Castles in the Sand by E.M. Tippetts

Castles in the Sand by E.M. Tippetts

“Madison Lukas knows her place in the world. She's not pretty, not interesting, and therefore easy to forget.

John Britton has been praying for fifteen years to find the sister he lost in his parents' divorce. She is beautiful, talented, and makes kindness a fine art.

When John and Madison cross paths, he recognizes her at once, but Madison is certain that he's got it all wrong. Even if she is his long-lost sister, she can't possibly be the exceptional, amazing girl he thinks she is, can she?” (summary from Amazon)

 

I found the premise of this book so interesting at first glance. A missionary finds his long lost sister while on his mission. Madison doesn’t even know she has family other than her mother who is so obsessed with her pottery that she doesn’t have time for Madison at all.

 

Yet, her mother confirms it. John Britton is indeed her long lost brother and now that he has found her he is not going to let her go. Though Madison is annoyed at first by his emails and messages she comes to rely on his encouraging words and in them she finds the strength to make better decisions for herself. As Madison is not Mormon she makes decisions that aren’t really all that pretty, especially when she doesn’t consider herself worth all that much, but I was happy to read about how she finds the strength to stand up for herself.

 

Once again I loved the way E.M. Tippets gives each character in her novel such honest weaknesses. Even her picture perfect Mormon characters feel like real people with such human flaws. Yet, her characters are not evil or bad people--just real. It is so refreshing to read about real, complex, and deep characters in any genre this days and Tippets does it with real skill. 

E.M. Tippetts Website

 

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LDSPBP: Trudy Harris

Trudy Harris write pictures books that are often based off of the cirriculum that she teaches to the children in her classroom. She likes to incorporate books into her lesson plans. You can learn more about her at her author page at amazon.com. 

Splitting the Herd: A corral of Odds and Evens

This story cute little love story about two farmers whose pastures are directly across from each other illustrates the math concept of odds and Evens.

Every so often Miss Emma’s cows wander into cowboy Kirby’s pasture and they have to split them up again. Cowboy Kirby knows just how to split them evenly he counts all the cows up and splits them into odds and evens. Emma takes the even numbered cows and Kirby takes the odd numbered cows, but something is wrong the math just doesn’t add up.

So they meet together to go over the problem over cake in the evenings only they spend so much time talking about other interesting topics that the problem solving gets delayed.  You’ll have to read the book to solve this interesting math puzzle.

Tally Cat Keeps Track by Trudy Harris

So the funny story about this picture book is that I realized after reading the bios at the end that my cousin is married to the illustrator. Crazy huh? Then I went back through the illustrations and found all sorts of clues on the tin cans. The family name is drawn on the tin cans and there are the acronyms BYU and CTR. (Brigham Young University, and Choose the Right) So, yeah I find it ironic that I picked up this book at random and it ended up being produced by someone I knew. Though, I have never met Trudy Harris, who is Andrew’s(the illustrators) mother. I’ve only met him at random family functions as my cousin’s husband. My brother Paul also went to Art Center, a very highly respected art school in California. So that was the clue that tipped me off.

This book tells the story of an Alley cat named Tally, who is always keeping track of how he measures up to everyone around him in competitions with tally marks. Well, this talent come in handy when he get into a spot of trouble. He knows just who to ask for help. This book helps younger reader to recognize and learn how to use tally markes.

The Clock Struck One: a time telling tale

I think this one was one of my favorites it is an expansion of the traditional nursery rhyme. The mouse runs up the clock at one but when it strikes two the cat leaps up to chase him. So goes the rest of this charming picture book as the hours pass the chase continues all throughout the town.

The words have the original nursery rhyme feel, but author adds her own originality to it and so this is a delightful read.

20 Hungry Piggies a number book

Also an extended tale loosely related to a nursery rhyme. This goes through how 20 piggies are getting ready for a barbeque. They are having great fun until a big wolf shows up and threatens to eat them all. The 20 piggies thwart him in the quest to obtain their food.  This one is cute and funny, and helps kids review numbers one through twenty.

 

 Up Bear, Down Bear

This is a short little board book that tries to convey the idea of up and down. A little girl is playing with her bear by throwing it up and catching it when it comes down, but it gets stuck up in a tree.  How will the little girl get her bear back? A very interesting read as most or the story is told with illustrations and the only words are up, down, and bear. My little girl loved to read this one.

