I can tell you what Love You Hate You Miss You is about from reading synopsis’s myself.  In fact, I’ll share with you from Scott’s website:

It’s been seventy-five days. Amy’s sick of her parents suddenly taking an interest in her. And she’s really sick of people asking her about Julia. Julia’s gone, and Amy doesn’t want to talk about it. No one knew Julia like she did. No one gets what life is without her.
No one understands what it’s like to know that it’s all your fault.

Amy’s shrink thinks she should keep a journal but instead, Amy starts writing letters to Julia. And as she writes letter after letter, she begins to realize that the past holds its own secrets–and that the present deserves a chance.

Looking over some of the reviews myself, it feels vaguely familiar but yet I cannot recall any feelings nor basic details about the book.  However, other reviewers were very enthusiastic about Love You Hate You Miss You and sad that it didn’t receive more attention at the time of it’s release.  Hey, it’s Elizabeth Scott, I say go read it despite my not being able to remember anything about it.  Will it stand the test of time?  For me, obviously not.  But I didn’t dislike it in the least.  I don’t think all books have to have staying power.  It was a good read at the time.

As a side note – I find it interesting to note how our feelings for a book change over time.  Do you find yourself  not being able to remember basic plotlines of books that you’ve read in the past?

Links of interest: My book reviews of Something, Maybe, Living Dead Girl.  Elizabeth Scott website and blog.  Other blogger reviews.
Genre:  Young Adult
Publisher:  Harper Teen.  May 26, 2009.
Hardcover, 288 pages.
Love You, Hate You, Miss You is available from your local independent bookstore, Powell’s, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

Mama ghost sings her sweet baby ghostling a soft bedtime lullaby:

Hush, Baby Ghostling.
The haunting hour is past.
The bats have ceased their swooping
and  the dawn is coming fast.

So nestle safe beside me
in our happy haunted home,
And dream a dream of darkness
where the wild monsters roam.

Mama leaves a bit of darkness in the hall, in case he’s scared of the light and will reassure baby ghostling that the songs and laughter is just the wind outside.  She’ll search the closet for that little boy with ten pink toes, blue eyes and golden hair who might give him a fright.

She sends him to bed with sweet kisses and dreams of hisses, howls, screeching owls, of bats and banshee cries. “Now dream a little nightmare while the ghoulies dance and sway. Dream a dream of darkness where the wild monsters play.”   The book ends with hugs, kisses, and the whisper of I Love You.

Although I like Pascal Lemaitre’s illustrations in Andrea Beaty’s other books like Firefighter Ted and Doctor Ted, I’m not a huge fan of the illustrations here.  It’s as though everything glows.  And maybe it’s supposed to?  But all in all, I can see past the illustrations to a cute bedtime lullaby. Great for those kids who will understand the turnabout of the words and how baby ghost is more scared of us than we are him!

Links of interest: Andrea Beaty website, Pascal Lemaitre website, Maw Books reviews of Firefighter Ted, more book blogger reviews.
Genre: Fiction Picture Book, approx age 4-8.
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry.  August 4, 2009
Hardcover 32 pages. ISBN 1416925457
Source: Review copy for 2009 Cybil’s nomination for which I was a panelist.
Hush, Baby Ghostling is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

Ethan can’t go to sleep properly.  Not when his resident under the bed monster, Gabe, has gone on a week-long fishing vacation.  How would he ever go to sleep without Gabe’s familiar scary noises and his spooky green ooze?  He  missed his ragged breathing, his nose-whistling, and the scrabbling of his uncut claws.  Luckily, he has a substitute monster appear under his bed.  Unluckily, his panting wasn’t scary enough and he didn’t have claws.  A second, third and fourth monster arrive but upon inspection none are as scary as Gabe and quickly dismissed.

Was I being too picky? NO.

I knew that my monster needed to be well-clawed and menacing.

The whole point of having a monster, after all, was to keep me in bed,
imagining all the scary stuff that could happen if I got out.

My boys love the monsters and are quick to fall into a fit of giggles over one particularly monster with a rather large tongue.  I was a bit worried that my boys would be scared of monsters under the bed but no fear, it’s an adorable story of a rather unique friendship.  Almost makes me wish I had my own monster under the bed.

A perfect read-a-loud book and illustrations to drool over.  Seriously gorgeous illustrations.  Highly recommend that you pick I Need My Monster up.  It’s a beautifully spooky book full of monsterly fun!

