Weebeaks

As an adult reading it, I might not give this 5 stars. My 5-star rating is for this book used as part of a history curriculum for a middle schooler. We have lots and lots of the DK books on history topics, but this one is unique on our shelves as an overview of ideas rather than physical objects that helped change the world. An example of this is where as the DK ancient history things may show paintings or pottery shards, this Ideas book opens with the evidence of cannibalism in very early humans and what that might indicate for those people above and beyond a simple need for food. Aside from the Donner Party of course in American history texts, many books would shy away from that topic. And my middle school child, of course, was fascinated by the idea and evidence of it. Book is a hit 2 pages into it, right?! As it continues talking about the "Mind of the Hunter" (earliest people), it continues to talk about symbols and the usual things but also about evidence of how early people may have thought about magic, a "universal force" or other more cerebral ideas.

I love that this book focuses on overreaching concepts rather than details for each era (predestination, chivalry, civil disobedience, etc) but in a brief enough scope that the student can understand it for the era but not be overwhelmed and stuck on that topic alone. If the interest is great enough, of course, the student can then find other books to go further in depth.

I assign this book throughout our history studies as an adjunct to our traditional books, finding it covers a niche the others do not.

I don't think we have encountered a Bobbie Kalman book we truly hated. This one was a great intro to mid level elementary school explanation of classification of the animal kingdom. I used it during the first week of a unit on zoology for a brand new 3rd grader. He read it independently throughout a week after first discussing the classifications. There was at least one picture per 2-page spread, and not an overwhelming amount of text. I found the information to be in depth for his age, a little bit challenging at times, but the pictures broke it up enough that he could cope with this as an independent exploration. He is an average reader for his grade and enjoyed this one quite a bit.

This is more like 3.5 stars IMHO.

Pros:
- Heroine is no wimp for sure.
- For a novella, there is a lot packed in there, which is also a con (see below).
- Different.

Cons:
- I found it very confusing to follow so much world building in such a short period of time. I didn't feel like we got to know the characters much.
- The story opens with the hero and heroine fighting each other for money. I had a problem with a H able to pound his h into the ground, but that was part of this "world" for sure. It still didn't sit right with me.

I have the next book, and will continue with the series, as I think at least some of my problems were due to not getting into the world enough in the short number of pages.

Incredible, full-length-novel emotions and story packed into a novella, something incredibly hard to do but pulled off by this amazing author.

This is another look into the story of Amber and Tony from How to Misbehave. They now have 3 kids (boys, ages 10 to 6), and a busy life that leaves little time for them to just be a couple. Every minute is taken up by the routine, by the kids (written as real kids with real problems that drive real parents nuts), by the chores, by the thousand and one worries every parent has every day. In all this, both have lost the joy and passion of being just a couple.

"...because I don't know who I am anymore. I'm afraid I'm not anybody. That I'm only your wife and the kids' mom and that's it."

What mom hasn't felt this way at some time? It call comes to a head at a destination wedding vacation that really doesn't go well. Amber and Tony then need to figure out how to go forward, how to fix what seems unfixable. But they still have their love, just buried beneath the load of other stuff.

But he didn't know. Tony never gave himself enough credit. He didn't know how amazing he was. Everything he'd accomplished, everything he gave her and their family.

He didn't know what she thought, how she felt, because she didn't tell him. She'd walled herself off, kept too many secrets, hid too many disappointments because she didn't want to hurt him, and now she was hurting him anyway."

Beautiful, so glad I had the chance to read this gem.

I received a complimentary copy of this from Netgalley.

I really liked this story. It had some of the usual shifter story elements but more. Our hero is a wolf shifter, but his pack is more loosely defined than typical and full of damaged personalities related to past abuse at the hands of a mysterious organization. Our heroine is a vet with a mystical way with animals, who also has a mysterious past (adopted child) related to that same covert organization. Vampires are also mentioned, though no real characters. Then we add in an adoptive mother with an interesting past including military special ops. That is a lot going on, but somehow it is pulled off, and the story is good.

The writing is clear and engaging. It was not riddled with grammatical errors, always a plus. Enough storyline is kept to just the H/h regarding their developing relationship to keep it focal and believable (as believable as shifter relationships in books get), with enough ancillary to give some excitement. I hope there are more stories coming regarding some of the other interesting characters, either pack members or the heroine's family.

I received a free copy of this one from netgalley to review.

