Big Little Lies by Laine Moriarty

Big Little Lies by Laine Moriarty was published in 2014 and it's already been made into a movie series, which I have not watched. However, I enjoyed the novel immensely.  By the end of the first chapter, the reader knows that someone is going to die and that someone in the story either purposely or accidentally kills this person. What we don't know is who is going to die and who is going to do the killing.

I found this story charming, funny, dark, sad, and wonderful. I love the relationships between Celeste, Jane, and Madeline. I also like how different the relationships are between Madeline and her husband and Celeste and hers. Madeline's ex lives in her town, and his child will start kindergarten with her own little girl, so there is a lot of awkwardness.

There is plenty of conflict in this book. Moriarty shows the often complicated dynamic involved in blended families, with victims of abuse, and trying to parent teens. Moriarty also creates characters that come right off the page. These people, from the youngest to the oldest are well developed. If you want to know how to write characters well, read her writing. She knows her stuff. She writes some of the best children characters.

I was kept guessing until the big reveal at the end even though I had made several guesses. I stayed up way too late to read the ending because I just had to know who did it before I went to bed.

Read to a child today even if that child is you.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Lenny's Space by Kate Banks

Lenny's Space by Kate Banks was published in 2007, and what I really like about his story is Lenny, the main character. He is a boy whose mind runs incredibly fast, and this often causes him to get into trouble with his teacher and other grown-ups at school.

He's also a kind character. He makes a new friend early on in the story, and we find out that his friend, Van, is sick. Lenny is seeing a counselor at school to help him control his impulses, and this counselor also helps him with other issues in his life.

His mother is hand model and is never without gloves, this means he never gets to touch her skin or hold her hand. His father abandoned them when he was a toddler, so he has feelings of not being enough. Lenny is incredibly smart and creative.

I liked how realistic this story is and how the characters learn and grow.

I didn't expect to like this book because the cover is not great, from the font to the artwork, it could have been a better cover, but don't judge this book by its cover. This well-written story is about helping kids to feel okay with who and how they are. It also helps a child deal with grief and abandonment issues.

Read to a child today even if that child is you.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Spot the Plot: A Riddle Book of Book Riddles by J. Patrick Lewis and Lynn Munsinger

I found a like new copy of Spot the Plot at my local library book sale. The author is J. Patrick Lewis and the darling art was created by Lynn Munsinger.

Inside are thirteen riddles that tell the plot of a children's storybook. I knew all but one and that was because I've not read Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester.

For example:
Dear Mr. Farmer

This letter we're typing
goes under griping!
This barn is too cold,
not climate-controlled.
If we have to shiver,
we don't deliver.
No bedding? No butter.
No blankets? No udder.

Stop the madness.
End the battle.

Sincerely yours,

The Cattle

This is the plot of Click, Clack Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Betsy Lewin.

This book is great for little kids, but it would work wonderfully in a middle or high school classroom to teach about summarizing and how to create a riddle with a summary. It would also be fun for students to make riddles out of their own favorite children's books.

Storybooks are such a great tool to use in the classroom with older children. It allows them to revisit those sweet memories of being read to (if they were read to - if not that just breaks my heart). It also allows a lesson to not feel so stressful because picture books are so accessible.

Read to a child today even if that child is you.

These darling children, Mia and Mylo, sat out in the snow selling hot chocolate and art to raise money to buy books for the NICU babies. They were NICU babies born at 26 weeks weighing 1 lb 7 oz and 1 lb 11 oz. Now they are helping others and making our world a better place. Precious, precious children.

They delivered books to the NICU and gave the rest to our project. These are the books they sent to me, and each book has their picture and story on it.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Name that Dog by Peggy Archer

I collect poetry and alphabet books, and this book is a combination of both. Name that Dog by Peggy Archer and illustrated by Stephanie Buscema was published in 2010. Each letter of the alphabet has the name of the dog, a poem to go with it, and cute picture of a dog to match. 

A is a yellow lab named Aspen. Here is the picture for B and the words of the poem:

Bandit
My dog has two black patches
that cover up his eyes. 
He sneaks around from room to room
a bandit in disguise, 

Stealing socks and slippers, 
baseball caps and soap, 
garden gloves, and wooden spoons, 
keys and jumping rope. 

So if there something missing

like a book or cowboy boot,

just take a look by Bandit's bed- 

that's where he keeps his loot. 

The last page has a poem about naming a dog and the last stanza says: "With all the ways to name your dog, when all is said and done, whatever name you give your dog will be the perfect one."

Read to a child today even if that child is you.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Chengdu Could Not, Would Not Fall Asleep by Barney Saltzberg

Chengdu Could Not, Would Not Fall Asleep by Barney Saltzberg was published in 2014. I discovered this book because Aria received one for Christmas, so I went right over to Seagull Book and bought one for my library.

This is such a cute bedtime or anytime book. Chengdu is a panda and the look on his face is just what I imagine I look like when I can not fall asleep.

The book begins with everyone in the bamboo patch being asleep except for Chengdu. He turns, he tosses, and he twitches, "but he could not, would not fall asleep."There are fold out pages that show the things that Chengdu does to try to get himself to sleep. When at last he gets to sleep, there is someone else still awake.

This is a cute book with a surprise at the end and the art is darling.

Read to a child today even if that child is you.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

The Book of Mistakes by Corinna Luyken

I found an absolutely beautiful picture book called The Book of Mistakes by Corinna Luyken. Published in 2017, this book has few words, but the art is fantastic. The first page reads, "It started" and the facing page has the picture of a half drawn face. The next page says, "with one mistake." and the facing page shows the face more drawn but with one eye way too big. 

"Making the other eye even bigger was another mistake." Now the face is more drawn and the eyes still don't match. 

