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Bog Dog and Little Dog Getting In Trouble. Dav Pilkey. 1997/2015. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 24 pages. [Source: Review copy]

Do you know Big Dog and Little Dog? If you don't, you should! Especially if you love dogs. (But also, even if you don't.) Big Dog and Little Dog star in a series of early readers. The stories are simple and funny. The illustrations are bold and bright. Overall, these books are just PURE PLEASURE to read.

Big Dog and Little Dog Getting In Trouble is no exception. This title is perfect for the series. (You do not have to read the books in any order. But my guess is that once you've read one, you'll want to read them all. Again and again and again.)

In this story, the trouble starts when Big Dog and Little Dog want to PLAY. Sounds innocent enough, right?! Well, then end up playing with the couch. And the title says it all, both dogs get in trouble!!!

I definitely recommend this series. The reading level for all the books, if I recall correctly, is Guided Reading Level D.

(Like previous books in this newly republished series, this book has activities at the end.) 

© 2015 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Big Dog and Little Dog Going for a Walk. Dav Pilkey. 1997/2015. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 24 pages. [Source: Review copy]

I really, really enjoyed meeting Big Dog and Little Dog in the first book in the series. So I was excited to see there are many books in this series including the title I'm reviewing today: Big Dog and Little Dog Going for A Walk.

In this early reader, Big Dog and Little Dog go for a walk with their owner. They leave the house nice and clean, but, will they return home that way?! Probably not since Big Dog and Little Dog like mud. Can you guess the FIRST thing they want to do once their owner gives them a bath?!

I enjoyed this one very much. Perhaps even more than the first book in the series. I loved it because it was funny and charming and simple. The storytelling was great, in my opinion. Simple does not mean boring.

I love the text. I love the illustrations. This one is oh-so-easy to recommend.

Like the first book, this one has end-of-the-book activities.
© 2015 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Big Dog and Little Dog. Dav Pilkey. 2015. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 24 pages. [Source: Review copy]

I definitely enjoyed reading Dav Pilkey's Big Dog and Little Dog. It is newly published in early reader format. (The book was originally published in 1997. The end-of-the-book activities are brand new additions to the 2015 edition.)

In this early reader title, young readers meet Big Dog and Little Dog. The good news is that if little ones LOVE reading about Big Dog and Little Dog, this is the first in a series. There are PLENTY of other books to get them excited--to keep them excited and to keep them READING.

Here is how this one begins, "Big dog and Little Dog are hungry. Big Dog and Little Dog want food."

My favorite part, I must admit: "Big Dog gets in the big bed. Little Dog gets in the little bed. Big Dog is lonely. Little Dog is lonely, too." The illustrations tell the rest of the story!

I love it because it is simple and straightforward. And being simple does not in any way prevent it from being clever and funny and A STORY. The illustrations are bright and bold.

It is a charming book cover to cover.

I also appreciated the end-of-the-book activities. For example, one activity has young readers practice story sequencing and has them retelling the story.


© 2015 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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The Prestige. Christopher Priest. 1995/1997. Tor. 360 pages. [Source: Library]

It began on a train, heading north through England, although I was soon to discover that the story had really begun more than a hundred years earlier. 

I saw the movie first. I think there are some benefits to having seen the movie first. It's impossible not to compare the two--the book and the movie--especially since I finished the movie and rushed to put the book on hold at the library. So this "review" will talk about both the book and the movie. I will try my best to keep it spoiler free, especially the opening paragraphs!

The book is different than the movie. The book has a contemporary framework. Andrew Westley, the narrator, has received a magic book from a stranger, the hint being that it was written by one of his ancestors, an Alfred Borden, a Victorian magician. Andrew was adopted, and he knows nothing at all about his Borden relatives. He's manipulated into meeting a woman, Kate Angier. She has much to tell him, for, she believes him to be Nicholas Borden. The two met when he was three, just before he was adopted. He, of course, remembers nothing. And the idea that there is a historic feud between the Borden and Angier families doesn't really intrigue him all that much. But he stays to hear her out.

