Review: All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon and Marla Frazee

Author's Website and Blog - Illustrator's Website

Product Description:
"Rock, stone, pebble, sand
Body, shoulder, arm, hand
A moat to dig, a shell to keep
All the world is wide and deep . . ."

In this lyrical and beautifully-illustrated book, a circle of family and friends explores the importance and connectivity of all things, great and small.

My Review:
All the world was such a cute book. I read it to my 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 year old nieces and both of them loved it. My younger niece was even reading along with me in some parts after the third reading. LOL

Each portion of the book as a different rhyme that leads up to a different "All the world" saying. The story follows a brother, sister, mother and father through several locations interacting each other and the people that join the activities. The illustrations are well drawn with lots of detail in the scenery and muted colors that go very well together.

Overall this was a fun book that I enjoyed sharing with my nieces and I recommend it for anyone with small children.

Review: All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon and Marla Frazee

https://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/08/review-all-world-by-liz-garton-scanlon.html

Review: Mad Dash by Patricia Gaffney

Late one night Dash Bateman finds an abandoned puppy cold and all alone on her front porch she immediately falls in love and wants to keep the poor girl. When her stuffy husband of twenty years, Andrew, balks at the idea she gets a wild hair and leaves him on the spot.

Over the next few months Dash lives in their cabin in the mountains commuting to her photography studio all the while keeping their daughter, who’s away in college, in the dark. Without Dash at home Andrew is lost. Eating ice cream for dinner and wearing one blue and one black shoe to work yet he’s gone after Dash other times she ran in the past and this time he’s not about to go chasing her again.

Feeling restless Dash yearns for time alone but now that she has it she doesn’t know what to do with herself. She alienates her studio assistant by being too motherly and her best friend is so promiscuous Dash can’t really relate to her. Just when her despair is at its lowest, she makes two friends in the mountains. One is Cottie, wife of the elderly handyman who takes care of the cabin. The other is Owen, Cottie’s son-in-law who is currently estranged from Cottie’s daughter.

With mixed feelings about what’s going to happen between her and Andrew and Owen in her life Dash has some hard choices to make while getting through her mid-life crisis difficult time.

Mad Dash is a sweet tale of love and lasting friendships but boy does it drag on. I really enjoyed all of the characters but especially fell in love with Andrew for his stuffy proper attitude and Cottie for her humor. Told in alternating view points from Dash to Andrew the book was filled with lots of funny moments and I think that Gaffney really hit the nail on the head with the empty nest syndrome but I just wish the book was just a few chapters shorter. Other than that this was a fun, breezy read that would be perfect for the beach.

Review: Mad Dash by Patricia Gaffney

https://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/08/review-mad-dash-by-patricia-gaffney.html

Review: Girl Stays in the Picture by Melissa de la Cruz

Saint Tropez, the playground of the super rich. This summer it’s the location for the bio-pic Juicy starring none other than the pop sensation Devon fresh from rehab. Her co-star in the movie is Summer, the up and coming blonde next door who’s brought her friend Casey on the trip as her personal assistant. Also in town is Livia, daughter of Juicy’s producer who has lost over a third of her weight due to a gastric band surgery.

Soon it becomes clear that Devon has been demoted as the star of the picture with Summer becoming the new focus. Devon is upset with the changes but certainly understands that making a comeback from her partying lifestyle will be a long hard road.

Now that Livia has lost her weight she’s scored a major hottie, Trevor. The two light up the town but for Livia a friend she made last year when she was overweight becomes more precious to her than Trevor. However she failed to let him know she already has a boyfriend and he finds out the hard way.

From lucky assistant to being treated like she’s nobody that matters, Casey is feeling lost and out of place in Saint Tropez. Plus the sweet guy she met at the airport turned out to be Jamie Lawson, a huge star that’s now dating Summer. Can things get any worse?

Through the ups and downs of the summer scene the girls remain fast friends but someone is up to something shady. Just who can it be?

I loved the fact that even though Girl Stays in the Picture is mostly about pampered rich kids it’s a fairly clean story that teaches an interesting lesson about friendship. Each girl learns something about themselves and who they are friends with before the summer is over.

Filled with snippets of tabloid writings at the beginning of a lot of chapters I thought this was a unique way for De La Cruz to move forward in time and get quick plotlines thrown in at the same time. Girl Stays in the Picture was one of the better YA books that I’ve read in a long time and with the ending’s major cliff hanger I’m hoping this will be a series of books. I look forward to more of the girl’s adventures and plan on reading much more by De La Cruz. This is a must read for YA fans.

Review: Girl Stays in the Picture by Melissa de la Cruz

https://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/08/girl-stays-in-picture-by-melissa-de-la.html

Another one down!! My YA Challenge is complete.

It seems like I've stalled on my challenges so it's a relief to knock this one out. It gives me a littre more time to concentrate on completing my 999 challenge by the 9/9/09 bonus date. I still have quite a few young adult books in my review TBR pile so I'll continue with this list through 2009. Whoo hoo!!

1. Witch High Anthology
2. Fade - Lisa McMann
3. Dork Diaries: Tales From A Not-So-Fabulous Life - Rachel Renee Russell
4. Elijah's Coin - Steve O'Brien
5. Oh My Goth - Gena Showalter
6. Speed Demon - Erin Lynn
7. You Are So Undead to Me - Stacey Jay
8. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
9. Jennifer Scales and The Ancient Furnace - MaryJanice Davidson & Anthony Alongi
10. Jennifer Scales and The Messenger of Light - MaryJanice Davidson & Anthony Alongi
11. Dramarama - E. Lockhart
12. The Dangerous Days of Daniel X - James Patterson

Another one down!! My YA Challenge is complete.

https://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/08/another-one-down-my-ya-challenge-is.html

Review: Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

The so called wintergirls Lia and Cassie have been best friends since they were young. Now at age 18 they are no longer friends, driven apart by their own eating disorders. Lia is anorexic and down to a scary 98 pounds. Cassie sees Lia getting thinner by the day and gets herself deeper into trouble with her bulimia. After a nine-month estrangement Cassie finally hits rock bottom and calls Lia for help but Lia doesn’t pick up the phone and her friend dies all alone in a run down motel.

Now racked with guilt Lia is haunted by images of Cassie everywhere she goes. Cassie’s ghost is taunting her endlessly about her weight. On top of that Lia is having trouble dealing with her divorced parents. Her mother is controlling and her father doesn’t seem to care but as much as they each try to help, Lia is sliding further into trouble with her lies. Will everyone realize the depth of her sickness before she does permanent damage to both herself and her little sister?

Wintergirls was a very emotional read. It’s shockingly realistic and Anderson makes it easy to visualize what might go through the minds of those suffering from eating disorders. It made me take a good look at how easily our society’s expectations might make a situation with a troubled teen worse.

I listened to this one as opposed to reading it but from snippets and excerpts I’ve seen online Anderson had a really unique writing style with Wintergirls that doesn’t fully come across in the audio. Here’s a link from Amazon about it. In the print version she uses strike outs, different fonts and italics to get a clearer picture of Lia’s state of mind. The most striking thing that did come across in audio is Lia’s calorie counting. Every time she mentions food she whispers how many calories that particular food is and each whisper gave me chills.

I’ve never had anyone close to me facing any of the issues in the book so I don’t know if this would hurt or help a struggling eater but I highly recommend it for YA readers.

Review: Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

https://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/08/review-wintergirls-by-laurie-halse.html