Review of: Wild Cherry Makes a Wish

Author: Pippa le Quesne
ISBN: 9780723258261
Pages: 80
Published by: Warne (October 2006)
Genre(s): Fiction, Chapter Book
Grade: A
Challenge(s): 100+ Reading Challenge - Read 'n Review '09 - Read Together 2009 - Spring Reading Thing 2009


Wild Cherry Makes a Wish is one of several Flower Fairies Friends books. I picked up six of them when hubs and I went to an overstock book store (all books are 75% off!).

From the back: Wild Cherry is feeling very sad. She wishes that she could dance but is too shy to ask for help. Then she has a misunderstanding with Pansy, the on fairy who could teach her.

So, when Pansy is in danger and it is up to Wild Cherry to help, will she be brave enough to save her? And will her wish ever be granted?

Each book appears to have 6 chapters. Reaghan and I are on our 3rd book of the 6 that we bought and she really likes them. They each have a life lesson (I wouldn't call it a moral) that a particular fairie learns. Reaghan is only 3, so I doubt she's learning any life lesson's from the books, but I expect that over the next few years, as she learns to read on her own and rereads these book, she will learn those life lessons.

Reaghan got a little nervous when Pansy was in danger of being seen by *gasp* human children, but with some quick thinking by Wild Cherry, the children are distracted and chase some fairy dust and Cherry blossoms swirling and dancing in the opposite direction. When Pansy learns of this brave act, she asks Wild Cherry what if anything she can do to repay her. Will Wild Cherry overcome her shyness enough to tell Pansy the ONE thing that she really wants from Pansy?

Buy Wild Cherry Makes a Wish by Pippa le Quesne:
IndieBound {} Powell's {} Amazon

Review of: Shanghai Girls

Author: Lisa See
ISBN: 9781400067114
Pages: 315
Published by: Random House (May 26, 2009)
Genre(s): Fiction, Historical Fiction
Grade: A
Challenge(s): 100+ Reading Challenge - Read 'n Review '09 - Spring Reading Thing 2009 - World Citizen Challenge - 2009 Pub Challenge



Pearl and May Chin grew up in Shanghai, China in the 1920s and '30s. When they are 21 and 19, respectively, they are 'sold' into arranged marriages with a pair of brother, to pay off their father's gambling debts. Pearl is already in love with an artist called ZG. May and Pearl are models, their faces sell everything from baby formula to tobacco. In the process of leaving China for America, after the bombing of Shanghai, many terrible tings happen to and around this pair of sisters.

I learned quite a bit reading Shanghai Girls. I'm not sure what it says about our education system that I'd never heard about Angel Island before. More tid-bits I found interesting:

• In Chinese culture, white is the funeral color, the death color. (Imagine what it was like for immigrants from China that went to a hospital or to see a doctor!)
• There were segments at least that were prejudiced toward the Japanese; calling them things like "monkey people" and "dwarf bandits".

I really found myself pulled in by Lisa See's words. I felt like I was right there with the sisters through their many struggles, fights, joys. I haven't read any of Lisa See's previous novels, but I am looking forward to reading more than Shanghai Girls.

From GoodReads: May and Pearl, two sisters living in Shanghai in the mid-1930s, are beautiful, sophisticated, and well-educated, but their family is on the verge of bankruptcy. Hoping to improve their social standing, May and Pearl’s parents arrange for their daughters to marry “Gold Mountain men” who have come from Los Angeles to find brides.

But when the sisters leave China and arrive at Angel’s Island (the Ellis Island of the West)—where they are detained, interrogated, and humiliated for months—they feel the harsh reality of leaving home. And when May discovers she’s pregnant the situation becomes even more desperate. The sisters make a pact that no one can ever know.

A novel about two sisters, two cultures, and the struggle to find a new life in America while bound to the old, Shanghai Girls is a fresh, fascinating adventure from beloved and bestselling author Lisa See.

(Full disclosure: I won this ARC of Shanghai Girls in a drawing on Random House's website. If you have any questions/concerns about how this may have affected how I feel about the book, please go here and read the last paragraph.)

Buy Shanghai Girls by Lisa See:
IndieBound {} Powell's {} Amazon

Review of: Girls in Trucks

Author: Katie Crouch
ISBN: 9780316002127
Pages: 272
Published by: Back Bay Books (April 2009, paperback)
Genre(s): Fiction, ChickLit, Southern Fiction
Grade: B
Challenge(s): 100+ Reading Challenge - Read 'n Review '09 - Spring Reading Thing 2009



My First thought when I reached the end of Girls in Trucks was that it needed to be longer. Not in the way you might think. Not in the "I was so in love with the characters that I wanted it to go in forever" way. I wanted it to be longer because I didn't like way it ended. I tend to think of 'chick-lit' as all having an 'And they lived happily ever after' ending. After sitting with my thoughts for a couple of days I realized something. Books don't all have happy endings. Neither does life.

