Completely Full Bookshelf

I hope everyone is doing well today! For Thursday Thoughts last week, I wrote about books and the passage of time —take a look if you're interested! Today I am excited to be recommending a book I've been looking forward to for a very  long time: Everywhere Blue  by Joanne Rossmassler Fritz! And I'm also holding the Summer 2021 Book Giveaway , with details at the bottom of this post! Review of Everywhere Blue : Seriously, is this not the best book cover EVER?! (And it matches my blog!) The art is by Elena Megalos.         Looking back through my blog's archives, I've been looking forward to Everywhere Blue  since March 2020, just before the pandemic ( here's proof )! And the reason is very simple: Joanne Rossmassler Fritz runs the book blog  My Brain on Books , and although she is currently taking a break from blogging (as most people would once they release an actual book ), she has been an active member of MMGM for years and has participated...

First of all, if you have a blog on Blogger and have no clue what to do about the FeedBurner email subscription mess, good news—I made a video tutorial on how to move your subscribers over to my service of choice, Mailchimp! Click here to watch it —I hope it is helpful! I hope everyone is doing all right today! Summer is coming in just a few weeks, so I will have way more time to read books and write reviews. I do have some frantic weeks to get through before that, but I have somehow managed to get two different non-graphic-novel books into my reading schedule! One will be the subject next week's review, and the other is what I'll be reviewing today: the novel in verse Starfish  by Lisa Fipps.           I celebrated my birthday a few weeks ago and got an AWESOME selection of books (shown at left), and Starfish  was one of them. This book has been super-popular lately, and after seeing recommendations of it by the awesome bloggers Cheriee Weichel at Li...

(Update [6/22/2021]: I moved the section at the beginning of the post to the end of the post so the book cover, not my random photos, would show up in my blog archive. Thanks!) This is such a beautiful—and horribly depressing, once you look at it—cover. The illustration is by Stephanie Singleton.           About a year ago, I read, utterly loved, and reviewed what is likely Jacqueline Woodson's best-known book, an MG memoir in verse and Newbery Honor recipient called Brown Girl Dreaming . Despite realizing from this book alone that Woodson clearly has an incredible talent at writing MG books, I did not read anything else by her until now. Back in September, the wonderful bloggers Shaye Miller at The Miller Memo and Lisa Maucione at Literacy On The Mind  recommended this book, which just debuted that month, and following further reminders by Cheriee Weichel at Library Matters , I finally got around to reading it and getting it reviewed!     ...

Before we get started, I want to remind everyone that (if you're reading this on Monday) today is the last day to enter the 2020 Books by Black Voices Giveaway! Click here to see the giveaway details and enter the giveaway. A few days ago, I saw that Joanne R. Fritz at My Brain on Books had just read and enjoyed Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. This book has been sitting on my shelves for a while now, and since I'm trying to spotlight more books by Black authors on this blog, I decided to read it (which did not take long) and review it!           Long Way Down is extremely different from most novels, because it is written in verse that barely covers 25% of each page, making it an extremely short and to-the-point read. Long Way Down is narrated by Will, a teenager whose older brother Shawn has been murdered in the street. Will knows that there are three rules everyone in his neighborhood follows: don't cry, don't snitch, and kill whoever kills the people...

As you may have noticed, I have taken an unusual amount of breaks from blogging recently. I decided that, this week, I needed to post a review. However, this week, I (of course) got sick, so I apologize in advance if this review is a mess! Before my recommendation (which is for Fly Away by Patricia MacLachlan, author of the famous novel Sarah, Plain and Tall ), however, I would like to remind my readers that my giveaway of two signed copies of The Castle in the Mist by Amy Ephron closes this Tuesday, so be sure to enter here if you haven't already. Here's the publisher's description: From the Newbery Award–winning author of Sarah, Plain and Tall comes a story about one brave girl who saves her family from losing everything. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly calls this lyrical tale “melodic, poetic, and enchanting.” Everyone in Lucy’s family sings. Opera. Rap. Lullabies. Everyone, except Lucy. Lucy can’t sing; her voice won’t come out. Just like singin...

For MMGM, I am recommending Where I Live by Eileen Spinelli, with illustrations by Matt Phelan. Here's the publisher's description: Diana loves where she lives. She loves the astronomy charts on her walls and the fact that she can wave to her best friend, Rose, from her very own window. And best of all, a wren has recently made its home right by her front door! When her family is forced to move, Diana wonders if she'll ever find that same grounded and happy feeling again. This gentle and ultimately redeeming story in poems is about those secure and fulfilling friendships that happen naturally and easily when you live right next door, and the struggles of losing the comfort of a familiar place. Matt Phelan’s warm and expressive illustrations perfectly complement Eileen Spinelli’s tenderhearted and unique tale that reminds us that sometimes a little uprooting and change is necessary for growth. This book is aimed towards the younger end of middle grade, but...