Tiger vs. Nightmare by Emily Tetri (Children's Graphic Novel Review)

Tiger vs. Nightmare

by Emily Tetri

Published by First Second 

on November 6, 2018

Genre: Children's, Graphic Novel

Length: 64 pages

Ages: 6-10

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Literary Awards:
Geisel Award Nominee (2019)

Synopsis:

Tiger is a very lucky kid: she has a monster living under her bed. Every night, Tiger and Monster play games until it's time for lights out. Of course, Monster would never try to scare Tiger--that's not what best friends do. 

But Monster needs to scare someone... it's a monster, after all. So while Tiger sleeps, Monster scares all of her nightmares away.  Thanks to her friend, Tiger has nothing but good dreams. But waiting in the darkness is a nightmare so big and mean that Monster can't fight it alone. Only teamwork and a lot of bravery can chase this nightmare away. 

In this charming graphic novel for young readers, cartoonist Emily Tetri proves that unlikely best friends can be an unbeatable team, even against the scariest monsters. 

My Thoughts:

Tiger has a monster that lives under her bed but this monster is friendly and helps fight off Tiger's nightmares. That is until the biggest nightmare of all shows up. Monster will need all the help they can get to fight off this monster, and Tiger may just have to face her biggest fears!

This is the perfect introduction to graphic novels for beginner readers and little listeners!

This was such a cute story!

It has themes of friendship, imagination, and bravery and is beautifully illustrated with watercolors in a comic book format. 

This is the first time I've come across a graphic novel for such a young audience and now I want to see more! At 64 pages, this looks almost more like a little book than a picture book but it's a very quick read because it is mostly just images with some dialogue added but the story is powerful and quickly became one of our favorites. 

I really loved the illustrations. The watercolors really helped set the mood in both the daytime and nighttime scenes. Watercolors were a great choice to help blend the nightmares into the darkness. The nightmare monsters might be a little scary but my preschooler didn't seem bothered by them. She enjoyed the story and especially wanted it read at bedtime.

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Maybe He Just Likes You by Barbara Dee (Middle Grade Book Review)

I received a free physical copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Maybe He Just Likes You

by Barbara Dee

Published by Aladdin

on October 1, 2019

Genre: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction

Length: 304 pages

Ages: 9 - 13 years

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Synopsis:
Barbara Dee explores the subject of #MeToo for the middle-grade audience in this heart-wrenching--and ultimately uplifting--novel about experiencing harassment and unwanted attention from classmates.

My Thoughts:

Mila doesn't think much of the strange hug she received unexpectedly while celebrating her friends' birthday--it was harmless after all--but then the same boys start going out of their way to touch her and her fuzzy green sweater. When she finally finds the courage to tell a friend she is told that she should just be happy about the attention she's receiving. Mila can't shake the feeling that the extra attention isn't harmless or friendly at all and she struggles with her feelings and friendships 

This is one of those books that is so impactful that I can only join in with every other reader to say that it is a must-read. Read the reviews and recommendations, folks. This is the book to read right now!

This middle grade read covers harassment, bullying, boundaries, and consent. It gives us a young Seventh-grade student that is outgrowing her old clothes, getting noticed by the boys, and isn't sure how to feel about it. No matter what anyone says, the teasing feels wrong to Mila. She struggles with her feelings, her friendships, and with getting through the school day. 

This may be a tough read for some or at least angering, but I definitely think it is an important read that could help give young readers the tools needed to deal with their own harassers. Likewise, it may give adults, teachers, and other caregivers the ability to see how small acts of teasing or bullying can build into a much bigger issue or a better grasp on how to handle or help similar situations. 

Maybe He Just Likes You is an incredibly important read. I would recommend this book to teachers, counselors, and parents especially but also to every young human being that already has or may encounter harassment in their lives. 

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The Sunday Post - 2019 Week 40

The Sunday Post is hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer

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

Hey there, bloggers!

