Perhaps calling it in February is a tad early but I’m calling it anyway. That’s how confident I am. I’d like to officially present Animal Babies with the award for:
🏆 Favourite Board Book of the Year 2018 👏
If you have or know any children that are at or nearing the board book stage this needs to be on your radar. Charles Fuge has both written and illustrated this little gem. A sweet educational rhyme takes your child around the world with baby animals on land, ice, rivers and into the depths of the ocean.
Simply looking at the front cover illustration I could already feel it coming on and by the end I had one of the most serious cases of Melted Heart Syndrome ever. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that Charles Fuge’s baby animals are some of the best animal illustrations I’ve ever seen.
Each animal is detailed and gorgeous, from the cuddly baby bears up a tree to the cheeky meerkat babies hassling the bewildered cobra. Their expressions are varied and you can see that they all have their own personalities. Even the background and small foreground animals are captured beautifully.
My favourite is the hatching platypus that someone needs to replicate in plush toy form for kids me to cuddle.
I also need a framed print of the procession of adorable ducklings.
I don’t care that this is allegedly a “children’s book”. I will be buying a copy that Mum and I will wear out together and another for my doctors’ waiting room.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – MoonDance Press for the opportunity to read this book.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
With simple, rhyming text and lavish illustrations by Charles Fuge, this vibrant board book explores the lives of the cutest critters in the land: baby animals!
From baby bears who feel safest up a tree and baby penguins who nest on their daddy’s feet to baby koalas who hitch a ride on their mama’s back, each spread features unlikely pairs of baby animals playing and interacting. Ducks, chimps, elephants, rhinos, meerkats, whales, and even sea horses all make an appearance to bring delight children of all ages.
Why have I never heard of this series before?! Have I been hiding under a meteoroid? This was so much fun!!!
When Zita and her friend Joseph find a hole in the earth that wasn’t there before, they have to check it out. There’s a meteoroid with something inside it. Something that has a red button. Of course Zita is going to press it! A portal appears and something grabs Joseph and pulls him through. After some mild freaking out Zita follows him through the portal into another world with a multitude of alien species. Or perhaps she’s the alien?
Zita witnesses Joseph being kidnapped and is determined to find him and return them both to Earth. Along the way she meets new friends including One, Mouse, Strong-Strong and Randy. Together they journey against the clock to find and save Joseph, for there’s a countdown happening in this world. There’s only three days left before an asteroid will destroy it!
This is one of those graphic novels that has few words but is big in story and scale. The illustrations of all of the new creatures Zita comes across are generally either cute, amusing or downright creepy. I love a ‘girl on an epic quest’ story and this one is action packed. I smiled throughout the story and can’t wait for the next instalment.
All of the copies at my local library are on loan so I have to wait to find out what happens next! I’ll do my best to not read any reviews of Legends of Zita the Spacegirl because I want to go into it the same way I did with this one – loving the cover and knowing nothing at all about the story.
Reread 18 May 2018
Here we are almost 4 months after I first adored this graphic novel and I still haven’t read Legends of Zita the Spacegirl. What’s wrong with me?! (Please don’t answer that!) The bright side is that I decided to reread this one so I remembered where I left Zita and her friends.
I had so much fun during my reread. I appreciated and paid more attention to the details this time around, including the wonderful expressions on Zita’s face throughout the story. I loved her wide eyed OMG, the button worked! expression
and giggled at the “BLRG!” horror of raising herself from the ground covered in giant snail slime.
Character wise, I had completely forgotten about dopey Jerry who joyfully declares the good news that “In three days an asteroid is gonna explode us all!” to attempt to fix Zita’s leaking eyes. The monster wearing the “The End is Nigh” sandwich board is wonderful. I adore all of the monsters featured with the chapter number signs although I’m quite partial to chapter two’s sod on legs with leaves on its back and bugs hanging out with it. I think I need a plush Strong-Strong to cuddle.
The illustrations are as engaging as they were when I first saw them. What surprised me during this read was how quickly I connected with each newly introduced character. Within a couple of panels I was all in, which is pretty impressive considering that there are entire novels where the author doesn’t manage to connect me to a single character. Overall I think I enjoyed the story even more the second time and would happily read it again.
