Reviews written by sperrera

Garlic and the Witch is the sequel to the popular book Garlic and the Vampire. I hadn't read the first book but found that Garlic and the Witch can be read as a stand-alone book. Witch Agnes grows a small garden of living vegetables including...

I Have a Superpower is an inspiring story that emphasizes giving your all and having heart. Hughes seems like an ordinary kid who worries about not being good enough to play basketball, but it soon is revealed that he has a superpower that others have as well. The illustrations are...

Full disclosure I love history and find Marie Antoinette fascinating so I was excited to have the opportunity to read and review this book. Taking one of the most intriguing queens Marie Antoinette and setting it in the future, Cake Eater takes her story to...

Leila the little witch has won trophies and awards for her witchy skills. She is truly a perfect witch. After entering a baking contest, Leila discovers she does not excel at baking and needs to practice. The baking disasters make for some funny pictures. Leila's sisters help her improve her...

Having a basketball-obsessed son I already knew who Tacko Fall was. However, I had no idea of all the work and hardships Tacko endured before achieving his dream of playing in the NBA. Growing up in Senegal, Tacko was the tallest kid in his class. Sometimes he couldn't even find...

Counting in Dog Years is my first introduction to Betsy Franco's math poetry and I am hooked. The poems are filled with math references and puns that make for some pretty hilarious verses. Everything from multiplication to scales, to time, are covered in these fast-paced poems. The detailed illustrations...

After her mom is killed in a car accident, Jody Moran's life changes dramatically. This book is a coming-of-age story while dealing with grief and it's equally heartbreaking and heartwarming. Jody's pain was so palpable in the book that I wanted to hug and comfort her. Kerry L. Malawista did...

Animal Toolkit shows how animals use everyday objects as tools in ingenious ways. Chimpanzees, for example, use sticks to get termites. A lot of the examples of animals using tools were new to me. I was fascinated with how Egyptian Vultures use a rock to open up Ostrich eggs and...

There is a reason why Mercy Watson books are so popular. The stories are engaging for children of all ages. This picture book features many of the Mercy Watson characters we know and love from her chapter books. Stella Endcott wants to spread joy by...

I adore books about books especially when the story involves finding the book that makes you fall in love with reading. There is a goat named Leopold who owns a bookstore that humans usually visit. He loves to recommend books to his customers that he knows they will...

Skeletina resides in the in-between world, which is where the living go when they sleep. Throughout the book, readers get to know Skeltina's friends. My favorite was Rattle who liked to make things shake and how Skeletina used deep breaths to calm them both down. Skeletina shows us that we...

Imagine two life-changing events occurring within days of each other. If you were in that situation, how would you handle it? In Hannah Klein's case, she handles it poorly. Losing her Bubbie and having her ankle shattered in a soccer game making Hannah lose her dream of playing in the...

The title of The Girl Who Rode a Shark and Other Stories of Daring Women immediately caught my attention. It's fascinating to learn about fearless women in history, and I would never have learned about Kimi Werner, the first female chef to ride an actual shark if the title did...

After a kitchen accident transforms Pizza and Kale into superheroes, they become best friends. While saving the world, Kid Kale notices that Super Pizza is the one everybody recognizes as helping, even though he is the one doing most of the work. Eventually, Kid Kale has enough and loses...

While reading Bad at Love, I felt as if I was reading a rom-com movie, which is understandable considering the main character Daniel Rotten is a rom-com enthusiast. As with any rom-com movie, there is a great love story, but there is also some miscommunication and drama before the characters...