Several Wonderful Children's Books

What Do Monsters Eat? by Mark Smith

This is a fun rhyming book to read with your child.  While reading your child can try to find the worm that hides in each picture. They can try to identify the different foods each of the monsters like to eat.  Depending on how you read to your child, you can probably get the "ooo gross" remark from them.  I'm glad I'm not a monster because I don't think I'd like pizza with octopus on top, or chocolate covered fish.  On the educational side of this it is a way of opening a conversation about healthy eating. As always Mark has done a great job of intertaining kids while educating them as well.
I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Ooh Lolita by L. Gina Davis
This is a wonderful story about "stranger danger".  Lolita is a witch who hates children.  She has two

cats.  One of them is just like her. The other cat wants to be free of the witch.  She gets her power from the sun.  One day upon the advice of the cat Bufu, she turns herself into a beautiful princess and tricks the children into coming into her house.  Once there she locks them in and makes them work for her.  She does this several days.  But, can she hold the children forever?  How will they and the cat Chum get free?
The pictures are wonderful. The story is very interesting and sure to keep the attention  any child, or child at heart. I would definitely read more books by this author.
I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Sniff the Cat & the Super Duper Most InterestingSmell by Picture Kid
A cute story of a cat who loves to sniff.  He sniffs a wonderful thing one day.  He can't quite figure out what it is.  He follows and follows until he gets so tired he must take a nap.  While asleep he has a wonderful dream that everything he sniffs smells like meat. Then he wakes up and can no longer smell what he was following.  He heads back home to all of his familiar smells and learns a valuable lesson.  The best things are right at home.
I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.




Stories For Children 3 by Francois Bissonette

She tells him about 3 magic oranges that can remove the spell. The spell is removed, but this doesn't stop Melinda.  He casts another spell.  This time it is on the prince's new wife.  She turns her into a dove and takes her place.
The second story is called "The Wand". This story is about a knight who is approached by a witch.  She wants his help.  She gives him keys to magic doors where he can find money.  In return she wants a magic wand that is in the tree.  He finds the money and returns with the wand.  When she refuses to tell him what she wants the wand for he chases her away and keeps it.  He becomes quite wealthy and well known.  He learns of a princess kept in a tower by her father.  It has been foretold she will marry a knight.  The king wants more for her.  The knight uses the wand to get the princess, make the king and queen happy and to live happily ever after.   I really enjoyed these stories.  Simple fairy tales to please everyone.

I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Rivka's Way by Teri Kanefield

Genre: Middle Grade, Historical Fiction
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

If you love historical fiction as much as I do then this is the book for you. Rivka is a fifteen year old girl who lives in the Jewish ghetto of Prague. The time period is the late 1800's. Unlike many of the other Jews in the ghetto, her family has it much better.  You may be wondering why. Her father is a doctor and there for is considere upper class in the ghetto.

Rivka is best friends with her brother Jakob.  She has grown up listening to his stories about the outside world.  He has left Prague to go to school to become a Rabbi.  Her mother just wants her to put foolish notions and stories away and prepare for her arranged engagement. I loved the fact that Rivka wanted to plant trees and other plants so much that she created a garden on the rooftop of her building. Having a garden isn't enough for her.  She wants so much to see what is outside the ghetto that she dresses in boys clothing and travels around as a gentile boy.  I loved her spunk.  I am not sure, given the time period that I would have had as much courage as she had to do this.  I would want the freedom, but I'm not sure I could pull it off.

This is a must read for all historical fiction buffs out there.  You won't regret this one.  Since this is considered a middle grade book I'll let you in on a secret.  I'm not a middle grade kid and I loved it. This is a book to be loved by all ages.

About the Author From Amazon
Teri writes novels, short stories, essays, stories for children, and nonfiction for both children and adults.
Her stories and essays have appeared in publications as diverse as Education Week, Scope Magazine, The Iowa Review, The American Literary Review, and Cricket Magazine.
Her children's books include the critically acclaimed The Girl From the Tar Paper School and Guilty? Crime, Punishment, and the Changing Face Justice. Both books were Junior Library Guild Selections. The Girl From the Tar Paper School was a California Reading Association Silver Honor book. Her first novel, Rivka's Way, was a Sydney Taylor Awards Notable Book. 
Teri lives in California near the beach. 
To learn more about Teri and her books, please visit her website at www.terikanefield.com

The Woodsman by Craig Hansen

Genre: Adult, Suspense
Source: Purchased

From Goodreads:
Sometimes, you have to pay for your good deeds. 

Steve Peretti is a prolific serial killer known as The Woodsman. For years, he's terrorized dozens of victims throughout the Upper Midwest, without drawing attention or suspicion to himself, keeping a low profile. He's cautious, careful, and calculated ... most of the time. 

But anyone can make a mistake. 

One night, on the way home through Hope, Wisconsin, he stops for gas and ends up foiling a robbery. He gets injured in the process, and ends up in jail over a conceal-carry violation. While in lock-up, he taunts and is attacked by another prisoner, who blinds him. 

Then he's given a chance to have his vision restored through an experimental, advanced eye-surgery program at UW-Madison, called EyeCU. His surgery is successful, and he returns from EyeCU ready to rebuild his life with his new eyes. And that means returning to being The Woodsman. 

But he begins having strange visions; vivid dreams about acts of kindness and mercy that seem foreign and terrifying to him. Worse, he finds it difficult to carry out his normal acts of evil, leaving him increasingly helpless at a time when he's at his most vulnerable. 

Evil can corrupt good, but is the reverse true? Can good disrupt the persistence of evil? If you've ever enjoyed movies like Eyes of Laura Mars, The Eye, or Blink, then The Woodsman is a tale that will defy your expectations, yet leave you entertained and more than a little unsettled.

My Thoughts:
First let me say that the cover of this book is absolutely beautiful. When I first started this book I had visions of the series "Dexter".  The reason is simple, the serial killer seems to have a good side to him as well.  While trying to stop a robbery in progress he is shot. He wakes up in the hospital and then is sent to jail. While in jail he is blinded by a cell mate, and almost killed.  This is where things take a turn.  He becomes a volunteer test subject that could possibly give him is sight back.  It is what happens after this turn of events that twisted everything I thought would happen.  Craig Hansen does an excellent job of presenting a story and then when you get comfortable with it, he gives it such a twist you think about it for days and days.  That is what this book does.  It is one of the best suspenseful novels I have read in a long time.  I hightly recommend this book.  However, start it in the morning because you won't be able to put it down until you have fiished it.