Links of interest: Amanda Noll website,  more book blogger reviews.
Genre: Fiction Picture Book, approx age 4-8.
Publisher: Flashlight Press.  April 1, 2009.
Hardcover, 32 pages. ISBN 0979974623
Source: Review copy for 2009 Cybil’s nomination for which I was a panelist.
I Need My Monster is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

In Shattered Dreams, Irene Spencer told the devastating story of her arduous life in a polygamous fundamentalist Mormon sect [Church of the Firstborn of the Fullness of Times], sharing her husband with nine other women (and fifty-six children) in abject poverty and intense mental and emotional anguish.  As harrowing as the story was, it was only just the beginning.

Cult Insanity delves deeper into her story, focusing on the terrifying acts of Ervil LeBaron,, her brother-in-law and a self-proclaimed prophet who determined he had been called to set the house of God in order.

The older brother of Irene’s husband, Verlan, Ervil LeBaron had a zeal for living and teaching that was at first admired but soon took on a sinister tone.  Ervil’s ambitions quickly turned lethal when he uncovered a doctrine concerning blood atonement – the act of redeeming a sinners soul by taking his or her life.  Seeing himself as God’s Avenger, he used the role as a means to terrorize and destroy those who challenged him.

Irene quickly became enveloped in a dark cloud of fear and anguish.  Survival for herself and her ever-growing family turned into a constant flight from one desert camp to another across the harsh badlands of Baja, California.  Food was scarce and living conditions abhorrent.  Irene didn’t see her husband for months, never knowing if Ervil would make good on his vow to kill him.

I previously read Irene Spencer’s first memoir, Shattered Dreams, My Life as a Polygamist, two years ago and called it one of the best books I’d read all year.  While I would recommend that you read Shattered Dreams first, Cult Insanity can easily be read as a stand alone. Where Shattered Dreams focuses more on the intimate details of Irene’s feelings about living life as a polygamist, Cult Insanity dives deeper into the politics of the Church of the Firstborn of the Fullness of Times and the LaBaron family.

There are a lot of people to account for in Cult Insanity and Irene jumps around a lot in her telling, making the not linear account sometimes a bit difficult to keep track of.  But the account that she gives is as the title aptly calls it, pure insanity.  Just like Shattered Dreams, I couldn’t put this book down.  Shattered Dreams felt a bit more personal to me and thus I liked it a bit more. Don’t get me wrong though, this book was just one bit as interesting and also just as appalling.

Even as I continue to read these types of memoirs, I never cease to be shocked with what kind of behavior goes on behind closed communities.  If interested in polygamy and religious extremist groups and wanting to read a personal, firsthand experience about life among the LeBaron group then Cult Insanity is the book for you.

Links of interest:  Irene Spencer website, Maw Books review of Shattered Dreams, My Life as a Polygamist,  more book blogger reviews. Other polygamist memoirs I’ve reviewed: Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall with Lisa Pulitzer, Escape by Carolyn Jessop,
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher:  Center Street. August 12, 2009.
Hardcover, 352 pages. ISBN 0446538191
Copy source: Review copy sent from the publisher at my request.
Cult Insanity is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

Did he fake his death?  It could be possible.  After all, he died in a freak flash flood and his body was never found.  Was it his way out of their marriage?  Or is she simply going crazy and imagining all of their encounters and conversations.  Has her grief become so consuming that she no longer can tell reality from vision?

I was so anxious to get to the end of this book.  No, not for it to be over. This is a haunting beautiful book.  It could easily be called a ghost story but it’s so much more than a simple ghost story.  It’s a story of marriage, of grief, of love, resolution, discontentment, starting over, loyalty, and the questioning of one’s sanity and reality.

I was anxious to get to the end of this book because Brodie perfectly convinced me, just like Sarah, that one can not be so sure about the realities they are experiencing.  Was Sarah’s husband David really dead or was he really alive?  As a reader, I honestly no longer knew.  I wanted to believe that yes, he was really dead – a figment of Sarah’s imagination.  But then the next chapter Brodie would easily convince me that he was really alive. A great depth and complexity of the characters and their relationships with each other.  I love character driven novels and this one certainly is that.

I remember reading the ending of the book sitting on the couch with my husband, closing the book and then saying, “Ah!  I can’t believe this book! “  And that was in a total good way.

I loved the widow’s support group that Sarah attended:

She had almost come to accept David’s appearances as a sign of mental breakdown, a delusion sparked by her isolation.  But here were these women insisting that she wasn’t crazy, she was normal.  Somehow the idea didn’t soothe her; a touch of insanity was preferable to the status quo.
She glanced over at Margaret, who was leaning against the kitchen doorway.  “What do you think?”