Girls in Trucks does not present us with an ending all wrapped up and decorated with a bow. But it's not a bad ending. Sarah and her man do not ride off into the sunset, but there is a happiness there. Is it a somewhat mindless, Scarlett O'Hara (I'm paraphrasing here.) "I'll think about it tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day ending? Maybe.

Girls in Trucks is in no way a bad book. I enjoyed the time I spent with Sarah, her sister Eloise and Sarah's friend Charlotte. Even if I did want to slap Sarah at times and tell her to get a clue.

Buy GIRLS IN TRUCKS by Katie Crouch:
IndieBound {} Powell's {} Amazon

Review of: Follow Me {and Blog Tour}

Author: Joanna Scott
ISBN: 9780316051651
Pages: 432
Published by: Little, Brown and Company (April, 2009)
Genre(s): Fiction
Grade: A
Challenge(s): 100+ Reading Challenge - Read 'n Review '09 - 2009 Pub Challenge - Spring Reading Thing 2009

My thoughts are at the very bottom of this post as they contain mild spoilers. They are under the purple dots.

From the publisher: On a summer day in 1946 Sally Werner, the precocious young daughter of hardscrabble Pennsylvania farmers, secretly accepts her cousin's invitation to ride his new motorcycle. Like so much of what follows in Sally's life, it's an impulsive decision with dramatic and far-reaching consequences. Soon she abandons her home to begin a daring journey of self-creation, the truth of which she entrusts only with her granddaughter and namesake, six decades later. But when young Sally's father--a man she has never known--enters her life and offers another story altogether, she must uncover the truth of her grandmother's secret history.

Boldly rendered and beautifully told, in FOLLOW ME Joanna Scott has crafted a paean to the American tradition of re-invention and a sweeping saga of timeless and tender storytelling.

Author Info: Joanna Scott is the author of nine books, including The Manikin, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Various Antidotes and Arrogance, which were both finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award; and the critically acclaimed Make Believe, Tourmaline, and Liberation. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Lannan Award, she lives with her family in upstate New York.


I'd like to thank Miriam at Hachette Book Group for sending me this book to review. Okay, this tour is pretty big. I'm going to link to the five blogs listed before me and the five listed after me. If you'd like to see a list of all of the participants, visit this post @ Drey's Library.

• Allison's Attic
• Diary of an Eccentric
• Seaside Bookworm Blogger
• Linus' Blanket
• Morbid Romantic
• Savvy Verse & Wit
• B&b ex libris
• Bookin' with Bingo
• http://www.xanga.com/bravehsgirl
• So Many Books, So Little Time

Buy Follow Me by Joanna Scott:
IndieBound {} Amazon

My thoughts: Follow Me had me engaged right from the start. I felt a strong connection to Sally Werner. Something I don't share to often is that I had my oldest daughter at 17. When she was still new and wrinkly I had a similar gut reaction/desire as Sally. I didn't do what Sally did. I had great support from my mother and in time I learned to adapt to being a 17 year old single mom.

However, Sally doesn't have such a support system in 1946, at age 16, when she becomes pregnant. Sally Werner ran. Sally Werner ran to Fishkill Notch and became Sally Angel.

Review of: A Day with My Dad at the Beach

Author: Lance Waite
ISBN: 9781601310163
Pages: 32
Published by: Parents Publishing Group, LLC (June, 2008)
Genre(s): Children's
Grade: B-
Challenge(s): 100+ Reading Challenge - Read 'n Review '09 - Spring Reading Thing 2009


Matt and Reaghan have read this book together a couple of times, but not for lack of love for the book! They both enjoy it (and time spent together). It's one of those wonderful hardcover books whose cover matches the dust jacket (which always seem to get torn or lost).

The story part of it is very sweet and heartwarming. Dad makes a special effort to be home when his daughter comes home from school to take her to the beach, then the boardwalk for dinner and rides. The story of their day spent together is told from the daughter's point-of-view. The illustrations are very interesting. They remind me of a collage.

The beach is the perfect place to have fun with your kids. "A Day with My Dad at the Beach" is full of adventures and fantastic illustrations that evoke memories of an exciting day at the beach that a father and daughter will never forget. The story will touch the hearts of parents and inspire them to engage in similar activities with their children within a larger day of interpersonal experiences. It encourages children to vividly imagine the fun things they can do with their parents on an outing. Set on a sunny beach after a long day of school and work, the father and daughter escape to the outside world and enjoy a fun, relaxing day of swimming and exploration.

