![]() ![]() I loved Cassie - I loved the story from her point of view. But since I purchased this book based on the positive reviews and I really didn't like it, I feel compelled to state my own opinion in a review. Found myself walking alongside characters to find food and shelter and feeling just as disturbed trying to figure out how to distinguish the enemy from other humans. Their journey was a little like "Revolution," "The Walking Dead," and "The Road" woven into a teenage tapestry of action, adventure, and the power of perseverance. ![]() ![]() Cared about the characters, enjoying alternating viewpoints and narration by Cassie and other character (no spoilers). Writing style is thoughtful, smart, and insightful. The plot is layered with well thought out details feels like peeling an onion instead of gliding the surface of most successful dystopian trilogies. Stealthy and cunning, the "others" unleash several waves to eradicate the human race while preserving the Earth's natural resources. There are no grand explosions, little green men, or friendly visitors wishing to interact and understand our race. Cassie feels like the last human on earth after aliens have quietly invaded our planet. Anyone else over the trilogy happy dystopian and paranormal YA lit? This one stands out and is worth your credit and time. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Patterson uses his abilities to weave a story fit for teens that has potential to expand into a decent series aimed at this target audience. Crossing paths with numerous obstacles, human and otherwise, Bick, Beck, Tommy, and Storm all come together to face adversity with their own special talents. Tapping into their treasure hunting abilities, they begin to unravel the mystery behind their mother's disappearance in hopes of saving her. They must navigate their way to safety while they vow to discover the secrets left by their parents amongst various clues aboard the ship. Opening the novel in an epic storm at sea, Patterson introduces the reader to four orphaned children whose father is presumed lost at sea in the aforementioned storm and whose mother is presumably being held captive in Cyprus. Choosing to dabble into a Patterson YA series, more to fill a little time than to compare it to some of his past works, I thought I would check out this new series. ![]() ![]() ![]() What else, shrugged one husband, could have caused the black and blue marks on his wife’s arms? It made sense of the unfortunate and the eerie, the sick child and the rancid butter along with the killer cat. The aggravating, the confounding, the humiliating all dissolved in its cauldron. If you point the finger elsewhere, it is unlikely to be pointed at you.įaith aside, witchcraft served an eminently useful purpose. As with all witch-hunts, the most obvious cause is the fear of being accused. ![]() The mistrust of women, jealousies, grievances and power struggles would also have played a part, with people seeing an opportunity to take revenge on past slights, or get their hands on much needed land. ![]() The strict puritanical lifestyle is one reason for the initial claims, with the original girls who started the rumours suffering from a kind of mass hysteria which resulted in shaking, fits and violent outbursts. It’s not hard to understand why a disgruntled servant might accuse their mistress of being a witch out of anger and jealousy, but Schiff recounts stories of children as young as six implicating themselves as witches, or worse, accusing their own mothers and then having to watch them put to death.Īs with all types of witch-hunts, Schiff is careful to explain where motivations may have come from that led to a town turning on itself. Some of these accusations make for difficult reading. ![]() ![]() ![]() At least there’s Lenny, her mom’s boyfriend-they all get to live in his nice, clean trailer.Īt school, Zoey tries to stay under the radar. ![]() Seventh-grader Zoey has her hands full as she takes care of her much younger siblings after school every day while her mom works her shift at the pizza parlor. Some people have other things they’ve got to do. It’s especially fitting since school is beginning for many people in these next few weeks, so I hope you’ll pick up this book for you or for your children/students. I am so happy to say that The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden is one of them, and today’s review displays how much it will change your perspective on what other people have to go through in their lives. Hi guys! This year, I’ve discovered upon a slew of life-changing Middle Grade books that have impacted me so dearly. ![]() ![]() Instead, he just wants to see a performance from Coss, one of his favorite opera singers.Ĭoss performs a set, but after her final song, the party is interrupted by a group of armed terrorists who demand to speak with the president. Hosowaka, however, has no intention of building such a factory. The country's dignitaries have a reason for throwing the party: they want Hosowaka's large electronics company to build a factory in their country. At the beginning of the novel, Coss arrives in the small country to perform at a birthday party for Hosowaka. Coss is an opera singer invited to perform at the party. ![]() Hosowaka, a prominent Japanese business mogul and opera fan, is being honored at a birthday party thrown by Peruvian dignitaries and diplomats. ![]() The book features an ensemble of characters the two principal figures are Katsumi Hosowaka and Roxane Coss. The title of American author Ann Patchett’s award-winning novel, Bel Canto (2001) is based on an opera term which means "beautiful singing." The novel takes place during an event modeled on the Lima Crisis, a real-life 1996 hostage situation at the Peruvian home of an ambassador to Japan. ![]() ![]() ![]() Since we were kids, my three best friends-Cole Mitchell, Griffin Dempsey, and Enzo Moretti-and I had planned on burying a time capsule the summer after we graduated from high school. Griffin had brought it over, and I’d taken out all the trays so it could serve a different function. Like any cowboy, he’s good with a rope and knows exactly how to tie me up.