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.

Together they prepare the barber shop for the regulars who soon will arrive.  These aren’t your ordinary regulars though.  It’s a special clientele: monsters! It’s busy all night and our young barber is prepared for  all kinds of different haircuts and styles.  Rotting tonic, horn polish and stink wax are all on hand.  But things gets tense when there is a knock at the front door – surely it couldn’t be a human wanting a haircut at this time of night? But not to fear, our young barber knows how to take care of business.

A fun book to read this Halloween season.  A great cast of monster characters who are simply taking care of their monsterly looks.

After all, even monsters need haircuts.

Links of interest: Matthew McElliogott website, more book blogger reviews.
Genre: Fiction Picture Book, approx age 4-8.
Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers.  July 20, 2010
Hardcover, 40 pages. ISBN 080278819X
Source: Picked up a review copy at Book Expo America. A 2010 Cybil’s nomination for which I am a 1st round  panelist.
Even Monsters Need Haircuts 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.

Her mother had taught her to revere and love the trees of Kenya.  When few girls went to school, Wangari’s parents managed to send her where she excelled in science.  She won a scholarship to attend college in Kansas where she learned that a woman could do anything she wanted to.  She found her strength as a woman scientist. America had changed her.

When returning to her homeland she accepted a teaching job at the University of Nairobi in a profession were there were very few woman teachers and even less female scientists.  But she also witnessed a change happening in Kenya.  Trees and the land were being destroyed and so much that the people depended on was lost. Wangari had an idea that started as small as a seedling but that would effect  much change in the environment of her country and that was to plant trees.  “We might not change the big world but we change the landscape of the forest,” she said.

Seeds of Change is Wangari Maathai’s inspirational story.  It is a story of planting more than thirty million trees in Kenya.  It is also a story of overcoming and persvering through those who work against you.  It is a story of woman’s rights.  It is a story of giving back to the Earth when we take too much from it.

To quote the book, “She understood that persistence, patience, and commitment – to an idea as small as a seed but as tall as a tree that reaches for the sky – must be planted in every child’s heart. ‘Young people you are our hope and our future,’ she said.”

An excellent portrayal of  Wangari Maathai.  And a great reminder that even as an adult, I learn so much from picture books.


Links of interest: Jen Cullerton Johnson website, Sonia Lynn Sadler website, The Green Belt Movement, Wangari Maathai biography on Nobel Prize site.
Genre: Non-fiction picture book. Approx ages 4-8.
Publisher: Lee and Low Books.  June 30, 2010.
Hardcover, 40 pages. ISBN 160060367X
Copy source: Review copy sent from publisher.
Seeds of Change 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.

Dinosaur is having a great time making lemonade, splashing in the sprinklers, taking on a three juice box lunch, splashing in the rain puddles.  Nothing can beat him! He does a victory dance.  But wait, that might not be a victory dance after all.  Will he make it in time?  Will the potty win?

Such a fun, fun book to read aloud.  High energy and lot’s of roaring.  Both of my kids LOVE it.  As soon as we finished, the three-year-old said “Again!”  And then after a second reading “Again!”  We could go on and on reading this book over and over.  On just the second exposure to the book my 5-year-old was already reciting and anticipating  the text.

Love the big bold lines, the bright color, and one heck of a cute dinosaur.  Seriously love here for Bob Shea.  Thrilled that I met him at Book Expo America.  Loved the look on my kids’ face when they saw their names on the inside of the book signed by the author.  A bit confused to tell you the truth, “How did that get there?!”

Add this one to your potty training book collection.  It’s a must have.


Links of interest: Bob Shea website, more book reviews.
Genre: Fiction picture book. Approx ages 4-8.
Publisher: Hyperion Book CH. September 28, 2010
Hardcover, 40 pages. ISBN 1423133390
Copy Source: Review copy picked up from 2010 Book Expo America.
Dinosaur vs. the Potty 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.

What a cute book! And a perfect book for new parents.

What happens when you get a new boss?  He puts you on a round-the-clock schedule with no time off, sets up office smack dab in  the middle of the house, makes demands and when they aren’t met right away has a fit. He conducts many, many meetings and loves to have them in the middle of the night.  No matter that nobody understands him. The boss loves the perks: the lounge, the spa, the gym, and drinks 24/7.  But one day his employees are so tired that they don’t respond to his latest demands.  He’s not getting results!  What’s a boss baby to do?

I can so relate to the demands of the boss baby in this book as well as being the tired, overworked employee.  I think that this is one of those picture books which parents just might enjoy more than their own little bosses in their lives.

Illustrated in Marla Frazee’s traditional style, it’s as usual amazing.  Love it!

Links of interest: Marla Frazee website, also reviewed on Maw Books and illustrated by Marla Frazee: All the World, Santa Claus, the Number One Toy Expert, Walk On! A Guide for Babies of All Ages and The Clementine series.
Genre: Fiction picture book.  Approx ages 4-8.
Publisher: Beach Lane Books. August 31, 2010.
Hardcover, 40 pages. ISBN 1442401672
Source:  Review copy from BEA 2010.
The Boss Baby 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.

Tim’s birthday is just a week away, and more than anything he wants a skateboard.  But money is tight, and Tim knows his family cannot afford to buy him a board.  As Tim ponders how he might earn money for a skateboard, he hears The Can Man down the street collecting empty soft drink cans.  The clang of the cans in the homeless man’s cart gives Tim an idea. He will collect cans too, and cash them in for the redemption money.  By the end of the week, Tim has almost reached his goal – until a couple of chance encounters with The Can Man change everything.

There were several things that I liked about this picture book.  One – the oil paintings.  I really like the look of fine art where you can see the canvas texture and brush strokes. It’s warm, simple and straightforward.

Two -  Tim’s mother is Asian and his father African-American.  I liked that.

Three – The Can Man wasn’t some crazy homeless guy on the sidewalk who everybody was scared of.  He was just a really nice guy who happened to be down on his luck.  In fact, Tim’s parents knew him prior to his collecting cans, when he used to live in their building.  He was somebody who in tough times was being resourceful and trying to do whatever he had to do to support himself.

And four – I liked that The Can Man didn’t get upset with Tim when he began to take his cans.  Tim probably should have known better but The Can Man took it all in stride.  And when Tim decides to think twice about his redemption money and that The Can Man likely needs it more than him, The Can Man is very thoughtful in saying thank you.

And last – It’s a book which easily could turn into a lecture but rather it brings the social commentary about homelessness and poverty to the forefront of the story without being in your face.  It’s a story of kindness and respect.  Of doing the right thing when perhaps you didn’t know that’s what you set out to do in the first place.

Links of interest: Laura E. Williams website, Craig Orback website, more book blogger reviews.
Genre: Fiction picture book. Approx ages 4-8.
Publisher: Lee & Low Books. April 30, 2010
Hardcover, 40 pages. ISBN 1600602665
Copy source: Review copy from the publisher.
The Can Man 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.