Favourite Invention – Doorpaste, which would be useful in countless Looney Tunes cartoons.
Favourite Line –
“My favourite food from the meat category is sugar.”
(from the Early Zita Sketches page, not the story)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Zita’s life took a cosmic left turn in the blink of an eye.
When her best friend is abducted by an alien doomsday cult, Zita leaps to the rescue and finds herself a stranger on a strange planet. Humanoid chickens and neurotic robots are shocking enough as new experiences go, but Zita is even more surprised to find herself taking on the role of intergalactic hero. Before long, aliens in all shapes and sizes don’t even phase her. Neither do ancient prophecies, doomed planets, or even a friendly con man who takes a mysterious interest in Zita’s quest.
Zita the Spacegirl is a fun, captivating tale of friendship and redemption from Flight veteran Ben Hatke. It also has more whimsical, eye-catching, Miyazaki-esque monsters than you can shake a stick at.
I’m always wary of books whose hype arrives before it’s on the shelves. Let me tell you, Everless is worthy of its hype – and then some! Before I’d even reached 15% one word haunted my mind without me consciously thinking it … captivating. I was captivated from beginning to end, and I had so much adrenaline rushing through me during the second half that I pretty much feel like the Energizer Bunny right now.
By 30% I already anticipated/feared a sequel and came close to writing to Sara Holland demanding begging for immediate access to it upon completion of her debut. Now that I’ve finished reading Everless I’m fairly convinced that I need get my hands on the sequel in a reasonable timeframe (say, the next 24 hours or so) or I may suffer Sempera withdrawals and if they’re anything like the punishments dispensed at Everless, it’s not going to be pretty.
I don’t want to ruin this one for you so I’m just going to cover a few points because I can’t help myself, then I’m going to tell you to read it for yourself because it really is that good!
The Cover: Kudos to the design team involved in this book. That cover is incredible! The blood dripping through the hourglass and the elements inside draw your attention and make you need to know what this book’s all about. I also really liked the design of the artwork at the beginning of each chapter.
Favourite Character: Hinton. May I please adopt him? Pretty please?
The Boys: I may be unpopular for saying this but quite frankly, Roan bored me. Sure, he’s nice to look at and all. He’s sweet, polite and behaves in a way that would make any mother proud. I’m sure I’d like to look at him along with everyone else, but his personality didn’t grab my attention. Liam, however … I loved Liam. He had mystery and complexity oozing out of him. You weren’t sure who he really was beneath the grimace and his snarkiness kept me entertained.
Jules: I really liked her relationship with her Papa. It was gorgeous, despite her spending most of the book behaving in direct opposition to his wishes. Overall I liked, not loved, her character. I rolled my eyes every time she swooned over Roan. I’m not a fan of swooning – ever, and half expected her to faint and fall into his arms each time they crossed paths. I liked Jules’ story more than her character, and she didn’t make my top five favourite characters.
The Minor Characters: There were a few minor characters who came and went, and others who seemed as though they’d become more important as the story continued but faded into obscurity. I quite liked some of these characters (some of those did make my top five) and it felt like there should have been more to their stories than I learned in this book. I can only hope they return in the sequel as there are several whose stories feel unfinished to me.
The Mythology: The gradual unfolding of the mythology were some of my favourite passages. I adore mythology! The Alchemist and Sorceress. The fox and the snake. The stories told to children generation after generation. I wanted to know more, to go deeper, and while I’m certain there’s plenty more to come I’m also satisfied that a lot of my initial questions have been answered.
The Themes: The big three for me were loss, trust, and betrayal. I love novels where things are not always what they seem. It messes with your equilibrium as a reader when you’re unsure whose words you can trust and when you’re not quite sure if what you’re being told is the truth, part of a bigger truth or an outright lie. While some elements of this novel were predictable there were plenty that weren’t.
Time: Time really is money! I’m obsessed with the possibilities surrounding time travel (no, there aren’t flux capacitors but time is most certainly messed with) and the concept of time in general. Any book that twists my notions of time around into a reality that both ignites my imagination and turns something from improbable to possible and believable in my mind in under 400 pages grabs my attention.
