Completely Full Bookshelf

Before I go any further, I do want to mention that I just saw the latest Pixar movie, Turning Red , which came out Friday on Disney+, and it was so good!  It's not quite as good as Encanto  (which is technically Disney, not Pixar), but it's still insightful, entertaining, and definitely a departure from some of Pixar's usual norms. (And it's only an hour and a half, so it's a quick watch!) For Domee Shi's first chance in the director's chair, it's very impressive. Now for the post! Precisely one month after the Cybils winners were announced, I'm returning with the second half of the books I read while I was a Cybils judge for the first time—we tackled Elementary Nonfiction two weeks ago, and now we're on to Middle Grade Nonfiction!  And not only do I have reviews for you all, but I also  have a giveaway of one of the finalists, The Genius Under the Table  by Eugene Yelchin!  Read on for everything! Reviews I'm going to paste some disclaimer...

I hope everyone is doing well! I know I already did this last week , but I have yet another movie to wholeheartedly recommend to you all—I just saw the Netflix original movie The Half of It , and I can confidently say that is is 100% a new favorite movie of mine! All the characters—Ellie, Paul, Aster, everyone —are so layered and so compelling, there's so much real-world insight into love and teenage awkwardness and small-town life, there's meaningful explorations of diversity, every single scene was made with a keen eye for what every single character is feeling in that moment, and the movie is cinematically just beautiful! I was seriously blown out of the water—it's definitely worth a watch! And now for the review! I was going to post a different review in my backlog, but because I need to revise it and I don't want to deal with it today, I'm just going against my own schedule and posting this review today! I'm excited to show you all this wonderfully delightf...

Before I dive into my review (ha—get it?), I have a few quick things to mention. First of all, I recently had the chance to watch Disney's newest animated film, Encanto , and it is SO GOOD that I cannot believe it! It has it all—a totally awesome protagonist who defies the typical Disney Princess stereotypes (in fact, her foil is a Disney Princess-esque older sister who she does not  get along with), a compelling plot with some serious emotional beats and insight, absolutely gorgeous visuals that you can't look away from, and quite a few original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda that are so catchy they'll be stuck in your head, but so lyrically clever you'll be glad for the chance to hear them again and again and to pick out all the details you missed! If you were thinking Encanto  sounded meh and you would skip it, well, think again. (Oh, and while we're on the topic of animated movies, have y'all seen the trailer for the next Pixar movie, Turning Red ? It looks SO...

Hello everyone! Before we get started, I wanted to follow up on some of the Disney/Pixar movie stuff I was talking about a few weeks ago . We tried to watch Pixar's latest movie Luca  and found it so uninteresting that we decided not to even finish it—the plot just wasn't compelling, and it looked like it was veering off in a clichéd and irritating direction. And the animation honestly wasn't impressive when compared to Soul  or Raya and the Last Dragon . On the brighter side of things, there's new teaser trailers for the next Disney animated movie, Encanto , and the next Pixar animated movie, Turning Red , and both of them look super-fun! I linked the trailers with the movie names, and they're definitely worth watching! Moving on, it's time for another round of Picture Book Pandemonium, in which I'll be rounding up a selection of picture books I've read and enjoyed recently! I was going to keep this post at just 4 books instead of 5, since my last post ...

I hope everyone is doing well! I feel like the summer is racing by, but we still have a few solid months to get more reading done! Mixed in among this week's unpleasant current events was a nice bright spot: Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison , of which he must serve at least 15, for the death of George Floyd 1 year ago. I hope this is a small step forward in the fight against racism and police brutality.  On a completely different note, I've spent some time with my family this week trying to get caught up on some of Disney and Pixar's animated movies that are on Disney+. We watched Soul , which came out in December 2020, and although it was somewhat clumsily executed at times, the overall message was a really powerful one, and combined with the soundtrack, I ended up with tears literally rolling down my face. Somewhat surprisingly, though, I actually found myself liking Raya and the Last Dragon , which came out in March 2021, even more—I was expecting a so...