This is the second book by author, and father, Lance Waite. The first is A Day with My Dad and described as "A father and daughter spend a day together, hiking in the hills around there town. With no distractions, a bond can be built between them that can last a lifetime."

Lance wrote his books to encourage fathers to be more involved with their daughters and to show his girls that even an ordinary day can be exciting when you share it with someone special. Both of Lance Waite's books are illustrated by Manuela Pentangelo.

Buy A Day with My Dad at the Beach by Lance Waite:
IndieBound {} Amazon

Review of: Alanna

Author: Tamora Pierce
ISBN: 9780689878558
Pages: 240
Published by: Simon Pulse (January, 2005 - first published 1983)
Genre(s): Young Adult, Fantasy
Grade: B-
Challenge(s): 100+ Reading Challenge - Read 'n Review '09 - Spring Reading Thing 2009 - 2009 Young Adult Book Challenge

Alanna: The First Adventure is the first book in a 4 book series by Tamora Pierce. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on the rest of them. Alanna goes from 10 to 13 years old in Alanna: The First Adventure. I bonded to her almost immediately. She's really committed to her plan of getting training in being a knight and then telling them all that she is a woman. I feel like I NEED to find out how/if she accomplishes this.

Call it fate, call it intuition, or just call it common sense, but somehow young Alanna knows she isn't meant to become some proper lady cloistered in a convent. Instead, she wants to be a great warrior maiden--a female knight. But in the land of Tortall, women aren't allowed to train as warriors. So Alanna finds a way to switch places with her twin, Thom, and take his place as a knight in training at the palace of King Roald. Disguising herself as a boy, Alanna begins her training as a page in the royal court. Soon, she is garnering the admiration of all around her, including the crown prince, with her strong work ethic and her thirst for knowledge. But all the while, she is haunted by the recurring vision of a black stone city that emanates evil... somehow she knows it is her fate to purge that place of its wickedness. But how will she find it? And can she fulfill her destiny while keeping her gender a secret?

Buy Alanna by Tamora Pierce:
IndieBound {} Amazon

Review of: The Crimes of Paris

Author: Dorothy Hoobler and Thomas Hoobler
ISBN: 9780316017909
Pages: 368
Published by: Little, Brown and Company (April, 2009)
Genre(s): Non-Fiction, Art History
Grade: A-
Challenge(s): 100+ Reading Challenge - Read 'n Review '09 - 2009 Pub Challenge - Spring Reading Thing 2009 - Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge

Let me start off by saying this: Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler have written a lot of books. Seriously, check out this list.

If you read my Tuesday posts then you have been teased not once, but twice. And I'll let you know now, the reason that the man (or men) were hiding in the storage closet in the Louvre was to steal the Mona Lisa. According to the authors, there were many small rooms and hidden alcoves like this in the 700 year old building; museum officials don't even know just how many there are.

One of the earlier suspects of the theft was Pablo Picasso, yes THAT Picasso. Nineteen year old Pablo Ruiz had arrived in Paris in 1900 to see (and exhibit a painting) at the Paris Exposition Universelle. Though he left Paris after this, he would return as Pablo Picasso (his mother's family name).

There are many other crimes discussed and dissected in THE CRIMES OF PARIS; burglaries, bank robberies, murders, even the first use of a getaway car (one of the bank robberies). There is explanations of the system known as bertillonage, which was widely used in France before the discovery that fingerprints were a much better system of identification.

I do not normally read non-fiction (with the exception of biographies and memoirs), but over-ruled my initial instinct about THE CRIMES OF PARIS and requested a copy. I'm really glad I did. There were times while reading THE CRIMES OF PARIS that I actually forgot that I was reading a non-fiction book. There writing is easy to understand and the authors do not bog you down with long, dry explanations.

I'm definitely going to keep this ARC and reread it at a later time; it's that good! I'm also going to check my library for some of their other books, specifically THE IRISH AMERICAN FAMILY ALBUM and THE GERMAN AMERICAN FAMILY ALBUM.

Buy The Crimes of Paris by Dorothy Hoobler and Thomas Hoobler:
IndieBound {} Amazon

Giveaway Closed!

Five (5) lucky blog readers will get a copy courtesy of Valerie Russo! Just leave a comment here. If you do not have an e-mail link to your profile, please leave one in your comment. I will close this post to comments on the morning of Wednesday April 8th. I will use random.org to select the winners. Per publisher's rules this giveaway is open to residents of the US and Canada only. No PO Boxes.

GOOD LUCK!