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!

For no really good reason

Witchtown, which I thought was Witch Town made this song stick in my head.  Okay, I mean, This Town and Witch Town do rhyme, so maybe that is a good reason.  But not a really good reason.
I did like Witchtown a lot!  Fans of witches and magic and mean moms will like it, too!  Good cover!

South Africa

As I am sure I mentioned before, I was in South Africa after apartheid ended, but it sure didn't seem like it had.  The "housing" that Tendai describes was very much real and very much sickening.  The White Giraffe was a book I listened to in bits and pieces because my mom wanted to hear it, too, so we only listened to it when we were in the car together.  I think that this had an impact on how I enjoyed it.  I gave it four of five stars, though.  I wonder and think it probably could have been a five.
It is the first in the Animal Healer series.  If I can find the others on audio, I will listen to another!

Done!

I have just finished listening to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, meaning I have joined the ranks of pretty much everyone and finished the Harry Potter series.  I have to say that Harry Potter is a jerk.  I mean the kid, Harry Potter.  But I guess that means that he is a "real" character.  He acts like real people do.  But man, he is just such a jerk.  I guess I always thought that he was some kind of sweet nerd who did well and made nerds, like me, though I am not smart enough to be a real nerd,  feel good!  But no, he actually is a mean little dude.  I found this and I thought it was very funny!
In any case, my favorite character in the series is Snape, I think!  Maybe. Maybe Luna.  I am not sure!  Either way, I am glad I spent time with the magical world of HP!

SPOILERS (maybe...but since I am the last person to read this series, I am sure it won't spoil anything for anyone!)

Still, still, still  I have said in Snape.  Maybe it is just because I think that Harry Potter's dad sounds more and more like a "cool-kid" bully.  You know, he and Harry's godfather, being all cool and mean to Snape.  Of course, that doesn't mean that Snape is good.  That the bullying he endured didn't help to turn his heart to stone and get him all totally into being a mean dude.  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has a really gross/good cover.  I mean look at that cover, is that the best sick-green you have ever seen?

Now I am Getting Sad

Having finished The Order of the Phoenix, the fifth of seven HP books, I am getting sad to know that I am almost at the end of the HP series.  I can't believe it!  If Goblet of Fire was the book in which the series took a darker turn, OOTP is proof that it ain't going back into happy and light wizard world fun any time soon.   Dolores Umbridge is one rotten broad!  I can see now why people have told me that I would enjoy the audio books.  I can't imagine not hearing her fake cough the way that Jim Dale does it!

And I keep reading!

Now I have finished Goblet of Fire!  Had you asked me if I would ever read the first Harry Potter I would have told you probably not.  Had you asked me if I would make it as far as GOF I would have said NO WAY!

BUT I LOVE THEM!  They are super fantastic!  I really think that this is going to be a popular series.  I think it is going to catch on.  There might even be movies some day.  Who knows!  I can even see Universal Studios doing something

I Stand Corrected

All of those years I bashed Harry Potter.  That was before I read them.  I thought I would just listen to one.  And now I have the fourth one on hold.  This is my favorite one so far.  I just liked it so much!  I got the whole "prisoner of Azkaban" part of it and I love the characters.  Just great!  I think this Harry Potter thing is going to catch on.

Another!

Ever since a young patron told me that although the second HP book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was longer than the first, I wouldn't notice it and it was very good, I felt like I had to read it.  And I am glad I did.  I enjoyed it!  The story itself made more sense, so it was different from the whole "sorcerer's stone" thing that I didn't really get into in the first one.  In this one, I could get into the plot as well as enjoy the details of a magic life and school.  It still wasn't super WOW but heck, I think I will go for the third one, too!

It wasn't bad!

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone may be on to something.  I think there is a sequel.  It might be a hit.
Yes, I have finally read HPATSS.
It was good.  I mean, it was very good.  It was a 4 of 5 for me.  It didn't wow me.  The Quidditch thing was WAY too long.  And the whole "sorcerer's stone" part of it was not too exciting.  But the whole set up and the banter of the characters, that was cool.  I can really see why people would like it.  And I am going to read the second one!

Award Season

I have long given up predicting winners.  I mean, there was 1954 after all...I didn't see hardly any of the winners coming this year.
The Newbery winner was one I didn't see coming, but one that I thought was really excellent, having just finished The Girl Who Drank the Moon.  Kelly Barnhill lives in Minneapolis, and so that just makes her awesome already.
This is a fairy tale, but like all fairy tales, I guess, it also has a lot of reality in it.  There are governments that treat citizens like the people of the Protectorate were treated.  Fear-based control is all too common.  And the love in this book is so real, too.  Great book and Newbery worthy for sure.  I still think Towers Falling should have won, but I am happy about one.  It was a tough year to choose, I bet.  There were a lot of good books among those I read and I didn't even read all that many.

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!!!!!!!!

Marvelous

George's Marvelous Medicine isn't Dahl's best, but it is still one of the finest!  I loved it.  George makes a medicine for his grandma that results in some total wackiness!  Funny!  Irreverent!  Dahl!

Gifts

Gift of Magic is an old book, written the year I was born by Lois Duncan.  That link takes you to Lois Duncan's home page, but it hasn't been updated in a while.  Neither has her twitter feed.  That's because Duncan died in June.  She is in heaven now and I bet that if there was any need for her to communicate from heaven, Duncan would have done it, because the whole supernatural world was obviously of great interest to her.  I loved her books as a teen.  And I do enjoy reading them now.  This one was very good and creepy.  I think my most favorite is Summer of Fear.  I wonder if that is available to listen to, because I really would like to read it again.  This one only seemed dated in the name of the main character, Nancy.  But I have an Agnes in one of my storytimes, so I am thinking there is a chance Nancy will come back around some day, too.

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.

Three More Kazoos

Friends for Never, Love Stinks, and Bad Rap were three solid additions to the Katie Kazoo series.  I can't seem to get tired of these and at least by #16 (Bad Rap), Krulik doesn't seem to be tired of writing them, either.  I was especially despondent when reading Love Stinks and so it came at a good time!

More of Katie

No Messin' with My Lesson is the eleventh book in the series and I am STILL not bored.  And I don't see them as losing their magic yet!  At least for me!

Hooked on Katie Kazoo!

Katie Kazoo has been a very popular series for awhile now!  I had never gotten around to reading one of them, but I needed a quick book to listen to and I want to find more books that I can personally recommend and so the library had Anyone But Me and Out to Lunch on the same download.  I was hooked!  No wonder so many kids like her!  She is nice and kind, yes, the books are a little heavy-handed with messages, but these books were so good that as soon as I finished them I download Oh, Baby! and Girls Don't Have Cooties.  They were awesome!  So then I downloaded I Hate Rules, Get Lost!  I loved them and now I am listening to Drat!  You Copycat and Doggone It!  and...you guessed it, they are awesome!
Just finished DYC and DI.  Funny series, and Katie is a good friend!
Getting a little obsessed, but they are such quick and fun reads and still fresh.  Finished Any Way You Slice It and Quiet on the Set.  Still awesome.  Not tired of them yet!