The book consists of several stories: Andrew's story, Kate's story, Alfred Borden's autobiography, and Rupert Angier's diary. (Andrew's narration opens and closes the novel.) By the end of the book, a fantastic, strange story has been told.

At its simplest here is the plot: Alfred Borden and Rupert (Robert) Angier are rival magicians ever in competition with one another to be the best, to be recognized as being the best. Both the book and the movie convey this. It is HOW it is conveyed that allows for such big differences between the two.

The movie is more dramatic than the book. It makes the rivalry more intense, more personal, more life-and-death. From start to finish the movie is all about REVENGE and LOSS and doing WHATEVER it takes. The book is quite different. For example, in the movie, Angier blames Borden for the death of his wife who drowned during a performance in a water tank. In the book, however, Angier becomes angry with Borden when Borden disrupts his seance and reveals him to be a fake spiritist. Quite a difference! Especially since the "loss of family" angle is huge in the movie. But in the book, Angier has a family: a wife and three children, I believe. That is the only difference I'll mention in the review since I do want it to remain mostly spoiler free.

The Prestige has plenty of twists and turns in the plot. Especially the movie. But also in some ways the novel. Though if you've seen the movie, then, the book will be essentially spoiled. I think you could say the same if you'd read the book first: the movie would be spoiled.

Which did I prefer? I enjoyed both. I did. I really enjoyed the movie. I thought it was great. I watched it twice in one week. I read the novel in one day. There were sections that were quite compelling. My favorite probably being Alfred Borden's autobiography. And then perhaps Angier's diary. I wasn't as drawn to the contemporary story of Kate and Andrew. Though it does intensify the creepy factor greatly. The Prestige would be PERFECT to read for Carl's R.I.P. challenge in the fall.

Have you seen the movie or read the book? Did you like it? love it? hate it? I'd love to know what you thought of it. If you've seen the movie and read the book, which would you recommend first to others?


© 2015 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Out of the Dust. Karen Hesse. 1997. Scholastic. 240 pages. [Source: Bought]

I first reviewed Out of the Dust in March 2008. Out of the Dust is a historical verse novel that I likely would have avoided at all costs as a kid. It is set in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl and Depression.

Billie Jo is our piano-playing heroine. Life was hard enough for Billie Jo and her family BEFORE the tragic accident. Multiple crop failures in a row. Worry and doubt weighing down whole communities, and, not without cause. But after the accident, things are even worse.

Added to despair and doubt is anger and bitterness and regret. Billie Jo doesn't know how to talk to her father anymore. She doesn't know how to be in the same house with him. Things are just off between them. Both are suffering souls. Both have needs that aren't being met. Both need time to heal at the very least.

The novel spans two years, 1934 and 1935. These two years are very hard emotionally for almost all the characters. Out of the Dust is a great coming-of-age novel. I think I liked it even more the second time.

© 2014 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Face Down in the Marrow-Bone Pie. Kathy Lynn Emerson. 1997. St. Martin's Press. 208 pages.

Steam rose from the marrow-bone pie until the old man's sharp beak of a nose wrinkled in delight. John Bexwith sat at the lord's place at the elegant refectory table, one the late Sir George had looted from a monastery at the time of the Dissolution. Sir George had taken two long oaken benches as well and now all three pieces adorned the dais at one end of the great hall at Appleton Manor.

