Author: joycesmysteryandfictionbookreviews

My children’s lit professor asked each student to bring in a picture book today and tell what made it meaningful.  This led me to think about some of my favorites.  I hope that you will enjoy seeing them!

Student favorites also included

The Giving Tree

Iggy Peck Architect

Just Go to Bed

Bad Girls Throughout History

Cat in the Hat

Good Night Darth Vader

Junie B Jones

The Little Red Hen

What Do You Do with a Problem

Pout Pout Fish

Very Hungry Caterpillar

Balloons over Manhattan

C is for City

The Amazing Bone

What would you add to this list?  Are some of your favorites here?  Do you recall favorite moments being read to or reading picture books to children you know?

This is both a very charming and a very instructive book.  If you want to learn to draw and paint adorable animals, you can learn how here.  There are detailed instructions on supplies and steps in creating the animals shown.  There is also support for the need to learn and acceptance at not being perfect.  However…If you don’t want to draw, you might enjoy just looking.  The illustrations are adorable!

Thank you NetGalley and Quarto!

#DrawAndPaintSuperCuteAnimals #NetGalley

The Great Go-Kart Race is a story in a new series of picture books that feature STEAM concepts. Each entry will highlight Science, Technology, Engineering, Art or Math. This one is about science.

The book has lovely, appealing illustrations. We watch as the young protagonists. Max and Suzy try to win their go-kart race while encountering some obstacles along the way. For example, they get stuck in the mud. How will Max and Suzy manage their challenges? They succeed by using what they know and observe.

Young listeners will get an easy to understand yet genuine exposure to some scientific principles as try to figure out what will happen next. Concepts covered include forces, energy and materials. The back of the book has questions and additional resources.

This looks like it will be a great way to introduce concepts to children. I look forward to reading more in the series.

#BrokenGround #NetGalley

Val McDermid writes a number of series; of them all, the Karen Pirie novels are my favorites. Broken Ground is the newest of these.
I enjoy Karen. She is a quirky woman who has faced a significant loss and is still recovering. In this novel, she gingerly considers a new relationship. She is an old fashioned copper who cares about justice and what is right. She is loyal to those on her team who are still learners.
Karen is the head of the Historical Cases Unit in Scotland. Spending time with her, the members of her team (including her adversaries) and her cases is always time well-spent. In this novel, there are several stories; one relates to events of WWII, another to a serial rapist, and there is also a present day murder. Each of these plots is explored satisfactorily.
I finished this book today and am already looking forward to what happens next in the series. I highly recommend both this book and the series.

Many (!) thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this satisfying read.

Others in the series:

This is a fictional story about Victoria’s early years and relationships, written by the author of the PBS series. I just purchased this, even though I read a long biography about Victoria last year. I think that it will be a fun read. I enjoyed the author’s earlier novel, The American Heiress.

This is the first novel in the Maggie Hope mystery series which takes place during WWII.  I have enjoyed the entire series and recommend it.  If you enjoy historical mysteries with an appealing protagonist, you might like to try this one.

From Goodreads:

London, 1940. Winston Churchill has just been sworn in, war rages across the Channel, and the threat of a Blitz looms larger by the day. But none of this deters Maggie Hope. She graduated at the top of her college class and possesses all the skills of the finest minds in British intelligence, but her gender qualifies her only to be the newest typist at No. 10 Downing Street. Her indefatigable spirit and remarkable gifts for codebreaking, though, rival those of even the highest men in government, and Maggie finds that working for the prime minister affords her a level of clearance she could never have imagined—and opportunities she will not let pass. In troubled, deadly times, with air-raid sirens sending multitudes underground, access to the War Rooms also exposes Maggie to the machinations of a menacing faction determined to do whatever it takes to change the course of history.

Ensnared in a web of spies, murder, and intrigue, Maggie must work quickly to balance her duty to King and Country with her chances for survival. And when she unravels a mystery that points toward her own family’s hidden secrets, she’ll discover that her quick wits are all that stand between an assassin’s murderous plan and Churchill himself.

In this daring debut, Susan Elia MacNeal blends meticulous research on the era, psychological insight into Winston Churchill, and the creation of a riveting main character,  Maggie Hope, into a spectacularly crafted novel.

This is a gentle and sweet read aloud story. At bedtime, Chick visits all of her animal friends and there are many including a hedgehog and ducklings, among others. Chick helps each animal to settle down for the night and even helps the owl to settle down for sleep in the day. Young listeners will like the repetition on a theme and they can also learn the names of many animals too! This one is a nice addition to the bedtime shelf with its simple sentences and appealing illustrations.

When I was in college, I took an Anthropology course.  The professor spoke about how different cultures have words for the things that they need; an example of this was the many words for snow that those who lived in very Northern climates traditionally had and the number of words for cars in the U.S.  I thought about this as I began to read through The Happiness Passport.  The connections between words and culture are every where in this lovely book.

The Happiness Passport is organized into sections.  They include chapters on the following:

Home and Environment

Community and Relationships

Joy and Spirituality

Balance and Calm

As I began to read, I was bookmarking and underlining so I could share with you.  I was starting to have no un-bookmarked pages so that had to stop!  Instead I will say that many countries and cultures are represented in the book.  Some terms will be familiar to you like “hygge.”  Others you will not have heard of.  I can tell you that each word and write up will make you think about your life and what you value.

This book is enhanced by what I found to be very calm and lovely muted color illustrations.  I recommend that you take a look at this one.  It is a perfect antidote to the frenetic holiday season.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Quarto for this one.

From the book:  Some examples

The Seagull is a Vera Stanhope mystery, a novel in one of Ann Cleeves’ two series, both of which are excellent. (The other books are the Shetland novels.) Both are also TV dramas available in the U.S. and originally from Britain.
I especially enjoyed this book because of the back story. The reader learns more about Vera’s parents and her childhood. I also enjoyed spending time with favorite characters, including Holly and Joe.
This novel is about an historical crime with implications for the present. The story is well told and the pages kept turning. Highly recommended.

Praise for Almost Everything:

“Anne Lamott has a rare talent for making writing look easy… Given the warmth, liveliness and intimacy of her prose, time with one of her books can feel like a visit with a friend.” —Wall Street Journal

“Part memoir, part manual and part sermon from the church of Lamott, this satisfying escape points to notes of beauty in our uncertain world.” —People

“Like a feminist C.S. Lewis, [Lamott] talks about God, politics and other unmentionables, and gently exhorts her readers, as she does herself, to find joy in a bleak and chaotic world: a leftie guru of optimism.” —The New York Times 

“[Lamott] cheers us on with her blend of sobering truth and essential inspiration.”—Parade Magazine

“Many are deeply blessed by Ms. Lamott’s down-to-Earth spirituality, her cleverness, her ability to tell a story with a moral, or at least with a sensible point.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

And me…

I have been listening to Almost Everything as a recorded book and it has been a wonderful (full of wonder) experience.  Narrated by the author with her cadences and emphases, this has been a moving listen.  Ms. Lamott captures wonder and despair; anxiety and joy; reasons against hope and reason to hope. There is talk of death, addiction, the perils of advice giving and the beauties of life and connection.  There is much understanding along with good reason not to despair.  The author’s  humanity, warmth, sensitivity and humor are truly special.    I recommend Almost Everything most highly.   FIVE STARS!!!