Margaret hesitated, apparently choosing her words more carefully than usual.

“I think it’s going to be hard for you to have any closure until David’s body is found.”"

“Which means you think this is all in my head?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“But you don’t believe in ghosts?”

Again Margaret hesitated.

“I believe there is a lot more going on in this world than we can comprehend.  Whether or not that includes ghosts, I don’t know.  But I’ll say this much – if you are really seeing David, there must be a reason.  Either he is somehow trying to reach you, or you are trying to reach him.  Most likely the latter.  There’s probably something unresolved in your mind.”

I really liked The Widow’s Season.  Feels like the perfect book for the fall.  I’d highly suggest reading this one curled up on the couch with a quilt on hand.  And if you’re like me you won’t be able to put it down.  I read the second-half of the book in one sitting.

Links of interest: Laura Brodie website, more book blogger reviews,
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Berkley Trade.  June 2, 2009.
Paperback, 320 pages. ISBN 0425227650
Copy source: Review copy sent from the author
The Widow’s Season is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

Higher! Higher! came out last year and I feel guilty that I’m just now reviewing it here on the blog.  It is one of the books that my boys will pull out frequently.  In fact, they have it memorized (actually not a hard feat when each page only says “Higher! Higher!”) but I will hear them looking at it to themselves and reciting the text.  It never gets old for them.

In Higher! Higher! a little girl is being pushed on the swing and keeps asking to go higher and higher.  And she does go higher.  So high in fact that she finds a surprise.  One that I won’t spoil for you but one that my boys get a kick out of every single time.  They especially love the monkey and they love to spot the baby which is the main character in Leslie Patricelli’s other books.

Sadly, I don’t have Leslie’s newest book Potty which just came out last week.  And I NEED this book right NOW.  Not having any luck in the potty training area.  Crisis situation.  Hopefully Leslie Patricelli will come to the rescue.  Is that too much to ask from our favorite illustrators?

Links of interest: Leslie Patricelli website, Maw Books interview with Leslie,  Maw Books spotlight on Leslie Patricelli’s board books.
Genre: Fiction Picture Book, approx age 4-8.
Publisher: Candlewick.  March 24, 2009.
Hardcover, 32  pages. ISBN 0763632414
Source: Review copy for 2009 Cybil’s nomination for which I was a panelist.
Higher! Higher! is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

I wish I could type out the entire text for you to read, so you’ll have to pick up this book for yourself.

It begins:

We’re a pair beyond compare,
a rare and special two,
in all the ways that I am me
and you’re completely you.

When this adorable granddaughter is with her grandfather, the world is perfect.  Just as it should be.  Both love and accept each other for who they both are.  Both are better people when they are together and yet also better when they are apart as well.

The lines

I’m me when I am off to camp,
but you have stayed at home
to be the kind of you
that you can be when you’re alone

really touched me.  A gentle reminder that we all have our own interests, hobbies, and thoughts that are ours alone.  And that when we do the things that  give us joy then we are gentler and more kind with those whom we love when we’re together.

It ends

And thought I’ll find new ways
of being me my whole life through,
my favorite me will always be .. .
when I am me with you.

The illustrations are endearing, soft, and gorgeous.

Links of interest:  Kristy Dempsey website, Christopher Denise website,
Genre: Fiction Picture Book, approx age 4-8.
Publisher: Philomel. May 14, 2009.
Hardcover, 32 pages. ISBN 0399250174
Source copy: Review copy sent from publisher for 2009 Cybil’s consideration for which I was a panelist.
Me With You is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

But the next morning, there is a blue whale blocking the front door and it’s his responsibility to take him wherever he goes.  So he takes him to school where Mr. Wembley notices and launches into a lecture on blue whales.  His blue whale makes his life difficult on the playground.  At home he has to wash and wax the whale, and check him for barnacles according to The Blue Whale Owner’s Manual.  And let’s not think about trying to feed it.  Billy really doesn’t care much for his blue whale, it is an awful lot of work.  But then things begin to look up when Billy realizes that the blue whale just might be the answer to all of his problems.

I always pay attention  to the end flaps of picture books.  Most admittedly are boring and I love it when extra attention is paid here.  The end flaps are old fashioned ads are funny and each tells a story on their own.    The illustrations by Adam Rex are very entertaining.  I do admit though that Billy Twitters looks very sickly.

