Nancy

May 18, 2013 | Published in ages 3 - 6, Children's Books, Giveaway, Nancy

Steam Train, Dream Train {Review and Giveaway}

I greatly enjoyed Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site (linked to my review) by Sherri Duskey Rinker and one of my favorite illustrators, Tom Lichtenheld. This wonderful duo has once again shown they know where the interests of young children lie, with their new release Steam Train, Dream Train.

Through the darkness, clickety-clack . . .

coming closer, down the track . . .

hold your breath so you can hear

huffing, chuffing drawing near.

As the steam train pulls into the station, the driver signals the animal crew to load up the freight. As in with construction vehicles in their first book, the different types of train cars are described – tender, boxcar, hopper, wellcar and many more. There are fun little details on each page, such as monkeys loading up monkey bars, polar bears and penguins loading ice cream onto the reefer car, and turtles driving race cars on to the autorack, and my boys loved pointing them out. The slight twist on the last page is a pleasant surprise.

The prose is a bit stilted at times but the muted, night-like drawings, done in pastels, more than make up for it. This is a great bedtime book, created by an author (and mother) hoping for happier bedtimes and sweet dreams for all.

Thanks to the publisher for sponsoring a giveaway. Please leave a comment if you’d like to win.

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Nancy’s boys are probably too older for picture books, but neither she nor they really care. She writes about her boys, books and their crazy life at Life With My Boys and Books.

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The Fate Of Mercy Alban

Grace Alban has returned to her childhood home, Alban House, after a 20 year absence, to bury her mother, who died the same day she was to speak to a reporter about an event that occurred 50 years earlier - the suicide of writer David Coleville and disappearance of Grace’s aunt, Fate Alban. When the reporter turns up at her mother’s funeral, accompanied by a woman claiming to be Fate, Grace begins to unearth secrets held within the walls of the house for decades. Was Grace’s mother a victim of the so-called curse on her family? And are Grace and her daughter in danger of being the next victims?

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#Cybils Short Chapter Book Finalists

I know the Cybils winners were announced almost 3 months ago, but I wanted to make sure to finally post my thoughts on the Short Chapter Book Finalists. This was a tough category for the judges, but I enjoyed the chance to check out some books my boys shy away from.

Ivy + Bean Make the Rules is the 9th adventure for best friends Ivy and Bean. When Ivy’s older sister attends day camp for older girls, Ivy claims she doesn’t want to go anyway, and decides to make up her own camp. She recruits Bean to help her and they set up in the nearby park, also home to soccer camp, puppet camp and the Girl Power camp.

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Family Pictures

Jane Green is a master of women’s fiction, tackling subjects women understand and often relate to. Family Pictures is another entertaining novel about women with complicated lives and relationships.

Sylvie thought the worst thing to ever happen to her was the loss of her husband, Jonathan, leaving her and her daughter Eve alone. But 10 years later, Sylvie has remarried and moved to California, living a content life with her husband, who travels frequently for business. Sylvie’s life is far from perfect, as she worries about Eve who has grown painfully thin, and must also deal with her mother’s frequent and confused phone calls.

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The Mermaid of Brooklyn

When her husband Harry calls from work and says he’s stopping for cigarettes, Jenny doesn’t think much of it. Until he doesn’t come home at all. Harry’s disappeared before, and Jenny suspects he’s on another gambling binge, but he’s never been gone for this long or without a word. Jenny’s already at her wit’s end, caring for head-strong 2-year old Betty and colicky infant Rose, along with Harry’s dog Juniper, in their Brooklyn 4th floor walk-up, and being abandoned is more than she thinks she can handle. Fortunately she has her friend Laura to lean on, and Harry’s mother Sylvia offers to watch the girls so Jenny can get some much-needed time alone.

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Beautiful Ruins

In 1962, in a village so small it’s not even on the map of Italy, a woman arrives by boat in search of quiet and discretion. Pasquale Tursi, owner of the only hotel in Porto Vergogna, is creating a beach in hopes of attracting tourists, and instantly falls for the tall blonde American. Dee is an actress working on Cleopatra, filming in Rome, has been told she has stomach cancer, and is waiting for a man to come and meet her.

Fast forward to Hollywood in the present day. Claire Silver has to deal with her strip club-loving boyfriend, her boss, a Hollywood legend whose surgically altered face doesn’t match his aging body, and pitches for movies and reality TV shows from anyone who has ever met the man.

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The Crooked Branch {Review and Giveaway}

I’m a big fan of historical fiction, with one of my favorite locations and time periods being New York City during the mid 19th century, when thousands of Irish immigrants arrived, fleeing the famed potato famine. But the famine itself is a subject that’s not well-covered, so I was happy to receive The Crooked Branch, the second novel by the talented Jeanine Cummins, for review.

Click over to 5 Minutes for Mom for my full review of The Crooked Branch and a chance to win this wonderful book.

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The Middlesteins

Edie Middlestein is obese and suffering the health effects of her fast food and junk food diet, and to make things worse, her husband of 40 years has just left her. Richard is fed up with Edie’s refusal to take care of herself and the sham their marriage has become. Daughter Robin, who spends her time in the bar across the street with her neighbor Daniel, thinks what her father did is unforgivable. Son Benny just wants everyone to get along, assisted by his affinity for smoking pot each night, and Benny’s wife Rachelle makes it her life’s mission to save Edie’s life, while planning her twins’ b’nai mitzvah.

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The Orchardist

Amanda Coplin’s debut novel The Orchardist was released in August to critical acclaim, quickly rising up the bestseller lists. I added it to my to-read list, so when we were offered this powerful novel to promote the paperback release, I knew this was my chance to see what the fuss was about.

Talmadge lives a quiet life tending to his orchards, selling his fruit at the market, smoking in companionable silence with horse wrangler Clee and occasionally taking a meal in town with local healer Caroline Middey. When two girls, filthy, young, and pregnant, steal some of his fruit, he lets it pass, and then feeds them when they appear in his orchard.

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Garden of Stones

Most books written about World War II take place in Europe, focusing on the persecution of Jews and others deemed inferior by the Nazis, or feature those left behind during the war. Garden of Stones is about the lesser known evil that took place during the war — the placement of Japanese Americans in prison camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

When Lucy Takeda is suspected of killing a former Manzanar Camp guard 30 years after the war, her daughter Patty is convinced her mother is innocent. Except for the fact that the witness who identified her mother has one detail spot on – the scars on Lucy’s face from an oil fire in her youth are hard to miss.

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The Girls’ Guide to Love and Supper Clubs

Hannah Sugarman loves to cook, but her professor parents don’t support her desire to cook for a living, telling her that her mother didn’t fight for women’s rights for Hannah to end up back in the kitchen. Unable to stand up for herself, Hannah suffers through her job at a think tank, puts up with her sanctimonious boyfriend who scoffs at her obsession with throwing an underground supper club, and regularly puts her foot in her mouth, usually loudly and in public.

When said boyfriend unceremoniously dumps her, Hannah finds a new to place live in the basement of a townhouse owned by a quirky guy who peppers his speech with sailing metaphors and works for a Florida congressman, causing him to spend a lot of time out of town.

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A Place for Us

Phoebe Lansing is babysitting for Brook and Michael Bostock, watching their daughter Tilly until older son Liam arrives home from prep school for Christmas break. When Liam arrives with his roommate and older brother, drunk, Phoebe is disappointed in her friend and accepts the scotch offered to her. Soon she too is feeling the effects of the alcohol and finds one of the boys kissing and groping her against her will while Liam, in a drunken stupor, does nothing to stop him. She manages to fend the boy off but can’t hide the bruises from her parents.