Category: Reviews

/rɪˈvjuː/ noun. a report in a newspaper or magazine, or on the internet, television or radio, in which somebody gives their opinion of a book, play, film, product, etc.; the act of writing this kind of report

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

A Monsters Calls is a fantastic coming of age story. Conor’s mother is very sick. Since her illness, Conor has been treated differently at school and works hard at home, trying to keep everything running smoothly while she’s resting. He’s had a nightmare too- one that wakes him screaming almost every night. But then, one night, he dreams a different dream in which a monster formed from a yew tree comes to his home…

This book gave me goosebumps, it’s so good! I especially liked the monster’s tales.

Here’s the first time Conor meets the monster: “… here was a monster, clear as the clearest night, towering thirty or forty feet above him, breathing heavily in the night air. “It’s only a dream,” he said again. ‘But what is a dream, Conor O’Malley?’ the monster said, bending down so its face was close to Conor’s. ‘Who is to say that it is not everything ELSE that is the dream?'” pg 38 (ebook) Who’s to say?

“‘Here is what will happen, Conor O’Malley,’ the monster continued, ‘I will come to you again on further nights.’ Conor felt his stomach clench, like he was preparing for a blow. ‘And I will tell you three stories. Three tales from when I walked before.’ Conor blinked. Then blinked again. “You’re going to tell me STORIES?” ‘Indeed,’ the monster said. “Well-” Conor looked around in disbelief. “How is THAT a nightmare?” ‘Stories are the wildest things of all,’ the monster rumbled. ‘Stories chase and bite and hunt.'” pg 40-41 (ebook) Love, love, love! “Stories are the wildest things of all.” Yeah, they are.

I love the relationship that develops between Conor and the monster: “He (Conor) heard a strange rumbling, different from before, and it took him a minute to realize the monster was laughing. ‘You think I tell you stories to teach you lessons?’ the monster said. ‘You think I have come walking out of time and earth itself to teach you a lesson in niceness?’ It laughed louder and louder again, until the ground was shaking and it felt like the sky itself might tumble down.” pg 70 (ebook)

One more small passage that I had to include, not because it’s particularly important to the story but because it’s so very true: “Conor stared out the window… “How long are you here for?” he asked. He’d been afraid to ask before now. His father let out a long breath, the kind of breath that said bad news was coming. “Just a few days, I’m afraid.” Conor turned to him. “That’s all?” “Americans don’t get much holiday.” pg 103 (ebook) Mic drop!

This is a young adult book, but if you’re looking for more excellent fairy tales (like the monster’s stories) you may want to pick up In the Night Garden (The Orphan’s Tales, #1) by Catherynne Valente or, for another amazing coming of age story with fairy tale elements, try The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.

Thanks for reading!

A Thousand Naked Strangers: a paramedic’s wild ride to the edge and back by Kevin Hazzard

A Thousand Naked Strangers: a paramedic’s wild ride to the edge and back by Kevin Hazzard
kevinhazzard

This is Kevin Hazzard’s memoir- he was a journalist, until 9-11, and then, he decided that he needed to work a job that gave more back to society.  So, he decided to become an EMT and, eventually, a paramedic.  This is the sometimes insane, sometimes touching, and, many times, yucky record of his ten years in that profession.

It is shocking, but I learned a lot about the physical and emotional toll the job takes on these professionals.

Frankly, I’m surprised that anyone is able to do this job. I know that I couldn’t.

A Thousand Naked Strangers invites the reader to examine their own mortality or, if not examine it, just remember it like a literary memento mori.

I, like most other people, want to pretend that I’m going to live forever when I know I’m not. A Thousand Naked Strangersdoesn’t allow room for that.

Hazzard’s stories can be ridiculous, gruesome, or uplifting. This book has a little bit of everything.

Why Kevin decides to become an EMT: (his first day of class) “…Alan (the instructor) tells us, right out of the gate, if we’re not sure we can handle this, now is the time to leave. A couple of people laugh as though the mere suggestion is ridiculous, but I’m not one of them. I didn’t grow up wanting to be an EMT, nor do I know if I’ll like it. What I do know is I want to get hip-deep in things that matter.” pg 19 ebook.

He certainly manages to do that.

