In Belle's Discovery we meet a child version of Belle from Disney's Beauty and the Beast.  My older daughter actually watched the original animated movie last year, so when I saw this book on Instagram I though it might be a good fit.  She loved the idea when we found it at our local library, and blasted through it.  I decided to read it with her and her little sister once she was done, so that I could also see what it's like. We learned some good lessons about being yourself and following your own path even if your 'friends' don't approve, in this great story.  I would say it's a 2nd/3rd grade reading level, but great as a read aloud for slightly younger kids.  There are full color illustrations on probably every 4th page or so, if that's helpful information for your young reader.  And it had a wonderful happy ending too. I will be looking to read more of the books in the series.  Let me know if you've read any of them, and what they're like.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt has been on my TBR (to be read) list for a long long time.  I think one of my highschool friends read and recommended it.  I borrowed it from my library ages ago and never got started, but after finishing Love Walked In, I was at a bit of a loss and wanted to read something I already had available, so I started The Goldfinch.   Now, this is a large book (771 pages according to Amazon), so it's going to take me a while and I'm almost 20% of the way and so far I cam really enjoying this story.  And as a bomus, when I'm done I'll be able to follow it up with the movie , which is newly available on Amazon.  This book won a Pulitzer prize, and I'm not sure I've ever read a Pulitzer prize winning book before - I feel accomplished even though I've got a way to go. I will report back once I'm done.  Since it's such a long book, I might read a few quick, small books in between.

When the pandemic hit last year, and the girls (who were 2 and 5 at the time) were stuck at home with me, I instituted some routine in our day and one of the things I added was praying a decade of the rosary together each weekday morning.   I started by ordering a few children's books about the rosary, my favorite of which is The Rosary for little Ones , which still loves in our car and helps us with our morning decade on the way to school. Fast forward to early 2021, and mommy would now like to dive deeper into the Rosary, and I was kindly gifted Rediscover the Rosary by a friend from church.  Matthew Kelly has again written a really useful book.  I'm slowly working my way through it by reading the bible reading, discussion and prayer for the decade which I will pray later in the morning with my girls.  It's helping the Rosary be so much more fruitful for me.   I haven't yet tried the scriptural rosary section, but am super excited for that.  I can highly...

I spotted this young adult novel on Instagram, and immediately requested it from the library.  Girl from Nowhere is a debut novel by Tiffany Rosenhan is a fantastic read.  It was so good that I wish there were more like it. This story is a relatively easy read which follows the life of a teenager who has just moved to a small town in America after some kind of trauma, which we don't have a full view of at the beginning of the story.  I don't want to spoil the plot for you, but I can compare the story to Bourne Identity type stories, which I have not read yet - this book made me want to read those. I can tell you that once you reach half way, you should ensure that you have nowhere important to be because you will not be able to put it down until you have read the whole thing.   I would say that this is appropriate for older teenagers, and definitely adults.  I hope your library has a copy.

This wonderful book by Tom Fletcher was recommended by my sister as a story her 3 year old son was enjoying.  I immediately requested The Christmasaurus from our library, and even when it came in right after Christmas, we jumped right in.  If your kids are little, the audio version might be easier to stomach, because the book is 350 pages long.  I have read the whole thing aloud to my 6 year old, and my 3 year old has listened to a little over half quite happily. The story follows the Christmas wishes of William who absolutely loves dinosaurs, and the year he met a real dinosaur from the North Pole.  It is full of adventure, sweet moments, and plot points that allow for discussions about how to behave with our kids.  It is so exciting!  We did have a discussion about what a bullet is, but I would say that it's not too scary for young kids. The best ending too in a completely unexpected Christmas story. I will definitely be reading the next book - The Christ...