Read Your Way Homewood

My Mom Has X-Ray Vision by   Angela McAllister ,  Alex T. Smith   (Illustrator) Matthews mom has X-Ray vision. She knows all kind of stuff that he's doing, EVEN WHEN SHE CAN'T SEE HIM! We all know that Mom's have super senses. They just KNOW things. This book highlights that mystery in a super cute way. The language is simple and straightforward, mostly from Matthew's point of view, allowing the reader to enjoy the mystery of "How does she KNOW that?" The pictures are bright and colorful, and Mom kicks butt - groceries in one hand, superhero outfit draped over an arm.  But what kicks this up a notch for me is it's role in the normalization of diversity. This isn't a book about a black kid whose mom has superpowers, it's a story about a KID whose mom has superpowers. The end. Great for kids of all ages, but really appropriate for the Pre-K to 2nd grade set. The pictures have lots of little things to look at with a giggly child on the se...

Erik Larson has done it again. After real-life thrillers like Thunderstruck and  The Devil in the White City , he has created another work of non-fiction that reads like historical fiction. In his latest, Dead Wake , he tells the story of the last crossing of the luxury ocean liner, the Lusitania. Believed to be impervious to the German U-boats that trolled the waters of the North Atlantic in the Spring of 1915, the Lusitania and its passengers proudly set sail on its fateful journey from New York to Liverpool. Unaware or just oblivious to the dangers that awaited them, the passengers all seemed to be in festive moods and happy to be on board the great transatlantic "greyhound," the fastest liner in service during that era. In addition to providing the reader with historical details about World War I and the events surrounding it, Larson's ability to breathe life into a cast of characters gives the reader a chance to see them as real people not just figures in a history ...

I came back to this book because the first time I read it, I didn't like it.  It's the third book in a series and I loved the first two so much that I was sure that I would love the third. I admitted to myself that I read the book very quickly because I had been eagerly awaiting its release.  Perhaps a slower read-through would make a difference. And it did.  All the things that I disliked in the first reading -- they made sense during the slower second time through. I still believe this one is the weakest of the three but I'm a huge fan of Kristin Cashore. Reviewed by Amy

A re-read for me because I love this author's way with words.   Only got 3 Libbies because it might not be everyone's cup of tea. Reviewed by Amy

Reviewd by Amy

I have to start by saying that this book has received tremendous reviews from  various news outlets.   It has over 6500 five star reviews on Amazon and was a National Book Award finalist.   Good job, book.   I’m going to first provide the Amazon summary, not because I don’t want to write my own, but because it doesn’t get much more condensed than this. “From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the beautiful, stunningly ambitious instant   New York Times   bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve,...

Music journalist Will Hermes takes us on a wild ride through the streets of New York in this engaging monograph.  Love Goes to Buildings on Fire tells the story of the burgeoning music scene in the 1970s. Hermes flits across the 5 boroughs as he weaves tales of small loft performances and massive, sold out concerts. The book touches upon multiple genres, from the transformation of rock with performers like Lou Reed to the birth (and death) of disco. Hermes includes personal stories about his childhood growing up in Queens, painting New York as a dangerous city in a constant state of flux. Readers get a true understanding of both the turmoil of the city and the music that spouted from it. This book isn't for everyone. The 384 page count is a bit daunting for casual readers. The descriptions of concerts got tedious after awhile. I found myself skipping around quite a bit toward the end of the book. Also, Hermes is heavy-handed with some of the musicians' stories....

Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking: A 14 Day Mystery by   Erin Dionne In this middle grade mystery, Moxie and her friend Ollie are spending their summer break evading gangsters, searching for stolen art, and trying not to get killed. It is a really nice book. I liked the heroine, even if she did do stupid things sometimes, they weren't so stupid they made me disbelieve. In fact, she did SMART things sometimes, even thought they might have made the story slightly less exciting, it made a lot of sense, and then that made the bad choices a lot more believable. Very cryptic. I know. But I'm trying not to ruin things. It is a mystery, after all. I like the friend, too. I ESPECIALLY like the fact that they ARE friends. With no hint of a romance at all. Because, yes, boys and girls (and men and women) can actually be friends without any awkwardness. For real. :-) - reviewed by Miss Kelly

