![]() What's on the other side of the door? A distorted-mirror world, containing presumably everything Coraline has ever dreamed of. And, like Roald Dahl's work, it is delicious. Neil Gaiman's Coraline is far darker, far stranger, playing on our deepest fears. Now, if you're thinking fondly of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, you're on the wrong track. And it is the 14th door that-sometimes blocked with a wall of bricks-opens up for Coraline into an entirely alternate universe. But with a little rain she becomes bored-so bored that she begins to count everything blue (153), the windows (21), and the doors (14). ![]() ![]() round, old former actresses Miss Spink and Miss Forcible and their aging Highland terriers ("We trod the boards, luvvy") and the mustachioed old man under the roof ("'The reason you cannot see the mouse circus,' said the man upstairs, 'is that the mice are not yet ready and rehearsed.'") Coraline contents herself for weeks with exploring the vast garden and grounds. ![]() Coraline lives with her preoccupied parents in part of a huge old house-a house so huge that other people live in it, too. ![]()
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![]() ![]() And a huge part of the problem is (I believe) that the key to the hidden objects is on the inside flap of the dust jacket, and since I am reading a library book, where the dust jacket is fused onto the book, I am, of course, not able to peruse the key for the hidden objects. Now Snowmen at Work is also supposed to be a hidden object book, and while I have managed to locate a select few of these, most of the hidden objects, I have unfortunately been unable to successfully find. That is not to say, that Mark Buehner's illustrations are lacking in any respect (in fact, I do think that they both compliment and complement his wife's text), simply that for me, personally, his pictures just do not work all that well (and no, I am of course not frightened by broad lump of coal snowmen smiles any longer, but they still tend to give me somewhat a case of the shivers). ![]() As a child, I was actually often frightened by the rigid, often wide (gaping) smiles shown on many snowmen, and even now, as an adult, the smiles of the snowmen in Snowmen at Work tend to creep me out a bit. ![]() ![]() While I do find Caralyn Buehner's narrative (her presented text for Snowmen at Work) enchanting and sweet enough and especially the many clever plays on words (for they are both humorous and slyly imaginative, even though the rhymes do at times have a tendency to be more than a bit awkward and stumbling), I really do not at ALL enjoy the illustrated broad lump of coal smiles of the depicted and featured snowmen. ![]() ![]() ![]() Caleb is a friend of Sesily’s sister Seraphina and quickly fell for Sesily upon meeting her, but holds himself back from acting on his feelings for a mysterious reason. From the first page, it’s obvious where things stand: Sesily Talbot and Caleb Calhoun pine for each other. While Bombshell clearly builds on events from prior books, it stands alone as the start to a new series and shouldn’t pose a problem for any new readers. Instead we discover she’s leading a secret life as part of a network of free-thinking women with hopefully many more stories to come in the new Hell’s Belles series. ![]() ![]() Revisiting characters from previous books – most notably The Day of the Duchess – she finally delivers a love story for Sesily Talbot, the remaining ‘Soiled S’ Talbot sister left unmarried. Sarah MacLean opens a new series with a bang in Bombshell. ![]() ![]() ![]() Maud is always told at the orphanage that she is plain, bad and dumb. Her brother was useful at chores and her younger sister is pretty. Maud is not only an orphan but has the added pain that her two siblings were adopted together without her. The villain in this store is quite a real figure. The heart of this book is that lonely people are particularly open to being preyed upon by sharks for their trustfulness and desire to be loved. ![]() Everything unfolds realistically the way people in real life might reveal their true nature. It was refreshing to read from a non precocious lead despite her being quite well read for her age. When she is dishonest though from her desperate desire to be loved we still get glimpses into their real characters and from a characters actual age appropriate view. ![]() She's no saint but she's honest to herself and to the reader. This characteristic sticks with the main character throughout the book. She admits when she's been bad or frustrating to the teachers. We are introduced right away to the fact that Maud is honest with herself. She'd been unruly all day and infuriating her teachers. We meet her singing a battle anthem in the outhouse. ![]() ![]() Every day we hear about problematic billionaires and how they run their businesses in a hyper-capitalist world. Using unethical means for your gain is nothing new. Then there’s the dirty past of the famous inventor. Like most things in tech that we are witnessing today, the technology mentioned in the book seems like a good idea till it isn’t. A friend mentioned she liked the Netflix series, The One, loosely based on the book, which gave me some confidence to try the book as it wasn’t too long. Since sci-fi is usually out of my interest area, I was sceptical of picking up the book at first. It’s ingrained in everyone, isn’t it? Everyone wants to cheat, but it’s whether you’ve got a good enough reason to do it.” There is a little romance and some sci-fi, but this is a suspense thriller to the very end. ![]() We follow the lives of five people from different walks of life and whose lives are changed considerably because of this