Book Review: Flora and the Peacocks by Molly Idle

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Flora and the Peacocks cover imageFlora finds two new friends she wants to dance with, peacocks who love to show their beautiful tails. But when she spreads out her fan and steps towards them, one responds, and the other grows jealous. Then the jealous one turns friendly, and the other gets mad.

As Flora dances, opening and closing her fan in rhythm to when the peacocks open and close their tails, she finds a way to bring all three of them together.

Flora and the Peacocks by Molly Idle is the latest story about the little girl who loves to dance and make friends with animals. There are no words in the book, so parents are free to invent whatever backstory they’d like to go along with the action. And as groups of three often have problems getting along, the story may open up talks of personal situations.

Even without that connection, children are sure to love opening and closing the paper flaps attached to some of the fans and peacock tails. The blue and green color coordination between Flora’s outfit and the peacocks is also pleasing to look at.

I recommend Flora and the Peacocks for ages 3 to 5.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Try This Idea to Keep Your Kids Turning Pages All Summer

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Here’s an idea to get your kids reading more this summer – help them find a series they like. The right series will send them looking for the next books as soon as they turn the last page of the one they’re reading.

Sarah Mlynowski, an author who loved reading series when she was growing up, describes the appeal of reading multiple books about the same characters this way:

“The characters in the series become your friends,” she says, “and you want to spend time with them and you want to spend time in their world.”

Mlynowski says she wants readers of the series novels she writes to have a similar experience.

Here are a few ideas of series for your kids to check out. Ask your librarian or helpful workers at your local bookstore for more suggestions.

Ages 8 to 12
Whatever After: Genie in a Bottle cover imageWhatever After by Sarah Mlynowski – Abby and her brother Jonah step through a magic mirror in their basement and into a new fairy tale in each book of this series. What follows adds a twist, or two, to familiar stories.

Camp Rolling Hills by Stacy Davidowitz – This new series (two books so far) follow the adventures of tweens as they return to summer camp, meet up with old friends, make some new ones, and generally have fun.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan – The Lightning Thief started off this series about half human, half god Percy Jackson, who goes on a quest to prevent a war among the Greek gods.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum – In the book that inspired the movie, Dorothy really does travel to Oz and back. She returns again and again in this classic series that follow her on adventures with all sorts of fantastical creatures in the Land of Oz.

Book Review: Ricky’s Atlas by Judith L. Li, Illustrations by M. L. Herring

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Ricky Zamora loves the high desert area where his aunt, uncle, and cousins live. The terrain is much drier than the town west of the Cascade Mountains where he lives. But he arrives for a visit during a thunderstorm, and he gets to see how rain can bring both life-giving water and danger when a forest fire breaks out. As his uncle and cousin help neighbors and support the firefighters, Ricky learns a lot about how plants and animals adapt to fire-prone environments.

Ricky’s Atlas by Judith L. Li is a companion book to Ellie’s Log, which explored a wet forest ecology. In this book, Ricky’s friend Ellie gets involved too, helping Ricky and his cousins map the recovery of plants and animals in an area burned by a previous fire. The fictionalized story helps kids learn about all kinds of real-life facts, such as how to measure distance from lightning and thunder, why some trees need fire to spread their seeds, and what the lines on a topography map mean.

Some of M. L Herring’s illustrations are journal-style, and they could inspire kids to make their own observations. Others showcase sidebar-type facts that go with the story. With its combination of fiction and nonfiction, Ricky’s Atlas has appeal to readers aged 9 to 12 who love either or both genres.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Mother-Daughter Book Camp by Heather Vogel Frederick

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Mother-Daughter Book Camp cover imageEverybody’s favorite mother-daughter book club girls, Emma, Jess, Megan, Cassidy and Becca, are all grown up and graduated from high school. But they get to have one more adventure together before they all go to college in the fall when they sign up to be counselors at Camp Lovejoy.

The girls have come so far from the days when readers first met them and they were forced into being in a mother-daughter book club together with their moms. They reminisce about those days and the good and bad times they shared in previous books, when each girl faced challenging times. Even Becca recognizes how she’s matured, and why she wasn’t part of the group at first.

In Mother-Daughter Book Camp, the last book of Heather Vogel Frederick’s The Mother-Daughter Book Club series, the girls take on the challenge of ushering young campers through six weeks of summer camp. When confronted with tears and homesickness, they turn to what they know to be comforting: books! They start their own book club with the campers, reading Understood Betsy, a classic from 1916 by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. The girls are each dealing with personal challenges as well, and they help each other out along the way.

Of course, since it’s camp, there are lots of fun times too, and the girls all lead activities that play to their strengths. It’s a fitting send off to characters and a series so many readers have come to know and love over the years. I am sure I’m not alone in saying I’ll miss knowing what the girls are up to as well as what they have chosen to read in their group.

High school graduation and the summer before college is such a time for nostalgia and wishful thinking in general, and Mother-Daughter Book Camp lets readers revel in it. It’s fun to think of each character going off to make her future happen, even though we’ll be the ones imagining what those futures will be.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Book Review: Summer of Lost and Found by Rebecca Behrens

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Summer of Lost and Found cover imageNell’s summer is all planned out to spend at a tennis camp with her best friend. But then her dad goes away and she has to leave for North Carolina, where her botanist mother has a temporary research job. While Nell worries that her parents may be about to separate, she gets drawn into a centuries old mystery about what happened to the Lost Colony on Roanoke. Together with Ambrose, a strange boy she believes is a historical re-enactor, she searches for clues the colonists may have left behind.