Social Class: Servants and the elite. Higher and lower ranking servants. The whole idea of one group of people believing they’re better than another group for any reason disgusts me and I love that this was explored in Sempera’s society. The imbalance and abuse of power was integral to the way this society functioned and had done for centuries.
The Magic: It’s magic! Of course it was awesome!
Yay, me!: Although I didn’t know how it was going to play out my gut told me to trust one character and not trust another. For once I was right about both!
Okay, so maybe more than a few points. 😃 Now, off you go and read this book if you haven’t already!
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hachette Children’s Books, Australia for the opportunity to read this book.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Time is a prison. She is the key. Packed with danger, temptation and desire – a perfect read for fans of The Red Queen.
In the land of Sempera, the rich control everything – even time. Ever since the age of alchemy and sorcery, hours, days and years have been extracted from blood and bound to iron coins. The rich live for centuries; the poor bleed themselves dry.
Jules and her father are behind on their rent and low on hours. To stop him from draining himself to clear their debts, Jules takes a job at Everless, the grand estate of the cruel Gerling family.
There, Jules encounters danger and temptation in the guise of the Gerling heir, Roan, who is soon to be married. But the web of secrets at Everless stretches beyond her desire, and the truths Jules must uncover will change her life for ever … and possibly the future of time itself.
Do you remember lazy summer afternoons as a child, laying on the grass under the shade of a tree, watching clouds pass overhead? You could hear the leaves rustle above you and feel the wind on your face. A friend was laying beside you and you’d laugh together, deciding what animals the clouds resembled. That’s what the first half of Flower Moon felt like to me. There was a pervading sense of nostalgia and I felt like the words were just washing over me.
Tempest and Tally Jo are twelve year old mirror twins. Tally has always been the leader and protector, whereas Tempest has been the shy follower. Throughout the past year the twins have started to grow apart. This summer, like every year, the girls will be spending time with the travelling carnival their Pa Charlie runs. Twin girls run in their family, as does the mysterious Greenly Curse. Told from abrupt Tally’s point of view, we follow the twins as they embark on a summer like no other.
I felt as though I was transported to 1950’s America, so much so that the occasional references to the present, like a Pokemon bandaid, felt jarring. I would have preferred for there to have been no references to any specific time period at all in this book. I could hear the words spoken in a southern accent and while some of the phrases didn’t sit right with me, overall I inhabited this world with Tempest and Tally Jo.
As an only child I grew up wishing for a sibling and romanticised the idea of being a twin for several years, most likely in response to my The Parent Trap obsession. That said, I can only imagine what having a sibling must be like. I’m also not quite sure the world could handle two of me!
Growing up I looked on with fascination at the relationships my friends had with their siblings and have witnessed some siblings cast long shadows, with others living their lives inside them. Even without siblings, I understand what it’s like to live in the shadow of someone’s expectations of you.
In Flower Moon, Tempest has lived in the shadow of Tally’s limelight all of her life, and both girls seem to think that the reason they’ve grown apart over the past year is because the other twin has changed and is pulling away. Sometimes you don’t realise what you’re projecting into the world and your relationships until it’s mirrored back to you.
There’s a growing tension in this book and from my perspective it felt like the heart of this tension really stemmed from the difficulties that come with trying to hold on to how things were in the past (or how you remember them to be) at the expense of appreciating what’s in front of you in the present. Fear and issues of trust are addressed, including the fear of what the future will look like if the dynamics in relationships change over time.
I really liked Digger and would have loved to have learned more about him and for his personality to be shown separate to his connection with Tally. I loved the animals and the atmosphere of the carnival. I had unresolved questions about the curse, including why it affects this family, and I wanted more background information about the twins’ mother and aunt, and their mother and her twin.
I didn’t always like Tally that much. She was quite abrasive and self-centred, and I spent some of the book wishing it had been written from Tempest’s point of view instead. However, the realisation that the world doesn’t solely revolve around her added more depth to Tally’s character.
The first half of the book may not have enough action for those who only equate magic with wands. The amount of introspection may also be off putting for some readers. While I expect I would have enjoyed this book as a child I doubt I would have appreciated its beauty like I do now.
