Books

IMWAYR + BookTube-A-Thon + August Giveaway Reveal

The weekly post where I recap all the KidLit books I’ve been reading. Occasionally, I’ll also review some adult fiction books as well.

Be sure to check out Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers to see what other kidlit readers are reading. Because, you know, we can never have too many books in our TBR pile.

                                        
Before we get into the books that I have read, I want to take a second and mention BookTube-A-Thon. It’s a great not-so-little event where people around the world collectively read books this week. There’s challenges and all sorts of fun. To learn more, check out this YouTube video.

I announced that I was participating last week, and you can see my ambitious TBR for this week right here. Yeah. It’s a bit crazy. But totally doable, right?

Also, I’d like to announce August’s Book Giveaway! On August 14th, I’ll be giving away a signed copy of Rodzilla by Rob Sanders! Read below for my review of this amazing picture book.

Picture Books

ðAugust’s Book Giveawayð
  Rodzilla written by Rob Sanders illustrated by Dan Santat
We read this one as a whole family and loved it. Maybe it’s because we have an almost toddler in the house, but we just rolled while reading this one. Sander’s eye-witness news perspective made for a fresh take on the terror that is toddler-hood. And Santat’s illustrations are fantastic as well. Lots of bathroom humor, which always seems to be a hit in our house. You’ll definitely want to check this one out.
 Pig the Winner by Aaron Blabey
We love pugs in our family. And the cover of this book so so darn cute. The rhyme is playful and the illustrations are comical. Both my daughter and I had the same reaction to the end though: “Wait. Is that all?” The climax and falling action happen quickly and I wished there would have been maybe one more stanza.
 The Monsters’ Monster by Patrick McDonnell
My daughter has another book by Patrick McDonnell, so she specifically asked if we could read some more of his books. We loved this one. I especially enjoy McDonnell’s selective color palate. If you’ve read by blog, you know that I’m also a fan of most anything with monsters. The Monsters’ Monster has a great twist, which actually plays homage to the original Frankenstein’s monster.

Chapter Books

  Princess in Black written by Shannon and Dean Hale illustrated by LeUyen Pham
Funny and clever, I would recommend this to anyone looking for a princess book with a princess with some gumption. My 7yo daughter loved it and wants to continue with the series. My favorite part of the book was when the Princess in Black was fighting a monster and there were big batman-like zingers like “twinkle twinkle little SMASH!” and  “Princess POW!”
 Goosebumps: Welcome to Dead House by R.L. Stine

This month marks 25 years since Goosebumps hit the shelves. I happened to be 7 at the time so it was absolutely magical when I discovered this beloved series. I think Goosebumps were integral in shaping my own love of horror and comedy. I had never actually read Welcome to Dead House so I decided to pick it up to celebrate.

This one was legitimately creepy. My 7yo self would be been thoroughly scared and entertained. Heck, my 32yo self was creeped out and entertained. I used to own a ton of these books, but I don’t know what happened to all of them. I have a goal to slowly acquire as many of them as I possibly can. Have any lying around that you don’t want anymore? Send them my way!

 

Young Adult

 This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

I picked this book up after reading some favorable remarks on a horror blog. So I actually thought that it would be creepier than it actually was, but it was still great. A few chapters in, I thought I had the whole plot figured out, but Schwab surprised me and didn’t take the conventional line that I anticipated. The writing was solid, the characters were developed, and the story was interesting. The sequel, Our Dark Duet  just came out last month, and I plan on working it into my TBR.

 

 The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: 8th Grade Bites by Heather Brewer

I audiobooked this one and it was enjoyable. The story started out stronger than it ended though. I know that there is a whole series, but I don’t know if I’ll pick up the others. I will say that it was well written, the plot was just a little weak. I didn’t realize it, but I actually picked up another audiobook (The Cemetery Boys) by Heather Brewer the last time I was at the library. It is narrated by the wonderful Kirby Heyborne, so I’m pretty stoked about that.

 

Weekly TBR

BookTube-A-Thon starts today and I have a lofty goal to read 15 books. Instead of listing them all here, you can click on this link to see my post with the breakdown. I hope you have a wonderful, book-filled week!

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