So while the adults get it...

I don't think that tweens will get that when the Upside-Down Magic kids talk about magic fluidity, they are drawing a subtle comparison to gender fluidity, this won't be weird or preachy for them.  I really liked it, actually.  Weather or Not is the fifth in the series and is still as fresh and the first!

Four and Still Going Strong!

Upside-Down Magic #4, Dragon Overnight hasn't lost any of the magic of the first three in the series.  I love this series and bought the new one right away.  I simply love the messages in this book that don't hit you over the head, but are there, just as part of the story.  A male school nurse, women scientists, people of different colors, people who have magic that works in a way different from others, fathers who are trying their best, not all good or all bad.  And this is a lot of fun, too!  Love it!

Non-Preachy Way to Share a Message

The Upside Down Magic series has some wonderful messages.  Acceptance, diversity, radical hospitality are just a few.  And all of these messages are subtle and packed into a these funny, magical books.  This is a great addition to the series.  Even as the UDM class gets better at controlling their "wonkiness" they are learning that their "wonkiness" isn't a bad thing at all.   Great series.  Showing Off really handled the dad issue in a very realistic way, I thought.  And I was so thankful for that.  Just really, really good.  Plus I LOVE the dritten covers!!!!!!!!

Wishing and Hoping

was a really good song...Wishing Day is a great start to a new series by Lauren Myracle.  It's another one of those books that makes me wonder what it would be like to have a sister or sisters.  Complex, I am sure.  Natasha is thirteen and in her town on the third night of the third month after a girl from their town turns thirteen, they are able to make three wishes at a "wishing tree."  It was actually one of Natasha's relatives, long, long ago who started the tradition. But this book is less about magic and more about growing up and discovering one's self and the loss of a mother and the pain of mental illness in a family and friendship and so much more.  Well,  maybe it is equal parts magic and that.  In any case, it is creative and really good and I will enjoy reading the next one!

Ty on Another One!

The Life is Ty is a good first chapter book series.  I really enjoyed Friends of a Feather, the latest installment, even though it took me a long time to get around to reading it.  Ty is still super sweet and super real.  He still wants to get a pet for his baby sister.  Joseph is back, his cancer is gone or in remission, I am not sure what the right thing is in this case.  But this is a lovely and funny and real story.  And I love Lauren Myracle so very much.

YOLO

I am not big on # and I am not good with the cool and hip and now sayings.  I think "YOLO" is an old cool and hip and now saying, as this book was published in 2014, when it was hip and now and cool.  But still, I wasn't big on using YOLO then.  Still, this book, YOLO,  was just as good as the other Internet Girls books, which I really, really enjoyed because it wasn't dated, even though it could have been, given its heavy reliance on technology.  The girls have gone off to college.  Maddie is at UCSC.  Zoe is at Kenyon and her boyfriend Doug is also at a school in Ohio, Oberlin.  Angela is at the University of Georgia.  Lauren Myracle is one of my most favorite authors. She just is.  Angela decides to go the way of the Greek.  So there is that angle.  There is a lot in here that kids face when they start college:  hard classes, roommate trouble, choosing a major, long distance relationships (friends and romantic), family rules, drinking, bi-curious kissing, date rape.  And it is all addressed very well, I think.  I know I am officially old when I saw I wouldn't want to go back to that time in my life.  Not that I think things are harder today.  As I have said, some things are harder and some things are easier, but human nature remains that same.  It's just that every part of life has it's own struggles and I guess those are not ones I would like to relive!

