libscote's reviews
6285 reviews

Wings of Fire or Warriors (Cats) but with Dinosaurs.

Shannon has always wanted to be an actor, but has been a little too nervous to try out, so she usually ends up doing tech stuff. When the director hears her sing just after auditions, he asks her to try out and she gets a part! This changes the dynamic a bit between Shannon and her two best friends, especially when she gets the role one of her friends wants. While all this is happening, her grandmother moves in with Shannon and her mom, causing more friction. Shannon tries to keep all of this plus her OCD under control, but it ends up being a bit too much at times. Shannon needs to speak up for what she needs before it all gets too far.

I enjoyed this look at OCD because it's a little different than what we might normally think of for symptoms. I also thought it portrayed an interesting family dynamic. My one complaint is

I kind of felt like Shannon was a little too hard on Elyse, especially after she was mean to her at the party, and I felt like no one really expressed that to Shannon? It seemed to be a lot of "Elyse is responsible for everything." I would have liked to see some more emphasis to Shannon on her actions at the party and her reaction to Fatima's attempts to go between her and Elyse.

Laura has moved in with an aunt she barely knows after her parents are sent to rehab. She's convinced it is a temporary thing, and does everything she can to prevent getting too attached to anyone and anything near her Titi's home. Plus, her Titi doesn't even seem all that excited to host her. A stray dog and a new friend might help change Laura's mind if they can break through her defenses. 

This book is a good examination of what drug addiction and recovery can look like through the eyes of a child, including how they might blame themselves for what happened. A short but effective novel.

Pretty good. I got the second volume in the series to see what that's about as well.

This type of nonfiction isn't my typical read--I've never been one to strongly enjoy theory or essays that aren't fully narrative. I'm glad I worked my way through it though--there were a lot of good points and things to think about. I probably would have kept it longer but it needed to go back to the library.

I don't think I would have read this one if it wasn't nominated for the North Star YA Award. I'm familiar with the tropes Hazelwood likes her main male love interest (dark haired, extremely tall, hands that dwarf the female love interests somehow) and thus every time Nolan was described I was taken out of the book because I was too busy laughing about these tropes. I know that some kids will definitely love it.

I think as a character study this book was interesting enough, but I'm not a big literary fiction person and so the ending (or lack thereof) really threw me off. I wanted to find a print copy to make sure I didn't miss anything. What was real? What wasn't? I don' t know.

This is a pretty good historical fiction mystery romance about Egypt in the time of British occupation, where the land was looted for treasures, many of which have yet to be repatriated. Inez wants to find out what happened to her parents, and is determined to travel from Argentina to Egypt to find out. There, she manages to elude her uncle and his manservant enough to keep hunting for artifacts. She may not like what she finds. Loyalties shift and waver in this story, and you're kept on your toes wondering if what Inez believes is right. I didn't realize it was the start of a duology so the cliffhanger ending wasn't my favorite, but now I just need to read the next book!

It needed to go back due to the ILL service shutting down :(