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 Even Monsters Need Haircuts by Matthew McElligott, on the night of a full moon just before midnight, the young son of a barber does what he’s never allowed to do:  leave the house by himself. Well, he’s not really alone when he’s accompanied by his friend Vlad the Vampire is he?

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.

The Widow’s Season by Laura Brodie has a great first line, “Sarah McConnell’s husband had been dead three months when she saw him in the grocery store.  He was standing at the end of the seasonal aisle, contemplating a display of plastic pumpkins, when, for one brief moment, he lifted his head and looked into her eyes.”

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.

Seeds of Change by Jen Cullerton Johnson and illustrated by Sonia Lynn Sadler is the biography of Wangari Maathai who won the Novel Peace Prize in 2004 for her environmental activism which included founding The Green Belt Movement which teaches people to take care of the environment by planting trees, recycling, and seeking alternative energy sources.  She was the first African woman and environmentalist to receive the award.

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 201. 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.

How lucky are you? Two potty training books in a row! Dinosaur vs. the Potty by Bob Shea released just today and I HAVE to make sure that you know about this simply adorable book.  And if you are in the midst of potty training like I am (I swear I’m NEVER going to get this little guy potty trained) than you want to have this book on your radar. You might recognize Dinosaur from Dinosaur vs. Bedtime (which I hope to be reviewing next) and in Dinosaur vs. the Potty he makes another starred appearance.  This time taking on the potty.

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.