The Witches

Photo credit scholastic

“This is not a fairytale. This is about REAL WITCHES. Real witches dress in ordinary clothes and look very much like ordinary women. They live in ordinary houses and work in ordinary jobs. That is why they are so hard to catch.” The Witches by Roald is a scary good tale! The mix of humor and horror makes for a wonderful tale. You will be on the edge of your seat and will laugh out loud. Dahl has a real way with words and a wonderful imagination that makes for a memorable story, that you are sure not to forget.

Dahl uses precise language to create the magical feel of the story. The Grand High Witch uses rhyming language to show not only her powerful magic, but also to whom the magic is directed towards. For example, “A stupid vitch who answers back must burn until her bones are black!” “A foolish vitch without a brain must sizzle in a fiery flame!” “An idiotic vitch like you must rrrroast upon the barbecue!” “A vitch who dares to say I’m wrrrrong vil not be vith us very long!” The Grand High Witch then sent sparks from her eyes to frizzle the witch like a fritter! Dahl has a way with words and uses it to create a powerful language experience that displays the witch’s joy for evil. Within Dahl’s use of language precision he also creates words to coincide the with the feel of the magical langauge. For example within the witch’s recipe she calls for the “yolk of a gruntle’s egg, the claw of a crabcruncher, the beak of a blabbersnitch, the snout of a grobblesqvirt, and the tongue of a catspringer.” While these words are made up, they are precise enough to feel magical and believable.

The characters that Dahl has created are so imaginative, yet believable. The witch who speaks with an accent and who didn’t look anything like a witch. Then, “very slowly, the young lady on the platform raised her hands to her face. I saw her gloved fingers unhooking something behind her ears, and then… then she caught hold of her cheeks and lifted her face clean away! The whole of that pretty face came away in her hands! It was a mask! That face of hers was the most frightful thing I have ever seen. It was so crumpled and wizened, so shrunken and shriveled, it look ats though it had been pickled with vinegar. It was a fearsome and ghastly sight.” While this description of the witch is fantastical, the way Dahl describes and justifies his descriptions the more believable they become. The way he described the characteristics of witches such as they wear gloves because they have claws, and they wear wigs because they are bald, and how they wear pointy shoes to hide their square, toeless feet.

While this story is magical and horrific, it does entail some unexpected insights. The amount of love throughout all the horror is something that plays a big role in the young boys life with his Grandmother. After experiencing the horror of the witches and being turned into a mouse, he says, “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like so long as somebody loves you.” This love brings him courage in the face of his fears, it brings his grandmother strength, and it shows the reader that love really can conquer all.

Dahl has created a fantasy that ensures that love can conquer evil and I completely agree with that. The world needs more love and the fact that the love between him and his grandmother, help them work well together and support one another to defeat the witches. The determination and courage of the young boy also connected with me, when my father used to tell me that as long as you are determined and work hard, nothing will defeat your courage. The same applied to the boy as he turned into a mouse. He was met with all sorts of obstacles, but never once gave up. I think this book has great role models for readers and it’s lessons were hidden within the fantasy horror, which means each reader can have different reading experiences and lessons that connect to them. I think it was a wonderfully entertaining story that everyone can enjoy. For me, it was the just right horror book; not too scary, with a bit of humor. I give this five out of five stars!

Dahl is a masterful storyteller, and it really shows in The Witches. The way he incorporates a vast array of precise language, unexpected insights and such memorable characters makes for an amazing story experience for the reader. This is the perfect horror story for Halloween, or any other time, as witches are around all the time! Watch out for the signs and hopefully, you will never cross a witch in your lifetime!  

Dahl, R. (1983). The Witches. New York: Farrar, Straus, Girroux. 

Tell Me Three Things

Photo credit Penguin Random House

Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum is absolutely delightful. It’s a lovely teen romance book that readers will grow to love with its heartwarming characters, hilarious dialogue and a personal look at how some of the characters deal with major issues in their lives such as grief, step-families, moving and having to find a whole new life again. Wouldn’t it just be easier if someone could be like a guide for your first day in a new high school? Well that’s how Tell Me Three Things begins a mystery within the life of our main character, who is really dealing with a lot in her life at the moment. This book takes a personal look into moving forward after a loss and navigating the trials and tribulations of a new high school and a new family.