Wow, It’s a Cow

This is a fun farm animal themed pop-up book.  The farmer is giving you good advice on how to find his cow by describing just how it doesn’t look. The animal rolling around in the muck and calling “oink, oink” is obviously not a cow and is a pig. Just pull up the flap and you will see a pig enjoying his pail of delicious slop. Other animals we meet include a horse, duck, bird, sheep, and at long last the famous cow.

 

Pattern Fish
A delightful under the sea romp intended to teach children about patterns. Each page features a different sea creature that has an accompanying patterned rhyme that illustrates how it looks or moves in the sea. For example, a blow fish goes bubble-bubble-pop as it swims along in the water. The accompanying art emphasizes the patterns in the text. Several pages at the end of the book are dedicated to describing different types of patterns and how we keep track of them.

Say Something Perico

I found this book to be funny because the bird, Perico, speaks Spanish. He keeps getting matched up with owners that misunderstand his Spanish words for English ones. Example one interested pet owner ask how he is doing. Perico responds, "Mal." This leads every to believe that Perico wants to go to the mall. Will Perico ever find an owner that can actually understand him? A clever bilingual book that will amuse many a reader.

Full Bibilography:
100 DAYS OF SCHOOL
PATTERN FISH
PATTERN BUGS
TWENTY HUNGRY PIGGIES
UP BEAR, DOWN BEAR
OVER, UNDER, IN AND OUCH!
SPLITTING THE HERD: A CORRAL OF ODDS AND EVENS
SAY SOMETHING, PERICO
THE ROYAL TREASURE MEASURE (2012)
THE CLOCK STRUCK ONE
WOW! IT'S A COW
TALLY CAT KEEPS TRACK
JENNY FOUND A PENNY

Summer Book Trek Wrap-up

I had a lot of fun participating in the Summer Book Trek and I read every book on my reading list got a few reviews up too.

Everneath by Brodi Ashton
Freshman for President by Ally Condie
The Hidden Branch by G.G. Vandagriff
Paige by Annette Lyon

That leaves Castles on the Sand by Emily Mah Tippetts which I did read during the Trek period, but haven't written a review for yet. Finally,  Before I Say Goodbye I didn't read until the second week of September. So, I feel like I did a pretty good job on this trek and it doesn't hurt that I won several prizes.

Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand by Carla Kelly

Mrs. Drew Plays her Hand by Carla Kelly

Roxanna Drew is left a very poor widow after her sick husband dies. Her Brother-in-law tries to make arrangements to care for her and her two daughters, but make it clear that those arrangements will include his unwanted attentions. Sickened, Roxanna begs the caretaker at a nearby estate to stay in a small cottage that is falling apart.

The owner, a military man named Lord Winn has been absent from the property from years being too busy waging war for the king to visit the property. Now that Napoleon has been defeated he must travel visit all his properties and see to their maintenance  or sell them off.  He must impose upon the hospitality of Mrs. Drew when he arrives at his property too late to make contact with his steward. He falls in love not only with Mrs. Drew but her children and jumps at the chance to marry her to protect her from the machinations of her brother-in-law.

I enjoyed reading about Roxanne and her children. I loved how the author made the children such charming characters in the story, and you can see why Lord Winn loved them. Roxanne was also a warm and loving character, but also very strong. I really liked that about her.  I sometimes found Lord Winn to be a bit of a jerk on occasion, but I found him funny also. I loved how he would make jokes about being in the military and taught the girls to wager.  One thing about the end that I found a bit beyond belief was how easily they made amends with Mr. Drew, Roxanne’s brother-in-law. I was really surprised that Roxanne would allow her daughter to stay in his house, under his care alone, after the way he acted toward her. I would worry for my daughter’s safety, and thought the main characters were pretty dumb in how they dealt with that situation.   

Despite that I really enjoyed this read and found the characters solid and entertaining, and the setting fun. For those fans of regency romance this one is sure to please.

 

Variant by Robison Wells

Variant by Robison Wells

Variant has been on my to read list for quite a while and I got as far as checking it out at the library and then returning it unread when it was due. It however was consumed by my husband and highly recommended, which only served to make me want to read it more. Then I discovered that it went on sale for $2.99 on the kindle. I snatched that book right up and finished reading it by the end of the week. And I really liked it a lot. The main character Benson Fischer is a foster care kid wishing for a new life, a new chance, and new school. He applies and gets a scholarship for Maxfield Academy, a place he is excited to be until he arrives and discovers that everyone inside is trapped.

