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Board Book Shopping List!

Board Book Shopping List!

  The holiday season is upon us once again, and if you have a baby or two on your shopping list, why not consider giving the gift of literacy with a board book or two? Now, anyone who has walked into a bookstore will know just how many board books are available these days – which ones do you pick?! That’s where I come in!

Instead of listing specific books I think you should purchase,…

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Review: The Very, Very Far North by Dan Bar-el and Kelly Pousette

Review: The Very, Very Far North by Dan Bar-el and Kelly Pousette. A sweet and gentle winter read.

Not only is Dream Boats one of my first reviews posted on The Book Wars, it is one of my favourite picture books ever to this day. So, when Dan Bar-el asked if I’d like to read and review his newest MG book, I didn’t give it a second thought.

  Luckily–and unsurprisingly–I don’t regret my decision one bit.

The Very, Very Far Northis a funny and sweet novel for young readers about Duane the polar…

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Blog Tour: Review: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Blog Tour: Review: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Galaxy “Alex” Stern knows she doesn’t belong. Her ability to see spirits has meant that she never belonged anywhere. Behind the storied, ivy walls of Yale, however, Alex knows she really doesn’t belong. It seems evident that her particular brand of magic is what got her a full scholarship to the university, even though she was discovered by her sponsors at the centre of a gruesome multiple…

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Abrams Appleseed Board Books

Abrams Appleseed Board Books

I received a number of board books in the past few months and I figure it’s about time I discuss a number of them. Unlike my usual review format, I will just link to the book’s GR page and let Readers know of the ones I liked more than others.

The first one that came my way was I LOVE YOU, ELEPHANT illustrated by Carles Ballesteros and written by Harriet Stone. Coming out in January 2020,…

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We Are Alive: Also, Even More Picture Books

We Are Alive: Also, Even More Picture Books

Life happened. THE CANDLE AND THE FLAME was released. Things went kablooey in my head. We got busy. Well, we’re still really busy but I don’t want to let this blog die so here I am. With a stack of picture books that were sent to me and that I really want to talk about because they are so lovely.

Georgia’s Terrific, Colorific Experiment by Zoe Persico

Hardcover, 32 pages Published…

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Picture Books, Board Books and More!

Picture Books, Board Books and More!

Cat and Mouse by Britta Teckentrup

Board Book, 24 pages Expected publication: March 19th 2019 by Prestel Junior Source: Publisher

Cat & Mousebrings to delicious, interactive, life the chase between a cat and a mouse. The book is cleverly formatted with little holes in the pages to illustrate the mouse’s many venues of escape. The prose has a lot of life and movement, textually reflecting the…

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REVIEW: King of Scars (Book 1) by Leigh Bardugo

REVIEW: King of Scars (Book 1) by Leigh Bardugo

Note: There won’t be any King of Scars spoilers, but I cannot make that promise for the rest of Bardugo’s Grishaverse books.

… if you loved a thing, the work was never done. 

– p.445, King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

My first introduction to Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse was through Six of Crows, which I mainly read because of Bardugo’s fantastic interview with Disability in KidLit. Six of Crows

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REVIEW: The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan

REVIEW: The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan

Okay, I want to keep this short and simple, but I did cry while reading Rukhsana Ali on an airplane so I probably won’t succeed. Let’s just get right into it, shall we?

Rukhsana is a Bangladeshi-American teenager who lives a sort of double life when it comes to the fact that she’s a lesbian. She knows her parents wouldn’t understand, so why put herself and her girlfriend, Ariana, through…

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Lady Helen trilogy by Alison Goodman

Lady Helen trilogy by Alison Goodman

Lady Helen trilogy was released by Viking from 2016 onward with an installment every year. You will find reviews for books one and two on this website. It is very difficult to review the third installment in a trilogy without giving things away so I have decided to review the series as a whole.

Goodman’s research is expansive and easily seen in the details that bring Lady Helen’s world to…

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The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa, Philip Gabriel (Translation)

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa, Philip Gabriel (Translation)

Hardcover, 288 pages Published October 23rd 2018 by Berkley Books Source: Publisher

I…don’t really know how to talk about this book.

Okay, let me try again.

The Travelling Cat Chroniclesis precisely the chronicles of a cat who travels with his companion (or owner, whatever you prefer) ostensibly to find a new home for the cat but the journey is, in actuality, a farewell in the most final…

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Murakami and Me: The Break Up

Murakami and Me: The Break Up

I am an avid no, I used to be an avid Murakami fan. I have read fifteen of the books he has written and own all of them. I was in my early twenties the first time I read a book by him and I didn’t get the subtleties in his prose or the quiet drama of his suburban settings then. But there was something about the way his stories unfurled, like the petals of a flower, that drew me in and kept me…

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We are Back!!!

The Book Wars has been experiencing technical difficulties for the past month and almost a half but we are back on track now. The future has infinite possibilities and, most importantly, the books promise to be amazing. We hope you will hang around and discuss books with us.

See you soon!

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Picture Books and Other Deliciousness: Reviews

Picture Books and Other Deliciousness: Reviews

The Extraordinary Gardener by Sam Boughton

Hardcover, 32 pages Published September 25th 2018 by Tate Source: Publisher

This picturebook follows Joe who discovers seed and the amazing secrets and possibilities contained within each one. He grows one and then another and then more, sharing the results of his gardening with the people in the apartment building he calls home.

Colourful and warm…

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Review: A Dastardly Plot by Christopher Healy

Review: A Dastardly Plot by Christopher Healy

This autumn, Christopher Healy, author of the Hero’s Guide books—which made me chuckle uncontrollably in public—released the first novel in an all-new rollicking Middle Grade series: A Perilous Journey of Danger and Mayhem: A Dastardly Plot.

It’s 1883—the Age of Invention! In the back of an unassuming New York City pickle shop, twelve-year-old Molly Pepper and her mother Cassandra Pepper create…

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A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos and Hildegarde Serle (Translator)

A Winter’s Promise by Christelle Dabos and Hildegarde Serle (Translator)

Hardcover, 468 pages Published September 25th 2018 by Europa Editions Source: Editor

Disclaimer: It is 2:15 a.m. and I am only partially responsible for the following. The majority of the responsibility goes to the night.

So, this is the back copy of A Winter’s Promise:

  Where once there was unity, vastly different worlds now exist. Over each, the spirit of an omnipotent and immortal ancestor…

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The Changeover by Margaret Mahy

The Changeover by Margaret Mahy

Paperback, 240 pages Published May 3rd 2018 by Orion Children’s Books  Source: Publisher

She looked at the soft sky. Only a few minutes before, it had been simple, clear, and beautiful, but now she felt all summer leaning its weight against the house, breathing a hot and wolfish breath at her.

Margaret Mahy’s books formed a huge part of childhood reading. Her stories offered me a portal into a…

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First Generation: 36 Trailblazing Immigrants and Refugees Who Make America Great by Sandra Neil Wallace, Rich Wallace(Contributor), Agata Nowicka (Contributor)

First Generation: 36 Trailblazing Immigrants and Refugees Who Make America Great by Sandra Neil Wallace, Rich Wallace(Contributor), Agata Nowicka (Contributor)

Hardcover, 96 pages Published September 4th 2018 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Source: Publisher

First Generation collects (as the cover so helpfully states) a group of 36 people who weren’t born in America but chose to make it their home. In one page spreads, the volume explores how these individuals have contributed to America economy and culture. How their achievements in whatever…