ARC Review - A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: The Poetry of Mister Rogers

Book info:

Title:  A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood:  The Poetry of Mister Rogers
Author:  Fred Rogers, Luke Flowers (Illustrator), Josie Carey (Contributor)
Genre:  Nonfiction/Poetry
Release Date:  March 19th, 2019
Publisher:  Quirk Books
Source:  ARC received from Publisher which did not influence my opinion
My rating:  4 stars

Synopsis:
For the first time ever, the beloved songs from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood are collected here in a charmingly-illustrated treasury, sure to be cherished by adults who grew up with Mister Rogers, and a new generation of children alike.

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood had a revolutionary impact on children's television, and on millions of children themselves. Through songs, puppets, and frank conversations, Mister Rogers instilled the values of kindness, patience, and self-esteem in his viewers, and most of all, taught children how loved they were, just by being themselves. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood reimagines the songs from the show as poetry, ranging from the iconic ("Won't You Be My Neighbor?") to the forgotten gems. The poem are funny, sweet, silly, and sincere, dealing with topics of difficult feelings, new siblings, everyday routines, imagination, and more. Perfect for bedtime, sing-along, or quiet time, this book of nostalgic and meaningful poetry is the perfect gift for every child--including the child in all of us.

My Review:
As the synopsis points out, this book really made me so nostalgic.  So many of the songs/poems that were in the book I could hear being recited or sung in Mister Rogers' voice.  I recently saw the documentary about Mister Rogers, and this book is coming out at the perfect time to tie in with those who were now thinking about their childhood, or else wanting to share those memories with children of their own.  Obviously the poetry and songs are very simple, just the way they worked on his show, and for singing to kids.  I really enjoyed this as I said, and I can't wait to share it with my 7 year old niece and one year old nephew.  A great add to any children's library, full of fun poems and songs you can sing with them!

Debut Author Bash and Giveaway: Holly Bodger

I am very excited to get to host author Holly Bodger on my blog today.  I was so excited to see that she would be one of the authors we would get to choose, and then to find out I got to host her on my blog was even more exciting.

Author Bio:

A long-time resident of Ottawa, Canada, I have been working in publishing since I graduated with an English degree from the University of Ottawa.

I am represented by Lauren MacLeod of The Strothman Agency, LLC. My debut novel, 5 TO 1, was released on May 12, 2015 from Knopf Books for Young Readers (Penguin Random House).

I am also the author of TEN which was a finalist for the 2013 RWA Golden Heart (YA Category). 

Author links:

• Website 
• Twitter 
• Facebook 
• Instagram 
• Goodreads 
• Tumblr 

Book Info:

In the year 2054, after decades of gender selection, India now has a ratio of five boys for every girl, making women an incredibly valuable commodity. Tired of marrying off their daughters to the highest bidder and determined to finally make marriage fair, the women who form the country of Koyanagar have instituted a series of tests so that every boy has the chance to win a wife.

Sudasa doesn’t want to be a wife, and Contestant Five, a boy forced to compete in the test to become her husband, has other plans as well. Sudasa’s family wants nothing more than for their daughter to do the right thing and pick a husband who will keep her comfortable—and caged. Five’s family wants him to escape by failing the tests. As the tests advance, Sudasa and Five thwart each other at every turn until they slowly realize that they just might want the same thing.

This beautiful, unique novel is told from alternating points of view—Sudasa’s in verse and Contestant Five’s in prose—allowing readers to experience both characters’ pain and their brave struggle for hope. 

Purchase Links:

• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble

 

Author's Top Ten Favorite Books:

It’s always hard to list my favorite books, especially when I’m only allowed ten so I’ve decided to focus on those that have inspired me as a writer.  

	Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt I’ve read this book, listened to the audiobook (narrated by the late Frank McCourt himself) and seen the movie and I could do so over and over again. It’s a wonderful story that mixes despair and humor in the perfect way. It’s also an excellent example of how to write a memoir.
	The Book Thief by Markus Zusak I like happy-sad books and this is another fabulous example of one. It’s a tiny ray of sunshine in the middle of a horrific setting. The POV is original and well-done (and yes, I watched the movie and loved it too!)
	Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding It may not come as a surprise to hear that I’ve read this, listened to it and watched the movie like ten or twenty times (I do tend to overdose on things I love!) This story is one of my go-to feel-goods. It’s hilarious and romantic and a fine example of how to write in diary format.
	Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Like the other books on this list, I have read this many times and have seen many of the movies (the one with Helena Bonham Carter is my favorite). This is an amazing book with so many levels to it that I still continue to discover more every time I read it. It is a fantastic example of how to write a complex and sympathetic antagonist.
	Gallagher Girls Series by Ally Carter As per my earlier comment about overdosing on things I love, I’m refusing to pick just one of the books in this series because I love them all. I also love the audiobooks and promise to love the movies if they ever make them. These books feature smart, kickass heroines with awesome friendships and familial relationships. The pace is absolutely perfect and the setting is very well done.
	The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Annie Barrows & Mary Ann Shaffer This is obviously a recurring theme here, but I have read this and listened to it many times and I always love it just as much as the previous time. This novel is a great example of using multiple POVs to tell a story and handles the letter format very well. It’s also both sad and funny and a little bit romantic.
	Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling And now for the part where I sound a really obsessive. I have read all of these books. I have listened to all of the audiobooks. I have seen all of the movies many many times. I have been to the Harry Potter theme parks in Florida (also many times). I own my own wand, sorting hat, golden snitch, rats, troll (fake of course)… I adore not just these books but this entire world. When I talk about how to create a fabulous setting, these are the books I use as examples. They are unmatched in that area.
	Identical by Ellen Hopkins I adore everything written by Ellen Hopkins, but this one had a twist that blew me away. I actually re-read it immediately afterwards (and then listened to the audiobook) because I was truly awestruck.
	Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen This has always been one of my favorite books of all time. I have read it, listened to it and watched the movies (and let me just say that Colin Firth is the only Darcy I will acknowledge). It’s a wonderful story of love and family strife, and is a great example of how to write quiet, yet powerful romantic conflict.
	Wonder by RJ Palacio This is an absolutely lovely story that made me smile and cry and smilecry. It is told in multiple POVs (I see a theme running here) all of which are done very well. It also features a diverse character without making diversity an issue.

Giveaway: (CORRECTION, INT)
 I couldn't let you leave without a chance to win a copy of this book.  I thought this would be US only as I will be mailing from my home a copy of 5 to 1 by Holly Bodger, and with Christmas I just can't afford to ship internationally myself right now.  However, I found out that the author is going to make available a copy internationally, so there will be two copies up for grabs!  I'll be running the giveaway until the end of the month, and you can do a couple of the entries daily.  Just fill out the Rafflecopter below to enter!
 
  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Click on the button below to go see the schedule and all the authors and blogs that will be participating!

Review: 5 to 1 by Holly Bodger

First, thanks to Edelweiss and Knopf Books for Young Readers for allowing me to read an e-galley of this book.  I really liked the theme of the book, and the idea behind it.  It is a great story idea, and I even liked most of how it was told.  My only issue was that I wanted more.  It's understandable why it was so short, but still.  I just kind of wanted more.  More story, just more.  Not sure exactly, but I was left feeling that way.  However it was a very quick read, and very interesting as well.

It is told from two points of view, Sudasa, the girl who must choose her husband after he goes through 6 trials with four other boys.  Her part of the story is told in verse.  She isn't happy with how the whole thing works.  She doesn't feel as if she should be a prize.  And when she gets to the trials and sees that somehow the random choices of matches for her includes her cousin, she knows things aren't as they should be.  A marriage with her cousin would only be helpful for her grandmother, who owes a debt to his mother.  She has never felt that way about him, and as we see him through the trials, he is not a very nice boy.

The other point of view is one of the other boys, Kiran.  Kiran is the son of a poor farmer.  Winning the trials would mean a life much different than he is used to.  All the food he needs, luxuries, servants, and a wife.  If he loses he will be given a job, one that could be part of the plan his father wants for him.  He wants to go find his mother, who is outside the walls of their town, Koyanagar.  She left when the walls were built, when the new way of life came about. Before the country was so overpopulated that parents would kill any child that wasn't a boy, because they were only allowed one.  Soon the number of girls dwindled to the point where men would grab the girls and take them by force, kidnap, steal them.  Often killing them.  This new town was created to save the girls.  Now girls are held as the most precious, and boys must fight to win them and win the lives of luxuries.

Neither one of them really wants what the trials will bring.  But when Sudasa feels like Kiran might be the way to get away from her hateful braggart of a cousin, she must deal with the fact that he does not want to win. That he has plans. She doesn't want to hurt his plans, doesn't want him to have to be miserable like she will be in her marriage.  But maybe, should she try to go over the wall too?  From all that she knows, things are worse over there, and she won't be able to even make it there in the first place. 

A great story, really.  I think that is probably why I wanted more, needed more of the story.  Still a great diverse character and world compared to so many other YA.  Highly recommended.

Review: And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard

First of all, thanks to Delacorte Press and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  I just finished reading it the day before it was published, also the day it would expire.  It was a quick read.  At first I was worried that it was going to suffer in comparison to another school shooting book, The Hate List by Jennifer Brown.  But as I really got to reading it, I began to see how it was its own type of story, and truly, it wasn't really a school shooting story, although that is kind of what it is made out to be in the blurb on Goodreads.  

