Category Archives: Read This

Read This!: EVERYONE’S SLEEPY BUT THE BABY by Tracy C. Gold

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Everyone's Sleepy but the BabyEveryone’s Sleepy but the Baby by Tracy C. Gold
Summary: Sleepy Mommy, Sleepy Daddy, Sleepy little dog.
Everyone’s sleepy but the baby, Yawn, yawn, yawn. After a long day, the whole family is ready to hit the hay . . . except for the baby. Why is it so hard to get the baby to sleep? With hilarious illustrations that might hit a little too close to home for new parents, Everyone’s Sleepy but the Baby is the perfect, true-to-life bedtime story that will help even the most reluctant sleeper wind down for bed

It’s a scene familiar to any exhausted parent: everyone is drowsy, sleepy, ready for bed – except the baby, who is wide awake! As parents, the dog, and even the toys wind down for the night, the baby wants to play, scrub-a-dub, and coo. Gold’s gentle, rhythmic text and  Dafflon’s bright and lively illustrations combine for a perfect bedtime read for sleepy parents and (eventually) sleepy babies. Bonus: it’s just the right length for that “one last bedtime story” that sets the mood for sleep. I am looking forward to adding it to my go-to baby shower gift list!

Everyone’s Sleepy but the Baby by Tracy C. Gold is out now!

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Read This!: BY THE BOOK by Amanda Sellet

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By the BookBy the Book by Amanda Sellet
Summary: As a devotee of classic novels, Mary Porter-Malcolm knows all about Mistakes That Have Been Made, especially by impressionable young women. So when a girl at her new high school nearly succumbs to the wiles of a notorious cad, Mary starts compiling the Scoundrel Survival Guide, a rundown of literary types to be avoided at all costs. 
Unfortunately, Mary is better at dishing out advice than taking it—and the number one bad boy on her list is terribly debonair. As her best intentions go up in flames, Mary discovers life doesn’t follow the same rules as fiction. If she wants a happy ending IRL, she’ll have to write it herself

I can’t remember the last time I connected so deeply with a fictional character. Mary is quirky, bookish, intelligent, and totally an outsider to her new high school. It was painful to watch as she was shunned by the person she thought was her best friend. The word that best describes this book for me is. Seeing Mary heartily connect with a new group of friends who appreciated her in all her quirky glory was a delight. Watching as the handsome Alex Ritter clearly found her as surprising and fascinating as she deserved to be found, even though it took her the whole book to realize it, was an equal delight. I love the fact that when everything fell apart, it was the idea that she lost her friends that was the greatest heartbreak to Mary. That felt very, very real. This book was a charming, surprising delight from start to finish.

BY THE BOOK is out now.

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Read This!: ALL EYES ON HER by L.E. Flynn

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All Eyes on HerAll Eyes on Her by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
Summary: You heard the story on the news. A girl and a boy went into the woods. The girl carried a picnic basket. The boy wore bright yellow running shoes. The girl found her way out, but the boy never did….
Everyone thinks they know what happened. Some say Tabby pushed him off that cliff— she didn’t even like hiking. She was jealous. She had more than her share of demons. Others think he fell accidentally—she loved Mark. She would never hurt him…even if he hurt her. But what’s the real story? All Eyes On Her is told from everyone but Tabby herself as the people in her life string together the events that led Tabby to that cliff. Her best friend. Her sister. Her enemy. Her ex-boyfriend. Because everybody thinks they know a girl better than she knows herself. What do you think is the truth?

This taut, suspenseful story kept me up way too late several nights in a row. Flynn tumbles readers directly into the mystery of Tabby and her motivations, as seen through the eyes of the people around her, including her sister, her rival, her best friend, her ex-boyfriend, the best friend of the boy she is accused of murdering, and the internet commenters on her case. What they all have in common is that they all have their own motives for what they share – or don’t – with the reader, the cops, and the many people asking questions about Tabby. Not until the end do we hear from Tabby herself – and is it any wonder that after being claimed, labeled, pored over, analyzed, and judged by everyone who thinks they have a right to the contents of her mind, the real Tabby is a far more complicated being? Flynn’s searing novel leaves the reader with answers full of their own uneasy questions about the reductive way that our society treats girls.

Favorite quote: “The universe is always trying to split girls in half. Half angel, half demon. No wonder so many of us turn into monsters.”

ALL EYES ON HER is out now.

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Read This!: SHE LEADS: THE ELEPHANT MATRIARCH by June Smalls

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She Leads: The Elephant MatriarchShe Leads: The Elephant Matriarch by June Smalls
Summary: She is the Queen. The matriarch.
She leads her daughters and their daughters.
Text and illustrations follow the journey of an elephant matriarch as she leads her family through the wilds of Africa. With facts about African elephants on every spread and a message that will encourage girls to be the trailblazers of their generation.

A quietly powerful book about real girl power in the animal kingdom. She Leads manages to be both straightforward and moving, fact-filled and lyrical, always firmly grounded in the power, nurturing strength, and beauty of the elephant matriarch and her legacy to those who will follow. Yumi Shimokawara’s naturalistic illustrations bring the queen and her society to life, while June Small’s main text offers the elegance of poetry, filled out by more information in the sidebars on each page. Ideal for storytime, the classroom, or bedtime reading.

SHE LEADS: THE ELEPHANT MATRIARCH is out now.

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Read This!: THE BEAUTY MYTH by Naomi Wolf

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The Beauty MythThe Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf
Summary: The bestselling classic that redefined our view of the relationship between beauty and female identity. In today’s world, women have more power, legal recognition, and professional success than ever before. Alongside the evident progress of the women’s movement, however, writer and journalist Naomi Wolf is troubled by a different kind of social control, which, she argues, may prove just as restrictive as the traditional image of homemaker and wife. It’s the beauty myth, an obsession with physical perfection that traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society’s impossible definition of “the flawless beauty.”

My heart, mind, and soul are full of this book right now. The beauty and power with which Naomi Wolf identifies and analyzes so many truths of life as a woman has gone right to my core. I’ve been reading this book as part of my immersion into my current YA fantasy novel project, which is a fairy tale retelling that is an intersection of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Snow White. And Wolf’s work has given me so much to ponder, especially in its insightful analysis of the ways in which women participate in our own oppression when we believe that “beauty” is an objective standard, and in the ways the beauty myth drives women apart, individually and generationally. An absolute must read.

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