Buxbaum does an amazing job creating characters that start off small and then you grow to love as a reader because they are so authentic and believable. The characters have depth and not only does our main character have to find herself again after losing someone, but the characters around her also develop in new and intriguing ways and we discover more and more about them little by little in the same way that we would learn about the people around us when we are making friends or building relationships. The way Jessie and Theo her new stepbrother come together for good is a major character development for Theo. Theo begins by hating Jessie and her dad making fun of his new job at the supermarket, acting like it’s not a good enough job and he’s embarrassed by him, and not talking to Jessie at all at school, like he’s too good for her. In the end when things get tough, Theo talks to Jessie about talking to her dad, because he’s her dad.

“Seriously, this coming from Mr. Temper Tantrum?” [Jessie says] Turns out Theo did leave a soy sauce stain on the dining chair when he threw his fork. No matter: it is currently being reupholstered. “One time, dude. I don’t do well with change.” “Why do you care about me and my dad?” “You’re bringing negative energy into this house. We have enough bad juju as it is” “Come on.” “You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. How long they’ll last. You only get two parents, and we’re each down to one. Better to be good to them while you can.” “Whatever.” “Seriously. You’re starting to sound like one us Wood Valley brats.” “Fine.” Of course Theo is right.

The dialogue that Buxbaum created between S/N and Jessie is funny, sarcastic and heartfelt when they start discovering three things about each other every time they talk. THey have an easy banter between one another, that is light and fun and very telling about who they are as people. For example:

“SN: (1) I intend to waste most of my day playing Xbox, with occasional breaks to eat pizza, preferably with eggplant, which I get a lot of s**t for, but whatever sue me. I don’t like pepperoni. Never have, never will. (2) I was up early so I’ve been listening to Flume all morning. (3) my mom is still sleeping, like she’s the teenager in the house.

Me: You’re American, right?

SN: yeah, why?

Me: PEPPERONI! Not liking pepperoni is like not liking apple pie.

SN: Will that analogy be on the PSATs?

ME: So you ARE a junior?

SN: relax, Nancy Drew.”

Their banter back and forth you can tell that they are being light and fun, yet getting to know each other in a way, even though she’s still trying to figure out who SN is.

While this is a romance, under the surface Jessie learns to begin again after her world is changed dramatically with the loss of her mother, her father’s new marriage, and moving from Chicago to Los Angeles. One of the main things she is dealing with is how to grieve the loss of her mother. One way is counting the days that she has been gone, and in small pieces she notices things that are harder than she thought about losing someone. “One of the worst parts about someone dying is thinking back to all those times you didn’t ask the right questions, all those times you stupidly assumed you’d have all the time in the world. And this too: how all that time feels like not much time at all.”  

“She said the only thing that made senses at the time, maybe the only thing that has made any sense, since: Just so you know, I realize that what happened is not in any way okay, but I think we’re going to have to pretend like it is. Because it wasn’t okay and never will be.” This insight into her grief, came at a time when she was visiting her old best friend, where you would think that it would all be fun and catching up on their lives apart, yet the grief is still there.

I fell in love with the characters that Buxbaum created and really enjoyed the connection between myself and Jessie when going through the loss of someone close. We all deal with loss at one time or another, so her grief was a very relatable, yet unique, experience as we do not all experience grief in the same way. This was also shown through the grieving process of another character, who again approached it differently, but as a reader you knew what he was going through. I think experiencing grief through the characters helps you to see that there is no right or wrong way to grieve and we all go through it in different ways. While this is kind of a big topic to tackle especially within a romance, I think Buxbaum did it with ease. The book was highly entertaining and a fast read that I wholeheartedly enjoyed. I give this four out of five stars!

Fans of contemporary YA fiction are going to fall in love with the realistic characters, hilarious dialogue and unexpected depth within this novel. This book goes through ups and downs just like grief and life, with some hilarious moments and a little bit of mystery in trying to discover who SN really is. Plus, the in depth characters become people that you feel like are friends by the end of the book. This was all around a great romance book, but also a great realistic fiction book that encompassed a bit of everything in a wonderfully delightful package.