I am almost certain I felt my heart grow while I was reading and although I spent some of the book feeling sad at the loneliness and disconnect between the twins, I came away feeling better about the world. While difficult subjects were raised, there was still enough of a feeling of childhood innocence that I felt heartened by it. I loved the messages of hope and empowerment. I think what I’m going to take away from this book above all is the reminder that magic is both around and within you.
Favourite passage:
“Maybe that was what growing up was, understanding where the real magic lived in this world. Inside our very own hearts.”
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Sky Pony Press for the opportunity to read this book.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Tempest and Tally Jo Trimble are mirror twins – so alike they were almost born the same person – and they’ve been inseparable since birth. But it’s the summer they turn thirteen, and it seems like everyone can tell something is changing between them. Pa Charlie, whose traveling carnival is the best part of every summer, is watching them closer than ever. Digger, who sneaks poor kids onto the carnival rides for free and smiles faster than anyone, seems to be fixing for a fight. Even Mama is acting different, refusing to travel with the carnival this year even though her own twin, who she hasn’t seen since childhood, will be there.
And Tally and Tempest are the most different of all. There’s a strangeness between them, a thickness to the air, an unseen push and pull, and it’s getting stronger. It starts as a feeling, but soon it’s sputtering and sparking, hurling them backwards, threatening to explode.
When Tally learns that she and Tempest may not be the first twins in their family to be separated by whatever this force is, she realizes she’ll have to find a way to stop it – or she might lose not only her sister, but everyone she loves.
Kill Creek is best read when the weather is on your side. While I travelled to the Finch House there was torrential rain, thunder that rattled the windows, hail that pounded on the roof, 30,000 lightning strikes one night in the local area (or so they reported on the news) and wind that howled through the trees. One windy night around 3am as I crept through the dark house trying to be quiet so I didn’t wake anyone up I walked through a cobweb. Reading at night with the only light coming from my Kindle I could almost imagine something that used to be human reaching for me in the darkness of the room just beyond what I could see. It was creepy and it was perfect. I highly recommend reading Kill Creek under similar circumstances.
If ever a book was written with a cinematic quality where you could practically watch the movie as you’re reading the book, this is the one. An hour or so before walking through my cobweb I’d read a part in the book with spiders (so many spiders! 🕷) and sitting there in the dark I convinced myself I could feel something crawling along my arm. Now that’s the kind of creepy I love, when the book reaches out from the pages (or screen) and convinces you that what’s happening in the book and what’s happening around you as you read it are related, like the book knows and is somehow causing these ‘coincidences’. After reading his book, Scott Thomas almost had me convinced the house at Kill Creek had the power to reach into my life, and that is the type of creepy fun I haven’t experienced in a book in a long time.
Kill Creek takes us to Finch House, a gorgeous and meticulously crafted house with over 150 years of tragedy living within its walls. Wainwright of WrightWire (an internet “destination for horror events”) and his photographer Kate plan to interview four of the world’s most famous horror writers at Finch House for WrightWire’s annual Halloween stunt.
Our lambs to the slaughter authors are Sam, a lecturer at the University of Kansas and best-selling author who’s struggling to write his next novel, Sebastian who’s basically horror writer royalty, Daniel who I imagined as a Christian version of R.L. Stine and Moore, who writes what I can only describe as torture porn. Horror means something different to each author and each has their own reason for agreeing to take part in this interview. What they experience may reveal that the ghosts of the past that haunt your mind can be some of the most terrifying ghosts of all.
And the house? The house enjoys entertaining visitors. I remember one of my English teachers talking about how locations can become characters in stories and in my adolescent omniscience I sat there rolling my eyes thinking, ‘Yeah, whatever’. So, anonymous English teacher, I get it now! The house in Kill Creek is my favourite character!
Told in third person from multiple points of view, you are granted access to each character’s thoughts, desires and greatest fears. At times the writing was so poetic I almost forgot I was reading a horror novel. Then there’d be a description of seeping wounds, crunching bones or goo oozing out of eyeballs, and I’d remember, sometimes almost cringing from the detailed descriptions of agony and torment. With some humour, action sequences, egos battling egos and mystery thrown in along with some good old fashioned murder, Kill Creek is pure entertainment.