This one was riddled with grammatical errors/word use errors, and read very choppy and rushed overall. The plot was not bad, not completely original but then what romance book really is? It was not a bad idea, but the implementation on this was seriously lacking honestly. I hope the author continues to dream up stories but perhaps get some editorial feedback in the implementation of the stories in her imagination.

I really liked this story. It had some of the usual shifter story elements but more. Our hero is a wolf shifter, but his pack is more loosely defined than typical and full of damaged personalities related to past abuse at the hands of a mysterious organization. Our heroine is a vet with a mystical way with animals, who also has a mysterious past (adopted child) related to that same covert organization. Vampires are also mentioned, though no real characters. Then we add in an adoptive mother with an interesting past including military special ops. That is a lot going on, but somehow it is pulled off, and the story is good.

The writing is clear and engaging. It was not riddled with grammatical errors, always a plus. Enough storyline is kept to just the H/h regarding their developing relationship to keep it focal and believable (as believable as shifter relationships in books get), with enough ancillary to give some excitement. I hope there are more stories coming regarding some of the other interesting characters, either pack members or the heroine's family.

I received a free copy of this one from netgalley to review.

This was just a brief scene really between Kalen and Mac. The writing was good, but really it was expensive for the length. IMHO, it would have been better suited as a prologue to the story of Kalen and Mac, or ancillary story of Aric's story in the next book. It really didn't have much to it.

That said, I love the series so got it, and the writer is talented!

What can I say - I loved it. I probably liked some of her other series more, but the Chaos series is 5 star compared to other authors truly. I'm finding the Chaos series just not as in depth (or as long), so not as much time to spend with the characters and really fall in love with them and their stories. That said, Hop's character is wonderful, much better than I anticipated based on his introductions in other KA books.

I received an ecopy of this book for review from Netgalley.

In this picture book, we meet Will, who is interested in frogs. He wants to find a good book about frogs. We look through a book with him, learning the parts of a book.

Topics covered include the usual table of contents, index, title page, glossary and so forth as well as the truly basic such as what is a cover and spine, back cover, that are not as typically covered (probably because some consider them obvious - but hey not every kid thinks so).

Each 2-page spread has a nice clear photo and text that is not overwhelming for the early elementary age group (typically when this is covered for children, preK to probably grade 1 or later for review/remedial). Text is large enough to read aloud to a classroom easily, held aloft. The book topic vocabulary words are set off in a contrast color to pick them out easily.

This is a great book for independently-reading kids or teacher/child combinations who thrive on a book to facilitate learning any topic. Lots of kids thrive on going to the library and having a book in hand while listening to the instructor about the topic. Other kids want a book with pictures to learn about books. A book to describe the properties of a book - funny huh? I have one child like this. He wants a book on a topic, not just to hear it, and this is perfect for him and others like him.

I received a copy of this through Netgalley.
This book begins as if it is for the very very inexperienced seamstress, as if you will be sewing your first projects ever. It describes basic sewing equipment, types of needles, types of threads, woven versus interlock materials, etc., in very great detail with clear and pretty pictures. It explains seam allowances and several types of seams, several types of hems, inserting a zipper, etc. The diagrams are clear, information adequate.

The reader than goes about creating a sloper from measurements. This again is described to a novice. You are recommended to create your muslin sloper, which will then be used for all the other skirts in the book. The information is accurate, though I would have liked to see more actual fitting advice as this book is so much geared for the novice. There are some common problems that may come up in fitting, where some diagrams could be helpful, such as sway back, body shape issues, adjusting for protruding tummies, etc.

Chapters thereafter describe changes to your sloper to create the various skirts in the book. What I love is that there truly are several variations described that give quite different looks, and many of them simulate "ready to wear" styles with exposed zippers, interesting seaming, etc. There is a whole lot more here than the basic pull-on versus zipper in the back versus A-line that so many skirt books have already done. These truly area interesting variations for your basic sloper. However, given the focus of the book towards the very novice seamstress, I'm a bit concerned that someone would be overwhelmed trying to create some of these variations as they involve at times a skilled hand at sewing, e.g. the one with the curved asymmetrical darts. Even the example picture has some puckering at the darts, and a novice might end up frustrated with final his/her attempts at that. It's a fine line between enough of a challenge and a completely frustrating learning experience in the beginning.