Buxbaum, J. (2016). Tell Me Three Things. New York: Delacorte Press.

Carry On

Photo credit RainbowRowell.com

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell is an amazingly adventurous yet adorable love story. It is a fantasy story with all the other genres tied in beautifully, making it a well rounded, engaging story that you won’t want to put down. This book ties in to the characters created by Cath in Rowell’s other book Fangirl, but it is a completely stand alone novel. This book is so delightful in many ways but I think what pushed it over the top for me was the fact that within the action, love and magic, this book was laugh out loud funny!

Rowell creates such diverse characters that are incredibly well rounded, relatable and realistic within this magical fantasy world where their lives take place. Each character is provided problems and growth along their own lives, yet their problems intertwine with each other providing them the opportunity to come together to face a much larger problem that needs each and every one of them. The unique quirks and skills of each character collaborate perfectly to enhance each other and balance out the skill set to be able to help each other solve the major problem in the magikal world. They each have their own role and compliment each other wonderfully.

This book is written in a first person point of view from all of the main characters throughout the story, giving the reader the full experience of what everyone is thinking and feeling. Each chapter switches the point of view from character to character. Most of the story is told from the alternating points of views of Simon and Baz the two main characters who are dynamically different but end up coming together and seeing this from their own first person perspectives adds an engaging description of how the two are able to come together in both working together and their feelings towards one another.

The dialogue between characters is hilariously entertaining. The witty banter between Simon and Baz is sarcastic and fun, yet can show sometimes the depth of characters that they are. “Because we are solving a mystery, Snow. I like to organize my thoughts.” “Is this how you normally plot my downfall?” “Yes. With multicolored pieces of chalk. Stop complaining.” We can see how they seem to dislike each other and Simon’s skepticism of Baz, yet how they can come together and work on something. When they all three get together their dialogue plays off of one another so seamlessly. Penny says, “Simon imagine what we could do with all your power and my spells. We could finish the Humdrum off by dinner and then take on hunger and world peace.” “Imagine what the Mage will do when he realizes he has a nuclear power generator in his backyard.” Baz croons. The way they describe things and think about things within each person’s point of view tells a lot about each character’s personality, beliefs and motivations.

While this is a fantasy, it does intertwine topics such as good vs. evil, war, love, racial differences and all around issues within humanity. Even though this was a magical world, the characters are still facing real world difficulties that are present in our own lives. I think the way this book goes about it is showing us that we all have something to offer and our differences coming together can make the world a better place. Love conquers all, and I completely agree with that view of the world. I think fantasies help us look at the larger issues in life through the magic and fantastical events that take place in a story we may just read for entertainment, but that we can learn a lot about ourselves and the world around us. I think that Rowell delivers a mesmerising fantasy that is highly entertaining and such a fun read!  I give Carry On five out of five stars, as I could hardly put this down!

Carry On is a great read if you love magic, romance, mystery and wonderful characters. Rowell is a master at building dynamic characters who throughout the story you get to see their point of view and discover each one individually and how they come together. The characters draw you in, but the amazing plot line keeps the reader on the edge of their seat in this page turning mysterious, magical adventure with a beautiful love story throughout it all! I highly recommend Carry On to anyone and everyone, but especially to those who loved Fangirl!

Rowell, R. (2015). Carry On. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

There's Someone in your House

Photo credit Penguin Random House

With Halloween fast approaching, if you're in need of a gory, frightful, ever changing story that will keep you in suspense, with an added lightness in the middle, then Stephanie Perkins’ There’s Someone in Your House is the right book for you! A fast paced mystery that will change just when you think you’re on the right track and with an added creepiness factor you’ll start thinking any noise or change in your house is a sign that a killer might be near.

