Middle-Grade Review: A First Time for Everything

I finally have an iPad Mini to replace my very old Kindle, and I finally learned how to download review PDFs to it and open them up in the Books app. That means I am back to reviewing graphic novels (which went all digital last year). Yay! I missed them. The first one I read was a winner: A First Time for Everything, a graphic memoir by Dan Santat.

Dan wasn't very happy in middle school. Like many kids that age, he felt very self-conscious. He had some friends but found that the bullies in middle school were really mean. Then, a teacher asked him to recite a poem in front of the entire school at an assembly, and the teasing really ramped up. He was not looking forward to high school. His parents encouraged him to sign up for a three-week European study abroad program during the summer before high school, and he did, reluctantly. The only kids going that he knew from his school were some girls who were sort of mean to him usually, so Dan didn't have high hopes for the trip. But that trip changed his life. As the group from two cities traveles across Europe to four different countries, Dan experiences a string of firsts. He discovers a popular soda in Europe called Fanta, and aims to try every flavor. He makes new friends. He sees amazing things and, when his camera breaks, discovers how much he loves to draw. Maybe he'll even meet his first girlfriend?

Based on the author's real middle-school experiences taking a European trip, this graphic memoir captures the awkward, embarrassing, funny, and unforgettable moments of adolescence that most of us can relate to. It's part coming-of-age memoir and part travelogue, with the illustrations showing both traditional story-telling panels and also Dan's wonderful drawings of the trip and the things that they saw. It's a wonderful story that reminded me of my own trip to England and France in high school. I enjoyed every page of this beautiful graphic memoir.

320 pages, First Second

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - F

Nonfiction Reader's Challenge (my first of the year!) - Memoir category

Travel the World in Books - UK, France, Switzerland, Germany

 

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 

 

Or you can order A First Time for Everything from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

TV Tuesday: Shrinking

My husband does not usually like comedy shows. Our sons and I accepted this sad fact years ago, so the three of us laugh together over That '70's Show or Bob's Burgers. Every once in a while, though, a TV comedy comes along that is so wonderful, so warm and funny, that he enjoys it. Older shows that slipped through the cracks into his funny bone include Modern Family and Life in Pieces (both excellent and highly recommended). After seeing previews and hearing its stars on television interviews, I talked him into trying Shrinking, and it was such a hit with both of us that we watched the first season much too quickly!

Jimmy, played by Jason Segel (of How I Met Your Mother fame), is a therapist who is still deeply mired in his own grief, a year after his wife's death. His boss is Paul, a grumpy older therapist played by the great Harrison Ford. Rounding out the team in their office is Gaby, played by Jessica Williams, who was best friends with Jimmy's wife. Jimmy has a teen daughter named Alice (played by Lukita Maxwell) who really needs her dad right now, but the two seemed each locked in their own grief, living separate lives in the same house. After session upon session of hearing his patients whine and complain, Jimmy finally loses his cool in one session, breaks all the rules of therapy, and urges the woman in front of him to leave her abusive boyfriend. And she says, "OK." Being honest like that is freeing for Jimmy, and it seems to help his patients, so he moves forward and gets way too involved in his patients' lives, crossing the boundaries of the professional relationship, and urging them to take positive action. Despite Paul's admonitions, this outlaw approach seems to work, especially with Sean, played by Luke Tennie, a veteran suffering from PTSD and prone to fits of violence. Adding to this all-star cast is Christa Miller (known for Cougartown) who plays Jimmy and Alice's next-door neighbor, Liz, who crosses boundaries herself and gets more and more involved with their lives.

If that summary, about a therapist whose wife died, sounds depressing, the show is not. It is hilariously, laugh-out-loud funny. It's also heartwarming and uplifting, as Jimmy and Alice gradually heal and begin to move forward again. The show was created by Segel and Brett Goldstein, who plays Roy Kent in the equally funny and warm Ted Lasso, and Bill Lawrence, a producer from Scrubs and Ted Lasso. Then there's that cast! Every one of them is outstanding and fully inhabits their flawed character. Did you know Harrison Ford is really funny? His dry delivery often had us laughing so hard, we had to back up because we missed a line. The writing in this show is phenomenal, and with such top actors to deliver those perfect lines, it's a match made in heaven. Just like when we watch Ted Lasso, every episode left us smiling. We flew through the first season much too quickly and are missing it now, but it's been approved for season two. We can't wait!

