November Book Review (6)

Happy Tuesday everyone,

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero
Model: Milo

The first thing about this book that attracted me were the colors. As I walked through the aisle of the bookstore it caught my eye. The second thing that attracted me was the title. A little hope sprang in my chest that it was a Scooby-Doo reference as well as a little doubt. It couldn't be. It didn't seem plausible. possible or probable. The third thing that attracted me was the silhouettes of four teenagers and a dog. I immediately grabbed the book with greedy hands, not caring that it was a hardcover (I try to avoid hardcovers as they are more expensive. You can catch me poking the covers of books before reading the summary.) As I read the summary my excitement grew with the words, "detective club", "mystery", "monster", "haunted house" and "he would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids". Yes, it is a Scooby-Doo novel! My excitement reached it's peak and quickly began to fall as I read the names, Andy, Kerri and Nate. That's not right. Those aren't the names of the gang that I grew up adoring. But I decided that even if it wasn't exactly like the Scooby-Doo series there were enough references to make me happy.

Now let me tell you, this book was 26 dollars! I have never in my life bought a book so expensive. And I still haven't because my boyfriend bought this one for me. Even if he hadn't bought it for me I would have gladly paid for it because in my Scooby-Doo loving opinion it is worth every penny!

And don't let the mysterious names throw you off! This IS a Scooby-Doo book! Except Mystery Inc. is called, "The Blyton Summer Detective Club", Fred Jones is named Peter - a jock/movie star who OD's before the book takes place, Shaggy Rogers is named Nate - who resides in a mental hospital and has no dog, and the girls are named Kerri and Andy. The Daphne Blake and Velma Dinkly (Yes, I knew their last names by heart I am not a fake fan) characters are a little complicated. Fred and Shaggy were obvious by their character types. But Velma's brains and Daphne's hair both characterize Kerri who is the one that has the dog (Sean/Tim). And Andy is, according to my notes, a butch, bad ass, dyke. The story takes place in 1977 when the gang are adults but the plot reflects on 1977 when they were teenagers so there are two dogs in the book (Or are there?!?! I can't spoil) and do either of the pups have anything to say?!?! You have to read it to the end to find out.

I have so much more to say about this gem of a book but this is getting long. If you can't tell I'm a big fan. (Yes, that is me in a Scooby-Doo costume from last Halloween holding all of my Scooby-Doo stuffed animals. I got another one today in a claw machine.)
















Secrets For The Mad by Dodie
Model: Penny

Dodie is one of my favorite YouTubers (Yes, another youtube book!). She has such an angelic singing voice and her lyrics are pure poetry. She includes pages of song lyrics and even named the book after one of her songs. She also incorporates art and stories with colored pages. She writes everything about her life, mental illness, love, and sexuality. She includes snippets from her personal journal which I found really cool. I love journaling and the journal aesthetic. It's a great collection and mixture of everything.


Pillow Thoughts by Courtney Peppernell
Model: Caboose

I like how the first thing you read explains the
jellyfish because I was curious.
I also liked that the table of contents was called "Table of Thoughts" And the chapters were organized based on what kinds of poems they were.
"If you are dreaming of someone",
"If you are in love",
"If you are heartbroken",
"If you are lonely",
"If you are sad",
"If you are missing someone",
"If you need encouragement",
"If you are soul searching",
"If you need a reason to stay" and
"These are for you". And each chapter cover has a cute little jellyfish illustration that relates to what the chapter is about. I love the idea of splitting up the poems like this because there are times when I feel a certain way so I want to read a certain kind of poem. "If you're heartbroken" you can read that section and avoid the love poems that will hurt you.

the sun and her flowers by Rupi Kaur
Model: Poody

Rupi Kaur is my all time favorite poet. I adore her first book and was eagerly waiting to get my hand on her second one. She has such amazing things to say about life and about being a woman. She is so bold and refuses to hide anything. I love how honest she is. Her poetry is so amazingly personal I think she is so strong for sharing her thoughts with the whole world.







Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
Model: Sophie (She does not stay still well)

I read this in my English class and wrote an essay on it. Harriet Jacobs exposes the demons of slavery through her life's experience. When she was fifteen her master began to sexually harass her with promises of  "making a lady out of her". In order to dodge his sexual advances, she became pregnant with another more powerful man who she thought would protect her. She thought having a child would make her master lose interest but it did not. She had two children with the other man. She was forced to run away from her masters and went into hiding, ending up in a small attic crawl space above her grandmother's house where she could watch her children through a hole in the wall. eventually, she is able to escape to the north and her children join her. Her master goes after her and a woman that Jacobs was working for buys her freedom. It was an amazing and inspiring read.

Obsessed: A Memoir of My Life with OCD by Allison Britz

As you can tell by the term "memoir" (which is, in fact, different than an autobiography) and the term OCD, this is the true story of the life of a woman with OCD. It's written in a story format for young adults and teens. I found it really fascinating (Not enough to buy the book. I read the whole thing in the bookstore which is why I don't have a picture of it.) We all have a general idea of what OCD is but we don't know the details about how it impacts certain people (as it impacts people differently). We often associate it with excessive organization and hand washing but Allison helps open our eyes to what it really is. The story follows Allison through high school, going from a normal girl to being "obsessed" with trying to prevent herself from getting cancer by avoiding cracks on the sidewalk. And it escalates faaaar worse than that to the point her parents, friends, and teachers become very worried about her and she goes to her doctor.  My favorite moment while reading this was when she's looking at pamphlets in her doctor's office and she sees one for OCD and the light bulb goes off. She hadn't realized what was happening to her until that moment.

Totally Ky