Learning the ropes: “It’s all so new, so foreign, so much like that period of childhood- first or second grade, maybe- when you’re old enough to know you’re alive and one day will die, yet young enough to still believe that a thin vein of magic runs just beneath the surface.” pgs 26-27 ebook.

I still feel like that, most of the time.

Why Kevin stays: “Every word the radio breathes into the stale air of the station sets me on fire. EMS is the greatest show I’ve ever seen, except it’s not a show, it’s all real. No, it’s more than that- it’s reality distilled and boiled down to its essence.” pg 59 ebook

At times, I had trouble connecting with this memoir. He almost felt too excited to be out there… inviting disaster because he was going to be the one to pick up the pieces. I’ve never felt like that.

Why it’s so hard to read A Thousand Naked Strangers: “In a job where it’s possible to scoop up a stranger’s brain, it’s important to have levity. But after a while, I lose the ability to judge which stories to tell my friends and which go beyond the limits of good taste.” pg 90 ebook. That’s it- in a nutshell.

Finally, how Kevin’s job is sort of like everyone else’s: “Like a recurring dream, every working day holds the same frustrations, and the working days never change, they just stretch out for all eternity. For months I’ve wondered how it will end. Maybe I’ll reach my limit and quit.” pg 206 ebook

I think, anyone who works a job for any amount of time, feels like this at some point or another. Kevin’s job was simply more intense and invited that type of introspection more quickly.

My book club picked this memoir as its monthly read. I’m not certain I would have ever chosen to read it otherwise. But, I’m glad I did.

Thanks for reading!

The Interminables by Paige Orwen

The Interminables by Paige Orwen

Interminable adjective. 1. Incapable of being terminated; unending  2. Monotonously or annoying protracted or continued; unceasing; incessant  3.  Having no limits.  (dictionary.com Unabridged.  Retrieved May 22, 2016 from dictionary.com website http://www.dictionary.com/browse/interminable)

The Interminables takes place in a world where magic is real and so are nightmares.  Prior to the events in this tale, an immortal being attacked all the cities on Earth and essentially destroyed civilization as we know it.  She was killed but for an extreme, unspecified magical cost.  Now, the scars left by this insane immortal dot the world and leak magic like radiation, producing strange items and twisted, dangerous creatures.  The Hour Thief, Edmund, and his best friend, an archtypical ghost of World War I named Istvan, struggle to bring order and heal those injured by the remains of this struggle.  Behind the scenes, an even greater evil begins to stir…

The Interminables is a type of science fiction/fantasy that I love.  It doesn’t dwell too much on the how’s of the situation, but jumps head first to the what’s, who’s, and why’s of the story.  And, this is an incredibly ambitious world in the sense that not only are the characters dealing with untamed and uncontrollable magic, but also the dimensions of alternate worlds have collided and merged with our own.  So, there are beings and powers in this place that are far beyond anything that exists in the real world.  It’s an exciting premise and the reader can almost feel the storytelling potential exploding from the very first page.

The Hour Thief is not only immortal, capable of teleportation, and able to move with super human speed through time- he’s also a librarian! : “…the Hour Thief was finally returning to real field duty, after fourteen months missing and then years of sticking to nothing more than librarian work and his usual mysterious excursions by night.”  My favorite kind of super hero.

Who is the Hour Thief? :  “He was, for all intents and purposes, a conman who dealt in stolen moments.  The hours that slipped away when no one was watching.  Lives, plain and simple.  He’d been thirty-five for seventy years and he could say that only because none of the time he’d lived since 1954 was originally his.”

I loved how Orwin described two beings, who are essentially immortal, dealing with technology. : “Edmund… fished the device responsible out of his other jacket pocket.  It was roughly the same size and shape as a pack of cards and combined the services of a clock, a calculator, a telephone, a radio, a camera, a film projector, a phonograph, a library, a dedicated staff of field researchers, an electric facsimile of the Delphic oracle, and a flashlight, but it was easier to call it a telephone.” When put that way, our devices really do seem to be magical.

Istvan, sends a text message, and it comes out more like a telegraph: “Istvan fiddled with the phone a moment longer… “I’ve sent a message to the Magister, I think, but I’m not certain it went through.”… Edmund glanced at it.  Recovered, it said, on our way presently stop.”

