Top Ten Tuesday - Books I Loved But Never Reviewed

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and taken over by That Artsy Girl in 2018. 


Books I Loved But Never Reviewed

I read a ton of classics and lots of popular YA  before I started this blog so there's a lot of great books that I don't even have reviewed on Goodreads. Part of me wants to wait until I can reread them all to add a review. Sometimes I end up waiting too long to review a really good book or have a hard time collecting my thoughts about books I loved so this list could go on forever but I'll keep it at 10! 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Uprooted by Naomi Novik
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Pet Sematary by Stephen King

What books haven't you reviewed?

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Scat by Carl Hiaasen (Middle Grade Realistic Fiction Review)

Scat

by Carl Hiaasen
Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers
on January 7, 2009
Genre: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction
Length: 386 pages
Ages: 10 - 14 years


Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

Literary Awards:
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Children's Book (2009)

Rhode Island Teen Book Award Nominee (2011)
Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Nominee (2011)
Iowa Teen Award Nominee (2011)
Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award Nominee (2011)

Synopsis:
Bestselling author and columnist Carl Hiaasen returns with another hysterical mystery for kids set in Florida's Everglades. 


My Thoughts:
Nick Waters' fearsome biology teacher, Mrs. Starch, turns up missing during a field trip just a day or two after she is threatened by a troublemaker classmate. The classmate in question, who calls himself 'Smoke', has been accused of arson as well, but Nick oddly believes Smoke when he tells Nick that he had nothing to do with any of it. Nick and his friends have their hands full worrying about their teacher and classmate as well as getting to the bottom of the mystery, and in the meantime there's a crooked oil company trying to make an extra buck drilling oil on protected lands and a Florida panther is on the prowl! 

I began reading Hiaasen's middle-grade novels--starting with Chomp-- last year when I realized I hadn't read many books predominantly set in Florida. It started with just wanting to pin Florida on my 'Read Around the World' map but soon turned into a plan to read as many of his books as possible. I especially love the settings of these books because I grew up in Florida and a lot of the descriptions are quite nostalgic of my childhood spent swimming and boating in springs, rivers, and the ocean.

Carl Hiaasen's books have a lot of humor in them but also always have a big focus on conservation and saving the environment, which absolutely makes sense to this Floridian that has seen countless fights for the preservation of our wild and natural spaces.

 This wasn't my favorite of the four I've read so far, but it still brought about a ton of memories of hiking in the woods and hearing a panther's cry! 

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Top Ten Tuesday - Read the Rainbow!

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and taken over by That Artsy Girl in 2018.



Books With Colors in the Title

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
(Sisters Red was one of my first fairytale retellings ever and I still need to read Priory which I bought for my Kindle.)

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire
(The Yellow Wallpaper is a memorable short story and I can't wait for the next Wayward Children story!)

Planet Earth Is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos

Iron Hearted Violet by Kelly Barnhill

Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty
The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson

What color titles did you find?

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Archicards: Build A Castle by Paul Farrell (Children's Review)

We received this product from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Achicards:
Build A Castle

by Paul Farrell

Published by Pavilion Children's

on April 7, 2020

Genre: Children's

Ages: 3 - 5 years

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

Synopsis:
Turrets, ramparts, windows, walls, and more--create your own medieval masterpiece with the first in a new series of graphic-designed building cards.   

Our Thoughts:

'Archicards' Build A Castle cards are designed for toddlers to use their imagination!  This fun set of building cards are perfect for little ones who prefer to keep their hands busy while they listen! You can pair them with stories that include castles for extra 'fun points'!

These fantastic building cards come in a variety of colorful designs that slot together so you can build both vertically and horizontally. Some are decorated with plain bricks for walls while others have flags, banners, windows, portcullises, or other details found in castles to decorate yours however you want.  There are plenty of cards (64 in all!) to build an extensive castle or perhaps even a really tall tower, which is what my Rapunzel-loving little princess wanted to do first!

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The Sunday Post - 2020 Week 31 - Hello August

The Sunday Post is hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer

and is a chance to share news, both new and old!

Hey there, bloggers!
It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted so here's an extended look at what I've read and reviewed since then!

Currently Reading:



Recently Finished:



Recent Reviews:

We had a 'Water Week' recently and read these picture books. Water Can Be... by Laura Purdie Salas is a beautiful look at water in all its forms. River by Elisha Cooper is a fantastic illustrated account of a woman who canoes down the River Hudson to NYC Harbor. The Blue Giant by Katie Cottle is an eco-tale about the ocean asking for help with pollution. 



The Mulberry Tree by Allison Rushby is a middle-grade horror-mystery that is a great not-too-spooky read for the upcoming autumn season!

Other Posts:
July 2020 Wrap Up
ArcAugust 2020 TBR & Goals

Off the Blog:

I'm hoping to continue my self-appointed 30 minutes a day or more of reading time this month and knock out some arcs for #ARCAugust while I'm at it. I haven't had the best reading streak this year so I definitely have a stack of books to catch up on!