Shrinking is an Apple original program, so it's only available on Apple TV.

It's Monday 4/3! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

NOTE: If you subscribe to my blog, my April newsletter is late due to problems with the provider--I'm hoping they fix the issues today!

Life

Happy Spring!

Happy Easter!

I have a super-busy week coming up, with loads of appointments, meetings, interviews, etc. crammed into three days. Then we'll drive to my hometown, Rochester, NY, to celebrate Easter with family. 

Last week was a celebratory one for us; my husband and I are still filled with joy about our older son being healthy enough to manage a full-time job now and finding his dream job at just the right time. We had a wonderful phone call last night to get all the details of his first week. He actually ended up working six days straight, since they had something scheduled on Saturday. His boss assured him this was very rare. But he managed it OK!! He handled the commute (three trains) fine, likes his co-workers, and is excited about the work and already learning a lot. I can tell he loves being intellectually challenged again. He's been chronically ill since age 10 (now 28), so this all feels like a miracle to us. We hung up the phone, and I burst into tears (happy ones).

Spring finally feels like it has arrived here! My favorite harbinger of spring, forsythia, is all over. I just love that eye-popping yellow, especially against a brilliant blue sky. Daffodils are up, too; ours are a bit later since they're in a shadier spot. And, if you've been following my blog for a while, you may remember my excitement two years ago when I bought lots of native perennial plants from our local nature center (inspired by Nature's Best Hope by Doug Tallamy) that took us a month to plant! It's so exciting now to see them coming back up for the second year. We worked on cleaning up our gardens this week. I'll post more pictures when the newer plantings bloom!

My fave sight in spring: bright yellow forsythia!

Our daffodils have finally bloomed!

Everything blooming in a neighbor's yard

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On the Blog

 Fiction Review: Be with the Dead by Matty Dalrymple - my favorite mystery/suspense/thriller series takes on the publishing industry with the main character talking with two dead thriller authors!

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On Video

In or Out Book Tag - a fun tag video about likes and dislikes when it comes to books and reading.

Friday Reads 3-31-23 - my quick weekly reading update  

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What We're Reading

I finished reading my April book group read, The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. I enjoyed The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Benedict, so I've been looking forward to this one. It's historical fiction based on the real life of Belle da Costa Greene, personal librarian for J.P. Morgan and his famous Pierpont Morgan Library of historical manuscripts, books, and art, beginning in 1908. Belle had Morgan's complete authority in purchasing decisions for the esteemed collection and became famous in her own right, doing a job that was typically handled by men at that time. But Belle had a secret: she was actually a Black woman, passing as white in very public persona and moving among the upper echelons of Gilded Age society. It was excellent, detailing Belle's fascinating job as well as the pain and anxiety she endured in hiding her true self from the world. I'm looking forward to the discussion on Wednesday.

 

I also finished a middle-grade graphic memoir, A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat. Graphic novels for review went digital last year, and I only had a very old Kindle (black and white). Last week, I finally figured out how to download the PDFs and read them on my new iPad Mini. I'm so excited to be catching up on graphic novels again, and this was my first in a long time. It was wonderful, about how a three-week study abroad program the summer before high school completely changed the author's life. It's when he gained confidence, started to like himself (he was teased and bullied at home), and began to realize how important drawing was to him! It's filled with gorgeous illustrations of the story but also of the many European countries they visited. Highly recommended! My Friday Reads video includes a peak at the pages.

Now, I am back to books for Booktopia 2023! That's a fabulous annual book event held in Vermont the first weekend in May, where readers and authors hang out together--tickets are still available! (Click Events and scroll down to the bottom.) Here's my summary from Booktopia 2022. The booksellers choose about 8 authors with new books coming out. I just started reading Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett, an unusual novel narrated by a group of dead people in a town cemetery! Yup, you read that right. In a small New Hampshire town, 22-year-old Emma returns home, a medical school drop-out. Her father is dying from a mysterious brain disease and sees animals all over, as well as Harold, a long-dead naturalist in the area who once lived in their house ... with a lot of wild animals. That's about as far as I've gotten so far, but the writing is excellent; it's intriguing, warm, and funny.

