pickWhen @BarbaraJean reviewed this one last year I knew I had to read it because LOOK AT THAT COVER 😂 Overall, I loved this book - with the exception of the ending which felt strangely, almost disorientingly, abrupt. I felt that I had become very attached to these characters and their journey, and was left with a lot of unanswered questions about their future. I mean, it wasn't a cliffhanger. It just didn't tidy up. But the rest was delightfully ⬇
pickMy May #BookSpin was a delight: a sweet little middle grade tale in which an ivy-covered house hides hints of magic, and books are a bit more than they appear. McKay‘s Casson family series is still my favorite, but Abi, Max, and Louis had a lot of the same feel as the Cassons do. And look at that cover! 😍
pickI needed a change of pace after 2 very serious books and this MG title leapt out at me. (I think it was your post @BarbaraJean - thanks!) A perfect spooky MG novel with a ragtag family, step sister & step brothers thrown together by a parents‘ marriage, very cool slightly perplexed parents & an eerie house where books might be more than just books? It‘s more about the family relationships than anything else. A quick joyful read 💕
Here are the selections the #BookSpin Fates have chosen for my May reading! I‘m pretty sure the tagged is a #blameitonlitsy—although I have no idea who I stacked it from! I loved McKay‘s Casson family series, so I‘m really looking forward to this one. And my #DoubleSpin landed on a category (Sci-Fi/Fantasy), so above are two of the books I‘m pondering. I‘m leaning toward Gawain & the Green Knight, to follow my reading of Once & Future King.
The two things I always want more of are also the two things I never need more of. And I came home tonight to find two boxes on my doorstep, containing both of those things: books and tea.
Birthday money + Book Outlet sale/coupon + Adagio Teas sale/coupon + retail therapy = the above.
This goes a long way toward erasing the progress I‘ve made on my TBR so far this year. And yet I‘m not sorry. 😂
pickSuch a sweet kids‘ book. So magical and lovely. A book about learning to be a family and the aches and pains of growing up.
... where a recorder club was tormenting a Christmas carol to shrieking ribbons, ...
“I am not your sister, and don‘t you dare put your disgusting spitty feet on my quilt.”
“All right,” said Louis, and rubbed them on Abi‘s bedside rug instead.
“You are truly disgusting,” said Abi severely, “and you should put those horrible pajamas in the washing basket.”
“What, now?”
“YES NOW!” said Abi.
Louis slid off the bed and disappeared, but came back much too quickly.
“I‘ve done it,” he said cheerfully.
Though the protagonist is 11 year old Abi who acquires a step-family, Polly isn‘t a wicked stepmother. Still one chapter 1 but looking good!
And it‘s set in London❣️
💖 💖 💖 💖 💖
Louis, although utterly messy in his appearance, was obsessively tidy in his room. .... Max lived in a great heap of Max junk. He and Louis stuck a line of tape across their bedroom floor, dividing the enormous Max mess from the extreme neatness of Louis. Nothing could stop Louis seeing over the line, though, just as nothing could save Max from having to listen to Louis droning himself to sleep at night, like an out-of-tune mosquito.
pickThis character-based story about a blended family that moves into a vine-covered house in London reminds me of two other great middle grade novels: The Owl Service and Inkheart. 11-year-old Abi, a bookworm, finds tangible elements have escaped from her books after she closes the covers. Her little stepbrother, meanwhile, leaves his window open for visits by a mysterious “cat-thing.” A winning combination of realism and magic.
Time of Green Magic | 
#BookSpinBingo 9mo