Wonky

Upside Down Magic is a great new series.  Sticks and Stones is the second one.  I think that the books show tremendous diversity and inclusion without being preachy, like the Flower Friends.  And here is another thought about the Flower Friends, which I see now is called Flower Power!  Sorry!
This morning while I was getting dressed I was thinking about a couple of years ago when our local library association started lending American Girl dolls.  I got a call from a local newspaper and the reporter asked me what I thought of this.  I am NOT an American Girl fan and I will explain why.  At the library where I work, we do an American Girl program and it is quite popular, but we don't really stick with the books.  I like the program a lot.  I used to do it, but scheduling has had me hand it over to people who are much more capable!  But it was fun because we didn't stick to the American Girl company produced stuff.  Because American Girl doesn't really show American Girls.  There is no Muslim girl.  There is a new African American Girl now, as one was discontinued.  But for a long time, the only African American American Girl was a slave.  There are no more Asian American Girls, the only one being discontinued.  There is one girl who has divorced parents but there are no American Girls who have one parent and have always had one parent.  There is no American Girl who is being raised by her grandparents.  There is no Latino American Girl.  There is no Indian American Girl.  There is a Native American Girl, though, so wow and big credit you.  There is one Jewish American Girl.  So again, wow and big credit to you.  But is that the best you can do, American Girl?
I explained all of that to the reporter.  Oddly my comments were not included in the article, which was just a piece about how great the program is.  Is the program really great?  Not in my opinion, and so I won't link anything about it here.
That is all just to say that Upside Down Magic and Flower Power show a much more realistic picture of American Girls and Boys than American Girl does, even with the magical element of UDM!

Diana Ross

Upside Down is an old Diana Ross song.  Upside Down Magic is not.  It is, however, a really fantastic start to a series I think I am going to love and I know a lot of kids who will want to read it.  It is kinda like Hex Hall, Jr.

Ty, Alvin, Bily and Roscoe

Like the 4 PTSs but completely different from the 4 PTSs, in that they are not evil, are Alvin Ho, Billy Miller, Ty Perry and Roscoe Riley.  I am sure that these four guys would be wonderful friends. They are all in first or second grade and they are all decent and regular kids!  Real kids, even!  I think, though, that they would be bullied by Junie B., Ivy and Bean and Freddie.  Ty had penguin problems in his first book.  Now he is concerned about random acts of kindness and how to partake in non-random acts of kindness.  The thing about Ty is though, he is always kind.  And that is why I love him.  Squee!

Penguin Problems, Indeed

There is a huge problem with a penguin in this book.  That is for sure.  There are really no other problems with this book, however, as it is written by the amazing Lauren Myracle.  It will be super easy to recommend this one, that's for sure.  Ty is the little brother of Winnie from The Winnie Years which is a wonderful, wonderful series and this will be perfect for young guys this summer.  The Life of Ty: Penguin Problems is the first book in what I hope will be a long series! 

The Flower Friends!

So I have finished all of the Flower Power books by Lauren Myracle and I can write about them all at once!  I am so close to catching up on my blogging!  Very happy!  May I take a moment and thank you for all of your emails and text encouraging me!  It has been extremely helpful!  More than once I thought, ah to heck with it.  I'll just do it on goodreads.  And there is nothing wrong with doing that, but man, I have come so far!  And now there is a light at the end of the tunnel!  So onward!
First we have Love Ya Bunches!  where we meet the girls:  Katie-Rose, Camilla, Yasaman and Violet. 
Next we have Violet in Bloom, which focuses on Violet and her mother's depression.  Man.  I just love the way that Myracle tackles a difficult topic.  Man.  She is just an excellet writer. 
Third we move on to Oopsy Daisy and last Awesome Blossom, which intros a new girl to the group, though not a full "flower friend."
The girls are so different but they all have great hearts.  So NOT like the Four PTSs.  Camilla has two moms and it's no big deal.  Yasaman is Muslim and it's no big deal.  Camilla is a Christian and it's no big deal.  Violet is African American and it's no big deal.  Katie-Rose is adopted.  Guess what?  No big deal.  All beautiful, diverse characters and very funny.  Great, great series with a huge heart.  I hope there will be more! 
The books are part normal books and part web-books, with chat room transcriptions and blogs, too! 

Snowy Day, Snowy Book

Finished Let it Snow and I have to say it was quite enjoyable.  It is written by three different authors:  Lauren Myracle, John Green and Maureen Johnson.  The three stories are really one big story and all of the characters are a bit related and well, it really was quite a fun little book to read!  It all starts with a big old snow storm on Christmas Eve Day.
I really liked all three of the stories and I love Green and Myracle, so I wasn't surprised to enjoy their stories, but the wonderful surprise was the first story by Johnson.  Very funny.  Loved the characters and their sense of humor.  I hope to read a Johnson book soon!