 

I finished listening to a middle-grade audio, The Midnight Children by Dan Gemeinhart, released last summer. I always enjoy Gemeinhart's novels; The Honest Truth and The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise are two of my favorites. A boy named Ravani Foster lives in a town called Slaughterville. He's a nice kid, but he's lonely and is bullied a lot. One night, looking out his bedroom window at midnight, he sees seven children of different ages carrying suitcases get out of a truck and enter an abandoned house on his dead-end street. Ravi gradually gets to know the kind and quiet Virginia and eventually, the other kids, too. But this family carries some deep--and dangerous--secrets. It was a wonderful story about friendship and family, with a bit of magic in an otherwise realistic narrative, set against the gruesome backdrop of a town named after its main industry, a slaughterhouse.

 

Now, I'm listening to This Is Our Place, a YA novel by Vitor Martins that caught my eye for its setting and its unique story. It's set in Brazil and is narrated by a house! Yes, I've got some unusual narrators going on right now. In this novel, we hear (from the house) about three different teen residents of the house: one in 2000, one in 2010, and one in 2020. It's great so far.

 

  My husband, Ken, finished reading Across the Sand by Hugh Howey and says this newer series is just as good as Howey's Silo trilogy: Wool, Shift, and Dust. Now, he's made a sharp turn and started reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I love Dickens, and this one is my favorite, so he bought a copy recently when we visited an indie bookstore last month. I love to hear him laughing while reading it and reading passages out loud to me because this novel really shows off Dickens' wit.

 

I was so excited to hear about my son's new job yesterday that I forgot to ask what he's reading! But since he worked six long days last week, I'm guessing he is still reading book 3, The Four-Part Key, of The Aldoran Chronicles by Michael Wiseheart. He really enjoys this author's novels.

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What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.  

What are you and your family reading this week?

 

Fiction Review: Be with the Dead

I rarely read whole book series, but I am completely hooked on the Ann Kinnear series by Matty Dalrymple! I just read book 6, Be with the Dead, in this gripping, engrossing series about a woman who solves mysteries by communicating with ghosts. In this novel, Ann gets involved with two different mysteries, both involving mystery/thriller authors.

Ann is settled in her cottage on the beautiful grounds of the local winery that was the site of the last book, A Serpent's Tooth. She has been asked to speak at the Gotham Crime Fiction Conference about her experiences solving mysteries by speaking with the dead. Her liaison is Darren Van Osten, an editor who has worked for years with best-selling thriller author Jock Quine. Unfortunately, Jock was killed recently in an armed robbery of his mansion in Princeton, and Darren is struggling to work with Jock's son, Alec, who is supposed to be continuing the series. Alec might not work out, so Darren is hoping to keep his editing business alive with a promising new client, Lara Seaford, whose first thriller novel is already winning awards.

Meanwhile, down in Ocean City, Maryland, cozy mystery author Marilee Forsythe is desperate to get out of her contract for another cozy "berry mystery" so that she can follow her true passion and become a thriller author. To this end, she is pressuring her son, Jeremy, and his wife, Jeanette, to repay the loan she gave them so she can buy out the rest of her contract. After Marilee is attacked leaving a reading in a local bookstore, she refuses to leave her ocean-front condo, forcing Jeanette to make repeated trips from their home in Pennsylvania to Ocean City to act as her courier and errand-runner. Jeanette is trying to be patient with her mother-in-law, but Marilee isn't the easiest person to deal with.

Ann ends up getting pulled into both of these situations, using her unique talents to unearth some secrets that would otherwise be taken to the grave. As with the other Ann Kinnear books, this one is propulsive, filled with action, danger, and unexpected twists. Besides being great thrillers, these books also feature Dalrymple's excellent writing. The characters feel real and three-dimensional (Ann and her family are practically close friends to me by now!), and she makes her settings come alive with details. I loved the subject matter here, focused on thriller writers, editing, bookstores, and the publishing industry. This is another great entry in this engaging, addictive series!