Should you ever star in your own horror novel, there are some basics that Kill Creek teaches that you should probably keep in mind.
Horror Novel 101
If there’s a creepy basement with a rickety staircase, stay the hell out.
No matter what, stay together as a group.
If a house has a reputation for being evil, don’t think it’ll let you leave unscathed, if it lets you leave at all.
If there’s a creepy third floor room whose entrance has been bricked over, take note. There’s probably a reason and you probably don’t want to know what’s in there.
If someone who you know is dead is standing before you asking you to do something really weird, it’s probably not them and you probably shouldn’t do that really weird thing.
I did find that there was a section around the middle of the book that I felt was a bit long-winded and slowed the pace down at a time when I was eager to just get back to the house and get some answers. I found the themes of Moore’s novels kinda out there but in terms of relating those to her backstory I did understand where she was coming from. I found something to like about all but one of the characters (Adudel). I really had a fun time reading this book and will most certainly be on the lookout for future novels by this author.
Biggest disappointment: Looking up Last One Out Kills the Lights on Goodreads because Sam makes it sound like my kind of horror short story book, only to find it doesn’t exist. Just to make sure I looked up the author’s name and found they do exist! Except they’re a romance novelist. ☹️
Favourite sentence:
“That may be the most perverse thing of all: ignoring the horror, even as it happens around you.”
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Inkshares for the opportunity to read this book. This is the second book I’ve read by this publisher and both were home runs.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
At the end of a dark prairie road, nearly forgotten in the Kansas countryside, lies the Finch House. For years it has perched empty, abandoned, and overgrown – but soon the door will be opened for the first time in many decades. But something waits, lurking in the shadows, anxious to meet its new guests.
When best-selling horror author Sam McGarver is invited to spend Halloween night in one of the country’s most infamous haunted houses, he reluctantly agrees. At least he won’t be alone; joining him are three other masters of the macabre, writers who have helped shape modern horror. But what begins as a simple publicity stunt soon becomes a fight for survival – the entity they have awakened will follow them, torment them, threatening to make them part of the bloody legacy of Kill Creek.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly … Sorry, I kept hearing this song each time I read the title and music does feature in the book so it’s not completely out there …
The first thing I absolutely have to address about Black Bird of the Gallows is that cover. If you want people to need to buy a book without even knowing what it’s about, then it seems like L.J. Anderson from Mayhem Cover Creations is your go to person. I simply adore the cover design and use of colour. I want a huge framed print of this cover artwork for my wall so I can constantly admire it.
Now, where was I? Oh, the book. I really enjoyed it. What was it about? The birds and the bees, but not the way you’re thinking!
Angie has had it tough, spending a large part of her upbringing living in a van or at random mens’ places with her drug addicted mother. While she’s still haunted by her past, she now lives with her father, one of the most adorably sweet fathers I’ve come across in real life or the other real life (books). She has great friends, Lacey and Deno, and her very own secret identity as Sparo, a DJ in a nightclub.
The house next door has been vacant since a tragedy made it impossible to sell. However, one day a moving truck appears and lo and behold, Angie spies (literally, through binoculars) the new cute boy moving in next door with his family. Mystery cute boy with the dark eyes isn’t what he appears to be and as Angie gets to know him, she learns he’s not quite as human as he looks, and apparently he looks really, really good.
I loved the whole premise of this story. I’m a sucker for anything mythological so naturally I was drawn in by the origin stories of the tortured harbingers and Beekeepers. I wanted to know more about them though and I definitely wanted a backstory for the Strawmen. I’d love to read something from all of their perspectives that shed more of a light on them. Plus there’s indications there are other entities/creatures/part human part something else types in this world and I want all the details about them as well.
I had two favourite characters in this book. Rafette, who we spend a considerable amount of the book running from or on the lookout for, is someone I really empathised with. I found myself seeing the story from his point of view and didn’t view him as a baddie at all. Maybe it’s partly due to the soft spot I have for bees but my heart broke for Rafette and the pain he’s endured in his life. I need to know so much more about him! And best friend Lacey … supportive, intuitive and loving, yet willing to bash her best friend over the head with a golf club if that’s what it takes to keep her safe. I loved Lacey!