Perfect Ten

Awhile back I heard a terrible rumor that Thirteen Plus one was the last book in the Winnie Series.  There was much sadness!  But then....then...I heard that Ten was coming out and it did!  It came out yesterday and I read it yesterday and there was much rejoicing!  I got to read two new Myracle books in one week!  I am a lucky gal, indeed!
This week was a very cool week because the coolest thing happened--- THE Lauren Myracle read my review of Shine and wrote on the blog!  That also speaks to how down-to-earth Ms. Myracle must be, to take the time to comment on a silly blog like mine!
As I have said in many of my Myracle reviews (and to a lot people in person) I find it totally bizarre that people compare Myracle to Judy Blume.  Myracle is so much better.  Her characters have so much more depth and her story lines are just head and shoulders above anything Blume has ever written.  I do give Blume credit for being a ground-breaking writer.  I get that.  She was the first to do what she did.  I understand.
Okay.  Look at it this way.  Ella Fitzgerald was before Judy (be sure to check the link, I'm not talking about Blume!)  Ella broke TONS of barriers.  She was extremely talented.  Heck, she is known as The First Lady of Song!  Judy came after her, and was compared to her, but there really is no comparison.  I mean Judy is just better.  The difference is though that Ella really was talented AND a ground-breaker.  Judy Blume?   Yes, a ground-breaker.   But if Ella and Judy were both singing today, they would be both be successful.  Would Blume be successful today?  No.  Take a look at some of her later books like Double Fudge, for example, and I am sure you will come to the same conclusion.
I know I am prejudiced because I simply don't like the nastiness of most of Blume's characters.  Why was Beverly Clearly able to create characters without GIANT chips on their shoulders?  Why is Lauren Myracle?
Yikes!
I got nasty, didn't I?  I am sorry...I know that I should be so anti-Blume.  I do appreciate her contributions and the stand she has taken against censorship.  I do.  I guess I just don't "get" characters that are mean for no reason.
This is why I am NOT a professional reviewer.
Back to Ten.
How I wish I would have had these when I was growing up.  And how I recommend these to everyone to read and to give to their daughters or granddaughters.  I expected Ten to be delightful and spot-on and it was.  It exceeded all my expectations.
I wish I could have been friends with Winnie!  When I go to do booktalks at schools, I am never surprised at all of the girls that tell me that same thing.
Excellent.

CREEPY GOODNESS!

This 400 plus page book by Lauren Myracle flew by as if it were less than 150 pages. Bliss is NOTHING like The Winnie Years or The Internet Girls series or even Kissing Kate. This book will be very disturbing for anyone who thinks they are reading something light and fluffy for a summer read. There are people and entities in this book that are as scary, well almost, as The Four PTSs. i mean this book is NOT for the faint of heart. Bliss is a sincerely sweet, peace-loving high school freshman who comes by the 'peace-loving' honestly, as her parents are hippies. Real hippies, as Bliss is set in 1969, The Summer of Love. Bliss's parents have run off to Canada so that Dad Bliss can dodge the draft. Bliss is sent to Atlanta to live with her very proper and wealth grandmother, who is pretty disappointed in how Bliss's mom turned out, but I think she's more sad from missing her, than judgemental. She seems like a good egg. Anyway, Bliss starts high school at a private school that years and years ago used to be a convent. It was then, years and years ago, that a young novice committed suicide by jumping out of a window. One of the girls in Bliss's class is obsessed with this story of the novice who killed herself and well, the the book is told from Bliss's POV but also, interspersed in the book there are excepts from the obsessed girl's diary. These are FREAKY. There are also excepts from the trial of Charles Manson and the Family, and some other well-chosen and well-placed quotes FREAKY. There are also excepts from the trial of Charles Manson and the Family, and some other well-chosen and well-placed quotes and really showcases Myracle's depth as a writer. Fantastic, creepy oh-so-different from Myracle's or anyone else's books. Nearly impossible to put down.

14 and a Half?

I am not sure, but I hope, hope, hope, hope, that with the new style of Thirteen Plus One, which only talks about half of Winnie's fourteenth year, instead of one book=one year, like the others, that the series will now have more books! Like there will be a book coming out soon (I hope, hope, hope, hope) that will chronicle the second half of Winnie's fourteenth year.