Face Down in The Morrow-Bone Pie is the first in Kathy Lynn Emerson's Lady Susanna Appleton mystery series--a mystery series set in Elizabethan England. This mystery begins with the death of Appleton's steward, John Bexwith, and a series of mysterious letters from their lawyer. His death wouldn't seem strange or unnatural--he was an older man--but then the letters arrive. Letters that allege there is a ghost haunting the place, that this "ghost" has frightened all the servants away. That this ghost frightened the steward to death.  Politics keeps her husband from addressing this concern, from managing his estate-in fact they remove him from England altogether--and against her husband's expressed wishes, Lady Appleton decides to visit Appleton Manor herself. She does not believe in ghosts. And she is insistent that a new steward be found, that new servants be hired in case the former servants persist in this superstitious belief. But secrets and mysteries abound as she discovers the hard way! Still, she's a brilliant woman, and if anyone can solve this mystery, it is Susanna!

I liked this one.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman. 1997. HarperCollins. 80 pages.

I stood before our family altar. It was dawn.

Seedfolks is an interesting little novel. The focus isn't on any one character--not even a handful of characters--no, the focus is on a community, on a garden. Each chapter is narrated by a different member of the community, an individual that has taken an interest in the garden. The first narrator is Kim. The garden is her idea. Though I don't think she could have foreseen just how big the garden would become, how many people would invest their time and energy into making this vacant lot into a garden, a real garden full of vibrant, growing, thriving plants.

Readers meet characters of all ages, all ethnicities, both genders. Each chapter, each vignette, is short. But just because these entries are short doesn't mean that they lack heart and soul. While I can't say I loved all the characters equally, I came to care for many of them. I liked seeing how the garden changed the community. How sharing a place brought people--brought strangers--together in a way that most would have thought impossible.

I liked this one.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Bryan A. Garner is the award-winning author or editor of more than 20 books.  Garner’s Modern American Usage has established itself as the preeminent contemporary guide to the effective use of the English language.  The 3rd edition, which was just published, has been thoroughly updated with new material on nearly every page.  Below we have posted one of his daily usage tips about the word “partake”. To subscribe to his daily tips click here.

partake.

“Partake” is construed with either “in” or “of” in the sense “to take part or share in some action or condition; to participate.”

“In” is the more common preposition in this sense — e.g.: “From 5 to 5:30 p.m., members will meet and partake in a wine and cheese reception.” Joan Szeglowski, “Town ‘N’ Country,” Tampa Trib., 10 Sept. 1997, at 4.

“Of” is common when the sense is “to receive, get, or have a share or portion of” — e.g.: “So should one partake of Chinese cuisine, British history and Clint Eastwood?” T. Collins, “Carryout, Videos Make Dating Like Staying Home,” Courier-J. (Louisville), 12 Sept. 1997, at W27.

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Anderson, M.T. 1997. Thirsty. Candlewick. 237 pages.

In the spring, there are vampires in the wind.

Is that not a great first line? It continues,

People see them scuffling along by the side of country roads. At night, they move through the empty forests. They do not wear black, of course, but things they have taken off bodies or bought on sale. The news says that they are mostly in the western part of the state, where it is lonely and rural. My father claims we have them this year because it was a mild winter, but he may be thinking of tent caterpillars.

Vampires are real, and they don't sparkle. So when our hero, Chris, begins his journey towards becoming a vampire, he's not happy about it. All he wants is for his life to go back to normal. Okay, he wishes it would be a little bit better than normal. He wishes he could get the girl, Rebecca, to notice him. To like him. He wishes he didn't stammer and act stupid around her. He wishes his friends were less weird and/or jerky. But he wants to be human.

The novel covers a few months. Months of torment for Chris as his body begins to change ever-so-gradually. Months of worry as he begins to fear what is to come. He has trouble sleeping. He's always thirsty. And water just isn't thick enough to satisfy. His reflection comes and goes. His fangs come and go. And he starts getting some really weird invites in the mail.

Is there any hope for Chris? Is there anyone who can save him from the horror his life is becoming? What choice will Chris make? Can he determine his own fate? And what led him to this place anyway? How did he become cursed?

This one is intense and exciting. It's masterfully written by an award-winning author. The style is sparse: each word counts. Except for the red-white-black cover, there is no comparison whatsoever to Twilight.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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