Thursday, August 31, 2023

[BOOK REVIEW] Pebbles and the Biggest Number by Joey Benun (@joeybenun)

 


Title:  Pebbles and the Biggest Number

Author:  Joey Benun

Artist: Laura Watson

Genre:  Children's / Animals / Numbers / Educational

Year Published: 2023

Date Read: 8/31/2023

Publisher: Joey Benun

Source:  Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 5+ (Nothing Objectionable)

Buy on:  Amazon 


So, over the years, I have read many children’s books that teach children about how to count numbers.  But I rarely come across children’s books that teaches kids about what the highest numbers are and “Pebbles and the Biggest Number” is one such unique children’s book that teaches children about what the biggest numbers are!


Pebbles the Butterfly is on a mission to find out what the biggest number is and in order to search for the answer, Pebbles travels across the world and asks every animal he meets along the way.  Of course, Pebbles’ journey is a dangerous one as he has to escape earthquakes, avalanches and tsunamis! 

Can Pebbles find out what the biggest number is?

Read this book to find out!


Wow!  This book was so cute and educational for me!  Joey Benun has done a fantastic job at writing this story as we get to learn more about what some of the biggest numbers are such as, sextillion, septillion and octillion.  I never thought that such numbers like sextillion and octillion actually existed and I’ve been learning numbers since elementary school!  I had a lot of fun learning about what big numbers I haven’t heard about and I’m glad that there’s a children’s book out there that can educate children about what the biggest numbers in the world are!  Laura Watson’s artwork is extremely adorable to look at!  I loved the images of Pebbles the Butterfly himself as Pebbles looks adorable on each page!  I also loved how colorful and energetic the artwork looks, especially whenever Pebbles meets up with a different animal throughout the story and whenever Pebbles tries to avoid any dangerous situations such as being around an earthquake or a tsunami.


Overall, “Pebbles and the Biggest Number” is a truly cute and educational children’s book for kids who want to learn more about numbers, especially what the biggest numbers are.  I would recommend this book for children ages 5 and up since some of the detailed information featured in this book might be a bit confusing for smaller children.

*2023 Literary Titan Book Awards for Gold Award
*2023 Mom's Choice Awards for Gold Award
*2023 National Indie Excellence Awards for Children's Non-Fiction and Finalist for Picture Books: All-Ages
*2023 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards for Best Cover Design, Best Illustrations, Children's Nonfiction, Educational/Instructional, New Author: Nonfiction, Picture Books 6 & Older, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math)


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Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Waiting on Wednesday #226: The Library of Shadows by Rachel Moore and House of Ash and Bone by Joel A. Sutherland

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!











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This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selections are:





The Library of Shadows

By: Rachel Moore

Expected Publication Date: September 5th, 2023

Buy on:   Amazon (Kindle)
Amazon (Hardcover)


Radcliffe Prep. The third most haunted school in the country, where a student disappearance isn’t uncommon and no one dares stay in the library after dark. And Este Logano enrolls with the hopes of finding her dead father.

Not literally, of course. She doesn’t believe in ghosts. Going to her dad’s school just seems like her best hope at figuring out who he was.

But then Este meets Mateo, who is maybe—probably—definitely—a real ghost. And an annoying one at that.

When Mateo frames Este for the theft of a rare book from the library’s secret spire and then vanishes, Este will have to track him down or risk being expelled and leaving Radcliffe early just like her father did.

Except following her father’s footsteps might be more dangerous than Este ever anticipated. As she investigates the library with its secret passageways, hidden tunnels, and haunted halls, she learns that the student disappearances aren’t just myth. And if she isn’t careful, she’ll be next.

Oooh!  A book about a ghost framing the protagonist?  I really enjoy reading ghost stories and this book sounds like a really unique ghost story!  Can't wait to read it soon!





House of Ash and Bone

By: Joel A. Sutherland

Expected Publication Date: September 5th, 2023

Buy on:  Amazon (Kindle)



The Haunted meets House of Salt and Sorrows in this young adult debut horror by acclaimed Canadian master of the macabre Joel A. Sutherland.

Seventeen-year-old Josephine Jagger is a talented writer with special abilities she doesn't fully understand. Over the years she has developed methods to cope with the voices she hears in her head, but the old house her family has inherited in Vermont makes Josephine question what's real and what's not more than anything she's ever encountered before. It's filled with shadows, and whispers, and the unshakable feeling of being watched. Josephine then catches her first glimpse of a shadowy woman with long hair, pale skin, an impossibly wide smile and hollow pits for eyes. Her name is Dorcas, the ghost of a witch who died three hundred years ago. She has summoned the family to Vermont to ensnare them — then consume them — in order to rise from the grave and live again . . .