Perkins puts a lot of thought and development into her characters as we learn more and more about them throughout the story, like pulling back the layers of an onion. For example, when we first learn about Ollie and his newly pinkened hair, he is described as having “a skinny frame”, and “cheekbones that so prominent they reminded her of a skull” He kind of looked like a skeleton. From this the reader can make the assumption that he is a pretty dead character that doesn't really have a heart or emotions, which he is later described as being a bit of a loner and shy. Throughout the story though he starts to become a character who is dynamic and who has depth. As we get to know him however we get a little more understanding of why he seems this way on the outside and how even though Ollie hadn’t done anything that bad, “most of the disappointment was in his own head. “causing his brother worry, he felt was the worst thing he could have done. This showed a new side of Ollie that we had to unveil slowly, and that’s just one character in the story. The rest are just as complex.

Visually, Perkins created such grotesque and detailed pictures within the reader’s mind by utilizing a lot of figurative language. To give the reader a visual of the reporters outside the school, Perkins says, “They hovered like vultures between the campus and parking lot waiting for the students to be let out for the weekend. Waiting for carrion.” This gives a clear picture of the reporters as vultures, and connects to how the students feel about being scavenged upon after losing a classmate. Even normal objects that were supposed to be cheerful, like sunflowers, chrysanthemums, gerbera daisies were “cheerfully autumnal, but the shadows they cast were inky and menacing.” This gives them a real killer like vibe. The weather after the attacks is also described as, “the midnight sky wept in an unexpected drizzle.” In personifying the rain, we can also tell the mood of the characters and town within the story. These few examples of figurative language add an ominous effect to the mood of the novel, which really enhances the mystery.

While this is a spooky, scary, mystery, there were some unexpected insights sprinkled in that added to the level of realism and connection to the novel. Makani deals with some doubts about herself, which most teens do and Ollie has a great insight when he says, “Everybody has at least one moment they deeply regret, but that one moment… it doesn’t define all of you.” This is a deep insight can impact a lot of us who are struggling with regrets. “I know that our regrets change us, and that’s how we grow - for better or for worse. And it seems to me you’re growing better.” We all want to grow and learn from our mistakes. Our dreams and our ambitions also play a big role in our future. “It took a person with extraordinary drive and ambition to break from the pattern. They dreamed of other places, but to someone who didn’t know them well, perhaps they seemed destined to be stuck too. But it was impossible to know what was inside a person, or how they might change over time.” We may know other’s dreams and ambitions, but sometimes what’s inside of them is bigger than what they share. We all have something special inside of us and we need to follow that, and change if and when we need to. Not settling, especially in High school, is an insight that many if not all of us can learn from.

While this is not normally the type of text I tend to gravitate towards, it was a pleasant surprise. While I had read other books by stephanie perkins a book that was scary, yet realistic and twisty when it came to figuring out why the killer was making the choices of who to kill and why to kill was thoroughly intriguing and highly entertaining. I think one of the things that I really disagreed with, but I know is realistic is the hate and threats of rape, murder, and scalping that Makani received after her mistake along with the internet hashtags of #swimsluts, #konagate, and #CommitSuicideSquad. Threats this severe should not be made over the internet or anywhere for that matter, and this really struck a chord with me and shows how important digital citizenship is. Overall I really enjoyed this book and thought it was the perfect scary story to start the fall season! I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a lighter suspense mystery with a bit of gore.

Overall, this book is a wonderful addition to any young adult collection. It’s engaging, suspenseful, yet has a realistic fiction undertone that still incorporates important issues in the lives of young adults. With its figurative language adding the different moods throughout the story, the complex characters that you have to really get to know, and the unexpected insights that young adults can really learn from, makes it a great book that I think most young adults will really get into!

Perkins, S. (2017). There’s Someone Inside Your House. New York, NY: Dutton Books.

The Hazel Wood

Photo credit Macmillan Publishers

“A wall of trees parted obligingly, then sealed back into place as neatly as a curtain. I turned slowly in place, alone in a clearing in the deep dark woods.

That’s when I entered a fairy tale.”

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert is a stunningly, captivating tale. The layering together of the fairy tale story within the main story is absolutely beautiful. Albert, in her debut novel, is a story spinner for the ages and one that is not to be missed. With mystery, magic, and of course a “Once upon a time,” The Hazel Wood is sure to lure readers in to its magical world.