392 pages, William Kingsfield Publishers

You can also read my review of the first book in the series, A Sense of Death.

 

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - B

Literary Escapes Challenge - Maryland

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!   
   

Or start with the first book in this wonderful series, The Sense of Death:

 

Or you can order Be with the Dead from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

It's Monday 3/27! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

It's a big day for our family! It's our older son's first day in his new job, his first-ever full-time job in the professional field he studied in college (environmental engineering/sustainability). He's had the same chronic illnesses as me (an immune disorder and tick infections) since he was ten years old, so he's had a long, challenging road to finally get to this point where he is well enough to manage working full-time. Plus, this sounds like his dream job! It's exactly what he wanted to do when he graduated. We are so proud of his hard work, determination, and persistence. 

He came to visit this weekend. I just love having all four of us together, which doesn't happen often enough these days! We all enjoyed a nice dinner together Thursday night, and my husband and I enjoyed his company on Friday, too.

Saturday, we got to see friends we hadn't seen since last fall, which was wonderful. And yesterday, my husband and I enjoyed a hike on a gorgeous sunny spring day. After three days of rain, everything was in bloom!

 

Forsythia in bloom in our yard!

Lesser Celandine in bloom along the trail.

Bubbling creek and a brilliant blue sky, with green buds.

Enjoying a beautiful day

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On the Blog

Two Great Middle-Grade Novels on Audio - short reviews of two excellent novels I listened to for Middle-Grade March - both very different but very good!

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On Video

Friday Reads 3-24-23 - my weekly update about the books I am reading

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What We're Reading

 

I finished reading We Love to Entertain by Sarah Strohmeyer, my first book for Booktopia 2023! That's a fabulous annual book event held in Vermont the first weekend in May, where readers and authors hang out together--tickets are still available! (Click Events and scroll down to the bottom.) Here's my summary from Booktopia 2022. The booksellers choose about 8 authors with new books coming out. This one is a thriller that will be released on April 25. It's about a home renovation reality show featuring Robert and Holly, who purchased property in Vermont super-cheap, and are creating an expensive, eco-friendly mansion there. Unfortunately, the previous owner who was evicted isn't too happy about that. And now the two TV/social media stars are missing ... or are they? This unique novel was great and filled with suspense!

 

Now, I am taking a break from Booktopia reading for a book group read, The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. I enjoyed The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Benedict, so I've been looking forward to this one. It's historical fiction based on the real life of Belle da Costa Greene, personal librarian for J.P. Morgan and his famous Pierpont Morgan Library of historical manuscripts, books, and art, beginning in 1906. Belle had Mr. Morgan's complete authority in purchasing decisions for the esteemed collection and became famous in her own right, doing a job that was typically handled by men at that time. But Belle had a secret: she was actually a Black woman, passing as white in very public persona and moving among the upper echelons of Gilded Age society. It's excellent so far, detailing Belle's fascinating job as well as the pain and anxiety she endured in hiding her true self from the world.

 

I've been enjoying Middle-Grade March with novels on audio. I finished It's the End of the World and I'm in My Bathing Suit by Justin A. Reynolds. It starts as a story about a pretty typical twelve-year-old boy named Eddie, who is grounded and can't go to the beach with his family because he hasn't done his laundry in 40 days, since school ended! But then the power goes out (just as he starts his second load), and he ends up alone with four other kids from his neighborhood. Both power and cell service are out, everyone else in town is at the annual Beach Bash, and the kids begin to realize something very strange is going on. I enjoyed this audio book, though I wish I had known that it's book one of a series! The questions as to what has happened are not answered in this book, though it's a great story about a group of kids coming together to help each other. I talk about it more in my Friday Reads video.