My favorite moment in the whole book, an interchange between Edmund and Istvan :  Edmund set the ritual knife down.  “Are we always this interesting?”  Istvan knelt and retrieved his own blade, wiping it on the hem of his uniform before handing it to him.  He was a doctor.  It would be all right.  “Oh yes.”

In the acknowledgments, Orwin says, “The original project grew out of a desire to preserve some of the characters developed by myself and my friends in the MMORPG City of Heroes…”  I also played that game!  The ability to customize and create your hero was so much fun, but the game itself became repetitive very quickly.  Orwin did such a great job taking a one dimensional idea and giving it a time piece, wings, and a limitless world to explore.  The Interminables is a lot of fun and not interminable to read, at all.

If you’re looking for read alikes, I’d recommend Triumff: Her Majesty’s Hero by Dan Abnett, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore (graphic novel), or Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (young adult title).

Expected publication date: July 5, 2016.  A big thank you to NetGalley & Angry Robot Publishing for the opportunity to read and review a digital copy of this book.  And, thank you, for reading!

Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace

Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace

Overall, I enjoyed Kornher-Stace’s tale about a girl with claw marks on her face who traps and studies ghosts because she’s a priestess of a goddess who lives in the stars. I felt like Archivist Wasp was a combination of The Last Apprentice/Wardstone Chronicles by Joseph Delaney and What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson. There’s also some dystopian and survival elements to it. There’s a few moments of rough language in here and some quick, brutal violence, but nothing worse than what a young adult would read in The Hunger Games.

Kornher-Stace throws the reader into an alien world with zero explanation or background info and it’s a lot of fun to pick out the story from the details. Take this passage describing a ritualistic painting in Wasp’s home:“The bones of the painting were nails, hammered straight into the wall to pick out the stars of Catchkeep’s constellation. And around them She had been outlined in thick black paint, all teeth and legs, Her back curved like a rainbow, caught in mid-leap over a shadowy abyss. … Catchkeep Herself was black and red. Stepping close to Her you could make out the outlines of handprints, darker where they overlapped. Wasp’s first day as Archivist, they’d rushed her here before the blood of the fallen Archivist could dry on her palms, and to the painting she had added the shape of her hand, which was the shape of her predecessor’s death.” pgs 14-15 ebook. Dark, eerie, awesome.

Wasp feels trapped in her role as priestess and lacks the confidence in herself to do anything else. Her personal development and stepping into her power is one of the main arcs of this story: “…beneath all her talk, she knew that what she was about to try would fail, as everything else she tried had failed, and then her life would go on as it had always done, pacing out the length of its leash, smashing into empty air at either end like a bird against a window. Take the knife out of the doorframe. Sweep the dust from the little house. Restock its jars with the useless dead.” pg 67 ebook. She’s a very strong, and believable, female main character. Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer… but with ghosts.

Kornher-Stace’s description of the afterlife was just like what is portrayed in What Dreams May Come or Otherwhere by Kurt Leland, the deceased shape their surroundings with the energy from their thoughts and emotions. In the ghost’s world, Wasp sees demon-like dogs that attack her again and again: “Still don’t believe the hunt is real?” Wasp shouted. She was having trouble modulating her voice. Her teeth were chattering too hard. She had never been so tired. “We bring our own monsters with us,” said the ghost. “It looks like these are yours.” pg 123 ebook. Goosebumps!

I liked the author’s description of what a ghost is: “You’re a ghost. You need answers. You need closure. You need them like the living need air to breathe. You think it’s just you, but from what I’ve seen, most of us die without getting either. And maybe that’s all a ghost is, in the end. Regret, grown legs, gone walking.” pg 155, ebook.

My favorite parts of the book are Kornher-Stace’s varied descriptions of the worlds through which Wasp travels with the ghosts. They are beautiful, desolate, bizarre, and, sometimes, scary:“They tromped through the snowfield for ages. They passed things that, to Wasp’s eye, might have been waypoints. A wind-shredded orange plastic tent. A cave hung with icicles that were mottled gray with ash. A distant huddle of dark birds circling and alighting on an unseen mass. A tiny pond, perfectly round, frozen into a mirror upon which no snow settled. The metal skeleton of something that had fallen from the sky and smashed there, its nose plowed deep into the earth. They walked on.” pg 172, ebook.