This story is told as we follow Emily Beam.  Her boyfriend is the one who brought the gun to school.  Only he ended up only shooting himself, and no one other than Emily ever had the gun pointed at them.  Emily had been pregnant, and while she knew she didn't want to have a baby at her age, Paul was excited and happy about it.  They'd said they loved each other, but with this hanging over her head, Emily now wasn't sure about what the future would bring.  Her parents took her away to Boston after all the tragedy, and she got into a boarding school.  The town is where Emily Dickinson was from, and like Dickinson, Emily Beam is also a poet.  And that is the one thing that really made this book its own story, in such an original and unique way.  We get to read the poems all through the story, and they paint such a vivid picture of Emily's feelings, the things that happened before the story started, and how her world is changing.  I could totally see, as a former teacher, how this could be used in a classroom.

As I said before, I was afraid I'd be disappointed as I began, but turned out it was a really great story, and the prose portion was just such an extra perk, making the story even more complete and real.  There is one quote I loved, it is Emily's roommate and friend K.T. who is talking to Emily about God, or really about whether things make you a bad person.
 "If God made us in His image, then maybe we have a right to play God when we can't find Him anywhere.  But we will find Him, eventually."
That is just so deep, and really made me think.  Hope you feel that way as well!

Book Spine Poetry - Why am I just now hearing about this?

Wow, I can't believe I've never heard of this!  This is something I've kind of done in the past.  When I was working at the bookstore and would carry piles of books that customers just left sitting out for me to put away.  I didn't ever consciously arrange them to make a poem, but I've kind of read the titles together in my mind.  I'm not participating in any challenge or contest with this, but I did find it on Oh Chrys!'s blog. So thanks to her for turning me on to this really fun idea!  I plan to do more of these in the future as I have time!

Warm Bodies, Flesh & Bone,

Rage,

Loss,

Days of Blood and Starlight,

Invisible World Rise

Kill Me Softly

So, what do you think?  Everyone should try it!!  

2013 Truman Possibility 21: Without Tess by Marcella Pixley

This is the last of the 25 books for the possible Truman nominee list that I was able to actually read before the deadline this past Monday.  And actually, I didn't even finish it in time to rate it.  But I was halfway through, and needed to see where it went, so I finished it.
Without Tess is a very strange story from the start.  The main character, who is telling us the story, is Lizzie Cohen.  Tess is her older sister that died when she was 11 years old.  Lizzie hasn't quite gotten over Tess's death.  In fact, she feels somewhat responsible.  Something that we don't know why until the end.  Tess is a little wacky.  Even though it is when they are young girls that we're first introduced to them through Lizzie's memories, you can tell there is something just not right about Tess.  The games they play.  How Tess seems to really believe that she isn't a mortal, but a selkie.  The things she has Lizzie do, and then there's the poetry she writes.  Now, call me crazy, but I feel that if Tess died at the age of 11, even if she was mentally unstable, what girl that age uses the kinds of words she did?  I mean, I guess since their mother was a writer, they were probably reading at a young age, and they heard the writers' group talking.  But it still seems a bit above the head of a girl at that age.
Lizzie is seeing a shrink, at school, and he is having her use Tess's Pegasus Journal of poems and drawings to help with her therapy.  But Lizzie is turning in the poems as her own in one of her classes.  Until she must do a group project where their partner will critique the poems and she must then re-work them.  At that point we begin to really get to some of the not so good crazy things that Tess did.  How she didn't eat, because she was sure in her head she wasn't a mortal, and got skinnier and skinnier.  How she didn't like the new friend Lizzie was making, even though it had been Tess's idea in the first place for Lizzie to make her a friend.  It is Isabella, and now at 16, Niccolo that will stay by her and help her to come to grips with her sister Tess, and work on getting past her feelings of guilt, and discover that it wasn't her fault, and she can't be blamed for what her sister did.
In a way this was a very interesting look into the mind of a child with a mental illness.  And what it would feel like to have an older sibling, that you looked up to and was your best friend for the longest time, only to find out as you got older that they weren't all there, and it wasn't okay the things they did.
Very deep, a good ending, a very serious read.

Must Read Monday #1

Just found this meme through someone I follow, and it is sponsored by Fans of Fiction. It is called Must Read Monday, and I love the creativity behind it! You pick a book based on whatever the theme is, and you explain why it is a must read. But you must explain it using an acrostic poem. This week's theme is paranormal, which can include paranormal romance. I just read a really good one I'd like to share, but since the title is so long, I decided not to do it for my first foray into this meme. Instead I'll go with another really good one I read this past spring. I chose Abandon by Meg Cabot.

Ancient stories of the underworld

But who really believes in them anymore.

An accident nearly took Pierce's life

Near death, but she came back

Doing her best to move on with life isn't easy, so she moves to her mother's birthplace

Oh but still he finds her, and still he wants her to come live with him

Now she must decide her own fate.

Wow, now that I do this, it might be easier next time to do a longer title to fit more in. Hope I've given some idea of the book with this poem. It was fun if anything.