All in Book Review

If I Was the Sunshine

Julie Fogliano has woven together a lovely soft sort of ode to a loved one in a call and answer format. It’s a quiet melody that is not quite predictable, but depicts an ongoing relationship that draws two people (or things) together. Loren Long’s gorgeous illustrations are vibrant and full of flight, ocean waves, changing seasons, and always, always the ways we interconnect with each other and beyond.

How to Be a Viking

I love hearing ‘origin’ stories about books, especially about beloved series in our house. Cressida Cowell opens How to Be a Viking with an explanation that the series was inspired by a drawing she did in her sketch book about a little Viking prone to seasickness and his relationship with his father, who happens to be chief of their tribe. Thus Hiccup and Stoik the Vast are born (and later spun into the How to Train Your Dragon series). 

Drawn Together

My Lola was one of my kindred spirits. I think she understood me in a different way than my mom does.

So you can imagine that when I heard that Dan Santat was illustrating a picture book about a boy’s relationship with his grandfather, I leaped at the chance to read it. I mean, it’s Dan Santat, right?

Roof Octopus

What I love about Roof Octopus is the quirkiness of the storyline and the whimsical, magical, and colorful illustrations that match the story perfectly. Basically a little girl wakes up to find an octopus on her rooftop.  And while the adults aren't so quick to accept someone new and foreign to their neighborhood, Nora is wholeheartedly all in.

I Have Lost My Way

I read I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman completely backwards.  Or completely out of order, at least.  Have you ever done that?  Skipped ahead to get to the crux of the matter?  Or because there's a scene you want to spoil for yourself?

I skipped around and then read the last third and then went back to the parts I skipped.