I'm a Frog!

I'm a Frog! by Mo Willems
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gerald panics when Piggie starts ribbitting and announces she's a frog. Will HE be turned into a frog, too? He doesn't want to be a frog! Piggie has to explain that she's just PRETENDING to be a frog, and he can pretend, too. But Gerald doesn't want to be a frog.... Moooooooo!

This book is funny and makes my kids laugh, especially when I act out the voices and facial expressions. The pictures really tell the story even more than the words do!

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Pattern Bugs

Pattern Bugs by Trudy Harris
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This awesome book about patterns features a different type of bug on each set of pages. While the style of art wasn't my cup of tea at first, once I looked closer, I absolutely loved the myriad ways the illustrator, Anne Canevari Green, included the patterns, from the page borders to the size/shape/colors of the markings on the bugs, to the lines radiating out from the center of a flower, to the length/shape/color of leaves, and so very many more! The book is fun to read out loud, but the true joy and value in it is in snuggling with a preschooler and seeing who can spot all the patterns on a page. GREAT for early literacy--patterns, rhymes, and good times.

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The Bookshop on the Corner

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nina has always lived a quiet, bookish life in bustling Birmingham, England, so she's at a loss when the library where she works is closed in favor of a new "media center." Only a handful of employees are hired to work at the new, apparently book-less, center, and she isn't one of them. However, this turns out to be the best possible outcome for her, as it gives her the courage to do something crazy and live her dream of owning a small mobile bookshop. She finds the perfect van in a village in Scotland, where folks are hungry for books and haven't had a library in years. She finds a gorgeous renovated barn to live in, complete with a grumpy, taciturn, very attractive landlord going through a contentious divorce. Nina makes friends and influences people, changing the lives of some. The caterpillar blossoms into a butterfly over the course of a spring and summer in the highlands.

The tone and mood of this book are so lovely! And I highly recommend listening to it on audiobook because the narrator does such an absolutely fantastic job with the voices and accents. Especially the accents.

I do wonder what on earth is going on with the libraries in the UK, though. Are so many really shutting down and jettisoning their books? Do their "librarians," as Nina and her coworkers call themselves, not go to the same type of library school we do here in the US? I ask because Nina is excellent with readers' advisory skills but seems to utterly lack all the other training of a reference librarian--namely the drive to help people find information, particularly using computers. Modern libraries are about SO much more than "just" books! And our books are so well-used that it's rare we would discard anything that was in pristine condition like so many of the cast-offs Nina picks up from libraries during the course of the story.

For readers' advisors: character doorway is primary, setting secondary. A few swear words and some off-screen sex, but no violence (aside from a vindictive ex throwing a valuable book into a mud puddle because she's been told she can't have it). The author clearly loves Scotland and isn't fond of big cities (Birmingham in particular).

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How to Find Love in a Bookshop

How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A bookstore owner dies of cancer, and his daughter moves home to take over his shop, which has had a big impact on a wide variety of people over the years.

I so enjoyed this delightful book! I especially enjoyed listening to it on audiobook, as the narrator is fantastic with the accents. The feel of the book is a lot like the movie Love Actually, with different characters' story arcs intersecting in different ways, although the main character was definitely Amelia Nightingale.

Reminded me a bit of a Maeve Binchy novel also, although to be fair, I've not read one of hers in probably 20 years, so memory could be faulty. And the story resolutions here are MUCH more satisfying that with the Binchy books I've read--Henry doesn't seem to get bored with her book and rush through the ending, making the characters behave out-of-character like Binchy did. The only "Hunh?" moment for me was near the end when Amelia was sick for a couple of weeks, culminating in a couple of disastrous decisions, and no one seemed to notice or take care of her. She was surrounded by people who knew and loved her--how could no one notice she was near collapse with a combination of stress/grief and what sounds like pneumonia??

Otherwise, though, I wanted to live in the world of these flawed, wonderful people--just...delightful!

For readers' advisors: character doorway is primary, setting is secondary (Peasebrook is a small fictional village in the Cotswolds in the U.K.). A bit of swearing. No onscreen sex or violence.

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