It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone! Our week was full of school last week, and catching up on some things. It was a good busy. I loved getting caught up around home honestly. Getting things reorganized, moving stuff around. However, I went to bed at night exhausted and zonked out before I could even fathom reading.
I did finish one book though!
I had been very curious about Arden’s writing for kids, as I loved The Bear and the Nightingale. I have to say, I was just as much caught up in her middle grade as I was her adult fiction. I am looking forward to reading the next in this series, although that probably won’t be until January.
Reading This Week:
I just love this cover. And the sound of the book as well! I am reading in between stitching right now, when I get time. I am working on a few embroidered gifts, so I need to make sure I spend time on that as well. I just need two of me I think! Or, to be ok with never sleeping. Lol.
We are still watching the same old things here. The Great Pottery Throw Down and What We Do in the Shadows. We love them both!
We also only have two weeks left in our Comfy Cozy Cinema movie watching with Lisa at Boondock Ramblings! This week we are watching and talking about The Grand Budapest Hotel, and next week is our watch party for Chocolat! If you are interested the watch party and chat (all text on discord) in on November 17th at 7 pm EST. I plan on surrounding myself with some good chocolate candy to nibble on, some red wine, a comfy blanket, and my cozy bed for the watch.
And that is it from my corner of Michigan today! How are you all doing?
Hello everyone! Does it feel early to do this? Maybe a little. But, I love to make themed lists, especially for the holidays; I can’t help myself! And while these are affiliate links, the love of making them is more than just throwing out affiliate links, since I make like ten cents a year or something like that. But if I do make a dollar that is cool too, but it’s definitely not the money! It’s the joy. For some reason I feel like clarifying that.
Anywhoo, my first list this year is inspired by my love of cozy fantasy! Dragons, orcs, faeries, elves, hobbits – I am loving it all right now. So for those that love books like Legends and Lattes, ACOTAR, Emily Wilde, Fourth Wing – this list is for you! (or for those of you who love people like me, this list is for you too!) Just imagine it like a walk through the Renaissance Faire in the winter (ooo I would love that! Can I have that?) Turkey drumsticks, mugs of mead, and all the trappings, just picture it all for the holidays.
I would be happy if I received any of these items! I am adding them all to my list, Billy. Looking at you.
I love stickers, no real explanation there. And that sweatshirt makes me think of Tress!! Not the graphic itself, but what it says. Tress was no damsel – she took off to find her Charlie despite the dangers and risks. The mug, eh, not very fantasy but I am leaving it because it is so pretty.
The moon and stars mug is so pretty! I have always loved anything with a moon and star design and we can find this replicated in fantasy and cozy fantasy – the Night Court perhaps? The dragon sweatshirt is just cool. I always love all those things that say “I’m not a book hoarder, I’m a book dragon!” Maybe I am a book dragon too.
The little hobbit house made me think of my cousin for some reason. Well, I know partly, it’s because we share a love of The Hobbit. I remember being little kids and sitting on his bed looking through the book and listening to the record of The Hobbit that they had for kids. Anyone else remember the book and records? I wish I could have this and have incense send little smoke plumes out the top but my asthma prohibits me from incense.
I had to include fairies. I love fairies, I always have. Fae, faeries, fairies, whatever however, I love them. And another dragon, this time in a pretty folklore looking design.
Finally, just an enchanted wood with a fox and squirrel and a little reading elf. It all just makes me think of Emily Wilde and that whole world.
And there you have it – my cozy fantasy based gift guide!
For other Etsy Holiday ideas, check out the link here!
Hello everyone!! I am drinking my coffee today out of one my new favorite mugs, this one by Danica Studios. I am on a personal quest to replace my mugs with only ones that make me happy, which might sound absurd but..it’s the small things in life, right?
I just wanted to start this post today by saying my blog is my politics free zone.
I don’t think I have shared Halloween with you all, and I want to. So let’s throw this post right back to October!
The Saturday night before Halloween, Wyatt and I went to the Jack O’Lantern journey at the Detroit Zoo. Billy was supposed to go too, but he hurt his ankle working on Wyatt’s ramp that day, and wasn’t going to be able to manage all of the walking we were going to do. I was a bit nervous about taking Wyatt on my own, which is weird because I am not generally like that. I think because it was going to be dark so fast and I had to drive home through the city at night, but despite being a bit nervous, we went. And I am so glad that we did. We missed Billy of course, but Wyatt and I had a complete blast. We stayed so much later than I anticipated. We were just having such a good time together.
We came home in very high “spirits” and had lots to share with Billy. We bought these tickets as part of a package deal with their Christmas lights display, and now I am looking forward to holiday lights!
The next day was more Halloween shenanigans, with a visit to my dad and stepmom’s house. My stepmom had arranged a whole cookie and cupcake array for the kids to decorate (and eat). She had all of the candy decorations all pre-cut and in little bowls, frosting made, even edible eyes! It was really cool and the kids had a blast. Little Hurricane girl even sat on my lap and made cookies with me!
As you can see, the kids thoroughly enjoyed the day.
After all of our pre-Halloween activities, we were so excited when the big day finally came! Wyatt wanted to be a snail, which turned out pretty good if I do say so myself! I went as a mushroom and Billy wore a shirt with morels on it that said “I’m a fungi”. Lol. We cracked ourselves up.
Phew and now we have made it through Halloween!!
