Inside Jacket

I remember Love You Hate You Miss You by Elizabeth Scott being a good book.  Sadly, it has fallen ill to the passage of time.  I read it much too long ago and I simply can not remember anything about it.  And that my friends is a very sad thing because Elizabeth Scott rocks.  I have no hesitations in recommending her books.

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.

In Frankie Stein Starts School by Lola M Schaefer and illustrated by Kevan Atteberry, Frankie is different.  He certainly doesn’t look like his parents.  And he certainly doesn’t act like them either. He’s just a tad too clean cut and non-scary looking.  Which happens to make him the scariest Stein of all.

Frankie is ready to start school at Miss Wart’s Academy for Ghouls & Goblins and he’s very excited.  But his classmates – witches, skeletons, and vampires – won’t sit next to him and make fun of him for not looking like the rest of them.

But Frankie declares that he can be scarier than all of them.  By the end of the school day, Frankie undergoes a grotesque, bone-chilling, ear-shattering, and bloodcurdling transformation until he becomes scarier and scarier.  When he leaves for home after his first successful day of school, he has made many new friends and proved that even with his rosy red cheeks and blond hair, he can be scary as well.

The illustrations are bright and silly.  Kids will enjoy copying Frankie’s antics.

Links of interest: Lola Schaefer website, Kevan Atteberry website, more book blogger reviews.
Genre: Fiction Picture Book, approx age 4-8.
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books. July 2010.
Hardcover, 32 pages. ISBN 0761456562
Source: Review copy for 2010 Cybil’s nomination for which I am a 1st round  panelist.
Frankie Stein Starts 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.

Scaredy-Cat, Splat! by Rob Scotton is my first introduction to Splat and I found him so cute that I must go seek out Rob Scotton’s other books featuring the same character.  It’s Halloween and Splat is in search of the scariest costume.  But no matter what he does or wear, everybody else is scarier than him.  Even his jack-o’-lantern is funny instead of scary.

But when his teacher, Mrs. Wimpydimple tells a ghost story in the dark, Splat gets so scared that he throws his jack-o’lantern up in the air and it lands straight on his head! Unable to see anything, he stumbles around and scares the entire class! Splat may be more scary than silly after all!

The illustrations in Scaredy-Cat, Splat! are adorable!  I don’t even really like cats all that much but Splat looks so soft and cuddly that I’d love to take him home with me. I particularly loved Splat’s friend Spike dressed as a mummy. Too cute. I think a couple of the pages of text at the very beginning were a bit too long as I much preferred the more brief text in later pages. But a fun story to read out loud.

A great Halloween book that kids will love.

Links of interest: More book blogger reviews.
Genre: Fiction Picture Book, approx age 4-8.
Publisher: Harper Collins, August 24, 2010.
Hardcover, 40 pages. ISBN 0061177601
Source: Library copy. A 2010 Cybil’s nomination for which I am a 1st round  panelist.
Scaredy-Cat, Splat is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Forgive me for using the book jacket description for Cult Insanity: A Memoir of Polygamy, Prophets, and Blood Atonement by Irene Spencer.  I am so backlogged in the number of reviews I need to write and I’m finding that often it is the summary that slows me down.  When I sat down to begin to write this one out I became so overwhelmed.  So book jacket it is.

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.

I really really wanted to do a video review with my two boys reading Dinosaur vs. Bedtime by Bob Shea so you would get an idea of how high energy Bob Shea’s books are.  But sadly, I don’t have access to a camera at the moment.  I could wait yes, but I just couldn’t.  Yesterday I shared with you Dinosaur vs. the Potty and I really want to make sure that you don’t miss its companion picture book Dinosaur vs. Bedtime.

We recently had a dinosaur themed birthday party for my now five-year-old boy. I collected all of my dinosaur books and stood them up all around the room.  As kids came in and played many of them found books to read.  This one was really popular and so I decided to read it out loud to several of the kids.  They were totally into it.

Nothing can stop this dinosaur.  He takes on a pile of leaves, a big slide, a bowl of spaghetti, talking grown ups, bath time and toothbrushing and he always wins the battle.  But can he beat bedtime?

A fantastic bedtime book.  Which admittedly might get your kids more riled up when you want them calming down but this book is just too good to miss. Love this character.


Links of interest: Bob Shea website, more book blogger reviews.
Genre: Fiction picture book. Approx ages 4-8.
Publisher: Hyperion Book CH September 9, 2008.
Hardcover, 40 pages. ISBN 1423113357
Source: Library
Dinosaur vs. Bedtime 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.