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Showing posts from September, 2020

Book Review: The Little Bee by Nicola Killen

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The Little Bee  by Nicola Killen  is a children's picture book about a girl name Ollie who follows a bee to a magical, secret garden. But, the next day, the beautiful garden was gone, and the little girl misses her new friends. What will she do? This beautiful book has an expected publication date of May 5, 2026. I'd like to thank NetGalley, Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, and Beach Lane Books for approving my request for a digital Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of The Little Bee . I received a copy for free in exchange for my honest review. Nicola Killen wrote such a beautifully worded story that I found myself immersed in the story, and I'm not even the target audience. It's a charming tale that should encourage children to explore nature and make them want to plant their own secret garden.  Equally beautiful were the illustrations. I found myself taking the time to actually look a the pictures as I read. It's a great story to read   at bedtime  with ch...

Book Review: The Surprise Party (Fear Street, #2) by R.L. Stine

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The Surprise Party (Fear Street, #2)  by R.L. Stine.   After Evan died in the Fear Street woods, everyone changed, and Ellen moved away. When Meg Dalton heard Ellen was coming for a visit, she thought it would be a great idea to throw Ellen a surprise party. With party plans under way, Meg begins receiving threats to cancel the party. Who would go to such drastic extremes? As a part of rereading my way through my childhood, the Fear Street  books by R.L. Stine were a must read for me, and The Surprise Party (Fear Street, #2)  brought back some great memories for me. Mentions of trapper keepers, Molly Ringwald, Daryl Hannah, and Esprit clothing gave me all the feels. I wonder if kids today even know what a trapper keeper is and have ever heard of the Esprit clothing line? I only vaguely remembered the storyline of The Surprise Party  and thought I had the "bad guy" figured out from the get go only to find out I was wrong. How can I be so wrong about ...

Book Review: The New Girl (Fear Street, #1) by R.L. Stine

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The New Girl (Fear Street, #1) by R.L. Stine starts out with Cory Brooks clowning around in the cafeteria and noticing the new girl Anna Corwin. She's ethereal with her blue eyes and blond hair, and her pale skin that seems almost ghostly. Cory can't get her out of his mind and starts losing sleep and ignoring his friends. As quickly as she appeared at Shadyside High School, she disappears just as fast. Feeding his obsession with Anna, Cory goes by Anna's house on Fear Street despite the horror stories of people who live there.   For whatever reason, I decided to pick up my copy of R.L. Stine's The New Girl , which is the first book he wrote in the Fear Street series and was originally published in 1989. Even though this was the first book in the series, it was one of the ones I read later on in high school. I don't remember exactly how I first came across his books, but I fell in love with them around the time I was thirteen. As I was rereading The New Gi...