The Sunday Post Meme (84)

Hey everybody! I am participating in a book meme called the Sunday Post which is being hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer!The goal of this meme is to share news you have  on various books and things you’ve read or received and also talk about what is coming up for your blog! Book hauls can include library books, yard sale finds, arcs and bought books and you can share these finds with other book bloggers!

Hello everyone! I have really good news for this weekend!  Yesterday, my baby sister just graduated from college and we celebrated this special occasion by heading out to Red Lobster and enjoying the meal with a couple of friends of ours!  Also, I had participated in the Dewey's 24 hour readathon yesterday and even though I've only read two books yesterday (due to attending my sister's graduation in the morning and falling asleep during the last half of the challenge),  I still had fun with this readathon and I hope to do better on the next readathon!

★Book Reviews☆

The Love that Split the World by Emily Henry Review

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. Review

★Miscellaneous☆

Waiting on Wednesday #37: Dark Goddess by Amalie Howard

Book Photo Sundays #27: April 23, 2017

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #6: April 24, 2017

Teaser Tuesday #9: The World's Best Female Assassin!

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros #1: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Top Ten Tuesday #50: Top 10 Things That Will Make Me Instantly Not Want to Read a Book

Bout of Books Readathon #19 Sign Up!

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon Sign Up!

Blog Tour + Book Blitz: Prowlers and Growlers: A Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection

Blog Tour + Book Blitz: Last Semester by Corine Mekaouche

Blog Tour + Book Blitz: Redeeming Ryker by Kelly Collins

Blog Tour + Book Blitz: How We Fall by Melissa Toppen

  

Book Photo Sundays Meme!

 

Looking for New Guest Posts! 

 

My TBR List!

 

  

Comic Book Bingo Challenge 2017 Sign Up! 

 

One Word: CELEBRATE!!!

 

★  Check out Rabid Reads' discussion on Bookfessional: Randomness

☆ Check out Christy's Love of Books' discussion on Body Image in Books

★  Check out Book Lady's Most Anticipated Book Releases - May 2017 Edition {Part 2}

Well, that's the Sunday News for today and I will have more news for the various books I've read in the near future!

Posted on Sunday, April 30, 2017.

[BOOK REVIEW] Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.

Title:  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Author:  Bill Martin Jr.

Artist:  Eric Carle

Genre:  Animals / Colors / Children's / School

Year Published: 1967

Year Read:  2017

Publisher:  Henry Holt and Company

Series: Bill Martin's Bears #1


Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 3+ (Nothing Objectionable)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

I have been an avid fan of Eric Carle’s works, especially of his well-known children’s book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and one of the books that Eric Carle had worked on that I did not get the chance to read when I was little was “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” which was also written by Bill Martin Jr.  All in all, this was one children’s book that children should definitely check out!

Since this story is extremely short, the summary will be brief.

Basically, the plot of this book is about the reader seeing various animals comment on what other beings they are looking at that precise moment, while each animal states a variation of this quote:

 “Brown Bear, Brown Bear,

What do you see?

I see a red bird looking at me.

Red Bird, Red Bird,

What do you see?

I see a yellow duck looking at me.”

Wow!  I cannot believe that I waited this long to finally pick up this popular children’s book and it was definitely worth reading in the end!  I loved the simplistic style that Bill Martin Jr. brought to this book as the plot is basically having readers see various animals in different colors popping up in the book and commenting on other animals they have seen.  I loved the fact that each animal is a different color such as having a blue horse and a purple cat as it brings a unique spin to the storytelling of this book and I was quietly anticipating seeing what kind of animals we will see pop up in this book.  Eric Carle’s artwork is as always, a delight to look at as all the characters are rendered in paper cut outs which gives the book a creative look and I really loved the images of the different animals that show up in this book, such as the purple cat and the blue horse!

Even though there is nothing wrong with this book, I have to wonder why it was banned in the first place?  Well, it turns out that when it was banned, the person who banned the book made a mistake regarding the author of this book, who is Bill Martin Jr. and the person thought that it was the same Bill Martin who wrote the book “Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation.”  Now, I have never read any of the “other” Bill Martin’s books, but this was the first instance where a book was mistakenly banned for the wrong reasons and that got me curious yet annoyed.

Overall, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” is a truly cute book for children who want to have fun with identifying animals and colors all wrapped up into one book!  I would recommend this book to children ages three and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book.

You might also like: 

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

• Flotsam by David Wiesner

• No Plain Pets! by Marc Ian Barasch

REASON FOR BEING BANNED:  Was banned by the State Board of Education in Texas due to a board member accidentally mixing up the book's author Bill Martin Jr. with another author named Bill Martin who wrote "Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation."

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon Sign Up!

Hey everyone!  Well, who would have thought that I would finally join the Dewey's 24 hour readathon!  I have always wanted to join this readathon since I got a lot of books that I wanted to read in April!  Hopefully, I can reach up to 3 books for this challenge and finish up a novel that I have been reading for awhile now!

Wish me luck!!!

Hour 1: NONE
Hour 2: NONE
Hour 3: NONE
Hour 4: NONE
Hour 5: NONE
Hour 6: NONE
Hour 7: NONE
Hour 8: NONE
Hour 9: Read : Choo Choo by Virginia Lee Burton
Hour 10: NONE
Hour 11: Read: The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm by LeVar Burton and Susan Schaefer Bernardo
Hour 12:

Mini Challenge:

1. What are you reading right now?

I'm currently reading Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Mass.