Many of the spreads are wordless which just enhances the story while children take on part of the storytelling.  This book is full of whale facts which kids will enjoy but they are seamlessly woven into the story.  The illustrations also convey a lot of facts as well:  size comparisons and a baleen explanation (you’ll just have to read the book or know a thing or two about blue whales for an explanation of that one).

A very unique picture book.  Well worth taking a look at.

Links of interest: Mac Barnett website, Adam Rex website, more book blogger reviews.
Genre:  Fiction Picture Book, approx ages 4-8.
Publisher:  Hyperion Book.  June 23, 2009
Hardcover, 48 pages. ISBN 0786849584
Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

The hermit crab in this story didn’t set out to be a hero.  And he wasn’t particularly brave.  He was, actually, very shy.  Whenever all his neighbors would get together, the hermit crab was happy to linger just out of sight.  If anyone did happen to notice him, he would become terrible nervous and start to fidget.  And then, if they should happen to say something like “Hi” or “How’s it going?” he would disappear into his shell without saying a word.

Or at least how you think it will unfold.  I assumed that the hermit crab would be confronted with a situation in which he had to act very brave.  This act of bravery would bring him out of his shell (quite literally), he’d make wonderful new friends who loved that he was a hero.

But what really happens is that the very shy hermit crab was minding his own business when he happens upon a broken superhero figure buried in the sand.  He thinks this will  make a great new home, so he moves in.  Meanwhile, all the other fish and sea life are in a dire situation.  A trap had one of the fish – well – trapped and they were all too scared to help.  The hermit crab still minding his own business stumbles upon the scene and not knowing that anything fishy (ha – a pun!) was going on accidentally untrapped the fish.

When the other fish begin to celebrate he retreats further into his new home and then later abandons it when nobody is looking.  The attention is just too much.

The book ends

The next day, the hermit crab made his way back to town.  There, still perched on top of the highest rock, was the fancy new shell, empty as the day he’d found it.  But nobody in the crowd noticed.  They were happy to cheer their new hero, while the lobster made speech after speech.

So the hermit crab settled in, just beyond the edge of the crowd, right where he was  most comfortable.

He smiled to himself, and he even cheered the fancy new shell.  But he cheered very softly.

And just a little bit.

He didn’t want to be noticed.

The type of book that makes me smile.  The accidental hero.  My boys love the inclusion of a superhero figure.  I loved the muted greens and blues.  The hermit crab was a very likable character.  The smile on his face when he moves into the superhero figure is priceless.

Links of interest:  More book blogger reviews.
Genre:  Fiction picture book.  Approx ages 4-8.
Publisher:   Simon & Schuster.  June 2, 2009
Hardcover, 40 pages. ISBN 1416938923
Source copy: Review copy sent from publisher fro 2009 Cybils nomination for which I was a panelist.
The Hermit Crab is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

Zoe Fleefenbacher has one blue eye and one green eye, and bright red hair that went on forever.  Zoe’s hair is incredibly useful. She could count on her hair to do all sorts of things for her like opening the cookie jar, petting the cat, playing on the computer, pouring a glass of juice.  In Kindergarten Zoe’s hair was the hit of the class but when Zoe goes to first grade that all changes with Mrs. Trisk who declares that school has rules and wild hair is not allowed.

Zoe’s unruly hair simply can not be tamed and when she’s forced to take it under control, everybody learns that it’s easier said than done.  And what happens when Mrs. Trisk realizes that she may need Zoe’s incredible hair more than she thought?

A very fun story that will have all kids wishing for Zoe’s amazing hair.  Fun illustrations in which Zoe’s hair is up to all kinds of trouble.  I loved that Zoe loved her hair.   I don’t think the story would be the same if  Zoe hated her hair or hated the way she looked.  Zoe accepts herself 100% but it’s her teacher who just doesn’t get it.  A story of not only hair which has found its place, but a story of a little first grader who has a  lot more to offer than meets the eye.

Links of interest:  Laurie Halse Anderson website, blog, and Twitter.  More book blogger reviews, Maw Books reviews of Speak, Chains, Wintergirls, my open letter to Anderson, and my video of Anderson talking about Wintergirls.
Genre:  Picture Book, Fiction  approx ages 4-8.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster.  June 23, 2009
Hardcover, 32 pages. ISBN 0689858094
Copy source: Review copy sent from publisher for Cybils 2009 consideration for which I was a panelist.
The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.