The Manor by Gilly Macmillan

4.5 stars Thriller

Ahh! Oh, this was wicked.  Wicked on some many different levels.  I really enjoyed how this book was executed as it dragged me along, examining each character, as they each wore the badge as murderer. 

Childhood sweethearts, Nicole and Tom won the lottery and were now finally enjoying their dream home.  The state-of-the-art smart house was almost too smart for this couple as they settled into their new, quiet lifestyle.  Arriving home from shopping, Nicole finds the stereo shattering the silence and her husband Tom, floating face-down in their pool.  What?  Already?  Nicole finds help from neighbors Olly and Sasha, and Olly drags Tom’s body out of the water.  It’s Olly comment about his wife that has me wondering what secret this couple is keeping from the rest of the world and what their link is, to their new neighbors.

Reading from a journal of Anna’s and the present day, this dual timeline mystery begins immediately as you start to put each character under the magnifying glass.  As the investigation gets underway, Nicole stays with her neighbors at the Manor, as the Barn seems too terrifying to stay there alone.  Nicole becomes friends with Kitty, the Manor’s housekeeper.  I liked Kitty as she was a character that was very down-to-earth, and I felt she was straightforward.  When an old friend comes to stay with Nicole at the Barn, he brings with him more twists than a branch has. 

There are lots of twists and turns with this story, games of cat and mouse, and discoveries that when you uncover, you didn’t know that they were buried.  Great story but I didn’t care for the ending.   4.5 stars

“Afraid of them and afraid of being without them, she was happy to agree to anything.”

The Guest by B. A. Paris

4 stars Mystery

What’s eating Gabriel?  Since finding Charlie in the quarry, Gabriel just hasn’t been the same.  While Gabriel was out running, he found the 18-year-old dying inside the quarry and now, he won’t discuss what happened.  Experiencing burnout from work, Gabriel suggested a vacation but now, Iris and Gabriel have arrived home a day early, to Laure setting up house inside their home.  Sure, she’s a good friend but wearing Iris’ clothes and rearranging their house is pushing it a bit too far.  Such a great start to this book, so many unanswered questions to pull me in.

Laure’s marriage is falling apart, so she took refuge in Iris and Gabriel’s home. Part of her story makes sense, but I felt she was really putting on a good show for parts of it.  Pierre, Laure’s husband, was a man who preferred to remain childless yet now he claims that he’s a father.  He’s got a long story behind this one so I guess you can believe what he’s saying or not, but I had my doubts.  Laure feels betrayed and she plays her role as a victim very well.  Since they are such close friends, why hasn’t Pierre reached out to Gabriel?  Deciding that Laure can continue to stay with Iris and Gabriel, the mystery begins to deepen. 

Lauren started to annoy me as she was pushing herself onto everyone around her.  She thought she was being clever and sneaky but dang, she irritated me.  As we got inside Gabriel head, the author helps us figure out what’s bothering him which leads to more mystery.  Then, there are the deaths.  Deaths everywhere.  Deaths and secrets are always an interesting and intriguing combination. With well-planned out and executed performances, for which some of them I never saw coming, it was a book that spiked my emotions. There were quite a few characters to keep track of during this story, but I liked that the author pulls the whole story together in the end and fully explains everything in the final pages. I’m a huge B.A. Paris fan as I enjoy the way she brings me into her stories and the way she twists her characters up.  I don’t feel that this book was as intense as previous B.A. Paris books have been, but I enjoyed it for the characters and the mystery elements pulled me along.  4 stars

What’s Inside a Bird’s Nest by Rachel Ignotofsky

5 stars Children’s Nonfiction

Wowza!  This is a fantastic resource.   Packed with lots of interesting and educational information, this book is a true gem.   If you’re looking for specific information or just want to read about birds, this book is one that you should definitely pick up.  A reader-friendly treasure, this nonfiction book speaks to the reader, pumping out information about these feathered friends from many different topics including but not limited to:  their relationships, habitats, their anatomy, and it even covers all the different names of the feathers on their bodies.    