Tissues Used: 0, which surprised me as I came prepared. Although my icy cold heart experienced somewhat of an earthquake, none of the cracks melted into tears.
Food craved during reading: Pancakes. Oh, they sounded so delectably droolworthy.
Something I thought would be important to remember when reading or rereading: The names and stories of those you don’t think will come back into the story. I found sections of this book to be in the ‘six degrees of separation’ category where peoples’ stories linked together like one big crow shaped jigsaw puzzle. Prepare to get halfway through the book and go ‘oh, I remember them!’
Now for the niggles:
A minor thing, sure, but what’s Reece’s real name?
The insta-love frustrated me along with the whole ‘our love is destined to be doomed and we’ll both be miserable for all of eternity or for as long as we live (whichever is applicable) so we shouldn’t be together. But first, let’s kiss some more’.
Reece telling Angie that he’s been in love with her since they were six. Now, this would have been worthy of an aww if not for the fact that he would’ve been about 190, give or take a few years, at that stage which kind of morphed my aww into eww!.
The whole thing about the big ‘event’ when loved ones are being searched for. When they all meet up at Angie’s house after being separated did Angie not wonder or bother to ask Deno if his parents were alive or dead?
You know the whole horror movie girl victim/heroine who is always running up the stairs when she should be running out the door? I had that frustration with Angie. I kept wanting to yell at her to just leave! You can’t say she didn’t have ample warning time, yet she still managed to wind up caught up in the ‘event’ like everyone else. What use is fair warning if you don’t listen, sweetheart?
So, my rating. If I didn’t have this many niggles, the writing would’ve deserved 5 stars. The niggles and frustration I felt while I was reading would usually have made it a 3 stars but the writing was just so darn good. So I’m splitting the difference and giving this 4 stars.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Entangled Teen, an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC, for the opportunity to read this book. I will definitely read future books by Meg Kassel.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
A simple but forgotten truth: Where harbingers of death appear, the morgues will soon be full.
Angie Dovage can tell there’s more to Reece Fernandez than just the tall, brooding athlete who has her classmates swooning, but she can’t imagine his presence signals a tragedy that will devastate her small town. When something supernatural tries to attack her, Angie is thrown into a battle between good and evil she never saw coming. Right in the center of it is Reece — and he’s not human.
What’s more, she knows something most don’t. That the secrets her town holds could kill them all. But that’s only half as dangerous as falling in love with a harbinger of death.
Rated M for mature audience, malice, murder and mayhem
Hmm… How do I review this one?! This is not your child’s comic book, that’s for sure. If you look at the cover and grin with an evil glint in your eye, you are in for a treat, my disturbed friend. If, however, the image of the girl holding onto a battle axe dripping with blood and a scene of the wanton destruction of cute creatures with googly eyes has you reaching for your teddy bear, then perhaps this isn’t the comic book for you.
With a not so attractive open fracture, black eye, missing teeth and blood spatter, Gertrude enters her dream come true … Fairyland! Guided by Larrigon Wentsworth III and armed with a map to all the known lands to help her on her way, bruised and battered Gertrude begins her quest to find the key that opens the doorway home.
Twenty seven years later, our green haired, frilly dress wearing dreamer is no longer the sweet little girl we first met in her pink bedroom prancing around with a wand in her hand. Our innocent princess has morphed into, well, let’s just say Fairyland has changed her.