  At the suggestion of several HPL staff members, I checked out this book.  I was unsure whether my family would like the bread, given that I make bread almost every weekend from my great-grandmother's recipe. Well, I only made half of the suggested recipe.  On Sunday, I made a boule and a baguette.  By Monday lunch, I had to pull out another batch of the dough to make another boule because my family had devoured the first one.  I am using the last of the first batch to make pizza for dinner tonight. I will definitely make a whole batch next time.  And let me just add that my great-grandmother's recipe for bread, lovely as it is, takes 4 hours from start to finish.  The Artisan bread recipe mixed up in about 5 minutes and only takes 45 minutes until it's out of the oven.  (20 minutes to rise, 25 minutes to bake). Reviewed by Amy

  Sisters Marjan, Bahar, and Layla have crafted new lives for themselves. Escaping Iran after the 1979 revolution, the three have made their way to rural Ireland, where their Babylon Café has enchanted the hearts (and stomachs) of the locals.  However, not everything is as rosy as it seems in their new home. Each sister has her own secret, shielding the others from her own private struggle. Tension builds in the household as Marjan, Bahar, and Layla attempt to reconcile their personal issues and their familial responsibilities. Everything comes to a head with the arrival of two mysterious strangers to their sleepy coastal village. This book is the sequel to Mehran's first book, Pomegranate Soup, but the characters and plot work well as a standalone novel. There are threads of fantasy and romance woven through the story . Personally, these plot elements felt superfluous to the main story. However, fans of these genres may enjoy the budding romance and supernatural happe...

Yes, Please. I laughed.  I cried.  Sometimes I laughed while I cried.  Amy Poehler brings her particular style of tongue in cheek, yet completely relatable, humor to this unconventional memoir.  Unlike most memoirs, Poehler has habit of jumping around a bit, speeding up time only to slow it down again, however it continues to make perfect sense; as if a long lost friend is catching you up on the last twenty years of her life.  This is probably why A.P. makes the short list of my best friends who don’t know it yet.  Wait!  You had slumber parties?!  I had slumber parties!!  It’s meant to be.   Poehler’s writing takes the reader from her parents’ dating years to her birth, through school, into the early (poor and poorly housed) improv years, and to her time on SNL and Parks and Rec.  Although, not necessarily in that order.  The book contains copious amounts of photos and random handwritten portions.  My per...

Middle Grade~  captivating page turning story, mixing true events with strong characters, a sense of urgency,  and beautifully created landscapes. From Goodreads "Newbery Honor author Rodman Philbrick presents a gripping yet poignant novel about a 12-year-old boy and his dog who become trapped in New Orleans during the horrors of Hurricane Katrina. Zane Dupree is a charismatic 12-year-old boy of mixed race visiting a relative in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hits. Unexpectedly separated from all family, Zane and his dog experience the terror of Katrina's wind, rain, and horrific flooding. Facing death, they are rescued from an attic air vent by a kind, elderly musician and a scrappy young girl--both African American. The chaos that ensues as storm water drowns the city, shelter and food vanish, and police contribute to a dangerous, frightening atmosphere, creates a page-turning tale that completely engrosses the reader. Based on the facts of the worst ...

  Title: A Pleasure and A Calling by Phil Hogan Pages: 288 Summary:  Mr. Heming loves the leafy English village where he lives. As a local real estate agent, he knows every square inch of the town and sees himself as its protector, diligent in enforcing its quaint charm. Most people don't pay much attention to Mr. Heming; he is someone who fades easily into the background. But Mr. Heming pays attention to them. You see, he has the keys to their homes. In fact, he has the keys to every home he's ever sold in town. Over the years, he has kept them all so that he can observe his neighbors, not just on the street, but behind locked doors. Mr. Heming considers himself a connoisseur of the private lives of others. He is witness to the minutiae of their daily lives, the objects they care about, the secrets they keep. As details emerge about a troubled childhood, Mr. Heming's disturbing hobby begins to form a clear pattern, and the reasons behind it come into...