We went on an impromptu camping trip this week and had a great time. It was hot enough during the day to enjoy the cool springs and cold enough at night to start a bonfire and roast marshmallows. As usual, we saw lots of wildlife, including a juvenile alligator, a gaze of raccoons, and lots of birds, turtles, and snakes. We even found some bear tracks!

Other than that and reading, I've been thrifting for used books, crafting weatherproof bats to hang outdoors for Halloween, and watching whatever spooky film I can fit into my late-night free time.

Currently Reading:

Recently Finished:

Recently posted reviews:

We read and reviewed The Bee Book by Charlotte Milner, which is a fantastic children's nonfiction by DK Books that is all about bees! If Pluto Was A Pea by Gabrielle Prendergast compared the planets in our solar system to everyday items we find on Earth-like marbles and golf balls to help us understand scale and distance. 

I read the first two books in Disney's The Never Girls series, In A Blink and The Space Between by Kiki Thorpe. These are all about the fairies of Never Land, including Tinkerbell, and my daughter loved them! 

I read On Writing by Stephen King recently and thought it was an excellent book on the craft. Very helpful for writers.
I also read and reviewed The Raven's Tale by Cat Winters which is written from Edgar Allan Poe's point of view.

Currently Watching/Recently Watched:
I want to be in full-on horror movie mode right now but I rarely have time to watch anything unless I sacrifice sleep so I've only watched Hocus Pocus, Horns, and an old favorite I still have on VHS, The People Under the Stairs, in the past week or so. 

What I'm Listening To:
I haven't had room to add music to my ipod lately (I don't like music apps because of the ads) so I haven't been as immersed in music as I usually am and I miss it so I've been on the hunt for new stuff and this one gives me all the feels.

Manchester Orchestra - The Silence

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Enjoy your current reads!

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The Raven's Tale by Cat Winters (Young Adult Book Review)

The Raven's Tale

by Cat Winters
Published by Amulet Books
on April 16, 2019
Genre: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Horror

Length: 368 pages
Ages: 12 - 17 years

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Synopsis:

Seventeen-year-old Edgar Poe counts down the days until he can escape his foster family--the wealthy Allans of Richmond, Virginia. He hungers for his upcoming life as a student at the prestigious new university, almost as much as he longs to marry his beloved Elmira Royster. However, on the brink of his departure, all his plans go awry when a macabre Muse named Lenore appears to him. Muses are frightful creatures that lead Artists down a path of ruin and disgrace, and no respectable person could possibly understand or accept them. But Lenore steps out of the shadows with one request: "Let them see me!"

My Thoughts:

Edgar Allan Poe is ready to start University and leave behind his overbearing adoptive father, John Allan, who positively hates Edgar and deems his work a waste of time. "Silence your muses!" he tells Poe, but Edgar loves his craft and will do no such thing. In steps Poe's actual muse; a dark, feathered thing trailing soot and ash and Poe names her Lenore, giving her the power to roam as a living thing. The problem is, everyone can see this demon-like muse and Edgar must choose to shun her to stay in his family and friends' good graces or embrace her and his true calling. 

"Give me a name that means 'light,' not shadow," she says, "and we may be able to show them there's beauty in horror."

This was a little difficult to get into at first and even once I did, it took me a while to finish. I continued reading because Edgar Allan Poe was one of my first favorite authors and I've always adored his poetry and dark stories.

What I did enjoy was the haunting quality of the story; particularly Lenore's chapters. She was not an idea or a spirit. She was a real thing that people could see and knew was Poe's muse. She is kind of feral and terrifying and Poe is not quick to embrace her for what she is.  The personification of a gothic muse made this book infinitely more interesting.

I also loved all the bits of Poe's poetry that are included throughout the story!

"Whenever I'm not writing, time trudges forward with the maddening, mortifying, miserable, morose, moribund pace of a funeral procession. And so, I write as often as I can.

If you like E.A. Poe or historical fiction with a macabre twist, give this a try!