2. How many books have you read so far?

I've read 2 books so far!

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Readathon? 

I'm looking forward to read Monstress by Marjorie Liu!

4. Have you had many interruptions?  How did you deal with those?

Well, early on today, I had to attend my sister's graduation, so I wasn't able to read more books during the day, but any time I get interrupted, I just jump right back in!

5. What surprises you most about the Readathon so far?

That I was able to catch up quickly to the books that I had put on hold for a long time!

Hour 13:
Hour 14:
Hour 15:
Hour 16:
Hour 17:
Hour 18:
Hour 19:
Hour 20:
Hour 21:
Hour 22:
Hour 23:
Hour 24:

Bout of Books Readathon #19 Sign Up!

Hey fellow book bloggers!  It's time for another Bout of Books readathon, which will start on May 8 - May 14th!  I have always enjoyed doing this readathon and I'm hoping to complete at least one chapter book during this readathon!

If you want to join in the fun, sign up HERE.

Waiting on Wednesday #37: Dark Goddess by Amalie Howard

Hello everyone! "Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, that is hosted by Breaking the Spine and the purpose of this event is that we spotlight upcoming releases of books that we are excited for!  This will also tie into Wishful Ending's Can't Wait Wednesday post!

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Title:  Dark Goddess

Author:  Amalie Howard

Expected Publication Date:  July 11th, 2017  

After an epic struggle that unseated the Asura Lord of Death and placed Serjana Caelum’s best friend, Kyle, on his throne, the Mortal Realm is peaceful and the balance between good and evil—which Sera is sworn to protect—has been restored.

But signs of a new threat to the world of men quickly begin to appear: A scourge of demons descends on the Mortal Realm, and Sera is beside herself trying to locate their source. She sends word to the gods for help, and their answer comes in the form of Kira, the living incarnation of Kali, goddess of destruction.

Stunning and dangerous, Kira plans to protect the heavens at all cost, even if it means destroying the entire Mortal Realm. Soon Sera and Kyle find themselves fighting not just the demon plague, but Kira and her twin. But when an even more sinister threat arises—putting not just the human world but all planes of existence in jeopardy—they must all learn to work together or lose everything they sacrificed so much to save.

Wow!  This looks like an interesting read!  Even though I haven't read the first book in the Alpha Goddess series, I'm still interested in reading about fantasy novels!

So, what upcoming books are you looking forward to?  Please respond below!

Top Ten Tuesday #50: Top 10 Things That Will Make Me Instantly Not Want to Read a Book

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.


This week's top 10 Tuesday topic is "Top 10 Things That Will Make Me Instantly NOT Want to a Read a Book."  GASP!  Could such a thing be possible?  Unfortunately, yes it can be a thing.

So here's my top 10 Things that Will Make Me Instantly NOT Want to Read a Book (in no particular order)!

1.  Love Triangles

Ughhh....why does it have to be LOVE TRIANGLES?  I usually can't stand love triangles, especially when they cause so much UNNEEDED DRAMA for the main characters!  Can't we just have a romance novel where only ONE love interest exists?



2.  Trigger Warning Hit

Okay, so let's touch base here on what are my trigger warnings:  RAPE, CHILD ABUSE and ANIMAL ABUSE.  I can't stand it when these themes are introduced into a book (unless they are handled very effectively) since it makes me uncomfortable to the 11th degree, so I probably won't be checking out any books that deal with these subjects.


3.  Spoiler Synopsis

Okay, so I'm looking at a brief summary of a book that I might be interested in and all of a sudden, almost 90% of the plot is already mentioned in the synopsis!  So, what will happen?  Well, I guess I'll have to SHOOT that book down because the whole story from the book is already SPOILED!  Thanks a lot SPOILER SYNOPSIS!!!


4. Offensive Content

Usually, I'm alright with books that tackle tough subjects like racism, sexism and drugs.  But, if a book is just made to offend almost ANYBODY without a logical reason other than just spewing HATEFUL things about that race, religion or person, then *POOF* that book is gone from my list!


5.  Negative Reviews

Okay, so I'm usually not one of those people who completely listen to what the MASS AUDIENCE has to say about a book, but if I see that a PARTICULAR book has nothing but negative ratings and reviews, then I'm most likely not going to pick that book up.


6. Confusing / Terrible Writing

Seriously, a book has to be WELL WRITTEN and MAKE SOME SENSE in order for me to fully enjoy it.  If a book is written terribly or it doesn't make a bit of sense, then I definitely won't be reading that book!


7.  Ugly Artwork

Now, there's a difference between HIGHLY CREATIVE artwork and UGLY artwork and of course, it's going to be the UGLY artwork that would turn me off from the book because I'm either getting frustrated with trying to understand the artwork or I'm throwing up my guts out because I would get disgusted by the UGLY ARTWORK!


8.  Cheating

I LOATHE reading books about cheating since it ends up making me hate the characters who feel like it's a good thing to cheat on someone just for KICKS!


9.  Book is forced on me

Hello!  Are you going to force me to read a book that I had no interest in reading in the first place?  Well, GOODBYE BOOK!  I'm sorry, but I like to read books that I wanted to read in the first place rather than read a book that someone forced me to read!



10. Unlikable Characters

I HAVE to LIKE a character to enjoy the book I am reading.  So, if the character is too unlikable to me and does things that I don't agree with, then I definitely won't be picking up that book!