With hug and fluff transformed into swear words, locations as cool (sorry!) as Ice Cream Island and weirdly beautiful, colourful scenes of devastation, I am hooked.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Superstar Skottie Young (Rocket Raccoon, Wizard of Oz) makes his Image debut with an ALL-NEW SERIES! The Adventure Time/Alice in Wonderland-style epic that smashes its cute little face against Tank Girl/Deadpool-esque violent madness has arrived. In an adventure that ain’t for the little kiddies, (unless you have super cool parents, then whatever), you’ll meet Gert — a six year old girl who has been stuck in the magical world of Fairyland for thirty years and will hack and slash her way through anything to find her way back home. Join Gert and her giant battle-axe on a delightfully blood soaked journey to see who will survive the girl who HATES FAIRYLAND.
poetry and i usually don’t mix / we repel like opposing ions / my synapses don’t fire / when sparked by verse / however / a flame was lit at the start / kindled by depression and anxiety / yet heartbreak’s oxygen did not fan the flames / satisfied yet / desiring more like / explaining my depression to my mother / a conversation
i don’t know sabrina benaim / never heard her voice / yet depression and i are old buddies / we dance around each other / and make somber music / in the dark recesses of my mind / we love yet hate / one another but / we continue our duet
at times i am sure my getaway car / has obscured my shadow in dust / then i turn the corner / and the sunlight causes me / to glance behind with horror / my shadow has grown large / absorbing the light / and creeps closer / as it follows / sabrina you exhale with eloquence / shine light upon the dark / adjust focus so we can see / the hope depression conceals
anxiety can pick me / out of a line up / loneliness of knowing / in a crowded room / i’m the only one / from my tribe / despair at lack / of understanding / treated like a curiosity / different / not enough
heartbreak / a foreign land / i am an alien there / yet made clear / by hearing sabrina
dark / depression / loneliness / heartbreak / anxiety / despair / swirl into one / flood of emotion / aching / desert of nothingness / numbness / muddy clay that distorts / yet resilience / hope / light
gratitude / netgalley / gratitude / button poetry / gratitude / independent book publishers association / my thoughts for free / lasting impression / set aside other words / drink in this offering / to be returned to again / and again / to sip / to guzzle / to absorb / no regrets
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Depression & Other Magic Tricks is the debut book by Sabrina Benaim, one of the most-viewed performance poets of all time, whose poem “Explaining My Depression to My Mother” has become a cultural phenomenon with over 5,000,000 views.
Depression & Other Magic Tricks explores themes of mental health, love, and family. It is a documentation of struggle and triumph, a celebration of daily life and of living. Benaim’s wit, empathy, and gift for language produce a work of endless wonder
I had hoped this would be a book I could recommend to psychologist friends for use with their younger clients experiencing separation anxiety or grief. Based on the blurb I expected Everybody’s Somewhere to be focused on bereavement or to be aimed toward children who may live with one parent and be missing the other, or perhaps who have a parent that has had to go away for a work trip. Given that the book was written by a social worker my assumptions were strengthened.
That’s not what this book is though. It’s basically saying that people are everywhere – up trees, under the stars, in cars, etc. Based on the reality of what the book is instead of what I hoped it would be, it’s a cute book. It would be a nice bedtime story. The rhyming and easy words are appropriate for the young target audience.
Alea Marley has done a beautiful job with the illustrations. The colour scheme is soft and comforting. I liked the diversity of the children featured in the pictures and think children as well as adults will enjoy looking at them.
I received an ARC from NetGalley (thank you so much to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Seagrass Press for the opportunity) in exchange for honest feedback.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
UPDATE:If the blurb was fixed to reflect what the author intended then the story works perfectly. I still believe this will make a lovely bedtime story that children will enjoy.
Once Upon a Blurb
Everybody’s somewhere, where are you? I’m right here, I’m somebody, too. Some are in the country, some are in the town. Everybody’s somewhere, up or down.
Everybody — mums, dads, grandpas, grandmas, friends, and people you’ve never met — is somewhere in the world, doing something right now, even if you can’t see them.
Everybody’s Somewhere is a fun, colorful introduction to the idea that everyone you’ve met, or haven’t met, is somewhere. Written perfectly for young minds that might not fully comprehend how big the world is, or the number of people on it, this fun children’s book will plant the seeds of the ideas in their minds.
With its playful poetry, bouncy rhymes, Everybody’s Somewhere asks children to expand their perspective, and follows up with fun illustrations. Award-winning author Cornelia Maude Spelman invites children to imagine other people in other places doing different things, to be delighted by new ideas, and to be reassured that everyone is important and sharing the same world.
Schizanthus Nerd 