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The Space Between (The Never Girls #2) by Kiki Thorpe (Children's Book Review)

The Space Between
The Never Girls #2
Written by Kiki Thorpe
Illustrated by Jana Christy
Published by Disney
on January 8, 2013
Genre: Children's, Fantasy, Chapter Books

Length: 128 pages
Ages: 6 - 9 years

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

Synopsis:
It's not fair! Just as they were settling in at Pixie Hollow, Kate, Mia, Lainey, and Gabby have to go home!
Tinker Bell says no kids have ever come back to Never Land, but Lainey refuses to believe it. Will she never get to ride a deer through the woods again? And how can she learn the languages of animals away from the fairies?
Even when the girls leave Never Land, its magic seems to follow them. That mouse in Lainey's kitchen - she's sure it was one of the fairies' dairy mice! Is there some king of splinter between the worlds?

Our Thoughts:
 Mia, Kate, Lainey, and Gabby returned home from Never Land at the end of In A Blink and are not too happy about it when they realize the bag of fairy dust the Queen gave them has disappeared. And so has the cat! Meanwhile, in Pixie Hollow, Fawn realizes that one of the dairy mice, Milkweed, is missing, and in her search for him finds a portal to the Clumsies' world!

This was a nice continuation of the story, giving the girls a connection between Never Land and their home, assuring that there will be many more stories ahead! The story is split between the four girls in our world and Fawn and Tinker Bell in Pixie Hollow as their worlds and stories collide once again.

My daughter is younger than the suggested ages but she requested I read longer books to her so we read a chapter (or a half) every night and still seem to fly through them. We currently don't have any more in this series but I'm already on the lookout so we can continue. My one complaint about this sequel is that so little actually happened other than giving them a door to a future story. It definitely wasn't a satisfying story on its own. 

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If Pluto Was a Pea by Gabrielle Prendergast (Nonfiction Picture Book Review)

If Pluto Was A Pea
Written by Gabrielle Prendergast
Illustrated by Rebecca Gerlings
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books
on August 20, 2019
Genre: Children's, Nonfiction, Picture Book
Length: 40 pages
Ages: 4 - 8 years

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

Synopsis:
Join two curious kids as they explore their backyard, and contemplate their place within our vast universe in this adorable picture book that's full of comparisons to help kids understand cosmic size.

If Pluto was a pea...
the Sun would be like a tent,
Mercury would be a marble,
and Earth would be a golf ball.

Pluto is the smallest planet in our solar system, but how small is small? As it turns out, it only takes the contents of a lunchbox and a backyard to find out.

Our Thoughts:

Have you ever wondered how big the sun would be if Pluto were the size of a pea? Or if Earth were the size of a golf ball?

Join these two curious kids as they ponder the skies and the planets while camping in their back yard. 

This fascinating introduction to scale will help kids better understand the difference in sizes between the planets in our solar system.

Includes measurements in both Metric and Imperial style and end pages that show the planets lined up in order, from marble-sized Mercury to pea-sized Pluto, with Earth's and Pluto's even smaller moons shown as well!

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LazyDayLit's Spooky October 2019 TBR List + Recommendations!

Who else is extra excited about October?!


I haven't bothered with TBRs much this year other than the 100 book tbr list I made at the beginning of the year and I don't read seasonally for any other time of the year but it is OCTOBER and that warrants a special SPOOKY TBR list!

I started my spooky / autumn reads in September this year so I could get more horror read since it's one of my favorite genres. 

Anyway, here's all the books I'm really hoping to get to this month! 

I'm going to join in on Jackie's IT Read-a-long as motivation and a guideline to finally finish IT by Stephen King and plan on reading Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand along with the Ladies of Horror Fiction Goodreads group! 

My library loans

Children's / Middle Grade Reads

More from my shelves in case I finish the above

Looking for more spooky reads?
Here are some of my favorites that I would reread every year if only I had more time!

Let me know if you've read any of these or what spooky books you're really hoping to read in October!

Happy reading!

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