All of the comparisons to Judy Blume's books seem more and more absurd as this series goes on. These books just get better and better. There is not one Judy Blume book that can stand up to Thirteen +1.

Winnie and her friends are graduating from junior high, Winnie's older sister is going off to college. Lars is still being a dorkball, but Winnie is realizing she can be a dorkball, too!

Fantastic and funny and real. Who is Judy Blume again?

A Teenager

This is one of those series that just gets better as it goes along. Well maybe not...I mean all of them have been awesome! So it isn't like there was an improvement even needed, but maybe what I mean is that I am liking main character Winnie Perry even more as she grows up. Winnie is now officially a teenager in, da da da da....drumroll as we announce the shocking title THIRTEEN! I guess now I can officially add this book to my list of YA titles for the year since I see that many libraries have it in YA and, after all, it is about a thirTEEN year old. But this book is still great for tweens, too. Even though it has been banned a lot. So I guess it isn't great for all tweens. But maybe some. So maybe it is just good to say that parents who are worried about it should read it first if they want to monitor what their kid is reading if they are worried about the technical terms for body parts. There. Fair warning to all book banners.
I love how Winnie's voice has changed, gotten older, as the series goes on, but she is still Winnie. These books aren't preachy at all, which is a major plus. I can't wait for the next one to come in at the library!

When do I read what?

Sometimes, if you come late to a series, after many books in it are already out, it can be hard to figure out the order in which the books should be read, if you want to read them in order. And then there are those series in which even the order itself is hard to define because maybe the author wrote the first one second or something weird- like the whole Chronicles of Narnia thing. Then there's the whole prequel thing. And the companion books- like Stuck in Neutral and Cruise Control by Terry Trueman. Do you have to read Stuck in Neutral first? Because it was written first? Or how about a series that doesn't really say outright that the second book is a prequel, but it is, like Fire and Graceling, but if you read them in either order it is still kinda cool? Well one of the reasons why I liked Twelve is that Eleven was before it and Thirteen comes after it, so as long as you know that it all starts with Eleven, and you can count pretty well, you know in which order to read them! And if you don't know yet how to count up that high, then even though these books are easy to read, and found with younger kid fiction, you probably want to wait and read them until you are eleven or at least ten and so on up through the ages because for one thing, you'll enjoy it more because its so realistic and its probably what you're going through right then. And for another thing, if your folks are on the more conservative side, and you're younger, they might not like you reading books that talk about erections. I'm not saying that to make people ban these books or keep them out of people's hands, I'm just saying that these are the kind of books that some people raise a big fuss about in schools and libraries. Like Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret. Which is even mentioned in this series but, in my opinion, isn't anywhere near as good. I just think that most of Judy Blume's characters, with the exception of the ones in the early Fudge books are pretty mean. I know kids can be mean, but Blume writes as if nearly ever kid is a total dirtbag jerk. it makes me think that either she was or that kids really picked on her a lot and she's still out to get them. Something makes me think it could be both. Anyway, this whole series by Lauren Myracle is, as real reviewers say, a 'delight' plain and simple, man.

It could have been TRAGIC!

I almost read Twelve before Eleven! I had no idea Lauren Myracle had started the Winnie series at Eleven! I had Twelve in my hands, ready to read because two different people told me I needed to read the series. Then the lovely Kelly told me to read Eleven first and disaster was averted! In Eleven we meet Winnie, on the day of her eleventh birthday and in the spring of her fifth grade year. She has a best friend, Amanda and some other close friends as well. The book is written in twelve chapters, each one a month of Winnie's year. I really enjoyed Eleven even though it was painful to remember some parts of what its like to be that age. Winnie's life goes through many changes during the year and not all of them are easy for her. I love her belief that "The only people who get rah-rah over change are always parents and librarians, not kids. " and it made me think of the PLA or PaLA conference I attended in which we were invited to wear buttons that looked like sheriff's badges and said 'I'm a Change Agent.' Me, I guess that I'm kind of like Tupac and agree that 'I guess change is good for any of us'. But I also agree that it is hard to go through, at eleven or at any age.