The vivid descriptions of the settings was completely alluring. When the character and reader are approaching the Hazel Wood, “And there it was. The grass cropped close as green velvet, racing toward the distant steps of the house. Althea’s estate was pillars and white brick and gabled windows. It was a flat swimming pool set like a lucid blue brooch against the lawn, trimmed in glittering stone. It was exactly how my mind had built it, right down to the electric feelings in the air, of some wonderful thing about to unfold.” These descriptions encompass almost all of the senses to provide the reader with a complete experience of being in the Hazel Wood along with the characters.

The figurative language is also incredibly bewitching and created a full range of visuals for the reader. For example, “She threw herself against the door, but it was too late. It opened, inch by inch, yawning with dank air like the mouth of a cellar… The hallway hummed with the same heavy green light.” This personification that Albert uses adds to the creepiness factor within the fairy tales. Through her description of Althea telling the stories, she says, “Althea laid out her words like a dealer lays out cards, with a distant, mesmeric precision.” The reader can tell exactly what kind of storyteller Althea is just from this one simile. The precise use of language by Albert, to create these mesmerizing bits of figurative language are incredibly enrapturing for the reader to get the full visual experience.

Throughout the magical fantasy, there are many unexpected insights that both the characters learn and that can benefit the reader in their own lives. I think the insight that really impacted my reading was “Life never turns out how you imagine it will when you’re young. Everything is smaller than you think, or too big. It all smells a little funny and fits like somebody else’s shirt.” We all have expectations and comparisons for how we think our lives “should” be, but it usually doesn’t turn out that way, and that’s okay. Our lives are our own, we don’t have to have the same life as those we see around us. Don’t compare to someone else’s life and you will be much happier. This insight is snuck into the fairy tale, but is a very good one to learn, especially for young adults who are moving into making their own way into the world.

I absolutely loved how Alice connected the books she read to the places she had been in when she read them. I think that books come to us when we need them and it’s fun to go back and reread a book when you’re in a different place in life and she how much you’ve changed or how much of you is still the same. I too can connect the books I was reading with memorable places or things I was going through at the time that I read it. I found the Hazel Wood to be absolutely entertaining, and a real page turner as I read late at night. The creepy fairy tales and adventures that Alice goes through and the suspenseful mystery that surrounds the plot were phenomenal. I highly recommend this book and give it five out of five stars! I wish I could go back and read it again for the first time!

While this book may seem light and like the fairy tales we have come to know, Albert takes us on a creepy fairy tale adventure that is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. The beautifully captivating descriptions of the magical world around Alice and the figurative language that creates the kind of visualization that sticks with you add so much depth to the story.  With the power of her words, this story will stay with anyone who dares to enter the Hazel Wood long after the story is over.

Albert, M. (2018). The Hazel Wood. New York: Flatiron Books. 

For Every One

Photo credit Simon and Schuster

“This letter

Is being written

From the inside.

From the front line

And the fault line.

From the uncertain thick of it all.”

For Every One by Jason Reynolds is a letter written in verse, and for everyone just like the title says. His letter is filled with encouragement and hope for the future, even if you haven’t quite made it. This letter is for everyone who’s struggling, who’s chasing their dreams, or who feels like giving up, for the young the old and everyone in between. His letter is an inspiration to us all!

Jason Reynolds uses figurative language to describe his dream. “My dream won't stop crying, screaming like a colicky infant. Sometimes I think it needs to be changed. Usually it just needs to be fed.” The figurative language creates a powerful insight with just a few words and provides the reader with a sensory connection to the way a baby cries until it needs to be fed, just like a dream needs to be fed with everything you have. Figurative language peaks our senses and provides a lingering image with emotional intensity very quickly, which is very useful for poetry.

Reynolds in his creation of this letter in verse uses very precise vocabulary matching the right word at the right time to leave a lasting impact on the reader. He says, “I’d rather suffer from internal eczema, constantly irritated by the itch of possibility.” His word choice here leads the reader with both a lingering sensation of what this would feel like, but also a sense of knowledge from the different levels of vocabulary being utilized. Another example is his description of fear; he says, “The flame of doubt and fear, the warmth and comfort always enticing and familiar though venomous and life extinguishing.” These words are very precise and leave the reader connecting to different levels words like flame, enticing and extinguishing.