technology. ![]() It is based on the concept of finding your soulmate through genetic mapping. ![]() The One by John Marrs is a science fiction book that seems all too real. ![]() ![]() ![]() The next day, she learns from Willie that Hearne is dead. Josie is ashamed of her mother and wants to believe that her father is a respectable man like Hearne. Josie keeps the check he writes for the books and adds him to a list she keeps of possible fathers, since she does not know her own. Hearne states that he had a childhood like Copperfield and Josie. Josie is flattered that he thinks she is a college student, and they bond over their shared love of David Copperfield Mr. While working at the bookshop, Josie assists a handsome and rich tourist named Forrest Hearne. Josie burned him with hot coffee for putting her mom in the hospital the last time he was in town, and he threatened to take revenge on her. Josie grows worried upon learning that Cincinnati, a criminal and her mom’s off-and-on lover, is returning to New Orleans. She lives above Marlowe Bookshop, where she also works at Willie’s house as a housekeeper. She wants to leave New Orleans to start her life over. Now 17, Josie deals daily with stares and name-calling from those in her neighborhood because of her mom’s work. Her mom, a prostitute, returns to New Orleans to work for Willie, a brothel madam. Josie Moraine, the novel’s first-person narrator, was seven years old when she moved with her mother to New Orleans from Detroit. This study guide uses the 2013 edition published by Speak. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() When they were small we visited the library at least once a week and had to have two library cards so that we could check out as many books as we wanted. I definitely passed my love of reading on to our kids. I was always apologizing to the librarians for having such a long request list, but they never made me feel bad about being so curious and always helped me on my quest to find as much information as possible on my latest obsession. I was so curious about so many things and the library fed that curiosity. ![]() All of the librarians knew me by name and would go to great lengths to help me find new books I hadn’t read or gather my long list of special requests and order them in for me.īefore the internet was the amazing search tool that it is, books and first-hand experience were the only ways to learn about something new. I have been obsessed with books and the library ever since I was a little kid. ![]() ![]() Henri Matisse, “Nuotatore in Auquario” from “Jazz,” 1947 Pablo Picasso, “Compotier avec fruits, violon et verre”, 1912 ![]() “Just What Is It that Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?” by Richard Hamilton, 1956. “High” culture had begun to give sway to pop culture through the most democratic of visual art forms, collage. Richard Hamilton included a (Simon &) Kirby Young Romance splash page in his seminal 1956 collage “Just What Is It that Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?” launching both Pop Art and Kirby into the fine art world. Kirby’s entrée into the world of collage did not begin with the Fantastic Four, or even by his own hand. Why then would he choose to break his stride and search through various magazines in search of the right image, rubber cement in hand? ![]() Along the way he found it prudent to concentrate on what he could do best: dream big and render those flights of fancy in graphite. ![]() Jack Kirby had choices to make, especially considering he could do it all: writing, penciling, inking, coloring. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Enola is captivated by the mysteries she has uncovered and proves herself to be a witty and courageous detective.Įnola Holmes and the Case of the Missing Marquess is a multi-layered mystery that explores themes of feminism, individuality, and courage. In addition to running from her brothers, Enola must also escape the villainous people associated with the missing marquess. Just as she begins to explore London and all of the possibilities of her mother’s whereabouts, she becomes entangled in another case, that of the missing marquess, the Viscount Tewkesbury of Basilwether. As Enola navigates the mystery of her mother’s disappearance, she is faced with many obstacles. Her siblings attempt to convince Enola mom just "ran away." Enola disagrees and goes out on her own to find her. In a state of confusion and distress, Enola calls upon her two brothers to help her: world-renowned Sherlock Holmes and infamous Mycroft Holmes. On the morning of her fourteenth birthday, Enola Holmes wakes up to a dreadful situation: her mother has gone missing. Diverse Easy Reader | Illustrated Chapter. ![]() ![]() lyrical and portentous.”-T he New York Times ![]() Jeffrey Eugenides evokes the emotions of youth with haunting sensitivity and dark humor and creates a coming-of-age story unlike any of our time. As the boys observe them from afar, transfixed, they piece together the mystery of the family's fatal melancholy, in this hypnotic and unforgettable novel of adolescent love, disquiet, and death. In a quiet suburb of Detroit, the five Lisbon sisters-beautiful, eccentric, and obsessively watched by the neighborhood boys-commit suicide one by one over the course of a single year. The national bestseller from Jeffrey Eugenides, the Pulitzer Prize–Winning Author of Middlesex and The Marriage PlotĪdapted into a critically acclaimed film by Sofia Coppola, The Virgin Suicides is a modern classic, a lyrical and timeless tale of sex and suicide that transforms and mythologizes suburban middle-American life.įirst published in 1993, The Virgin Suicides announced the arrival of a major new American novelist. ![]() |