March Monthly Wrap Up!

Hello everyone!  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to read that many books in March due to St. Patrick's Day and Easter, so I've only been able to read below five books this month.  Hopefully, April will be looking up for me in terms of reading!

Books Read this Month:

 

 

1. Rin-ne Volume 13 by Rumiko Takahashi : ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
2. Rin-ne Volume 14 by Rumiko Takahashi: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

3. Walter the Farting Dog: Trouble at the Yard Sale by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 1/2

Other Reviews and Activities Completed this Month:

 

 

1. [Book Review] Rin-ne Volume 13 by Rumiko Takahashi

2. [Book Review] Rin-ne Volume 14 by Rumiko Takahashi

3. [Book Review] Walter the Farting Dog: Trouble at the Yard Sale by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray

4. [Old Book Review] Sukey and the Mermaid by Robert D. San Souci 

5. [Old Book Review] The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese

6. [Old Book Review] Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

7. [Old Book Review] The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

8. [Old Book Review] Goldilocks and the Three Bears by James Marshall

9. [Old Book Review] Adelita: A Mexican Cinderella Story by Tomie dePaola 

10. [Teaser Tuesday] Teaser Tuesday #3: A Dystopian City in Mars! 

11. [Waiting on Wednesday] Waiting on Wednesday #1: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling

12. [Miscellaneous] Blog Tour + Book Spotlight: The Bodyguards of L.A. County Series by Cate Beauman

 

 

 

 

 Book Stats for March:

Total Number of Books Read: 3

 

Children's Books: 1

 

Young Adult Book: 0

 

Graphic Novels: 2

 

BEST OF THE MONTH:  Rin-ne Volume 14 by Rumiko Takahashi 

 

 

  April TBR:

 

 

[BOOK REVIEW] Walter the Farting Dog: Trouble at the Yard Sale by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray

Title:  Walter the Farting Dog:  Trouble at the Yard Sale

Author:  William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray

Artist:  Audrey Colman

Genre:  Family / Humor / Potty Humor / Animals / Pets

Year Published: 2004

Year Read:  2016

Publisher:   Dutton Children's Books

Series: Walter the Farting Dog #2 

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 6+ (Some Gross and Crude Humor)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

After I read the first book in the “Walter the Farting Dog” series, I was yearning to read more from this hilarious and unique series and lo and behold, I picked up the second book in the “Walter the Farting Dog” series “Walter the Farting Dog: Trouble at the Yard Sale,” which was written by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray, along with illustrations by Audrey Colman and it was just as hilarious as the first book!

The book starts off with Father, Betty, Billy and Walter having a yard sale, but there were no customers coming to their table during the sale.  Walter the Farting Dog wonders why this is the case (although his constant farting might have something to do with it).  Later on, a funny looking man comes to Father’s table, asking if Walter is for sale and Father is happy to sell Walter to the strange man.  It turns out that Walter’s new owner is a man who is into the clown business and the man uses Walter’s farts to blow up balloons to take with him to parties.  However, it turns out that this clown actually has evil plans for Walter’s farts and Walter might get involved in a crime that he unknowingly got into!

Wow! I never would have thought that I would read another “Walter the Farting Dog” book after all of these years!  So, when I found out that William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray were creating more books for the “Walter the Farting Dog” series, I just had to check these books out and I finally checked out the second book in this series at last!  I loved the way that William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray had made this book just as humorous as the first book as you never would expect to see a children’s book focus on farting as this series does!  I also loved the unique situation that Walter gets stuck in as he is forced to fart into balloons for a clown who actually has evil plans for Walter’s farts and it was interesting seeing how this clown would use Walter’s farts against people!  Audrey Colman’s artwork is always a treat to see as the characters are drawn in an exaggerated manner and I also loved the way that Audrey Colman uses photo realistic characters to clash with the cartoony backgrounds as it gives the book a creative feel!

Parents should know that this book involves the main character farting throughout the story and anyone who does not like crude humor might find Walter’s constant farting a bit gross to handle.  Also, the reason why I took off half a point from the rating was because I did not like the fact that Father was not called out on his actions for selling Walter in the first place and I just wanted to see Father feel some kind of remorse or redeem himself for his actions in this book.

Overall, “Walter the Farting Dog: Trouble at the Yard Sale” is a great book for anyone who loves good humor and loves the “Walter the Farting Dog” series!  I would recommend this book to children ages six and up since the crude humor might be a bit off-putting for some children.

  

       

[BOOK REVIEW] Rin-ne Volume 14 by Rumiko Takahashi

Title:  Rin-ne Volume 14


Author:  Rumiko Takahashi

Genre: Horror / Adventure / Comedy / School


Year Published: 2009


Year Read: 2016


Series: Rin-ne #14

Publisher: VIZ Media


Source:  Library


Content Rating:  Ages 7+ (Some Scary Imagery)


Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

Ever since I’ve been reading “Rin-Ne,” I have been wondering if they are building up a possible story arc for the Damashigami Company plot regarding Rinne’s father Sabato and it seems that in “Rin-Ne Volume Fourteen,” we see even more plot twists from the Damashigami Company that will change everything regarding this series!

In this volume, we are introduced to Renge Shima, a transfer student who immediately gets the attention of all the boys at school.  Unfortunately, it turns out that Renge has a Marilyn Monroe look-alike spirit hovering over her that is making the boys become attracted to her, but is Renge harboring a dark secret that could turn the tides for Rinne and the gang?  Other stories in this volume involve Rokumon meeting up with the Black Cat Elder, Rinne meeting up with a Nine-Tailed Fox that possesses Tsubasa and a demon that tries to steal beans from a bean throwing ceremony.

Wow! Rumiko Takahashi never ceases to amaze me with her unique writing style in her works!  Even though this volume has even more filler story arcs than the previous volumes, there were some stories that also contributed a bit to the main story line regarding the Damashigami Company.  Now, I have seen so many new characters being added to this series already, but Renge Shima was an interesting case as she seems to be the most serious character introduced in the series so far besides Kain and it makes me wonder (hopefully) if the series is actually going to get to an actual story arc sometime after this volume.  I also enjoyed the side story about Tsubasa getting possessed by a Nine-Tailed Fox since it focused on Tsubasa and it was a pretty hilarious story to read!  Rumiko Takahashi’s artwork is a treat to see as the demons shown in this volume are both scary and hilarious to look at and I really loved the artwork of the evil dragon spirit at the beginning of this volume as it was a cross between being frightening when it first arrived to being humorous after it got all the negative emotions it needed.   

For anyone who does not like images of demons and other scary characters, this volume has a bit of scary imagery of demons that might scare some people such as the dragon spirit that feeds on negative emotions at the beginning of the volume. 

Overall, “Rin-ne Volume Fourteen” is a great volume for fans of “Rin-ne” and I am definitely looking forward to reading more of this series in the future!