Other than the really creepy book cover, this horror book sounds really interesting to me and since October is just around the corner, I really need to pick this book up as soon as possible!






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




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Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Top Ten Tuesday #101: Top 10 Books that Featured Water on the Cover (or water covers for everyone)!

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme that was formerly created at The Broke and the Bookish but has now moved to That Artsy Reader Girl. 





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This week's top 10 Tuesday topic is Top 10 Books that Featured Water on the Cover!

OH MY GOODNESS!  I never thought that we would get such a fun topic for the week that involves water!  I love reading books that have water on the covers and I've been dying to show off some of my favorite water cover books for Top Ten Tuesday!

So, here are my top 10 Books that Featured Water on the Cover (in no particular order of course)!






1. Kala by Colin Walsh





A gripping literary page-turner from a rising Irish talent in which former friends, estranged for twenty years, reckon with the terrifying events of the summer that changed their lives.

In the seaside village of Kinlough, on Ireland’s west coast, three old friends meet for the first time in years. They—Helen, Joe and Mush—were part of an original group of six inseparable teenagers in the summer of 2003, with motherless, reckless Kala Lanann at its white-hot center. But later that year, Kala disappeared without a trace. Now remains have been discovered in the woods—including a skull with a Polaroid photo tucked inside—and the town is both aghast and titillated at reopening this old wound.

On the eve of this gruesome discovery, Helen had reluctantly returned for her father’s wedding, the world-famous musician Joe had come home to dry out and reconnect with something authentic, and Mush had never left, too shattered by the events of that summer to venture beyond the counter of his mother’s café. But when two more girls go missing, they are forced to confront their own complicity in the events that led to Kala’s disappearance. Ultimately, they must do what others should have done before to stop the violent patterns of their town’s past repeating themselves once again.

In cracklingly vivid prose, Kala brilliantly examines the sometimes brutal costs of belonging, as well as the battle in the human heart between vengeance and forgiveness, despair and redemption.



2. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Goates





Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her—but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known.

So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the Deep South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North. Even as he’s enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram’s resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures.

This is the dramatic story of an atrocity inflicted on generations of women, men, and children—the violent and capricious separation of families—and the war they waged to simply make lives with the people they loved. Written by one of today’s most exciting thinkers and writers, The Water Dancer isa propulsive, transcendent work that restores the humanity of those from whom everything was stolen.


3. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman





A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

A groundbreaking work as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out.


4. Prince of Song & Sea by Linsey Miller




For fans of Twisted Tales and Villains is a brand new YA series that retells the classic Disney stories you thought you knew from the Disney Princes' perspectives.

Before Prince Eric’s mother, the Queen of Vellona, went missing two years ago, she reminded him about the details of the deadly curse that has plagued his entire life. The curse? If he were to kiss someone other than his true love, he would die. With a neighboring kingdom looking for any excuse to invade their shores, and rumors of ghost pirates lurking the seas, Eric is desperate for any information that may help him break his enchantment and bring stability to Vellona. The answers he has been searching for come to him in the form of a letter left from his mother that reveals Eric must find his true love, the one with a voice pure of heart,or kill the sea witch responsible for cursing him in the first place.

Now Eric is on a quest to find the Isle of Serein, the witch's legendary home. But after he is rescued by a mysterious young woman with a mesmerizing singing voice, Eric’s heart becomes torn. Does he enter a battle he is almost certain he cannot win or chase a love that might not even exist? And when a shipwrecked young woman with flaming red hair and a smile that could calm the seven seas enters his life, Eric may discover that true love isn’t something that can be decided by magic.

5. Refugee by Alan Gratz





Three different kids.

One mission in common: ESCAPE.

Josef is a Jewish boy in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world…

Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety and freedom in America…

Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe…

All three young people will go on harrowing journeys in search of refuge. All will face unimaginable dangers–from drownings to bombings to betrayals. But for each of them, there is always the hope of tomorrow. And although Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud are separated by continents and decades, surprising connections will tie their stories together in the end.

6. Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare




The Shadowhunters of Los Angeles star in the first novel in Cassandra Clare’s newest series, The Dark Artifices, a sequel to the internationally bestselling Mortal Instruments series. Lady Midnight is a Shadowhunters novel.

