Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

This book works for both the Newbery Challenge and the Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge.

Nancy Paulsen Books

This is an autobiography of the author's childhood starting with her birth and ending right before her teen years in Brooklyn. She was born in Ohio, grew up in South Carolina, and finally New York. Her mother left her father and she and two of her siblings spent their early childhood years in South Carolina with her grandparents. The children learned about God and were raised Jehovah's Witnesses and they learned the difference between growing up Black in the South and Black in the North. Woodson wrote this in verse form and it is a very appealing fast paced read. Beautifully written, you are drawn into the Woodson/Irby family and don't want to leave.

I can definitely see why this was a Newbery Honor and I love that two verse novels won Newberys this year. Verse novels appeal to middle grade readers, because they look big, but are easy and fast to read. I hear this time and again when the children are picking up the books. Like Crossover, Brown Girl Dreaming deals with family. Jacqueline was raised partially by her grandparents and by her single mother. She also faces a devastating losses as she grows, but continues to hold her family close. You can see Jacqueline's love of writing throughout the novel and you feel proud knowing she achieved her dream. With a great protagonist and insight into the changes of the 60s, I highly recommend this as a classroom read and it is definitely one I will booktalk. We are using this book in the class I am teaching as an example of diversity and autobiography at its finest. It is a National Book Award winner as well as a Coretta Scott King and Newbery winner. 5 cups of cocoa and this was a very deserving Newbery honor.

ARC August Week 4 Update

ARC August hosted by Octavia and Shelly!

This is hosted by Octavia and Shelly at Read.Sleep.Repeat.

Harlequin Teen

I managed to finish both The Girl with the Windup Heart and A Whole New World and review them both!

Disney Press

I am still working on Oblivion and am at 10%. I won't get this one finished before the end of the month, but I am enjoying it.  I can't wait to see how this one ends and it should get me in the Fall/Halloween mood.

Atheneum Books

How is the challenge going for everyone? I hope you got a lot read!

The Girl with the Windup Heart by Kady Cross

This book counts for the Netgalley and Edelweiss Challenge, the Prequel & Sequel Challenge, and Series Enders Reading Challenge. This is also number 74 for the COYER challenge and is a Booking Through Summer book. This is the final book in Cross's Steampunk Chronicles and will have some spoilers for the other three books.

Harlequin Teen

Cross brings to a close all the threads of her past stories and gives us one last romantic couple to fall in love with. Mila just wants Jack to notice her, as a real woman, not as a robot turned girl who needs protecting. She is stronger than all men after all and can take care of herself. The only way to accomplish this is to leave Jack and strike out on her own. In the meantime, Griffin has been kidnapped into the Aether by the Machinist. Finley is willing to save Griffin at all costs even if all costs means her life. Finley convinces Emily to "kill" her, meaning to make her dead enough to travel in Tesla's suit into the Aether, the place between life and final destination. Once inside Finley will have to face down her worse fears and is reunited with the one person she has always missed from her life. While Finley is battling for herself and Griffin, Jack learns to trust others, like Wildcat and Jasper and Emily and Sam, to help him find Mila and keep her safe. Finley and Jack both learn the true meaning of sacrifice when they realize those they love have to have the power to decide their own fates and trusting someone is more important than protecting them. Will the group be able to defeat the Machinist without the loss of those they hold most dear?

What a great ending to the series! I will miss these characters so much and I loved seeing all the romances develop in each book. I love Cross's steampunk creations and her well developed characters and their romances. I also like her writing style and hope to read more by her. 5 cups of cocoa!

A Whole New World by Liz Braswell

This was my August TBR book and works for the Netgalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge and for the Fairytale Challenge. I received this eARC on Netgalley from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This is number 10 for the COYER Scavenger Hunt and a Booking Through Summer book.