Some of the skirts also show some challenging fabrics, such as working with velvet or aligning stripes, and I feel not enough information is given to the reader to be able to handle the nap on the velvet or the alignment of the stripes confidently. If this book were geared towards the moderate to advanced seamstress I would expect no extra help in that regard, but again the introduction and preliminary chapters make it clear this is geared towards the novice. As such, some more information on the fabrics chosen would be helpful to give the reader the very best chance of duplicating the project.

So, I give this book 4 stars as a moderate seamstress, but I would not recommend it to my most novice friend as I think she would be frustrated at the turnout of the projects if using only this book as a guide. I give it 4 stars because it is so very visually appealing (Storey publishing always has the most visually appealing books IMHO), and appeals to a modern woman (up to date styles). I love that it does not require pattern sheets with the book but rather teaches you to draft your own sloper. This gives you ultimately endless possibilities for variation (showing you several of course in the book). I do highly recommend it for those with at least basic sewing experience as a fun book.

Lash is an angel who is sent to earth as punishment for a wrong decision he made. After 35 years, he is given an assignment to protect Naomi, a human. In the process, Naomi and Lash fall in love as many secrets about the past are revealed.

This book is the first in a trilogy, so not every secret is revealed of course. Hints are given in the last chapter as to the course the future will take. It is complete on its own though - no cliffhanger!

The flow of the writing and complexity of the story makes it hard to believe it is this author's first book. I really look forward to reading more in the future.

I picked this up for my 2yo daughter, but the simple bold-colored fish on a black background appealed to the whole family. The drawings have the appearance of colored chalks on a blackboard, the media itself of course children can relate to. Our lovers of sidewalk chalk here certainly were enthralled.

Each 2-page spread shows a colorful fish on one side and an emotion word on the other page, simple, clear, elegant. The 2yo loved the pictures, and we went over putting a word to the expression depicted by the fish. For the older kids (ages 5 and 7), we talked about what specific features of the fish were able to tell us the emotion (smile, eyes, eyebrows, etc). This is an important concept for kids, and being able to dissect and pinpoint the different aspects of facial and body language is difficult for them, especially if they suffer from some types of neurological disorders. My 10YO with his ADHD finds this especially difficult.

This book appeals obviously to young children as simply fun and an introduction to emotion words, but can be used in a more advanced way with young school age children, and even older children needing a very simple visual of face and body clues (even on a fish!) to help decipher emotional cues.

I liked this one a lot. Yeah, it was typical of current new adult fiction with H and h both seriously damaged, abusive pasts, etc., that is so popular right now. I'm okay with that; it's what I expected and I occasionally immerse myself in fiction just like this. No, it's not realistic, but then again neither are vampires and werewolves, and I like those too!

The writing flowed nicely, dialog was realistic. I loved the story.

The only thing I didn't really like was that the alternating POV backtracked and repeated itself, going over part of the same material from the other person's point of view, rather than just having a continued story with alternating points of view as is more typical. The backtracking to tell the story from the other's eyes seemed a bit tedious at times and slowed down the story, even though it was interesting to see it from the other side. Perhaps it could have been limited and/or incorporated occasionally as flashbacks/memories/some other method of telling it?

In any case, an excellent read!

What I liked:

The plot and world building were interesting and different IMHO that lots of shifter novels. As there are more and more shifter/vamp/PNR, different is an excellent thing!

The characters were quite interesting, though I wish we had more insight into them. It felt very very rushed.

What I didn't like:

Wow, the story moved fast, too fast to be believable in the relationship category. Even though these characters had a history, their move into intimacy was really just not at all there. In fact, I saw very little interaction at all between them.

There was little dialog and all telling. It didn't flow or feel natural at all. The story choices and sentences felt really stilted, like a brand new author, though I see this author does have other works. I was unable to really lose myself in the story due to the writing. I struggled to finish this one.

I know this is the start of a series, and I hope the others will flow better because the setup of the coming war with the demons is interesting.

It was a bit short for the price (under 70 pages, $2.99) IMHO, but the writing was good, a different take on the "alpha pair" concept common in shifter novels. In this case, two males form a pair and then have to find their human female to complete the set. I would have liked to hear more about background on Keller and Madden, how they came to become a pair, background, etc. It just felt too short, not enough about the characters, but again my preference does not align with novellas/shorter works so that is just a personal bias.

I would definitely read the others in the series to hear about her sisters. :)