For the Littles:
My Tiny Pet by Jessie Hartland
When I take my five kids to the library, I always quickly skim through the kids picture book section and grab 5 – 10 that catch my eye; we have come across some real stinkers that way but also some real gems! My Tiny Pet was a pleasant surprise; it is a story about a family embracing the tiny house trend, and a girl who wants just one, very, very tiny pet—a microscopic animal, the “water bear.” The illustrations are bright and detailed, with a kind of sloppy impressionistic flare. I plan to check this one out again next time we study microscopic creatures in science. (side note: personally I think water bears look terrifying! I am glad they are super tiny.)
Diana: Princess of the Amazons by Shannon Hale
This is a graphic novel about Diana, mythical Princess of the Amazons, as a child. Diana is feeling neglected by her mother, so she creates a clay child to be friends with, who quickly gets her into more trouble than she anticipated. My kids enjoyed the illustrations, especially since we do not frequently read comic books, and it was a good way to teach some mythology, as well as start a conversation about not allowing friends to pressure us into doing what we know is not right. I love Shannon Hale’s books—she’s a diverse writer, writing everything from picture books (The Princess in Black) to adult (Austenland).
For the Family:
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
By “I like Shannon Hale, I meant “I am obsessed with Shannon Hale.” So, another Hale book! The title of this book is so fluffy, I had low expectations, but we all loved it. Miri is a girl living in a poor mountain linder mining village where the miners can communicate to each other telepathically through linder stone. Her village is unexpectedly selected as the next location for the Princess Academy, which is a year-long school for all of the teen village girls to learn to be polished enough before one of them is selected as the prince’s bride. There’s a bit of a Cinderella element to it, since there’s a prince and a ball, but that was really a minor theme. The book focused more on the power of education and how it can improve lives. Miri is a captivating character—brave and feisty, with true leadership skills, but also all the insecurities of a typical 14-year-old girl. This book deserved it’s Newberry Award!
Wednesdays at the Tower and Thursdays with the Crown by Jessica Day George
These are sequels to Tuesdays at the Castle; I thought these books were successful sequels in that they took the world of Tuesdays and expanded it quite a bit. Like Tuesdays, most of the story of Wednesdays takes place within the Castle, though most of this story is focused on the unexpected finding of a baby Griffin. The villain doesn’t play much of a role until toward the end of the book, and the book ends on a cliff-hanger. I don’t want to give away what’s going on in Tuesdays, but I will say Thursdays with the Crown primarily does not take place in the Castle. I would consider Wednesdays and Thursdays to be more of a Part 1 and Part 2 than separate books, though I thought George did a good job keeping them separate enough so that she wasn’t bombarding middle grade readers with a Tolkien length book.
For Me:
* The next four books are poetry chapbooks; brief books, so I kept the reviews brief. If you aren’t familiar, a chapbook is a smaller collection of writing. Think “chapter.” Meant to be read in one sitting, often around 20 pages long.
Hush by Nikki Ummel
This chapbook had some moving poems about her sister’s fight with cancer. There’s a confessional style to these poems, reminding me a little of Anne Sexton’s poetry.
The Alpinist Searches Lonely Places by Kyle Vaughn
A mix of the natural world and an ethereal dream. As someone who loves the mountains and hiking, I appreciated that these poems were grounded in real places and trails, yet the poet’s mind was far from the mountains in front of him.
Animal Unfit by Megan Nichols
Poems of motherhood and the kind of dependence it breeds in a person, the need for neighbors and for the child himself. I thought these poems were raw and honest and relatable.
All the Woods’ Wild by Jack B. Bedell
A story in poems about Kate Mulvaney, a Louisiana swamp witch. This was the shortest of the chapbooks, but also my favorite—I love chapbooks that come together to tell a story.
The Awakening of Mrs. Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera
This was a reread for me—I first read it a number of years ago when it was a bestseller. Upon rereading, I’m actually shocked this book ever got very popular. Not that the writing is bad; the book is very unusual. Imagine if Classical Conversations secretly wrote a bestselling novel—that is this book. Every character has an old-fashioned, unlikely name (“Prudencia Prim” is our main character) and lives in a sort of cult-like society where everyone is highly educated, cooperates to homeschool the children, and believes in “old-fashioned” virtues and manners. You really must read this book like an allegory—think of it as a sort of modern Pilgrim’s Progress, complete with the spiritual quest. The love story (openly) harkens to Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth (but alas is far less charming), but the crux of the story is Mrs. Prim being converted spiritually and intellectually to the way of doing things in this little society. I loved this book the first time I read it, but, likely because I have changed over the past few years, it just didn’t hit me the same the second time. I found the didactic passages heavy-handed and snobby, and I absolutely could not stand Prudencia, who was insulted half the book. The characters felt stiff and one-dimensional, and I simply did not care enough about them at the end. If you are a fan of this book, please reply and defend its honor!
Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner
I’ve been reading a lot of Liane Moriarty over the past year (actually I read all of her books), and so I was looking for something that kind of had that same feel—multiple narrators, modern, sort of a domestic drama—and I saw Greenwich Park was a “readalike” on my library’s online catalog. A pregnant woman makes friends with another pregnant woman at a prenatal class, but the friend is kind of crazy—sounds sort of like a typical family drama. So I was surprised when people started getting murdered! I get nightmares easily, so I try to avoid scary genres—however, by the time I realized this book was a thriller, I was already pretty hooked so I did finish it. I have many cautions for this book: it has some curse words, some sexual situations (though it is fairly “closed-door”), mentions of rape, mentions of miscarriage. The book has some flaws—I thought the main character’s husband’s character was incredibly flat, and I didn’t quite believe the murderer would have been driven to murder by what happened. It was similar to a Moriarty novel in its characterization and multiple points of view and mostly domestic, family setting—however it was a much darker book than Moriarty writes. If you like the thriller genre, go for it; but if you have more delicate sensibilities (like me), then skip it!
In Vital Harmony: Charlotte Mason and the Natural Rules of Education by Karen Glass
I could not finish this book because it was so boring. I do use Charlotte Mason philosophy in my homeschool (from the beginning!) and in my parenting (Children are Born Persons has always made sense to me), but I never could make it through Charlotte Mason’s six volumes about her philosophy (if you have read all of these, my hats off to you!). This book is like a cheat sheet version—much slimmer—with lots of quotes. A great cliff notes if you are new to Charlotte Mason and wanting to see what she’s all about. However, it was just as dry as Charlotte herself, and I found that I was trying to force myself to read it. I gave up around page 10 and skimmed the rest. If you’d like to read a book about Charlotte Mason education philosophy without being bored out of your mind, I recommend A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andriola (this book was extremely influential to me in my homeschooling).
Writing Updates:
My chapbook The Commonplace Misfortunes of Everyday Plants (Belle Point Press) released last month and is available for purchase HERE. I received a kind review in the Front Porch Republic and a few other places last month.
To my local friends—I’ll be doing an author event (very kid-centered with many activities) at The Family Vision Library, to promote my book Why Silas Miller Must Learn to Ride a Bike, sometime in mid-April—details to come!
Thanks for the note about The Alpinist Searches Lonely Places - sounds right up my alley.