We are starting our 'first day of homeschool' tomorrow so we can dig into the curriculum I purchased and find our new groove. I'm hoping we can keep it laid back and low-stress and I'm excited to have an outdoor classroom to get us out of the house when the weather is tolerable. It's still in the works but will be a nice little hangout space. 

It's been raining nearly every day so my garden looks great, but maybe a little too overgrown. The crepe myrtles are in full bloom and I discovered a mature and flowering one hiding under the wisteria so now I'm up to 6 in all! We're getting ready for the Fall/Winter vegetable season now as well so be prepared for more garden talk in the future! 

As for blogging, I'm still working on reviews and other media as well but Blogger updated their site and it's as slow as a snail for me now unless it's the wee morning hours when I should be asleep. I'll be making the rounds today though! 

Also, I finally started a proper Pinterest for LazyDayLit and would love and appreciate a follow! 

Have a great week, readers!
Stay safe!

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(ARC) August 2020 TBR & Goals

Hello August!

I'm fully expecting this month to be grueling. We are starting our homeschool year in a couple of days. I'm participating in #ARCAugust. It's hurricane season. It's hot. The spiders are massive. C19 is still a thing. 
I'm sure it's going to be just as fun as the rest of the year.

So, books! 
My TBR is going to be a little ambitious this month.
I'm going to include the books I'm hoping to get to for #ARCAugust and a few others that I might be more prone to grabbing instead. Or library loans that I don't want to return without reading. Et cetera. 

Newer Releases:

Many thanks to Algonquin YR &  Aladdin.


Backlist Books:

Library Loans (Out or on hold)

Here's hoping to knocking some more backlist books off of my TBR! 

Are you participating in ARCAugust? 
Happy reading and have a great month! 

July 2020 Reading Wrap Up

Goodbye July

This month kind of flew by. 
It has rained nearly every day but we still fit in a few early hikes and an incredibly relaxing early-morning canoe trip with lots of wildlife to see. With all the social distancing, of course.

We're almost in full homeschool mode and I feel like I've spent the entire month looking at curriculum, planning, and organizing our (already busy) workspace. We're also working on an outdoor classroom space to get out of the house with our books and journals and art supplies more often. Weather permitting.
It's rained a ton this month and Hurricane Isaias is supposed to hit this weekend.  

I read a lot more this month than in June, which is mostly attributed to me setting aside a small chunk of my time to read each day. I still fell off toward the end of the month as I tried to balance too many things and realized I'm way too low on spoons to do it all.  Still, it was a productive month and I'm looking forward to August, if only to get it over with so we can get on to Spooky Season.

But for now, my July stats:


Books I Finished in July

Chapter Books We Finished in July:

Started But Haven't Finished:

Reviews Shared in July:

Picture Books / Illustrated Chapter Books
StarWars: The Galaxy Needs You by Caitlin Kennedy
Daisy's Decorating Dilemma (Wild Fairies #1) by Brandi Doughtery
Lily's Water Woes (Wild Fairies #2) by Brandi Dougherty
Swan Lake by The New York City Ballet
The Tiger Like Me by Kelsey Lee
Bathing in the Forest by Mark Ayats & Nivola Uya
River by Elisha Cooper
The Blue Giant by Katie Cottle

Children's Nonfiction:
Even More Lesser Spotted Animals by Martin Brown

NatGeoKids: Yoga Animals by Paige Towler

The Secret Life of Trees by Moira Butterfield
Water Can Be... by Laura Purdie Salas

Middle Grade/YA
Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier by Jim Ottaviani

The Falcon's Feather (Explorer Academy #2) by Trudi Trueit
The Mulberry Tree by Allison Rushby


Other Posts Shared in July:
July 2020 TBR
Stacking the Shelves #4
The Sunday Post - Wk 27
TTT - Most Read Authors

The Sunday Post - Wk 28
TTT - Books That Make Me Smile

The Sunday Post - Wk 29



Challenge Progress:


ABC Challenge
June: 14 / 26
July: 15 / 26 (+J)

Beat the Backlist / Tackle My TBR
June: +2
July: +2

Scat
James and the Giant Peach

New Release Challenge
June: +3
July: +3

Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier by Jim Ottaviani
The Mulberry Tree by Allison Rushby
The Shadows by Alex North

PopSugar Challenge
June 8/50
July: 9/50
+ A book by a Journalist
Scat by Carl Hiaasen (writes for Miami Herald)

Read Harder Challenge
June: 7/25

July: 8/25
+Read a middle-grade book that doesn't take place in the US or UK

The Falcon's Feather by Trudi Trueit

1001 Books To Read Before You Grow Up
???
I haven't kept up with my progress on this one! 



How was your month?
What was your favorite read?

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