It’s been five years since the events of City of Heavenly Fire that brought the Shadowhunters to the brink of oblivion. Emma Carstairs is no longer a child in mourning, but a young woman bent on discovering what killed her parents and avenging her losses.

Together with her parabatai Julian Blackthorn, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches across Los Angeles, from the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica. If only her heart didn’t lead her in treacherous directions…

Making things even more complicated, Julian’s brother Mark—who was captured by the faeries five years ago—has been returned as a bargaining chip. The faeries are desperate to find out who is murdering their kind—and they need the Shadowhunters’ help to do it. But time works differently in faerie, so Mark has barely aged and doesn’t recognize his family. Can he ever truly return to them? Will the faeries really allow it?

Glitz, glamours, and Shadowhunters abound in this heartrending opening to Cassandra Clare’s Dark Artifices series.


7. To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo





Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. Until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of her own. To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing they loathe most—a human. Robbed of her song, Lira has until the winter solstice to deliver Prince Elian’s heart to the Sea Queen or remain a human forever.

The ocean is the only place Prince Elian calls home, even though he is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world. Hunting sirens is more than an unsavory hobby—it’s his calling. When he rescues a drowning woman in the ocean, she’s more than what she appears. She promises to help him find the key to destroying all of sirenkind for good—But can he trust her? And just how many deals will Elian have to barter to eliminate mankind’s greatest enemy?


8. Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly




Serafina, daughter of Isabella, Queen of Miromara, has been raised with the expectation - and burden - that she will someday become ruler of the oldest civilization of the merfolk. On the eve of the Dokimí ceremony, which will determine if she is worthy of the crown, Sera is haunted by a strange dream that foretells the return of an ancient evil. But her nightmare is forgotten the next day as she diligently practices her songspell; eagerly anticipates a reunion with her best friend, Neela; and anxiously worries about Mahdi, the crown prince of Matali, and whether his feelings toward her and their future betrothal have changed. Most of all, she worries about not living up to her mother's hopes.

The Dokimí proceeds, a dazzling display of majesty and might, until a shocking turn of events interrupts it: an assassin's arrow wounds Isabella. The realm falls into chaos, and Serafina's darkest premonitions are confirmed. Now she and Neela must embark on a quest to find the assassin's master and prevent a war between the mer nations. Their search will lead them to other mermaid heriones scattered across the six seas. Together they will form an unbreakable bond of sisterhood as they uncover a conspiracy that threatens their world's very existence.

9. Waterfall Effect by K.K. Allen






From RT Book Reviews New Adult Award Winner, K.K. Allen comes a new and suspenseful small town mountain romance.

Lost in the shadows of a tragedy that stripped Aurora June of everything she once loved, she’s back in the small town of Balsam Grove, North Carolina, ready to face all she’s kept locked away for seven years. Or so she thinks.

As one of the victims of a string of mysterious disappearances in the small, picturesque Appalachian Mountain town, darkness has become her home—her safe blanket when the world reveals its true colors. But as the walls of darkness start to move in on her, she knows the only way to free herself from her past is to face it, head-on. She just needs to figure out how.

Upon arrival, Aurora isn’t expecting her first collision to be with the boy she left all those years ago. The boy who betrayed her trust with no regrets. The boy who is no longer a boy, but a man with the same stormy eyes that swept her into his current before she ever learned to swim.

She’d thought he was safe. He’d thought their path was mapped out. Turns out neither of them was ready for the crash at the bottom of the cascade.



10. Wreckage by Emily Bleeker

Purchase Links: Amazon (Kindle) | Amazon (Paperback) 





Lillian Linden is a liar. On the surface, she looks like a brave survivor of a plane crash. But she’s been lying to her family, her friends, and the whole world since rescue helicopters scooped her and her fellow survivor, Dave Hall, off a deserted island in the South Pacific. Missing for almost two years, the castaways are thrust into the spotlight after their rescue, becoming media darlings overnight. But they can’t tell the real story—so they lie.

The public is fascinated by the castaways’ saga, but Lillian and Dave must return to their lives and their spouses. Genevieve Randall—a hard-nosed journalist and host of a news program—isn’t buying it. She suspects Lillian’s and Dave’s explanations about the other crash survivors aren’t true. And now, Genevieve’s determined to get the real story, no matter how many lives it destroys.

In this intriguing tale of survival, secrets, and redemption, two everyday people thrown together by tragedy must finally face the truth…even if it tears them apart.




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