The precise word choices and the figurative language create a musical feel to his letter in verse. Sometimes Reynolds used repetition and rhyme to increase the strength of tones and create emphasis. For example, he says, “It all depends. Some say on skill. Some say on will. Some say on luck. Some say on buck. Some say on race. Some say on face.” This rhyme burrows into your mind and creates a feel of musical nature. While most of the pages in the letter are free verse, they all still have that musical cadence created from the way he puts the words and lines together and how they blend to establish patterns.

Personally, For Every One really connected with me when Reynolds says, “At sixteen I thought I would’ve made it by now. At eighteen I said twenty-five… and now at almost twenty-eight I’m just almost twenty-eight… Dreams don’t have timelines, deadlines, and aren’t always in straight lines.” We all think that we have to have it made by a certain point in time, but dreams don’t always work out that way and that’s okay. Our dreams can also change over time and what you thought you might always do, just might not be right for you, again that’s okay. I think we all need to hear that no matter where we are in life it’s never too late to chase a dream or change a dream. Sometimes families can put pressure on you to be a success by a certain age, or you feel your socioeconomic status may hold you back, but no matter where you’re from or what you want to do in life, For Every One provides you with the inspiration to chase your dreams, face your fears, and have the courage to jump anyway. Overall, I think For Every One deserves four out of five stars!

Reynolds has created a beautiful letter in verse that provides hope and courage despite fear for everyone. With its figurative language descriptions and precise vocabulary, For Every One leaves a lasting impact on the reader. The way the lines are written and the way the words and patterns blend together creates music in language that increases the appeal and strength of the story for its readers.

“This is for the courageous,

And everyone who wants to be.”

Reynolds, J. (2018). For Every One. New York, NY: Atheneum.

Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille

Photo credit Penguin Random House

“How could I make them understand?

Without books, I would always be ‘poor Louis Braille”

Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille written by Jen Bryant and illustrated by Boris Kulikov is an amazingly written biography that will capture the hearts of everyone who reads this! Told in a unique first-person point of view, Louis tells his story of how the invention of Braille writing came about and what hardships he had to go through to accomplish his dreams.

Jen Bryant does an amazing job writing the story from young Louis’ point of view. It really feels like it’s a fiction story and his wonderful charm and determination really sweeps the reader up along with him and inspires them to follow their dreams. The utilization of sound words connected beautifully in the story and were in no way sensationalized. In fact, they added to the reader’s sensory experience to hear how he recognized the sounds of the things in his life.

The illustrations by Boris Kulikov were composed wonderfully within the text adding so much depth and detail for the reader. The way the pages went from dark to light to depict what Louis was seeing either in his dreams or what he remembers seeing really added a visual detail for the reader to imagine how being blind felt to Louis. The detail that the illustrations provided was helpful to both understanding and discovering our own insights throughout the story.

The illustrations also provided the reader with a visual of the actions that were taking place in the story. The illustrations moved the story along in a way that readers can follow easily. The depictions of the dots that were created for the braille code were needed so readers could see just how the dots were made and how they were read instead of verbally describing that process. Seeing him working on his Braille letter several times over the page depicted the passing of time and showed how long he spent working towards accomplishing his dreams.

I learned so much throughout this biography both about Louis Braille and his childhood and about how the invention of Braille writing came to be. The illustrations provided wonderful depictions of the process of the Braille letters and how they connected to the dominos he had played with earlier. The story also provided how Louis became blind and how hard it was for him to overcome people seeing him as poor Louis Braille just because he was blind. His determination to overcome all the challenges that came his way connected with me on a personal level. We all go through challenges and face hardships, but many of us put our dreams on hold or push them aside because of a hardship. Louis didn’t do that and kept working towards his dream for many years until he was able to accomplish it. Overall, I think this book was both informational and entertaining and was written in a way that was easy to read but didn’t underestimate the knowledge of the readers. I give this book five out of five stars!

If you need an inspiring book, that will motivate you to chase after your dreams or make a difference in the lives of others then the story of Louis Braille is the right choice for you! With the beautifully in-depth illustrations, the first-person point of view that is easily relatable, the descriptive yet entertaining writing style, this book is a must read!


Bryant, J. (2016). Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.