If you enjoyed Archivist Wasp and are looking for young adult read-alikes, you may want to try Fray by Joss Whedon (a graphic novel) or Revenge of the Witch (The Last Apprentice/Wardstone Chronicles, #1) by Joseph Delaney. If you’re looking for an adult read-alike, try The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawking.

Thanks for reading!

When Crocs Fly by Stephan Pastis

When Crocs Fly by Stephan Pastis

My search for reading material that my daughter will enjoy continues.  I happened to stumble across When Crocs Fly by Stephan Pastis in the ‘Read Now’ section of NetGalley and gave it a read through.

When Crocs Fly combines the sarcastic put downs and delivery of Garfield with the physical humor of Looney Toons. The jokes are mainly puns, misunderstandings, or a combination of both. The longest scenes are only two pages, so Pastis never really writes a story- it is more a collection of vignettes, which could be perfect for readers with shorter attention spans.

But, if your child is reading this, make sure that they have strong language skills. Whenever the crocs speak, their voice is written phonetically, which could be problematic for beginner readers. I think it’s the equivalent of trying to read cursive handwriting… just different enough to cause a problem.

Some beloved characters from other comics make very brief cameos in this. I won’t say which ones because that would ruin the fun!

Though I didn’t have any laugh out loud moments in this one, my favorite page was ‘The Trophy from the Ping Pong League’ (pg 85) where it’s labeled as ‘Best Participation by Someone in our League who can Breathe and has Participated.’ When Crocs Fly has clever ways of skewering reality, but I’m afraid that the more subtle jokes will go over the kiddie’s heads and I don’t think that adults would really enjoy this one. It’s clearly aiming for a younger set.

I’d recommend it for ages 10+, personally, but it really depends on the maturity level of the child reading it. Big thanks to Netgalley for the free digital copy and thank you for reading!

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

All the Birds in the Sky is about science vs nature, the end of the world, and love- in no particular order. Laurence and Patricia have two of the roughest childhoods that I’ve read so far this year. Their parents are duds, their school administrators are awful, and their peers are bullies and sadists. Somehow, despite these tragic beginnings, Laurence and Patricia manage to rise above and become something more, something extraordinary. And, together, they just might manage to save the world.

My favorite part of this book was the beginning- the development of the characters and the introduction to the extraordinary world of Laurence and Patricia. In this world, animals can talk! Here’s the “Parliament of Birds”:“Various other birds piped up, saying, “Point of order!” and a fidgety crow was listing important areas of Parliamentary procedure. One of them was so insistent that the eagle was forced to yield the branch to the Honorable Gentleman from Wide Oak- who then forgot what he was going to say.” pg 19 Politicians are politicians, no matter their species.

I loved Laurence’s internal dialogue: “Hey, Larry Fairy,” Brad Chomner said at school, “think fast.” Which was one of those phrases that never made sense to Laurence: People who told you to “think fast” were always those who thought much more slowly than you did. And they only said it when they were about to do something to contribute to the collective mental inertia.” pg 23

I also connected with Patricia. She’s imperfect, ruminative, and totally relatable: “Patricia felt jittery about throwing her first ever dinner party, because part of her clung to the fantasy of being someone who gathered cool people around her. A doyenne, someone who held witty salons. She cleaned the apartment for hours, made a playlist, and baked bread and bundt cake. … Patricia’s bread filled the marigold kitchenette with a yeasty warmth, and she took a deep breath. She was a grown-up. She had this.” pg 165 I’ve said that exact thing to myself when I’m stressed or trying to do something outside of my comfort zone. “I’m a grown-up. I have this.” Wish I was better at convincing myself of the truth of it. 🙂

Laurence contemplating reality: “I wonder how many other things in our world are just the shadows of things in other places,” Laurence said, forming the thought as he spoke. “I mean, we always suspected that gravity was so weak in our world because most of it was in another dimension. But what else? Light? Time? Some of our emotions? I mean, the longer I live, the more I feel like the stuff I see and feel is like a tracing of the outline of the real stuff that’s beyond our perceptions.” pg 186 I feel like that sometimes too.

Anders writes some very touching passages about love and being in love:“… Laurence watched her the whole way back up the block, wondering if she would look back at him over her shoulder, or turn to wave one last time. She didn’t. His heart skidded like a dirt bike on black ice as he watched her disappear. pg 213 You can really feel the emotions sliding around his chest, can’t you? I can.