I love how strong Benson’s character is and how realistically he responds to the situation he is placed into, but he remains unwilling to accept the facts of the situation and keeps trying to find the answers. When he does discover the truth behind Maxfield his stay there turns into a struggle for survival and there is no one he can trust.  This one kept me on the edge of my seat and turning pages until the very end. I loved how each twist and turn of the plot only raised the stakes higher and how interesting the dynamics got between all the characters, especially when all of them didn’t know who they should trust. I am way excited for the sequel in October because the ending was perfect. Just enough information to make the story feel satisfying, to feel like you had learned a little about what was happening, but not enough to give away the whole creepy picture that is just waiting to be revealed.  

Visit Robison Wells Website 

Paige by Annette Lyon

Paige by Annette Lyon

After a bitter divorce from her unfaithful husband, Paige moves from Utah to California with her two little boys and vows to make a fresh start. She finds a job at a dental practice that helps her get back on her feet, but it’s the friends she makes at her new book club who help her realize how strong she is and who give her support to carry on as she faces the challenges of being a single mom. She also meets Derryl, a wonderful, kind, attentive man who treats her right—something her ex never did. Yet, Paige struggles to figure out who she is as a woman rather than a wife, how to help her boys adjust to a broken home, and whether she can ever trust a man or love again. As Paige leans on the book club ladies and Derryl’s ever-present care, one thing becomes clear: healing from the past requires more than a change of address.   

After reading two other books in the Newport Ladies book Club I not exactly sure what to say about Paige. The plot is much similar to the other two books in that many of the major events are the same, and several others were hinted at in the storyline in Daisy’s novel. The book is different in the fact that Paige is a divorced LDS woman having a hard time finding a place to fit in, and so she joins the book club to find friends. She becomes close to Daisy, who also knows what it is like to be a single mom.

She also starts dating a non-member named Derryl who serves as the love interest in the book. He is kind and handsome and endearing, but I was kind of disappointed not necessarily in the fact that Derryl and Paige didn’t get together, but in that he seemed kind of pointless to the plot. Since Derryl and Paige don’t get together his sole meaning in the narrative to teach Paige that she needs to break up with him so she can spend more time on herself, spend more time with her kids, and aim for marrying a Mormon. Except for these are all the kind of surface answers that were basically no brainer from the beginning.

So, I am disappointed in the fact that the character arc in this story fell flat for me. I feel like the book ends where it should have started at the beginning.  The story  made me feel like the character just ran in a huge circle, and didn’t really make any real forward progress at all.

Despite my complaints Lyon maneuvers her character smoothly across all the major plot points of the series with perfect timing and transitions.  Paige is a good character, and the conflicts she faces are well developed and engrossing. I cared about her as a person, and empathized with her as a mother, and enjoyed reading her story.

For more info on the series visit the Newport Ladies Bookclub Blog

Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Everneath by Brodi Ashton

"Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever.

 

She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

 

Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen." (Summary from author's website)

So I really enjoyed this book. I really liked how the author set up the love triangle in a way that made the book feel different from other books in the same genre. Her attraction to Cole was directly related to how he could take her pain away because of his magical abilities and the author put the Nikki in a position where it felt realistic that she would make the choices she did. I also really liked how the author portrayed the depth of the love that Jack and Nikki had for one another without making them makeout in every scene. Huzzah! The mythology in this one was fun because while it included Greek and Roman myths the key to the myth’s magic was Egyptian. So I liked that twist and the fact that hints to the secret society the author created were found in many different myths from several different cultures.  So yeah, I would totally pick up the sequel to this one.

Brodi Ashton’s website

Freshman for President by Ally Condie

Freshman for President by Ally Condie
Fifteen-year-old Milo J. Wright and his best friend, Eden, are crazy to even consider participating in the election for President of the United States of America, aren’t they? Never mind that Milo is twenty years too young. Never mind the fact that he’ll have to balance the election with school, his lawn-mowing job, soccer practice, and trying to understand girls. There are time in life when you just have to go for something, no matter how impossible. Readers will discover that everyone, no matter what age, has something valuable to say. (summary from Author's Website)

So, I have been thinking about reading this book for a long time, but didn’t really have the gumption to pick up the book because after all it is a book about a teenager running for president. It was hard for me to get over the ridiculousness of that idea because it would never work. So, this book asks a lot from the reader from the get go, which why it took me so long to pick up the book. Yet, despite the big hurtle I enjoyed the book anyway. Milo fully realizes that he isn’t old enough to take office according to the constitution, but decides that it is worth running anyway.