I liked how the book laid out the information on the pages and how they used different fonts within the pages.   There is a large selection of realistic birds drawn on the pages (with the bird’s name written beside it) and the book has a great flow to it.  What might you learn:

How important the chalaza is to an egg.

The difference between an altricial and a precocial.

How do birds stay safe and communicate.

What are contour and flight feathers and their purpose.

Migration patterns for 6 different birds – did you know that 40% of birds migrate?

That birds have a special sense within them that helps them navigate.

What you can do to help birds.

I really enjoyed this book and think this is a fantastic book.  This is one book that will be read repeatedly as there’s lots of information inside it.    5 stars

Luigi, The Spider Who Wanted to Be a Kitten by Michelle Knudsen

5 stars Children’s Picture Book

Awe, how sweet.  What a warm, loving story about a spider and a human.  Betty had always wanted a kitten so when she came across the very unusual-looking kitten in her living room she was very happy to welcome him into her home.   Naming him Luigi, she immediately set about making him comfortable, starting with a nice breakfast.   Meanwhile, the hairy, eight-legged spider knows the truth, he’s not a kitten.   Betty does such an amazing job caring for Luigi that he starts enjoying his new life and he decides that he’s going to pretend that he’s a kitten. 

He likes the meals that Betty makes, the bed that she created for him, and he likes playing and hanging out with her.   Life with Betty is good.

Had Betty lived a secluded life, this charade could have continued but Betty has company come over to the house.  Excited to share Luigi with her friends, you can imagine the reaction from her friends.   

What a cute story as Betty adopts the spider into her life.  The love and care that she gives him, and his response is sweet.  I loved how he accepted all the changes and enjoyed them so much that he wanted to adopt them.  When the other humans made an appearance, Luigi became nervous as he was worried how this would change his life and it did, but as the ending of the book shows, sometimes things work out for everyone.    5 stars

One Little Leaf by Molly Littleboy

5 stars Children’s Board Book – Nonfiction

There’s lots to explore and learn in this book for children and adults.  Each two-page spread carries a theme from leaves to senses, to seeds and lots more.   The pages are packed with information relating to those individual themes but also on these pages are many tabs on cutout items, that are to be lifted which contain more information to read.     

On the Magic of Leaves pages, there are 15 different leaves featured from cedar, yew, horse chestnut, redwood, elder, oak, aspen and many others.  On the fir, sycamore, and linden leaves, there are cut-outs for fingers to hook the cut-outs of these leaves so that you can lift them open to read more about how special leaves are.       I liked that most of the two-page spreads have 4 or more tabs to open. 

Did you know:

“Just one tree trunk can make 10,000 sheets of paper. Tiny pieces of wood are mixed with water to create pulp, which is pressed through a paper machine.  We also use these tiny pieces of wood to make toilet paper.” 

“Leaves have skeletons, just like humans!”

“Sap is a sticky liquid that helps carry water and nutrients from the soil to every part of the tree- just like blood does in our bodies.”

Great illustrations make this a great resource.  I liked the variety of text fonts used in the book and I enjoyed all the different varieties of species that they included and how they also identified them in the book.  The use of color and the attention to detail in the illustrations was wonderful.   This is a great book for young children interested in nature and for those who are just learning about it.   5 stars                             

The Halloween Tree by Susan Montanari

4.5 stars Children’s Picture Book – Halloween

An adorable, sweet children’s story about a grouchy tree who ends up having a change of heart.   Young sapling tree started out his life amongst the Christmas trees at a Christmas tree farm.  This young sapling decided that he didn’t like the lights nor did he like the people or decorations that adored the Christmas trees around him.  He decided right then and there that he wasn’t ever going to move nor was he ever going to become a Christmas tree.   

The other trees around him grew in excitement and in size over the years and they became beautiful Christmas trees and moved on.   Young sapling though, his limbs became twisted and knotty.   Since he wouldn’t allow any green needles on his branches, his limbs were bare.   He grew into a large, bare tree.   A neighborhood grew up around him and the children fell in love with young sapling. 

