My Journey through reading, books, and bookish things
Okay these are not in any particular order because it is hard enough to pick 10 great books I have read this year.
*Strangely I did not have any pictures I could find of these 4 books.
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme brought to you by the lovely blog The Broke and the Bookish
This week their Top Ten is *drumroll please*
THE TOP TEN SERIES YOU HAVE BEEN MEANING TO START BUT HAVEN’T
IN OTHER NEWS:
My DSLR camera came in. I haven’t figured it all out but I have taken some pics on it. My favorites are the portraits of my dog.
ISN’T HE JUST BEAUTIFUL. My little kitty floofball won’t let me take his picture. Typical cat.
I am taking a children’s lit course this summer for my Master’s in Library Science. I have to read three books each week and review them for the course. I thought I might review them on here as well with my MORE honest opinions because my reviews for my class are all uplifting when in reality most kids I know would not appreciate the books like adults do.
Okay so for this week I had to read a Classic (list was given), a book by Mo Willems, and a Caldecott Medal Winner or Nominee.
I already had Kitten’s First Full Moon from an animal unit I did at the beginning of last year in my 3rd grade class. I also had Pigeon Finds a Hotdog but I have no earthly idea why. I had to order Millions of Cats as it was the only book on the Classics list that I don’t remember reading. Knowing my mother though I probably did read this as a kid. I have lots of fond memories of being in the library as a child and looking through the shelves and shelves of picture books. My mom always brought this giant pink beach bag with us to the library and between her and my sister and I we would fill the bag up every week. I wish that when I was a kid I had tracking apps like Goodreads so I could know just how many books I have read in my lifetime.
My favorite of the three was The Pigeon Finds a Hotdog. Mo Willems is a genius. If you are a parent of small children you should go check out his books. All of them. Right now. Go. Run. Seriously. I can’t imagine better books for reluctant readers. Pigeon is 100% hilarious. The drawings make it that much better. Mo Willems definitely has the facial expressions down.
Kitten’s First Full Moon is a cute book. There are some repetitive phrases for the younger audience. Repetition is essential for beginner readers. The story of the kitten chasing the moon is innocent and sweet. The pictures are all black and white but they are paneled on every other page sort of like a graphic book which makes them more interesting.
Millions of Cats is one of those more ridiculous classic books. I can imagine an older audience found this book hysterical. Classics are classics for a reason and I appreciate the story and the thought behind it but as a kid I would have never picked this book up without an adult making it more enticing. It was originally published in 1928 so the pictures lack any color (hello, it was impossible to mass produce in color in 1928).
What are your favorite picture books?
So there are a billion things on Etsy that are bookish that I wish I had. At the top of my list is candles for sure.
I mean… have you seen A Court of Candles?
Anyways, My Etsy store has actually had some sales and I am so excited about it. Here is what is new in the store:
I am in love with the Rhysand bookmark
I also discovered Society 6 today. So. much. book. merch.
Also if you are any good at graphic design you should look into selling on here. All you do is upload an image and they can apply it on a ton of stuff and then they print it on the items and ship it to the customers. All you do is upload your JPEG file and they do the rest and you make $$. Cool.
Here is the link to my store:
https://society6.com/erinthebookdragon
This is a couple days late and I haven’t updated my Instagram this week. I am failing in my promise to myself to work on this stuff! I think I put this particular post off because I only finished one book this week.
Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour
This is the story of Emi and her best friend Charlotte. These two girls are fresh out of high school, and deep into the film making process in Hollywood. Emi designs the sets for movies. While extremely talented and artistic, Emi is not good at relationships, especially with her on-again, off-again girlfriend. Emi is left the keys to her brothers apartment for the summer to live with Charlotte on the promise that they will use it to do something amazing. Neither girl knows what they are going to do until they find a mysterious letter from an Estate Sale.
While the story was interesting, this wasn’t one of my favorites. I don’t really care about how films are created which is a huge secondary part of this story. I also found the plot overly predictable.
3 out of 5 stars
Coming Soon…
So I am currently reading
Three Dark Crowns and Wuthering Heights
I am also taking Children’s Literature for my library science class this summer so next week expect a post on Picture Books!
Okay, I was distracted yesterday because this is my birthday weekend!
My sister is in town for the weekend so I was cleaning and such.
Once again, in no particular order.
Jane Eyre. Another classic and my favorite one. I love the story of Jane and Mr. Rochester. I have read this book a couple times and each time at a different time in my life. Since the book covers a wide span of Jane’s time periods, something new always speaks to me when I read it.
So, my boyfriend delivers food as some part-time work. Sometimes, when I haven’t seen him in awhile, I will grab a book and travel around town with him when he delivers. This is how I read An Ember in the Ashes. I was actually glad when he would have to stand in line for 30 minutes to get the food or when we pulled up to a confusing apartment complex so I would have more uninterrupted reading time. This fantasy is about a slave named Laia and a soldier named Elias, neither of whom have any freedom – until they meet each other and plot a way out of their current lives.
