Completely Full Bookshelf

This is part 13 of Picture Book Pandemonium and I started drafting it on Friday the 13th, so let's hope we don't have any bad omens here! We certainly have one good omen, which is that I'm finally back to blogging—and I'm officially on summer break! I still have some college responsibilities to take care of, but no classes, so I should have much more time to read books and write blog posts and read everyone else's blog posts too. I can't wait! Anyway, now for the post! I checked out 7 picture books from the library, so I'm reviewing 4 today and 3 next week—let's dive in! What book is it?   The Ocean Calls: A Haenyeo Mermaid Story , written by Tina Cho and illustrated by Jess X. Snow (Here's a link to preview the illustrations.) Who recommended it?   Cheriee Weichel at Library Matters ! What does the publisher say?  " Dayeon wants to be a haenyeo just like Grandma. The haenyeo dive off the coast of Jeju Island to pluck treasures from the sea--gen...

It's time for another installment of Picture Book Pandemonium! But before we dive in, I have an announcement: As of Sunday... Completely Full Bookshelf is 5 years old!!! I would tell you it doesn't feel nearly that long since I posted my very first book review (of When You Reach Me ) all those years ago...but, actually, it feels exactly  that long since then! It's pretty entertaining to see how I've gradually moved from reviews that were only 3 or 4 sentences to reviews that are 3,309 words long . Running this blog for so many years has been such a valuable experience for me that I can't even express my feelings properly—it's been an outlet for me to talk about one of my favorite things, it's been a motivating force to keep reading books (including ones I might never have tried otherwise, like the picture books I'll be reviewing today), and it's been a means of participation in two wise, supportive, and fun online communities! I'd like to thank e...