I think one of my most favorite thing about Ally Condie is that she depicts teenagers in a real way. Even the best written YA out there is full of crazy, drama diva, rebellious teens, who often fall into extreme stereotypes that just make high school seem like a farce. Yet, Condie seems to hit things exactly right. Sure she puts her characters into a totally improbable situation, but her teenagers seem normal and real. They have that crazy energetic optimism of youth. They want to really make a difference and make the world a better place. Sometimes I think adults forget that many teens in all their boundary exploring and rebelliousness really do have some pretty cool ideas, and a sincere desire to impact the world positively. So, I really loved how Condie showed that aspect of her characters in this book.

This really is such an uplifting and refreshing read that shows that we don’t have to win to have an influence, and that sometime success really is measured in the journey and not the destination.  Even if this book’s premise is outlandish the characters make it worth the read.

Visit Ally Condie Website

The Hidden Branch by G. G. Vandagriff

The Hidden Branch by G. G. Vandagriff   
"Paul Mardian is a shining example of the American dream. The grandson of an Armenian immigrant who fled to the United States during the genocide of 1915, Paul is a self-made industrial tycoon and one of the most eligible bachelors in the country. But the dream is shattered when Paul turns up dead and his valuable collection of ancient Armenian artifacts goes missing. Hired to find the murdered man’s heirs, professional genealogist Alexandra Campbell and her sidekick, Briggie, are brought to the swanky beaches of Southern California and a community of Armenian relatives who all seem to be hiding a secret. When another family member is suddenly murdered, Alex discovers there is more at stake than an unclaimed fortune or missing antiques, but piecing together Paul’s complicated family tree may be more dangerous than she ever anticipated. Author G. G. Vandagriff combines mystery, suspense, and romance in this page-turning thriller!" (description from deseretbook.com) 

I liked the change in Alex’s character, much less mopey and more interesting to read about, now that she isn’t so angst ridden by her past. I felt the mystery in this story wasn’t as compelling as the others in the series. I think this in in part because the cast may be so huge or that the initial stages of the mystery were so chaotic. It seemed like there were many random clues and there were so many family members to keep track of and eventually three different crimes that had to be linked together. So while the mystery seemed frustrating to me at first I really did like how the author characterized the family members and I found them all pretty interesting. The setting made this book a perfect end of summer read, and I got caught up in the plot despite my earlier feelings that it got off the ground slowly.

Visit G. G. Vandagriff's website 

The Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline B. Cooney

The Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline B. Cooney

At age six Anaxandra is taken by King Nicander to be a companion to his crippled daughter on the island of Siphnos. Anaxandra has adjusted to her new life when, six years later, Siphnos is sacked by pirates, and she is the sole survivor. When a fleet of ships stops on the island to investigate, she assumes the identity of Princess Callisto to survive. The ships belong to Menelaus, king of Sparta, and he takes her back to Sparta with him. But Helen, wife of
Menelaus, does not believe that this child is Princess Callisto. Anaxandra manages to stay out of harm’s way—until Paris and Aeneas arrive. When Menelaus and his men depart to attend his grandfather’s funeral, Paris and Helen’s passionate affair plunges Sparta and Troy into war. (summary from good reads)

I really loved this heroic story of Anaxandra, who takes an epic journey from hostage to companion to a full princess, who owns an island. Set in the Aegean sea the author explores the beginnings of the Trojan war and what the events must have been like from the point of view of the woman involved. She portrays Helen as a powerful and cruel character, who wants the glory that comes when men lay down their lives for her.  She makes a terrifying enemy for Anaxandra, who must live in her household but avoid her notice as much as possible. When Helen leaves Sparta with Paris, Anaxandra  disguises herself as Hermione, Helen’s daughter, so that Hermione can escape. She watches over and protects Menelaus’ infant son, whom Paris wishes to kill.

When in the walls of Troy Anaxandra makes friends with Andromache, and Cassandra of Troy, whom the author portrays as real and sympathetic characters. I loved reading about Cassandra as I have always found her to be a fascinating and tragic sort of character. The novel did have a fair amount of violence that would make me suggest this book for the older teen set.  A great read for those that are currently enjoying the YA mythology craze.