What am I reading today?

The Queen Bee and Me by Gillian McDunn

Total read in March thus far: 3

Shelves

I'm a little bit of a craft supply hoarder. I have a hard time throwing away anything that looks useful. Occasionally, that habit pays off. I had saved this little box from a set of Bluetooth earbuds.

While my original plan was to store something in it, it occurred to me that with a couple of quick cuts I could turn it into a shelf.

With a little paint and a few books made out of cardboard scraps, the look is complete.
 

What am I reading today?

What the Other Three Don't Know by Spencer Hyde

Total read in March thus far: 2

Marfalfa does Reading Month

Since childhood, I've loved the focus on reading in March. I still try to read extra books in March. I'll be posting my current book count for March as well as what I'm currently reading every morning. 

So what am I reading today?

The Sunken Tower by Tait Howard

Total read in March: 0
 

Book review - A Many Feathered Thing

Title: A Many Feathered Thing
Author: Lisa Gerlits
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake
                      The Seventh Most Important Thing by Shelley Pearsall
Rating:

lovely

Summary (provided by publisher): Eleven-year-old Clara is known as the "girl who draws," but she's not tortured enough to become a real artist. Her only suffering, besides embarrassment over her real name Clarity Kartoffel, German for Clarity Potato is a crippling inability to speak in public. When Clara and her oldest friend, Orion break their neighbor's glass gazing ball, Clara decides that in order to suffer like a true artist, she will do every hard thing in her path . . . starting with knocking on scary old Mr. Vogelman's door. That's when she meets "Birdman." That’s when she sees his swirling painting. And that's when everything changes. To pay for the broken glass ball, Clara begins working for Birdman in his atelier. He challenges her to throw away her eraser and draw what she sees, not what she wants to see. But as Clara discovers, seeing, really seeing is hard. Almost as difficult as befriending the new girl at school, or navigating awkward feelings for Orion or finding the courage to speak in front of the entire class. But little does Clara know, the biggest challenges are yet to come. To cope with tragedy, she will have to do more than be brave. As Birdman teaches her, she will have to "bring the hope."

My opinion: Let's get this out of the way: the general thrust of this plot is going to be entirely predictable to the average reader. In this case, the events are not really the point. This one is all about the characters and their individual journeys. We struggle along with Clara, feeling her pain and sense of inadequacy, her excitement over finding a mentor and her increasing confusion and complication with Orion. We know, instinctively, that she is making all the wrong choices. We even get the sense that she knows it as well. And yet, her choices seem inevitable, a necessary part of adolescence. It's a very realistic journey, painful and awkward, as Clara's lessons in art teach her more about interacting with other people. Gerlits has managed to create a straightforward story that can relay a number of lessons to the reader, one that will hold up to repeat reads.

More information: A Many Feathered Thing releases March 2.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Picture books for everyone

All About Allosaurus by Greg Gormley

Most kids love a dinosaur book, especially when it is essential to the plot that a character is a dinosaur. This book takes on a topic standard to picture books - feeling inferior and wanting to prove your value. The dinosaurs make it unique. The facts that Allosaurus writes about the other dinosaurs are a combination of science and personality of the individuals. All together, this is a sweet and funny story, conveying a postive message without becoming preachy or condescending. The illustrations are complex and engaging with a great sense of action and emotion. A small child will enjoy the characters on an individual level. Older kids could use this as an introduction to a project comparing dinosaur species or appreciating one another.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Non-fiction book review - Railway Jack

Railway Jack by KT Johnston

Talk about a cool historical story. We've got a lot of compelling elements at play here. First, there's a man who didn't let negative circumstances hold him back. Having lost his legs he could have resigned himself to a quiet life at home, other people taking care of him. Instead he found a way to prove himself and go back to work, even though it was much harder for him to do on wooden legs. And then we add in an intelligent and affectionate animal. Railway Jack's story proves that animals can learn. He wasn't simply trained to complete specific tasks. He learned to associate signals and respond accordingly. He drew conclusions. This is an absolute joy to read with just the right amount of detail for an elementary aged reader.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley