Book Review: Death of a Tom Turkey (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery, #18) by Lee Hollis

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Death of a Tom Turkey (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery, #18)  by Lee Hollis  opens with Tom Farley and his neighbors in a snit because he's the last holdout to sell his house to a property developer who wants to build a resort. When Tom is shot at a pre-Thanksgiving community gathering and hospitalized, Hayley Powell puts her amateur sleuthing skills to good use. Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishers for providing me with an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of this cozy mystery. I received a copy of this book for free in exchange of my honest opinion and review of the story. I loved the fact that this latest installment of the Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery  series had a theme around the Thanksgiving holiday and included live turkeys in the plot. It was good to visit some familiar characters. Since this is the eighteenth installment in the series, Lee Hollis didn't go into much detail of the background of those reoccurring characters; however, she...
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Book Review: Troop Esme by Lourdes Heuer and Marissa Valdez

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NetGalley Children's Book Review of Troop Esme by Lourdes Heuer and Marissa Valdez
Troop Esme by Lourdes Heuer and Marissa Valdez is an illustrated chapter book for young children between the ages of three and eight. It opens with Wendall stopping by Esme's apartment to sell boxes of his Badger Troop Cookies to earn a badge. Esme thinks it would be a great idea to start her own troop called Troop Esme so she can help Wendall achieve his goal.

I'd like to thank NetGalley for providing me an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of Troop Esme for free in exchange for my honest review. Although I'm not the target audience for this book, I knew I just had to read and review it because my cat that passed away was named Esme.

First and foremost, the pacing of the story was fantastic. It keeps the reader engaged and wanting more. Parents, teachers, siblings, etc. won't get bored reading the story for the umpteenth time. The style of writing reminds me of a book called Jellybeans for Breakfast that I read and loved as a child. Needless to say, I absolutely feel in love with Troop Esme. The illustrations are fantastic as well. It gives the reader a lot of different visualizations to complete the story.

Secondly, the story teaches children a lesson about helping others without it feeling like it's teaching a lesson. It gives adults the perfect opportunity to have a discussion afterwards and even put together a project of helping out someone, even if it's a simple as taking the mail up to an elderly person's front door. 

This is definitely a book that I will recommend to teachers and friends with children between the ages of three and eight. Five out of five stars is what I give Troop Esme by Lourdes Heuer and Marissa Valdez.

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