I did not like some of Anders transitions in All the Birds in the Sky, particularly the jarring leap of time between the childhoods and then adulthoods of Laurence and Patricia. I also thought that Anders relied on synchronicity a bit too much to bring the two main characters together and keep the story rolling. But, life is strange and full of unexplainable moments. And, to be fair, I’m complaining about synchronicity in a world where magic and time travel are real and animals can talk. Maybe I need to check my own perception of reality…

If you enjoyed this book, maybe you should try The Many Selves of Katherine North by Emma Geen or A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.

Thanks for reading!

Rules for a Knight by Ethan Hawke

Rules for a Knight by Ethan Hawke

Rules for a Knight was very sweet. It is a fictional story about a knight who dedicates a journal to his children and, in it, uses stories to explain how he expects them to behave and grow after he is gone.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Surprisingly, it is by Ethan Hawke, the actor!  I didn’t know that he could write… and, in this book, he shows that he really can.

I had been exposed to many of the parables presented in Rules for a Knight before through either Buddhist or Christian teachings, but they are repackaged quite well in this small, green tome.

The book itself is a joy for readers who really appreciate books as an art form both in what it contains and also in its packaging.  Rules for a Knight is covered in soft green cloth with the title embossed in gold and a ribbon bookmark bound into the lining- almost as if the book itself is inviting the reader to take her time, stop reading, put in the bookmark, and ponder the wisdom that comes from its pages.

Photo by Thought Catalog on Pexels.com

This is a book to be savored and read slowly with hot tea or coffee, whichever you prefer. 🙂

I think that there will always be a place on my bookshelf for stories that teach about inner truths and the journey from apprenticeship to mastery. I also liked that the knight addressed himself to both his sons and his daughters. Probably not historically accurate, but I approve anyway.

Some of my favorite bits:
“…the first thing you must understand is that you need not have gone anywhere. You are always in the right place at exactly the right time and you always have been.” pg 11

“There are only two possible outcomes whenever you compare yourself to another, vanity or bitterness, and both are without value.” pg 39

“Pay attention: what you need to know is usually in front of you. There are no secrets, just things people choose not to notice.” pg 63

Photo by Susanne Jutzeler on Pexels.com

“Later he told me when he was younger he learned the secret to performing under pressure: don’t do it for yourself. Do it for someone else.” pg 67

If you enjoyed Rules for a Knight, you may want to read Zen Seeds: Reflections of a Female Priest by Shundo Aoyama or After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path by Jack Kornfield.

Thanks for reading!

Tell Me What You See: Remote Viewing Cases from the World’s Premier Psychic Spy by Edward Dames

Tell Me What You See: Remote Viewing Cases from the World’s Premier Psychic Spy by Edward Dames

Tell Me What You See: Remote Viewing Cases from the World’s Premier Psychic Spy  is a book about remote viewing written by Edward Dames.

Remote viewing is a military protocol by which a “viewer” goes into a meditative state, sends his or her consciousness “out” to a target, and then reports on what he or she perceives while there.

In this book, Dames writes story after story about using this protocol for the government. And, later, cases that he and his group worked on, as a private company.

Confession time again: I love to read fringe-y non-fiction.  From the paranormal to the other worldly, I can’t get enough of it.

Books by former remote viewers from the military are such a trip to read.

These guys were/are on the cutting edge of consciousness exploration. It makes me wonder what humans are potentially capable of, but we don’t know it yet.

It also makes me wonder what else is out there to be perceived.

Don’t go to these books for feel good stories. I’m sure that it is because remote viewers were all trained as human weapons to root out threats to the government, but they all seem so dark and obsessed with shadows.

Even when Dames sets out to have a “fun” RV session on the Ark of the Covenant, his viewers see mainly blood shed and despair.

The methods used in Dames’ sessions were different from others that I’ve read.

David Morehouse and Lyn Buchanan, also former military RVers, described RV sessions in which separate viewers with handlers would run through coordinates. They would do this in completely secluded rooms. Later, the different sessions would be put together to try to create a complete picture.

Dames, on the other hand, described group RV sessions in which he’d act as the handler and give out the coordinates to the group. Then, his viewers would sit in a group setting and say what they were seeing, as they saw it.

I found this approach to be interesting. I wonder which technique had more accurate results.