Disney Press

If you have watched Disney's Aladdin, you know the story goes Jafar in disguise tricks Aladdin into entering the Cave of Wonders to steal the lamp and Jafar's plan is to kill Aladdin and take over Agrabah. You know at first that he does not get the lamp and instead traps Aladdin in the cave and Aladdin grabs the lamp, makes a few wishes, wins the heart of the princess, and then Jafar briefly has the lamp and makes a wish that dooms him to eternity in the lamp. Well, what if that did not happen. Liz Braswell, in what may be a twist series by Disney Press, creates a twist on the original Disney story. In her adaptation, the story starts the same with Aladdin imprisoned for "kidnapping" the princess, but this time Jafar is able to get the lamp and trap Aladdin in the cave for a few days. In the meantime, Jafar becomes Sultan and a great sorcerer, but still wants to marry Jasmine. He dooms this relationship by doing an unforgivable act and the princess plans her escape. Jafar tries to charm the populace by giving out gold and for a time free food. Jasmine and Aladdin know the true Jafar and the two are able to unite with the leaders of the Street Rats to try to stop Jafar's dastardly plans. Not only does he want to take over Agrabah, but also the world, with an army of undead soldiers and the power of the genie. Can Jasmine and Aladdin create a whole new world or will Jafar's evil schemes destroy Agrabah?

This was a fast-paced and dark retelling of Aladdin and both teens and adults will be drawn into Braswell's magic. It is a bittersweet story and without giving too much away, some beloved characters do not have happy endings. Braswell does capture all sides of Agrabah, the poor and the rich and magic and thievery. I loved trying to remember the original story alongside of her retelling although it did make me a bit sad that the lightheartedness of the original is definitely not there. She does capture the pure evil that is Jafar and in this tale, he is someone to be feared, and she shows how absolute power brings out the worst in people, especially people with a bent for dark magic. If you want to experience a whole new side of the Aladdin story, read Braswell's dark tale of tragedy and triumph and of love that is true despite the circumstances.  For me this is a 4 cup of cocoa read and reminds me of the dark original fairytales, like 1001 Arabian Nights, which I actually enjoyed. I still like the original Disney tale too, but this is a good contrast to that story.

ARC August Week 3 Update

ARC August hosted by Octavia and Shelly!

This is hosted by Octavia and Shelly at Read.Sleep.Repeat.

Harlequin Teen

I finally finished The Girl with the Windup Heart and it was a great ending to the series. I hope to get the review up this week. I am at 9% on Oblivion still, but I did manage to start A Whole New World and I am 35% of the way through it.

Atheneum Books

How are you all doing with the challenge?

Disney Press

Bout of Books 14 Day 7 Update and Wrapup

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal.

Day 7: I read 23% in A Whole New World and participated in the mini-challenge What to Read Next. I also posted on 6 blogs. I also forgot to post yesterday that I read 124 pages in Aphrodite the Diva.

Wrapup: Total I finished Tris's Book, The Girl with the Windup Heart, and Breakfast at Tiffany's. I started A Whole New World The Iron Trial and Aphrodite the Diva. I read/listened to a total of 829 pages! That is awesome for me. I also completed one mini-challenge and one Twitter chat and commented on about 12 different blogs and followed a few new blogs including Bingeing on Reading and Sarah Reads Too Much. Overall a very successful and fun readathon! I can't wait until the next BoB!

Thanks again to the hosts!

Bout of Books Mini-challenge: What to read next

 This reading challenge is hosted by Sarah Reads Too Much.

For this challenge you are supposed to recommend 3 and only 3 books you have read this year that you consider great and think that everyone should have on their TBR. You are also supposed to write a bit about why that is.

Just choosing three is hard, but I could think of two that blew me away this year.

1. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman (Bloomsbury). Dragons and half-dragons populate the world Hartman created. The love triangle is also interesting and necessary to the story, although this is more so in book 2. Seraphina is a strong female lead and Hartman's world-building was breathtaking.

2. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (Random House). I did not review this on the blog, since it was an audio review I did for SLJ and I have the awfullest time trying to write two different reviews of the same book. Her twists on the fae were beautiful and disturbing, basically everything you want in a dark faerie story. I loved the strength of Feyre and her romance with Tamlin. Maas really knows how to write strong flawed heroines.

3. The Girl with the Windup Heart by Kady Cross (Harlequin Teen), but only if you have read the prior books in the series, if not start with The Girl with the Steel Corset. My theme for these choices is strong female leads and Finley is one of the strongest. She has survived a Jekyll and Hyde personality thanks to some science experiments her father did on himself and passed down through his genes to her. She falls in love with a Duke, but manages to stay independent. She can beat up men due to her strength and fast healing. This was a great steampunk series and the characters were extremely well-developed. I loved all the different romances that were in each book and loved getting to know the characters. I will miss them.

Thanks to Sarah for hosting!