Īll of us stared at the empty tackle box on my family’s kitchen table. Nothing has ever felt so right, but his past has taught him not to believe in happily ever after, and every perfect night I spend in his arms brings us closer to goodbye. And once we give into each other, we can’t stop. That’s not the only big thing he’s got-which I discover the night I finally sneak across the hall to his bedroom and shed my inhibitions right alongside my pajamas. I only returned to my hometown of Bellamy Creek to sell my late mother’s house, and he just invited me and my son to stay with him because he’s got a big heart. But I’m a single mom trying to move on with my life, and he’s running that ranch single-handedly while taking care of his elderly father. He makes a girl sweat just looking at him. And who wouldn’t appreciate those strong hands, that massive chest, and the way he fills out a pair of Levis? Yes, I’ve had a secret crush on him since we were seventeen. Sure, he’s a hot cowboy who left Wall Street behind to take over his family’s ranch. That’s all Beckett Weaver and I have ever been. ![]() ![]() ![]() Potter died in 1943 and left almost all of her property to The National Trust in order to preserve the beauty of the Lake District as she had known it, protecting it from developers. She became a sheep breeder and farmer while continuing to write and illustrate children's books. ![]() In her forties, she married a local solicitor, William Heelis. Potter eventually published 24 children's books, the most recent being The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots (2016), and having become financially independent of her parents, was able to buy a farm in the Lake District, which she extended with other purchases over time. In her thirties, Potter published the highly successful children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit and became secretly engaged to her publisher, Norman Warne, causing a breach with her parents, who disapproved of his social status. Because she was a woman, her parents discouraged intellectual development, but her study and paintings of fungi led her to be widely respected in the field of mycology. She had numerous pets, and through holidays in Scotland and the Lake District, developed a love of landscape, flora, and fauna, all of which she closely observed and painted. Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, mycologist, and conservationist who is best known for her children's books, which featured animal characters such as Peter Rabbit.īorn into a wealthy household, Potter was educated by governesses and grew up isolated from other children. ![]() ![]() Benjamin Bristow was among the leading candidates to replace him, suggesting that a large faction desired an end to "Grantism" and feared that Grant would run for a third term. In 1876, the collected scandals of the last eight years led many in the Republican party to repudiate Grant. Grant was interred in Grant's Tomb, a massive mausoleum in New York City. The book, finished just before his death the following year, was a huge success and remains in print. Following a hard-fought defeat at the Republican National Convention that year, Grant embarked on a financial career in partnership with Ferdinand Ward, but the venture failed and Grant was nearly bankrupted.ĭiagnosed with cancer in 1884, he began writing his memoirs as a way to tell his story and provide for his family after his death. On returning, Grant was welcomed home with an adoration unknown since the end of the Civil War, and he began to consider running for a third term as president in 1880. Grant began his post-presidential life with a two-year tour that took him and his wife and entourage around the world. When his second term in office ended in March 1877, Grant had gained weight, while he desired to travel the world and visit his daughter in Scotland. ![]() Grant looked forward to retirement from public life. After eight years in the presidential office during Reconstruction, Ulysses S. ![]() ![]() That is my overriding thought after reading her autobiographical look at poverty – Lowborn. I want to give Kerry Hudson a massive cuddle. She revisits the towns she grew up in to try to discover what being poor really means in Britain today and whether anything has changed. Lowborn is Kerry’s exploration of where she came from. But she often finds herself looking over her shoulder, caught somehow between two worlds. She has a secure home, a loving partner and access to art, music, film and books. ![]() She’s a prizewinning novelist who has travelled the world. Twenty years later, Kerry’s life is unrecognisable. She scores eight out of ten on the Adverse Childhood Experiences measure of childhood trauma. Always on the move with her single mother, Kerry attended nine primary schools and five secondaries, living in B&Bs and council flats. The poverty she grew up in was all-encompassing, grinding and often dehumanising. Kerry Hudson is proudly working class but she was never proudly poor. ![]() ‘When every day of your life you have been told you have nothing of value to offer, that you are worth nothing to society, can you ever escape that sense of being ‘lowborn’ no matter how far you’ve come?’ Title: Lowborn – Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain’s Poorest Towns ![]() ![]() ![]() This first installment in the series is gentler than the rest and so could reach a slightly younger audience. And the notion that children should be seen and not heard is laughable these days. There are moments, though, when the writing reflects too well 19th-century ideas about gender and race (mentions of "darkey" and "Injun," for example). Some of the most interesting scenes are when young Laura describes the long process of making food, such as cheese and bread, that we take for granted, along with our ability to store meat in refrigerators. It's warmly crafted with characters who come to life and lots of details about frontier life, based on the author's own childhood in Pepin, Wisconsin, in the early 1870s. Parents need to know that there's a reason Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods is a beloved classic. ![]() |