What is RV?: “Remote viewing is about reaching beyond the five senses into the unconscious mind, to look inside and miraculously gather information stored like web pages on a cosmic computer. Even more miraculous is that we all have the innate potential to do this, a prescient sixth sense.” pg 16

The way the mainstream considers RV: “It’s part of my regular curriculum to discuss how badly the authorities treat remote viewing. … What people can’t pigeonhole they often reject. We were dealing with a system that treats what we do like watching someone have a seizure from behind a two-way mirror- uninvolved yet shamefully fascinated.” pg 27

Which is why I was surprised when he so vehemently rejects the contributions of the natural psychics, mediums, channelers to his military unit: “Gauvin and his broomstick pals were running us into the ground… Angela’s channeling was bound to be judged useless and scrapped and then maybe she’d go back to her crystal ball. … Who knew, by participating in an actual session maybe she’d catch on to how remote viewing really works. Maybe.” pg 120-121

Unlike mainstream folks, those types of spiritual “witches”, as Dames describes them, don’t need to be convinced that there are levels of perception beyond those utilized in day-to-day life.

If he had taken the time to look beyond their strange methods and encourage them to organize their natural talents within developed protocols, I think Dames could have found some powerful allies within the military RV program.

But, that’s not how he played it. Instead, you were either completely with Dames or against him. I suppose it goes back to his role as a soldier.

Dames’ comparison of RV to out-of-body experiences: “OBEs aren’t anything new. The concept has been around and practiced for thousands of years, dating back to the monks of ancient China and India. Their wizened mystics called it “astral projection,” a practice where, either awake or dreaming, certain adept individuals could cast off their earthly skin and propel their consciousness- astral body- into unknown spirit dimensions across time and space.” pg 153

And possibilities for RV in the future: “The ability to remote view is the next step in the evolution of the mind… What started out as a military tool based on the desperate need of warriors seeking to destroy their enemies in battle has now developed into an invaluable instrument in the search for enlightenment. Remote viewing is a teachable psychic-like skill anyone can learn. What is often overlooked is its potential to help us more deeply experience life.” pg 257 I would say so.

If you’re interested in more books like Tell Me What You See, you may want to look into The Seventh Sense: The Secrets of Remote Viewing as Told by a “Psychic Spy” for the U.S. Military by Lyn Buchanan or Remote Viewing: The Complete User’s Manual for Coordinate Remote Viewing by David Morehouse.

Thanks for reading!

Malice in Ovenland: Volume 1 by Micheline Hess

Malice in Ovenland: Volume 1 by Micheline Hess

Malice in Ovenland by Micheline Hess is a graphic novel for children. Lily Brown’s mom tells her to clean the kitchen- and her adventure begins.

An excellent pick for reluctant readers, this story is a cute, gross, and, endearing romp through a fantastical world hidden behind an oven.

Lily’s heroic journey reminded me of the comic series, Princeless by Jeremy Whitley. In Princeless, the heroine tires of waiting for a prince to come save her, so, she sets about saving herself.

Lily is no wilting flower either, despite her name. 🙂

With art and a storyline appropriate for the pre-teen crowd and an empowered female protagonist, I could see this being a great addition to any juvenile’s graphic art collection.

What I enjoyed most about Malice in Ovenland were the homages to other great works of children’s literature.

The obvious one, of course, is to Alice in Wonderland but I also caught shades of the Lord of the Rings in the poem included at the end of Chapter 1.

The moment that Crumb comes to visit Lily in the dungeon reminded me of when Taran met Gurgi in the Black Cauldron.

The Queen’s advisor, named Crispodemus, reminded me of Nicodemus the rat from the classic children’s story, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert O’Brien. (One of my all-time favorites, by the way)

And finally, The Royal Rangers reminded me of the Beagle Boys from Duck Tales– bumbling, minimally intelligent thugs, who would be harmless if they weren’t so determined to be bad.

Malice in Ovenland would be a great title for a reluctant reader or a reluctant eater. The story, in addition to the adventure, teaches kids to not be afraid to try new things- either food or life related.

It’s a message that can’t be repeated enough.

The humor is mainly gross-out or potty-related but, as a mother of a soon-to-be-10 year old, that’s exactly where her humor is at right now. It’s perfect for the audience that it is seeking.

Big thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a free digital edition of this title for review purposes and thanks for reading!