makes her curious and inspired...
She decides to write a story told from the perspective of one of the orphan boys....
And that is just part of this one. For Raine has some growing of her own to do. Her mom took the job for a very, very important reason. A potentially life-changing reason...
I liked this one. I did. I thought it was a very good book. I liked the characters. I really loved some of them actually! I thought the story was very sweet, very moving.
© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
I'll Be There (YA)
The days of the week meant nothing to him. Except Sunday. Because on Sundays he listened to pipe organs and pianos.
How resilient is the human spirit? How powerful is love? I'll Be There is a wonderfully bittersweet novel that answers those two questions. Readers meet Sam and Riddle Border, the two sons of a horrible, horrible man. Riddle has been sick most of his life--and needlessly so since medicine could greatly improve his life--what joy he has he gains from drawing extremely detailed mechanical pictures. His older brother, Sam, doesn't believe in God but takes comfort in church music whenever, wherever he can. They move a lot. His father is more than a little anti-government, anti-society (and that's just the start of it.)
One Sunday, Sam slips into the back row of a Unitarian church. There is a singer, Emily Bell, who is trying her best--and not really hiding her nerves--to sing "I'll Be There." She's decided to focus on one person, one face on the back row. And guess who that would be?!
Sam feels that Emily (though of course he doesn't know her name just yet) is singing this song just for him. And what they share in those few minutes changes everything...
Sam is strange--to be sure--especially to Emily's family and friends. He won't talk about his Dad. He doesn't have a phone. He won't give anyone his address. He won't talk about his past...at all. He doesn't go to school. He doesn't say much of anything about himself...but there is something about him that Emily loves and treasures.
This novel is bittersweet, it goes to some dark places before the end. But it was worth every intense moment...
What a great book! Very emotional, very touching!
© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
Monday, November 07, 2011
The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus #2)
The snake-haired ladies were starting to annoy Percy. They should have died three days ago when he dropped a crate of bowling balls on them at the Napa Bargain Mart. They should have died two days ago when he ran over them with a police car in Martinez. They definitely should have died this morning when he cut off their heads in Tilden Park.
I loved this book. I just LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this book. The Son of Neptune is the sequel to The Lost Hero. In the first book, a new hero, Jason Grace, is introduced to readers. He with two other newbies (Piper and Leo) are trying to reach the relative safety of the Camp Half Blood, the Greek camp. They arrive, of course, meet everyone--including some characters that we know and love--and are sent on a big, big, big mission of their own.
The second book stars Percy Jackson. He is trying to make his way to camp--but not the Greek camp that is his home away from home. No, when readers meet Percy he can't remember who he is--not really. Though he has a very strong but very vague memory of Annabeth. No, he's on his way to the Roman camp for demi-gods.
This book is all about Roman mythology. We see how the sons and daughters of Roman gods and goddesses do things. Is this Roman camp anything like Camp Half-Blood?! Percy becomes close with two campers in particular Frank and Hazel. In fact, the story is told in alternating perspectives of the three.
I really, really, really loved reading all three perspectives. I loved the new characters, the new mythologies, the new stories. I loved the action and adventure of it. I thought it was an exciting read. It was just a great, great book!
I would definitely recommend this one. But I'd start with the first book of the first series, The Lightning Thief, and go from there.
© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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