The next page says, "But the glasses - they were a good idea."

Each page shows and tells which things were mistakes and which things were good ideas as each page gets more and more detailed with beautiful illustrations that often look like ink, but they have splashes of color. The book ends at the beginning in a magical, beautiful way. 

I love this book because it shows that it's okay to mess up and often our biggest and best ideas come from other ideas that didn't quite work out the way we hoped.

Read to a child today even if that child is you.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy was published in 1891 and is forward thinking for its time. I read this years ago and recently re-read it. 

Tess is from a working class family. Her father is a peddler and a hard drinker, and his drinking causes her to need to work for a family who her father believes is related to them, but in reality they are not. Alec ends up raping Tess and a child is created by this attack. 

In her time period, she is considered ruined. Alec wants to love and keep her, but she despises him. Because she will not marry him, she is viewed as the one at fault. 

She moves away from her home and works on a farm where she meets Angel Clare, a man who would be her savoir but will he accept the truth of her past?

This book frustrates me to no end. The views of society toward women at that time were so much worse than they are today. All of the men in this book, except for the farmer who she works for when she first leaves home, need a good shaking. They are selfish and products of their time, but it makes them cold, heartless, and more grief is caused than needs to be. 

The ending of the book was not unexpected, but like the first time I read it, it makes me angry. 

This book is well written and worth reading. 

Read to a child today even if that child is you.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Bad News for Outlaws by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie was published in 2009 and won the Coretta Scott King award. I am a sucker for books about people, places, or things I've never heard of, and because this is a picture book with amazing pictures, it came home with me.

The subtitle of this book is: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal. I'd never heard of him. He was a Black Deputy U.S Marshal during a time when many white people did not like the idea of Black Americans being anything other than servants or slaves.

Bass Reeves was a slave. He escaped his owner (that is so awful for a human to be owned) during the Civil War and hid in Indian Territory. He was accepted by some of the tribes. After the Civil War, he and his wife moved to Arkansas just outside Indian Territory and had eleven children.

Squatters and other outlaws went into Indian Territory even though it was illegal for them to be there. They wanted government protection even though they were breaking the law. Bass Reeves became a deputy for Judge Isaac C Parker, and Reeves never failed to get his man.

Reeves was taller and stronger than the average man. He was a crack shot with a gun, so much so that he was banned from entering contests at fairs and picnics. He always tried to capture the fugitives he hunted alive. He was incredibly intelligent and found ways to capture fugitives without injury to himself or others. In the course of hunting down and arresting over 3,000 fugitives, he killed only fourteen men in the line of duty, and those because they gave him no choice but to use deadly force. Some fugitives turned themselves in rather than face him when they found out he had their warrant because he always got his man.

The art in this book is wonderful. Christie does well to capture emotion and mood in his art.

This is a great book for any elementary school child who is looking for someone to do a biography on. Nelson includes a photograph of Reeves, vocabulary of western words students may be unfamiliar with, a timeline of Reeves' life, websites to conduct more research, more information about Judge Isaac C Parker and Indian Territory, and a bibliography. All of these things make this an excellent book for the classroom and for home use.

Read to a child today even if that child is you.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng was published in 2017

Blurb from Barnes and Noble: In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother – who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teen daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town--and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides.  Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs. 

I listened to the audio version of this book that was narrated by Jennifer Lim and enjoyed this story. Ng weaves a story of identity, of how mothers interact with daughters, and how those interactions can create little fires everywhere.

The story begins with Isabelle burning down her family home, and Ng doesn't let go of the reader until the very end. I loved the relationships between Isabelle and Mia and Pearl and Elena. I loved Mia's art and the role it plays in the story. There is symbolism and connections throughout the story. I look forward to reading this one again to pick up all the pieces I missed while trying to figure things out. This book shows that often we don't see what we have until it is nearly too late.

Read to a child today even if that child is you.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

A Map of Days by Ransom Riggs

A Map of Days by Ransom Riggs was published in 2018 and is the fourth book of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children. I read this in one sitting and stayed up way too late to do so. In this installment, Jacob has gone home to Florida, but his parents think he's lost his mind and are going to have him committed to a mental hospital.

Miss Peregrine and her charges come to his rescue and now they all must fight battles in current day and past America. Of course there are still time loops in America, and Jacob learns even more about his grandfather and the dangers he fought for peculiars in America - a place that lacks ymbrynes to protect them. I love the growth in the children as they fight to grow up and become autonomous from the ymbrynes. I like the new characters that are introduced and look forward the next installment.

This series is a perfect Hi/lo series because of the white space, pictures, and content matter for older teens.

Alysen brought over this cute book for the NICU. I love getting Spanish books. It's important for babies to be read to in their home language.

Read to a child today even if that child is you.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk

Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk was published in 2017. I enjoyed this book because I learned about Penikese Island off of Massachusetts that was once a leper colony.

I listened to the audio version that was narrated by Jorjeana Marie. The story is told from Crow's point of view. As a newborn, someone tucked her into a boat and sent her out to sea. She drifted to a fictional island off Cuttyhunk and was found by an artist named Osh. He named her Crow because she was hoarse from crying and sounded like a crow.

The people who live on her island refuse to touch or associate with her because they worry she has drifted in from Penikese and is infected with leprosy. This story is Crow's attempt to find her roots.

I liked the growth in her character and in the characters around her. I love learning new things, so I did some research on Penikese. It has served many purposes throughout the years from nature preserve to leper colony, a mental hospital, and a place for troubled youth.

This book is just right for middle grade and middle school readers and the winner of the 2018 Scott O'Dell award for historical fiction.

My friend, Alysen, brought over these cute books for our NICU book project. Thank you so much!

Read to a child today even if that child is you.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.