sindri_inn_arsaeli's reviews
1158 reviews

Rutherford B. Hayes: The American Presidents Series: The 19th President, 1877-1881 by Hans Trefousse

informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

My interest is piqued. These American Presidents biographies are good short coverage as I'm reading through the presidents, but not very comprehensive. Hayes seems an intriguingly overlooked president that I didn't start out knowing much about, so I'll have to find a more detailed biography of him after this!

I Will Eat You! by Giada Francia

4.0

I Will Not Eat You by Adam Lehrhaupt

3.0

Clever Girl: Jurassic Park by Hannah McGregor

3.5

While I've never loved having to view stories through a single critical lens, this one was decently thought-provoking, and had some interesting personal connections through grief, which I found poignant.

Year of the Jungle by Suzanne Collins

4.0

Afterward, Everything was Different: A Tale From the Pleistocene by Jairo Buitrago

adventurous reflective fast-paced

3.0

This one was.. interesting. I do love a well done wordless picture book, and I've seen some excellent ones. The detailed expression in something like the Korgi series by Christian Slade, or Mercer Mayer's A Boy, A Dog, and A Frog set come to mind. With this book, the illustration style is beautiful and I really liked the stark black and white. But it was difficult to track some of the specific characters. The adult humans would look d fferent based on the angle or their faces enough that sometimes I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be the same character or not, and it was hard to keep a good count of troop members because they spread out over to much space on some pages. I was also very unsure of the creature that was not really human. It was probably just a fun little thing to draw, but it felt disingenuous somehow. And for all the other threats faced, I did expect something to come from the volcano. All in all, fun illustrations, and I was hop ng for more, but not an especially driving tale.

Rise and Fall: Great Empires That Shaped the World by Peter Allen

4.0

Keep a Pocket in Your Poem: Classic Poems and Playful Parodies by J. Patrick Lewis

4.75

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

Perfect and perf ctly devastating as all Suzanne Collins works are. My one gripe is that, while some characters fit well into the back story, I didn't like knowing that Effie Trinket has been at this gig for nearly 25 years. She felt, maybe not necessary younger in the original, but I definitely pictured her with less history with the games. Maybe it's just been too long since I read the original trilogy.

Sisters of the Lost Marsh by Lucy Strange

adventurous hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Immensely enjoyable! Read by the author, who does an admirable job of bringing a lot of expression to the book, although there was less difference in character voices than some professional readers. But as the characters are all from the same small community and background, that doesn't detract from the story at all!
What I really enjoyed was that the story is clearly written as a fairy tale, and keeps that fairy tale feeling throughout the entire telling. And yet, through the majority of the book, the only "magic" that shows up is just knowledge: the ability to read, to follow a map, to use special tools like a compass. And yet superstition keeps the characters fearful of those who have the knowledge to do these specialized skills. The difference between superstition and folklore is a consistent theme which is really well explored. Highly recommend!