alizontheamazon's reviews
1350 reviews

Follow up to A Pirate's Guide to First Grade, this is a cute book about two kids playing at recess. Pirate vocab is used with the imaginary pirates drawn in outline in the background. Will be good for kids who are into the pirate thing.

This was a really cute book that dealt with a lot of heavier subjects while still managing to be fun and lighthearted at times.

Deals with the effects of divorce, the bonds of friendship and the power of courage.

Almost like a coming of age novel in a way in that you see Flora stand up for herself and assert her own idenity more throughout the book.

I read the first one a while back, but don't really remember it and maybe that would have made this one a little better, but I thought this was a terrible graphic novel. It attempts to deal with some really good and heavy subjects, but the story switches between the different storylines way to quickly and doesn't develop any of them well enough to have any sort of impact. I wouldn't recommend this.

Set in the early 1900s this tells the story of the main character's friendship with Buster Keaton when he was a child traveling as part of his parents act.

Mostly illustrations, which tell the story. Done well and a nice introduction to Buster Keaton in a unique way.

This graphic novel is about the main character's quest to deal with her body image and her place in her school. At the same time she is reading Jane Eyre. It does a good job of showing the isolation that comes from being picked on and having a warped image of your own body. It also shows how it just takes one friend to make the whole world seem like a better place.

Fangirl is the story of Cath who goes to college only to feel completely out of place, espeically since her twin Wren does not want to be roommates. The only place where she feels comfortable is within the world of her fanfiction, which she writes based on the characters of a series called Simon Snow (basically Harry Potter). As the year goes on Cath has to deal with her developing feelings for her roommates ex boyfriend, Levi, her father's mental instability, the reappearnace of her mother, and her sister's struggle to fit in as a freshman and deal with the pressures to drink.

This is a really well written book that totally reminded me of my first year of college. I thought the ending was a little anti-climactic, but that was mostly because I wanted the story to keep going. I didn't feel like I was done with the story and the characters.

A good picture books for older readers (maybe first and second grade) as there is more text than most train books. Goes over different types of trains which is nice and different.