Sisters by Choice , by Susan Mallery was a random find at the library and I thought I'd read one of her previous books so I grabbed without knowing anything about this book.  That fact is even clearer as I write this because apparently this book is book 4 of 4 in the Blackberry Island series .  Having never read any of the other books in this series, I can confidently say that this book does just fine as a stand alone book. This beach read type novel follows cousins by chance, who are sisters by choice.  Sophie Lane returns to Blackberry Island after her cat toy empire goes up in flames.  Can she learn to let go, and grow her business within the small town life she finds herself thrown into or will she lose everything. Then there's Kristine who is a wife and mother of 3 growing boys.  But what she really wants is to open a small bakery.  Will she have to choose between her marriage and her dreams. Finally there's Heather who would like nothing more than to leave the island

This children's novel was first published in 1947 and was written by Betty MacDonald.  Mrs. Piggle Wiggle is a charming, old fashioned story which I really enjoyed reading to my children.  It is full of good clean fun and entertaining names and crazy happenings. Mrs. Piggle Wiggle lives in an upside down house in a small town.  She loves children and all the neighborhood children visit her house every afternoon.  She is known for being able to fix children's ailments in a most interesting manner.  Mary becomes afflicted with answer-backerness, Dick is very selfish, Allen becomes a slow-eater-tiny-bite-taker and sisters Joan and Anne are afflicted with quarelitis - Mrs. Piggle Wiggle has the perfect cure for all of them.  The cures are as funny as they are sensible and they always work perfectly well. If you enjoy stories like Mary Poppins, you will surely enjoy this story.  My girls are 3 and 6 and they enjoyed this as a read aloud, but any confident 3rd grader would enjoy re

Forever or a long long time by Caela Carter, is a young adult novel about a foster child and her younger brother, and picks up in their life 2 years after they are adopted into their forever family.  While I'm not sure this would be useful for foster children to read, I found it very informative.  Flora and her brother have lived in so many foster homes, that they don't know where they come from and so don't believe that they were born.  They have many interesting theories about how they came to be.  Flora struggles to trust her new mother and trusting that she really is forever.  When a new baby appears on the scene, Flora struggles even more.    And so Flora, her brother Julian and their mother embark on a trip to find where the children came from.  While this book doesn't wrap everything up in a neat bow, I think that is very apt for a story like this, where nothing is perfect.  Really a well written and interesting read, particularly if you don't know much abou

Victoria Jamieson has written quite a lot of books, and we recently read one of the Pets on the loose series.  The Great Art Caper is an elementary graphic novel, and is probably an 2nd or 3rd Grade level, but makes a fun read aloud for younger kids too. This story follows a bunch of school pets as they try to make art for the school art show.  But they're in 2 separate camps, and the crazy fun that ensues is hilarious.  Will the school art show be ruined, will the mean mice win, and will Carina's art win first prize.  This is a fun 60 pager that I would highly recommend.  And we'll be reading the next one, The great pet Escape , soon I'm sure. 

This turns out to be book 1 of 6 written by Ransom Riggs.  The first book, which is the only one I've read, was a little slow to start, which comes from not knowing what's going on initially.  But once you get through the first third or so, then it's hard to put down because you really want to know what is going on. If you like time travel, and X-Men type stories, then this will be fun for you to read.  Jacob's grandfather dies at the beginning of the story, leaving behind some strange photographs and stories he's told Jacob throughout his childhood.  This tragedy sends Jacob on a trip of discovery to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he finds an abandoned orphanage, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children .  Why were these strange, and perhaps even dangerous children on the island, and are they still alive? Definitely worth the read for older children (Amazon recommendation on book 1 is ages 14-17) or even adults.  And you'll want to read f

These graphic novels by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee are a recent find from Everyday Reading and since we seem to enjoy many of the same books, I thought we'd give these a try.  So far we've read Bink and Gollie as well as Bink and Gollie, Two for On e.  I'm sure we'll be requesting the third book ( Bink and Gollie, Best friends forever ) in the series from the library very soon. Each book contains 3 short stories that are somewhat related, but are written so that you could read only 1 at a time.  My 3 and 6 year old daughter love how funny these stories about 2 friends are.  They get up to some crazy shenanigans  and it's fun to see how things get resolved and how their friendship grows.  These would be appropriate for a first or second grader to read independently as well.  And since they are graphic novels, they might encourage a reluctant reader to pick up something new.

The Swap , written by Robyn Harding, was a new type of book for me.  Definitely a littler riskier than I would normally read, and I actually considered not finishing, but the background story got me hooked and I wanted to know what happened.  So be warned if you pick this one up. Low is a teenager, living with her very hippie parents in a small island town.  Low is different and doesn't fit in at school, so she doesn't have any friends.  But then she meets Freya, who is teaching her pottery class and everything changes.  Low becomes obsessed with her new friend and gets very jealous when Freya makes another friend in town.  Freya becomes friends with Jamie, who owns a small gift store and they have the shared characteristic of neither of them having children - Jamie because she suffers from infertility and Freya because she doesn't want kids.  So they bond and enjoy each others company, and even manage to get their husbands in on the friendship. And one night, after a drunk