Reading, Writing & Pondering

  Like a lot of children, Bo is too excited to sleep before the first day of school in this fun children's book, The Night Baafore the First Day of Schoo l by Dawn Young. Since Bo can't sleep, he decides to count sheep. . .only things start to get wackier and wackier as Bo keeps counting. Those sheep get in to Bo's school supplies. They get in to his snacks. They get into his clothes. All together in makes for a good clean, fun story. It also makes for some fun counting for young children. The Night Baafore the First day of School is 32 pages long and a large-size book at over ten inches square in size. The illustrations have a lot of detail and capture the zany story details quite well. This is a book that should entertain children ages 8 and under real well. If you are looking for a fun read before the first day of school, check out The Night Baafore the First Day of School .  I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions within this review are my own.

  Dozers Don't Doze by Melinda Rathjen is such a cute bedtime board book for young children up to about three years old--especially those who like to fight bedtime "sleepies" even though they are tired. Dozers Don't Doze is 24 pages, roughly 7 inches square, and has bright, vibrant illustrations. The text has wonderful rhythm. The lines throughout the book work well to tell a cute bedtime story for little ones. My family liked both the text and the illustrations and thought it all worked well together. I received this book from the publisher. All opinions within this review are my own.

  Three generations of women have spent time in the Old Depot Grocery Store. It all started with Glory Ann and Clarence. Then their daughters Rosemary and Jessamine joined the crew and grew up in the family store. When Rosemary got married to Bo they had young Sarah and she also roamed the aisles as she grew up. All of them served the community as well as being in business. At the same time, they all hid secrets from each other. The Secret Keepers of Old Depot Grocery is set in several time frames in history as readers learn the stories behind each of these special women.  I enjoyed reading The Secret Keepers of Old Depot Grocery . Cox is a wonderful story teller and I was caught up in each woman's story. It was interesting to see how they all made some of their choices. At the same time, it was sad to see family members not always treat loved ones the best. I am especially thinking of the way that Glory Ann actually came to be at the grocery store. However, I loved that she decid

  Darcy Malone's dreams all went out the door when the Guatemalan school where she was going to teach closed. Now what will she do--besides eat pints of ice cream? Love and the Silver Linin g by Tammy L. Gray will grab hold of the reader from the beginning of this story about Darcy and keep you all the way through to the end. I was completely enthralled with Darcy's story in Love and the Silver Lining. There were a few times I was frustrated with Darcy towards the end of the book but I also felt a lot of compassion for her. I could understand how she had a lot of confusion and baggage that fogged up her thinking as she struggled to sort out her relationships with her parents, her best friend Cameron and her new boyfriend, Bryson. Add in her new roommate, Zoe, and her mom's new boyfriend, Michael, and it was an interesting bunch of characters. As a dog lover myself, I really enjoyed them all. I also enjoyed Bryson's friend, Charlie, and all of the dogs that Darcy worke