They climbed all over him and his branches became their escape.  As winter arrives, I think young sapling is having second thoughts about being a Christmas tree.  As the years pass, young sapling heart changes as the children climb his limbs.  

He sure doesn’t look like a Christmas tree but how did he become a Halloween tree?    I liked the young sapling’s attitude and his determination.  It was as if he wanted to become the opposite of a beautiful Christmas tree yet the children in the neighborhood liked him.   They enjoyed playing on him and they accepted him for who he was.  He slowly started to change as the children played on him, enjoying the time the kids were with him.  The illustrations are colorful and busy and have lots of detail.  4.5 stars

That Egg is Mine! by Liz Goulet Dubois

4.5 stars Children’s Reader

Whose egg, is it?  This beautiful blue egg with white spots could be either Duck’s or Cluck’s because these friends each lay eggs and they both have these beautiful blue markings on them. 

Duck and Cluck each give an account of why the egg is theirs but it’s when the egg hatches open, the friends truly find out who really owns the egg.  A big surprise for both Duck and Cluck.

It’s a combination of a graphic novel and picture book as some pages are made up of text boxes and others are not.  This makes for a great book for a young reader with simple text and large print.   The illustrations are colorful, they complement the text, and readers can reference them to tell the story.   I liked how Duck trusted Cluck to look at the egg but when Cluck took off carrying the egg, the frantic look on Duck’s face said it all.  Later, as the egg cracks open, the faces on the friends as they stare at the new baby are comical and the ending is funny.   I think this is a great book on solving problems and listening.  Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Kids and Liz Goulet Dubois for an arc copy of this book which I received in exchange for an honest opinion. 4.5 stars

Anxious by Luciana DeLuca

3.5 stars Children’s Picture Book

I like the illustrations in this book, and I liked how it helps describe this feeling.  The girl in the book is confused and overwhelmed with how she is feeling, and this book helps explain what is happening to her. 

Many of the pages in the book are devoted to explaining how the girl feels (the world her dark and is moving too fast & loud, she feels pulled in different directions and rushed, she’s scared, and she feels small, etc.) yet the solution to help her is only on a few pages (deep breathe, ask for help and a hug) which I didn’t like. 

I thought the solution should have been expanded to show exactly how they would be beneficial as the child reading this book might like that. 

  There are additional resources in the back of the book:  A Note to Readers, A Note To Adults, Resources for Caregivers that are helpful.  3.5

Walter’s Wonderful Web by Tim Hopgood

5 stars Children’s Picture Book

Walter just wants his spider webs to look just like his friends.  His webs are always wibbly-wobbly and when the wind blows, they blow away while his friends webs are perfect, and they can withstand any wind condition.   It’s not that Walter doesn’t try because boy, does he try!   Walter construct web after web, creating this shape and that shape but when the wind blows, they all come tumbling down.  Ahhh! 

Finally, Walter decides to put all of the shapes that he has created into one huge web creating a masterpiece and it’s amazing!  Circles, triangles, rectangles, squares, and diamonds are woven into this beautiful work of art, but will it be strong enough for the wind? 

What a fun, entertaining story about a determined spider and how he tries to solve his problem.   I enjoyed how he used all the different shapes to construct his webs and how he continued to create the webs until he got the right combination.   Walter is a big black spider, and you can see him smiling and his disappointment throughout the book. 

In Walter’s final masterpiece, I had my grandson try to find all the different shapes Walter incorporated which was fun.  Cute story and educational too.   5 stars 

I Love You Like a Pig by Mac Brown

2 stars Children’s Picture Book

Really?  I enjoy Mac Barnett books, I really do but this one, I don’t know what I just read.  It’s supposed to be about “mapcap ways we love one another” but “I’m lucky like a window,” and “You’re funny like a fossil,” just didn’t convey crazy ways that people love one another to me.   As I looked at the illustrations, they helped tell the story, but the examples used in this book weren’t wacky ideas that I believe that kids would love and appreciate.  I’m not a fan of this book.   2 stars