11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass- Tween Nook

Welcome everyone to our new Tween Nook tag!

Today's first official review for the Tween Nook is 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass.

This was a really cute book. 

The premise of the book was that Amanda was waking up everyday and re-living her birthday.  In the beginning, she was repeating the same actions and she was getting the same outcomes. Until the fifth day, there was a change - Amanda noticed that Leo had acted differently then he had in the days before!  Thus, their communication started and they were able to mend their relationship. I’m not entirely sure that this is the word I’m looking for, but I would say that there is a sense of “whimsy” in this book for sure. It's up to you, if you want to call this book a fantasy. But it adds an element that would pull in any dream driven tween. 

After 11 days, there is no change and Amanda and Leo are still re-living their birthdays.  Through some simple investigation, Amanda and Leo are able to speak with the woman who happened to have united them on the day of their birth. (Imagine living the same day over and over again and not having anything change?! Ugh. Talk about uncomfortable and not a whole lot of fun). 

That’s where the whimsy comes in! This woman, Angela has been around for a looooong time.  There is family history between Leo and Amanda’s family. Something that has to be explained to them by Angela. 

Leo and Amanda fought over an understandable reason: Leo made fun of his friendship with Amanda. When you’re almost 11, it might not always be the coolest to be best friends with a girl (but who knows now in 2019! This book might be a little dated?). 

That’s pretty relatable. As is leaving your lunch at home and not having enough lunch money. Feeling let down by your friends and feeling that you’re letting friends down too. I also thought it was important that no matter how hard she tried, Amanda’s mom still lost her job. Some things can’t be controlled and sadly, that’s one of them. 

For my first tween book review, I would give this book 4 coffee beans out of 5! I don’t have anything to go off of but I thought that it was well written and the whimsy of the song was adorable. 

- Jillian

                                         

The Mermaid Collector by Erika Marks - Reshelved Books

Hello dear For the Love of Dewey Readers!

After finishing  Julia's Daughters by Colleen Faulkner I thought I was going to have a terrible book hangover and have trouble getting into a new book.  It was snowing outside, so I wanted something beachy to take my mind off of the snow -- but not summery.   I had just packed up a bunch of books in preparation for my big move coming up this spring (including most of my to-read pile) and found this one that I have been meaning to read for probably 3 years now.  I'm terrible, I know.

These are all books...except for that red box...

At first I thought that Erika Marks' The Mermaid Collector was going to be too much fantasy based.  I guess I wasn't sure what exactly to expect and I was a little bit apprehensive.  But nonetheless, I started reading it and had trouble putting it down.  

The lighthouse on the cover looks just like the Portland Lighthouse
 I was lucky enough to visit this past fall.

This novel is as much of a love story as it is a historical fiction and ghost story about the origin of local myth and legend.  It follows the present day stories of Tess Patterson and Tom Grace, two people who have given up on love, lost parents to tragic deaths, and are struggling to heal themselves and learn to trust others.  Tess Patterson has grown up in Maine, living near the water with both her mother and step-father, until her mother commits suicide by drowning in the cove.  Tom Grace, comes to costal Maine when he inherits the light keeper's house after his family falls victim to a tragic hit-and-run accident.  An accident that takes the life of his parents.  What makes this book stand out from other novels that deal with love, tragedy, heartbreak, and family issues is seen from the historical flashbacks that tie the custom of the annual Mermaid Festival of the present to the novel's mermaid lore of the past.     

This novel offers reader's glimpses of  the couple that perviously lived in the Light Keeper's house back in the 1800's by telling the mermaid legend in segments that leave the reader wanting more.  Showing how  love, loss, tragedy and the past can have haunting and lasting impressions on the future.  Do ghosts exist in the physical sense?  Or a ghosts the rippling effects the past has on the present? 

So my dear For the Love of Dewey readers, I give you ANOTHER rating of 5 out of 5 coffee beans! 

I could not put this book down, and I was so sad when it was over.  I have such a terrible book hangover that now I don't even know what I want to read!

Does anyone have any suggestions? 

~Jessica