Bookquarium

   Tentacle and Wing by Sarah Porter This book first caught my eye on the shelf at my local library because it was purple. I really liked the cover because it has some really cool imagery of animal limbs. It made me curious as to what this book was actually about, and the cover ended up giving me lots of insight into what kid of a story I would be reading. I think children's fiction cover does an especially good job of portraying a book's themes before you even read the tag line or blurbs. Teen and adult fiction often skip this format in favor or showing a vague image of something that may or may not be remotely connected to the book, like a girl in a dress, or a random foggy nature scene. This may be a great representation of the book, but it's often a way to shield the reader from any surprises in the book. Remaining as visually opaque as possible seems to be the name of the game in other genres, but not children's middle-grade fiction. I love it. I love finding t...

How to Catch a Mermaid by Adam Wallace Children's Fiction Amazon  Goodreads Summary How do you catch a mermaid? You must be very clever. With mirrors, crowns, and pearls galore,  this quest can't last forever! Review - 4 stars The illustrations in this book are gorgeous. They're so crisp and colorful, they make the book a joy to read. The story is told in a ABCB rhyming pattern, with a "verse" on each two page spread. A problem a see a lot with books that try to tell a story in verse is with an awkward flow, but the rhythm of the verses in this story is wonderful and fun to read. The story is fun, about two kids (and a dog) trying to catch a mermaid, but then they run into some trouble with some sharks and the mermaid ends up saving them. It's a cute, fun read and just happens to be an excellent length for a bedtime story. The Know-Nonsense Guide to Space by Heidi Fiedler Children's Non-Fiction Goodreads S...

It Takes Two Author:  Jenny Holiday Series:  Bridesmaids Behaving Badly, book 2 Publisher:  Forever Publishing Date:  June 26, 2018 Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages Amazon    Goodreads Summary All's fair in love and war Wendy Liu  should  be delighted to be her best friend's maid of honor. But after years spent avoiding the bride's brother - aka the boy who once broke her heart - she's now trapped with him during an endless amount of wedding festivities. Luckily she's had time to perfect her poker face, and engaging Noah Denning in a little  friendly  competition might just prove that she's over him for good... Noah Denning is determined to make his little sister's wedding memorable. But it seems Wendy is trying to outdo him at every turn. Challenging each other was always something he and Wendy did right, so when she proposes they compete to see who can throw the best bachelor or bachelorette party in Sin City, Noah takes the ...

We are already a week into Camp NaNo, and I forgot to do any sort of "weeeeew, kick off!" post, because that would require forethought, and we all know I'm not very good at that. What is Camp NaNo, you might ask? Why are there so many capitalized Ns? What's going on? Where am I? Those are all great questions. Let's start with the first one. Camp NaNoWriMo  is what I like to call NaNoWriMo (or National Novel Writing Month) Lite. For those of you who missed the shenanigans of NaNoWriMo in November, the goal is to write at least 50,000 of a story in a month. That averages out to about 4ish pages a day. That's a lot of pages, y'all. Camp NaNo takes place in during the month of July, and is a way to keep that writing momentum going, but there's suggested writing goal. You can do whatever the heck you want. (You might be asking yourself - this sounds familiar. Yes, it's because Elley did a post about it previously. ) Personally, I am shooting...

Hope Never Dies Author:  Andrew Shaffer Genre:  mystery  Publisher:  Quirk Books Publication Date:  July 10, 2018 Stars:  Four stars Description:  Vice President Joe Biden is fresh out of the Obama White House and feeling adrift when his favorite railroad conductor dies in a suspicious accident, leaving behind an ailing wife and a trail of clues. To unravel the mystery, “Amtrak Joe” re-teams with the only man he’s ever fully trusted—the 44th president of the United States. Together they’ll plumb the darkest corners of Delaware, traveling from cheap motels to biker bars and beyond, as they uncover the sinister forces advancing America’s opioid epidemic. Review: Is this book 100% Barack Obama and Joe Biden fanfic where they solve crimes together in a sweet-ass car? Yes, it is. I love Quirk Books as a publishing company because they publish the weird, quirky shit that other people wouldn't think of. Like who would have gone "oh he...

Magic Words From the Ancient Oral Tradition of the Inuit by Edward Field Pub Date 01 Sep 2013 Children's Fiction Magic Words is a modern translation (1965) of a very old Inuit creation story by nationally known poet Edward Field. As a poem it captures beautifully the intimate relationship this Arctic people have with their natural world. Magic Words describes a world where humans and animals share bodies and languages, where the world of the imagination mixes easily with the physical. It began as a story that told how the Inuit people came to be and became a legend passed from generation to generation. In translation it grew from myth to poem. The text comes from expedition notes recorded by Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen in 1921. Edward Field got a copy from the Harvard Library and translated it into English. Review: 4 stars The illustrations are gorgeous in this book. Absolutely beautiful. I wish the story wasn't so short - just when it feels like it's starti...

I love June! Pride, summer solstice, the sun! All  good things! It's also Oceans Month! Yay! I live there! To commemorate the occasion, here are some of my recent ocean reads! Spineless by Juli Berwald  Isn't the cover pretty! I love it! This one is about jellies. Jellies are not fish, so jellyfish is not the right term anymore. Jellies are almost completely water, sort of like watermelons (that's a big SORT OF). Jellies are weird. Read a book about them! The Brilliant Deep: Rebuilding the World's Coral Reefs: The Story of Ken Nedimyer and the Coral Restoration Foundation by Kate Messner and ,   Matthew Forsythe Ah man, we are killing the oceans. That's a fact. Thankfully, people are trying to restore coral reefs by other means. This book gives us some hope where there is little. I do love a good non-fiction picture book about our oceans. The illustrations are gorgeous too! Shine!   by   Patrick McDonnell ,   Naoko...