Now, I am listening to another middle-grade audio, The Midnight Children by Dan Gemeinhart, released last summer. I always enjoy Gemeinhart's novels; The Honest Truth and The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise are two of my favorites. Here, a boy named Ravani Foster lives in a town called Slaughterville. He's a nice kid, but he's lonely and is bullied a lot. One night, looking out his bedroom window at midnight, he sees seven children of different ages carrying suitcases get out of a truck and enter an abandoned house on his dead-end street. Ravi gradually gets to know the kind and quiet Virginia and eventually, the other kids, too. But this family carries some deep--and dangerous--secrets. It's an intriguing story so far, with perhaps a hint of magic, set against the gruesome backdrop of a town named after its main industry, a slaughterhouse.

 

My husband, Ken is still reading Across the Sand, book two in a post-apocalyptic series by Hugh Howey (book one is Sand). We both absolutely loved Howey's Silo trilogy: Wool, Shift, and Dust. If you haven't read it yet, you should! It's one of our favorites. He says this newer series is just as good, and he's enjoying it.

 

I won't be able to check in with our son, 28, on Monday mornings anymore because he'll be at work! But this weekend, he gave me a reading update while visiting. He finished reading book 5, Wildfire in the Street Rats of Aramoor series by Michael Wiseheart. This was a prequel series to Wiseheart's The Aldoran Chronicles, so now he's gone back to that series and is reading book 3, The Four-Part Key. He really enjoys this author's novels.

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What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.  

What are you and your family reading this week

 

Two Great Middle-Grade Novels on Audio

I've been enjoying Middle-Grade March, an annual reading challenge, and using it to help me catch up on some middle-grade books on audio. Here are two that I've enjoyed this month:

First up, I listened to Concealed by Christina Diaz Gonzalez, which combines mystery, thriller, family drama, and science fiction. It won the 2022 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery.

Twelve-year-old Katrina is in the witness protection program with her parents. The three of them are very close but live isolated lives, on the run from a dangerous drug cartel and unable to stay in one place for very long. Katrina is only the latest of her names; she's been choosing them alphabetically and is up to K. New place, new name. Their new location is something different, though. They usually live in cities, where they can get lost in the crowd and blend in. This time, they are in an RV, pulling into a trailer park in a small town in Georgia. Katrina's parents are hoping that this will allow her to have some independence and maybe even make a friend or two. And right away, Katrina meets the boy in the trailer next door, Parker, who is a computer whiz her age. Things are looking up. But then, everything goes wrong. Katrina's parents are missing, and she and Parker are on their own ... and on the run again. 

As Katrina tries to find her parents and is on her own for the first time, long-held secrets are uncovered, lies are revealed, and the danger builds. This is an excellent (award-winning!) and very twisty thriller with a gripping story that kept me rapt. It's an outstanding audio, wholly original and completely compelling.

320 pages, Scholastic

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges

Alphabet Soup - C

Literary Escapes - Georgia 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!
 
  

Or you can order Concealed from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

 

 

My second audio book this month was completely different but just as good: Can You See Me? by Libby Scott and Rebecca Westcott. 

 

Eleven-year-old Tally is starting sixth grade and middle-school. She's extra nervous about this big change because she's autistic. Her parents are very supportive (and so is her older sister, most of the time!), but no one at school--kids or teachers--knows about her autism, except her best friend. Tally works very hard to try to fit in and be like everyone else, but she's not like everyone else. She sees and hears and feels and notices everything and is constantly trying hard to act "normal." Her nemesis, a mean boy named Luke, is here, too, making things even harder. The pressure Tally feels to not seem weird builds and builds, until it finally starts to come out. Along the way, she finds an unexpected ally in her new drama teacher and a new friend in a three-legged dog.

This honest story about empathy and kindness puts the reader right inside Tally's perspective, experiencing the world as she does. It includes diary entries--a suggestion from a counselor--and Tally's tips for others interacting with those with autism that she hopes will someday help others. In fact, the diary entries were written by a real-life girl with autism, the co-author Libby Scott, who was just nine years old when this book was published! Libby's contributions add to the authenticity of this wonderful novel. Listening to it on audio makes the experience of being in Tally's shoes even more immersive and insightful. I enjoyed the book and learned a lot.

368 pages, Scholastic

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Diversity Challenge (and mini-challenge: #ownvoices)

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

   

 

Or you can order Can You See Me? from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

 

Disclosure: I received these books from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.