Savvy is the first book in this series by Ingrid Law.  Amazon recommends this series for ages 9 - 12, and I think that is pretty accurate.  I listened to both Savvy and Scumble, and really enjoyed them.  They were clean and appropriate for my 6 year old to listen to a little bit, although I don’t think she would have followed the whole story. A Beaumont gets their savvy, or special power, on their 13th birthday.  Whether it’s controlling electricity or causing hurricanes, Mibs is almost 13 and is wondering what her savvy will be.  But just before the big day, her dad has a big accident and is admitted to hospital, so now Mibs is hoping for a power that can help save her dad.  Convinced she will get a powerful savvy, Mibs catches a ride along with the preacher’s kids to town.  And the ride is super eventful, along with talking tattoos and such - nobody will come away unchanged. Scumble is set 9 years after Savvy, and follows the summer Ledger gets his Savvy.  He’s hoping for the pow

 I picked this book up at Barnes and Noble when I was buying a birthday present for a friend earlier in the year, because I cannot go into a book store and not buy a book that looks interesting.  This is definitely a little bit of an investment in terms of time, since it’s over 500 pages.  I decided to take it with on our 2 week vacation, since I figured it would last for most of the trip.  And it did - I finished it a few days after we got home. The Guestbook is a family saga spanning 3 generations, which deals with the great divide between the rich and poor, Jewish and Protestant, Black and white, as well as how the decisions we make will affect our families through generations.  Kitty and Ogden buy Crockett’s Island, and a fair bit of this very well written story takes place on the island.  There are clearly some interesting family secrets which Sarah Blake slowly reveals throughout the story.  This is definitely a slower read, but a very important message, and probably also a valu

 It is quite clear that my blog has been on a 3 week hiatus, and the reason for that is a family vacation, which ties in really neatly with this book.  We undertook a road trip to the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Arches National Park, Denver and a couple of other spots for almost 2 weeks.  I thoroughly enjoyed all of these spots, and as such, bought this book for my daughter. This is a really cute story, written by Theresa Howell, of how Scout becomes a Junior ranger when her and her family visit the Grand Canyon.  Being a foreigner in the US, I didn’t really know about this program, and after reading this cute story, our family worked through junior ranger programs at Zion, Canyonlands and Arches national parks. When checking for the link to this book, I see that there are multiple options for different parks.  I would imagine the stories are quite similar, and perhaps only the one from your first national park makes most sense.   My girls really enjoyed the story, and looking f

 “Those that truly love, have roots that grow toward each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two. “ From Captain Corelli’s Mandolin I randomly spotted this book at my library’s “New and notable” section, and the title, The Lost Love Song , and cover art caught my eye.  The blurb sounded interesting so I brought it home.  And boy was that a good idea.  I read this wonderful book by Minnie Darke in 2 days, and immediately sat down to write this review.   I occasionally play piano, so this tale that starts with a very talented pianist who meets her true love, and composes a love song for him while away on tour, was especially interesting.  But then tragedy strikes and Diana is lost to Arie forever.  But, perhaps her song can get back to him.   Through a crazy turn of fate, this amazing song makes its way from musician to musician in different parts of the world,, each of them adding their own flair

Sandra Boynton is one of my favorite children’s board book authors.  I discovered her in a free box of books at a small English library somewhere in Tubingen, Germany.  I cannot remember what the library was called, but I still love The Belly Button Book .  And I then climbed on German Amazon and bought 2 box sets.  The greatest hits Big blue box contains Moo, Baa, La La La!; A to Z; Doggies and Blue Hat, Green Hat.  And then The greatest hits Big Yellow box contains The going-to-bed book; Horns to toes; Opposites; But not the hippopotamus.   I can still recall almost verbatim at least 3 or 4 of these books, since we read them so so many times.  And I would happily read them another 100 times each, except for the fact that my kids have kind of outgrown them, which is sad.  Now I buy a smattering of these for new babies, especially friends who live in South Africa because you can’t get these there. We have also read a number of her other books, which we would borrow from our wonderfu

 I’ve seen Elizabeth Strout’s books recommended quite a lot, and I’ve previously read My Name is Lucy Barton, which was a fun, short read.  I plan to review it too at some point, but when The Burgess Boys came up in my library list, I thought I’d give it a chance. This author definitely writes what I would call more complicated books, that is to say they’re not your typical beach read, and she’s won some serious book awards for her stories.  But I’m trying to branch out my reading a little, and this book was great for this.  I was definitely a little slow reading it, but I enjoyed it, and even found myself thinking about the characters after I was done reading it. Jim and Bob Burgess left the small town in Maine where they grew up as soon as they were old enough to head to New York City.  As a side note, I love reading about NYC since we’ve visited 3 times, and we can’t wait for our next post Covid visit.  Jim is a successful corporate lawyer and Bob is a Legal aid lawyer who idolizes