I really liked this book!!! Britt over at Book Habitue chose it for our December's book club. I personally have a penchant for story of the girl who disguises herself as a boy to become a soldier and the whole sister thing ranks high with me too. Maybe it was part of my secret desire when I was a kid to go and be a warrior like Mulan or Alana in The Song of the Lionness. What can I say I like...

or How the Wild West Was Tamed by John Frank, illustrated by Zachary Pullen The cover of this book is a challenge. A stare-down with the toughest cowboy. Do you dare open the book? Hmmm. Wait a minute. Subtly using my peripheral vision, I note that he has a hair brush in his right hand and . . . is that a pink ribbon in his left hand? (gasp) It is!  Ooh. I dare. Dares often involve something...

Many of you will recall that back during the holidays My Friend Amy started a challenge to have people buy books for the holidays to help out the publishing industry and promote reading called I'm Buying Books for the Holidays. Well I'm continuing that trend except it's called I'm Buying Books for Birthdays, which I know a lot of you already do. But here is the thing my daughter turned 5 this...

WARNING this book may be hazardous to your health!!!! This is especially true when standing on your Wii balance board while listening to Diary of a Wimpy Kid on CD. For those of you who don't know I got a Wii Fit for Christmas.  I have never wanted a video game in my life . . .  but here I am over 30 wanting a video game for Christmas. Anyway I thought it would be a good opportunity to get some...

Double Scoop: In leiu of a double scoop book review this month, we participated in the Blog Advent tour with Caroling for Christmas. We also worked together on the Twelve Days of Christmas Reads to bring lots of variety to Christmas reading. Cari's pick of the month: This is hard lots of great books, but if I have to it would be Santa Claus the World's Number One Toy Expert by Marla Frazee and...

 I discovered, while doing this review that I missed book #2 in my reading, so had to go to the library and check it out. It turns out, #2 isn't vital to understanding the series, which I kind of already knew having read the others. I found the series interesting, and think that they would do well for their target audience, which is approximately grades 6-10. The concept of time travel is dealt...

drum roll please. . . the blogging tip is . . . turn your comments on. Um. . . I forgot to turn the comments on for our very first Double Scoops of 2009 Yikes!!!! I also joined a book blogging tips group and haven't seen that as a tip probably because it's so obvious. Sorry Holly! If you stopped by early and liked our review of Owen and then surprised that you couldn't make a comment, well there...

We are excited to bring you Owen, a Caldecott Honor for our first Double Scoop of 2009, by Kevin Henkes. Kevin is an award winning author and illustrator. He has written several picture books including the 2005 Caldecott Award book Kitten's First Full Moon. In addition, he has also written several novels including a Newberry Honor Book - Olive's Ocean. Holly: So, did you like the book? Cari: I...

We are excited to participate in the Blog Advent Tour 2008 this year. Special thanks to Marg and Kailana for hosting this event and you really should go and see all the blogs that are particpating. Check out the other advent posts for today at Jane from Janezlifeandtimes, Memory from Stella Matutina, Debbie from Friday Friends Book Blog. One of the most consistent traditions in our home growing...

Book Scoops has received the Butterfly for the Coolest Blogs I ever know from Jama Rattigan. We are honored and excited to receive this award. As such, we will be passing on the award to some of the blogs 5-10 blogs. Now there are lot of blogs we like and think are cool and it's hard to just limit it, but here are the ones we chose. Nathan Hale at Space Station Nathan. At the risk of revealing...

. . . Jen Robinson's Book Page. If you want to see some of the favorite and best posts from 2008. Of course we are there, with Rapunzel's Revenge and there are lots and lots of great posts. Go check it out. Cari & Holly  *picture from Public Domain Pictures.net

I finally got a chance to read the third book in the Inheritance series. I put it on hold at the library and I was number 1,000 plus. So almost three months later I finally got to read it. Yeah! For those of you who don't know about the series Paolini became a New York Times bestselling author when he was nineteen with his book Eragon. Eragon is the name of the main character and his dragon...

The Icky Bug Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta Illustrated by Ralph Masiello I thought this book was okay. My daughter liked looking at the pictures of all the different "bugs", which included spiders and insects. I liked that it had a little bit of information for each bug. My biggest complaint is that at the end of the book he says that "The Orb Spider, Water Spider and Tarantula are spiders....

Brilliant colored  illustrations combined with technology called animotion, will pull you in to this lovely book. For those 'scanimation' aficionados who enjoyed Rufus Butler Seder's Gallop! Here is a similar book to enjoy. Bee Me goes a step beyond the primarily black and white moving pictures in Gallop! There are windows of multi-color flying bees, running dogs and moving humans in the midst...

Tonight I went to the King's English Bookshop because 1) I wanted to support my local bookstore and 2) all the Hales were going to be there - you know the ones Shannon, Dean and no relation Nathan of Rapunzel's Revenge. 3) My daughter (munchkin #1) is totally in love with Rapunzel's Revenge, she was so excited to get her own copy, which thankfully they had because being new to this whole meet...

Book Scoops November Review Double Scoop this Month - Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale illustrated by Nathan Hale (which really is both our top pick of the month, but we thought we'd each choose another one since it was the Double Scoop) Cari's Pick of the Month - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Holly's Pick of the Month - Thank you Sarah Book's Reviewed by Cari Dr. Suess's ABC Amelia to...

Our 1st Double Scoop by Cari and Holly First off, we are tremendously excited to present Rapunzel's Revenge as our first ever double scoop! As big fans of Shannon's other books, and with a little Rapunzel experience of our own, we felt almost compelled to choose this tale. We weren't sure what to expect from a graphic novel and a co-author, but were intrigued, to say the least. After writing...