Summer of Lost and Found by Rebecca Behrens touches on lots of issues as it takes readers on a journey of historical discovery. Nell faces several friendship concerns. She’s worried that her best friend back home is replacing her with a new friend while she’s gone. She resists making friends with a local girl her age in North Carolina, who she withholds information from and competes with in finding clues. Ambrose is her friend, but he sometimes acts strangely and seems to be harboring a secret. Nell’s worries about her parents lead her to engage in risky behavior in order to bring them together. It’s an interesting weave of problems juxtaposed with the mystery.

Summer of Lost and Found is a great book for mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 9 to 12, and a great book for any young reader to pick up at the beginning of summer. It may just inspire them to look around their own hometowns for mysteries to look into.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Upside Down Magic: Sticks & Stones by Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins

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Upside Down Magic-Sticks & Stones cover imageNory has trouble controlling her magic. She can transform into a kitten, but she can’t hold the shape, so she ends up with the head of a goat, which makes her a koat. What she has is called upside down magic, and along with a few other kids who are struggling to control their own powers, she’s in a special class at Dunwiddle Magic School. But when strange things start happening in the halls, the other kids want to blame the students in her class and get them kicked out of the school forever. If Nory could find out what’s really causing the strange occurrences, she might find a way to help her group fit in.

Upside Down Magic: Sticks & Stones is the second in the series by Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins. The action is fun and funny, but it also addresses some serious issues that can help young readers get insight into what it’s like to be different from your peers. With the advice of her teacher/tutor, Nory signs up for a sport. And even though she’s not great at it, she meets other kids outside of class. They all benefit when they get to know each other and can see each other as people instead of stereotypes.

Anyone who has ever felt the awkwardness of being different (pretty much anyone at one time or another) is sure to enjoy Upside Down Magic. I recommend it for readers aged 9 to 12 (and their moms).

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Camp Rolling Hills by Stacy Davidowitz

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Camp Rolling Hills cover imageSlimey loves everything about Camp Rolling Hills, and she can’t wait to spend her summer there. Robert, aka, Smelly, is a first timer, and he would surely be at baseball camp if his parents hadn’t made him go to Rolling Hills while they try to patch up their marriage.

When Slimey and Smelly meet, they are instantly attracted. Soon, they are confiding things in each other they feel they can’t tell anyone else. But after a misunderstanding at the camp dance, the boys’ cabin and the girls’ cabin trade pranks in an escalating war. It may be up to Slimey and Smelly to patch things up with the two groups.

Camp Rolling Hills by Stacy Davidowitz is a great summer read for children aged 8 to 11, whether they attend summer camp or not. Davidowitz captures the mix of emotions that can arise when kids get to spend weeks at a time with each other in a place where they may experience camaraderie, acceptance, rejection, loneliness, and more.

At times laugh-out-loud funny, this opener in the series sets the stage for stories about a range of campers with different personalities, which I expect will unfold with more books. It’s a fun world to enter. Letters home from several characters helps readers get to know them and their quirks, as does journal entries, sketches, and other bits of information.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Hannah Moskowitz and Kat Helgeson Offer Online Safety Tips

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Gena Finn blog tour banner

Yesterday, I featured a review of Gena/Finn, a books about two girls who become friends online. Today I’m excited to be part of a blog tour for the book. I’ll let the authors tell you more about the story, as well as their tips to help you stay safe when meeting people online. I have one copy of Gena/Finn to give away to a reader in the U.S. Just leave a comment (before midnight PDT, Monday, June 13) saying whether you’ve ever met a friend online. Find out more about the authors at their websites: Hannahmoskowitz.com and Kathelgeson.com.

Hannah Moskowitz photo

Hannah Moskowitz

Gena/Finn tells the story of two girls who meet online writing fanfiction about their favorite TV show and come to develop a close friendship. We live in a time and a culture that enables people from all over the world to communicate and form bonds – but it’s important to do that safely. Here are a few tips Gena and Finn use in the book to make sure they’re being safe online.

  • Verify who you’re talking to. There are so many ways to do this with all the technology we have available. Look for the other person on social media and you’ll probably get a pretty good picture of the landscape of their life. Ask for pictures – Gena and Finn exchange photos of themselves holding signs with each other’s names and pictures they’ve drawn and posted online, to prove they’re real. Video chatting is also a great idea.
  • Kat Helgeson photo

    Kat Helgeson photo by Jeff Gasikowski

    Talk to people who are (roughly) your own age. Finn’s rule for this is that if someone is too young or too old for her to date, they’re not a good age for an online friendship. Gena’s probably a little less rigid about that. It is, however, a good idea to make sure that you’re talking to people over 18 if you’re over 18 and under 18 if you’re under 18. And in general, communicating with young kids online is not a good idea.

  • Look for people with common interests. Gena and Finn meet in a fandom forum, where people come to talk about the TV show Up Below, write fanfiction, and create art. Finn’s boyfriend Charlie has friends he’s met through online gaming. You might also get to know people through Facebook interest groups, online dating sites, or blogging communities. In any of these cases, if someone seems to be hanging around for reasons other than the intended purpose of the online space, be wary.
  • If you’ve been talking to someone online and you decide to meet face to face, do so in public. Gena and Finn come face to face at a convention with hundreds of other people around, and while they quickly become comfortable enough to retreat to Finn’s hotel room to watch TV, it’s very important to have that first meeting in a neutral space with people around.

Meeting people and making friends via the internet is easier and safer than it’s ever been, provided you take steps to protect yourself. Join a community today, and you won’t believe the diversity of the people you’ll end up talking to. Have fun and be safe!

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