"Playing With Matches"and "A Piece of Blue String" by Lee Strauss

 

Genre: Young Adult, Historical Fiction

Source: I purchased a copy

This is one of those World World II books that looks at what it was like for young boys trained to believe everything they were doing was for the Fatherland.  They were trained in school to believe that they were superior to the Jews and that the Jews were the cause of the loss of World War I and anything else they wanted to blame them for.   When young Emil is made aware of an illegal radio, he and his friend question what they are being taught. They decided to let people know. How far are they willing to go? What happens when they are sent to fight in a war they no longer believe in?  Who will survive? What will they lose?  This is one of those books I had to read non-stop. I can't wait to recommend it to my students and the history teachers at my school. I will also check out what else this author has written.

Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Short Story
I purchased a copy

This is a follow up companion short story to "Playing With Matches". In the first story Emil the main character falls in love with Johann's sister. Before being shipped off to war he asks her to marry him and she accepts. He has nothing to give her as a promise so she tears a loose thread from her coat and he ties it around her finger as an engagement ring. This book is the diary she keeps during the time they were together. There is nothing new in this book about her feelings toward Emil. However, we do get clarification on questions that may be brought up in the first book. 

Dying to Forget by Trish Marie Dawson

 

Genre:  Young Adult, Fantasy

Source: I received a copy from BookBub to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

This is one of those books whose premise sound awesome. Then when I began to read it I wasn't sure. Let me get my few negative remarks out first. Trish has killed herself after accidentally killing her best friend in a car accident. She arrives at a place where she must make a choice. She can decide to be sent on assignments to help people like her before they take that final step of suicide. Her other choice is to move on where she will have to live with everything that brought her to that point in her life, such as all her pain about being raped, her anger and other feelings of depression. She decides to  go back to help others. Her first assignment is in the head of a male. In fact she spends a lot of time making comments that shows she is lusting after him. This is where I had a major issue.  Up to this point I was okay with everything. Her second assignment is a bit better for her.  I liked the characters. I like the setting within reason. I would have liked the author to spend a bit more time on the world building instead of just describing buildings. It didn't feel like a place I would like to visit under any circumstances.   I kind of expected the ending.  I don't think most people would have felt that same way. It did leave it open for the next book in the series. I haven't decided if I liked it enough to read the next one or not. I am one of those who will re-read my review in a couple of days and then make that decision. All in all it was a pretty good book.

The Race to Krakatoa by J.D. Peabody

 

Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy

Source: I won a copy from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. The opinions expressed here are my own.

To say I have found a new author that I absolutely love would be an understatement. J.D. Peabody has created a series that not only kids will love, but educators and book lovers everywhere will love. In the second book in his series we find several things have happened. First, Mrs. Crimp is back, but loveable and protective of the children. She learned some valuable things while she was Inkased.  Everett has found a strength he didn't know he possessed. Bea has learned how much of caring person she is. She feels she is inadequate, but she is not. We have most of the same characters from the first book, including the villains with a few extras thrown in. One in particular is nasty. He was an Inking but used the ink for illegal purposes. He was shunned by the other inklings. He creates his own ink, a mixture of the ink from the first book with his own additives and gets it funded by the very people who hate the Inklings. But we all know that evil has a way of backfiring. The only thing I can say I hated is the ending of the book. I love that it ended in a cliff hanger.  That was brilliant writing. What I hated is that I will have to wait at least a year probably to read a continuation of the story. I could see people forming lines like they did for the Harry Potter books to purchase the next one.  They are that good. I want to jump into the story the way Everett is able to Leapread. I want to become a part of that world. THAT is how good these books are.  The author's nod to other authors and their works, which you can find out more about on his website, have made me want to check out some of the books I was unfamiliar with. It gave me a warm feeling to have him sprinkle in books I grew up with. That is why I say this is a book for young and old alike.  You have got to check these books out.