Finally, Billy and I celebrated our 24th anniversary on the 4th! We are old y’all. Wyatt’s grandma watched him for a few hours while we went out for sushi. We went to a place called The Goblin in Detroit (you know I loved that name) and ordered the Penguin tray to split. Now, the Penguin is supposed to come with a cute little rice penguin. But I wanted the panda that comes with the Panda tray lol, and the very nice owner made sure that I got a panda. I am weird. The employee/owner guy was super nice. We really enjoyed chatting with him. The restaurant is small, with maybe six tables total, but does a brisk carry out business. And the sushi was absolutely delicious. We will definitely be returning. And luckily it is not too far from where Billy works, so it would be very easy for Billy to pick up sushi on his way home. We had such a great time together and we need to go out the two of us more often.
Those are all of the big things that happened. We also had slow days, days where we just did school and therapy, sat outside in the sun, painted, played with our menagerie of creatures. And we even added two new babies, two little African clawed frogs that we named Hurkel and Durkel. They are so derpy, I love them.
And now for some random photos!
And that my friends is all for today! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are back to watching and sharing about comfy cozy (and sometimes, chilling) movies for the fall season. Feel free to join in with us!! Our link will be live for a whole week after we post about a movie.
We had a last minute movie shake up! We were supposed to watch Skylark – then learned that we couldn’t find it available anywhere! Lisa switched it out to Bringing up Baby, starring Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, and it was adorable.
I just want to start by saying that Cary Grant was an attractive man, no denying it, but seriously he never looked better than he did as a dino nerd, the slightly awkward paleontologist David Huxley. Dang.
Now, the summary before I get really started. “Harried paleontologist David Huxley (Cary Grant) has to make a good impression on society matron Mrs. Random (May Robson), who is considering donating one million dollars to his museum. On the day before his wedding, Huxley meets Mrs. Random’s high-spirited young niece, Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn), a madcap adventuress who immediately falls for the straitlaced scientist. The ever-growing chaos — including a missing dinosaur bone and a pet leopard — threatens to swallow him whole.” (From theromcomcatalog)
I loved this movie! Maybe because on some level this movie made me think of Billy and I; he often calls me Calamity as my nickname because well, I guess he thinks I can be a bit of a Calamity. And he wouldn’t be wrong. Billy is much more rational and practical than I am; I get us into all sorts of predicaments, all none of them as cool as what happened in this movie.
So. David is supposed to be married to a woman named Alice Swallow, who is his assistant at the museum. It is never really said why other than that it is for his career, and it sounds like it will be a business-like, staid marriage. No honeymoon, no children. Just work. Which, yuck. David doesn’t seem too thrilled with that but kind of shrugs it off. Neither are madly in love with the other, so that makes what happens the rest of the movie ok.
Enter Susan Vance, portrayed by Katharine Hepburn. She is wealthy, has an even wealthier aunt, and is a bit of a scatterbrain. She is also very impulsive and flighty. And, she has a leopard! Her brother who is in Brazil sent it her way, and while it seems rather tame she can’t keep it in her apartment either, and convinces David to help her drive it out to her country house.
We get a taste of the madcap crazy in the beginning when the two meet, but it doesn’t really escalate until they reach the countryside. It is one thing after another, crazy schemes and situations and misunderstandings and dogs and leopards and car thefts and running around the woods and country at night. It was a wild trip!
Grant and Hepburn were fantastic and just kept the frantic energy up the whole movie, complete with witty remarks and exasperation. When David meets Susan’s aunt, he is clothed in a negligee of Susan’s and has no idea that he is meeting the woman he is hoping will donate money to the museum and kind of releases some of his frustration at his situation on her. Susan tries to cover up for his behavior by telling his aunt that he is a man named David Bone who is a friend of her brother’s, and who has had a nervous breakdown. I thought this was so funny as it becomes a running joke where anything he does is a result of his nervous breakdown, at least as far as the aunt is concerned.
Anyway, there are so many moments in this movie that were funny or endearing or both. They are on the hunt for the leopard baby, who has escaped. Although, unbeknownst to them, another more ferocious leopard has escaped from the nearby circus. Two leopards are on the loose in Connecticut in the same few square miles – what could go wrong?
I always use a net when I am looking for escaped leopards too.
The audience knows of course that Grant and Hepburn are going to end up together, and we are just waiting for the moment that the characters themselves realize it.
We have to wait all the way until the end, when David is back in his museum, putting together his Brontosaurus, sans glasses by the way. Susan comes in with his bone, and she climbs up a ladder, which we all know will end in disaster because it is Susan after all.
This movie was madcap, funny, crazy. I never knew what misadventure would befall our hero and heroine from minute to minute and I loved it. And now I totally want my own leopard. However, that seems to be illegal in the United States. I do have a leopard gecko, and she is a sweet girl and easier to feed so there is that.
My Luna baby.
If you watched Skylark or anything else at all, feel free to comment and link up with us about it! The link is open for a week. You can read Lisa’s thoughts here!
Next up is The Grand Budapest Hotel, and after that is Chocolat and our watch party! We will all press play together at home and chat on our discord channel (and don’t worry, not on video!). The watch party will be November 17th, at 7pm EST. (the day after my birthday! yay!)
Today’s Prompt: Covers with [Item] on the Cover (You choose the item! It can be anything at all.)
Hello everyone!! I had a hard choosing this week – foxes or rabbits? I love them both and knew I wanted to pick one of them. Rabbits won out in the end, since my favorite book is Watership Down.
And because of that, it will lead the list!
I love this edition of Watership Down! I actually am asking Billy for it for Christmas. It is a tradition that he buys me a new copy for either my birthday or Christmas and this is the one that my heart is set on this year.
I absolutely loved The White Hare by Jane Johnson. It really set me in mind of a book written by Mary Stewart or Barbara Michaels, two of my favorites.
Our Crooked Hearts and Bunny were both bizarre and weird but I loved them both. Bunny especially felt like some crazy strange trip! Why are rabbits featured so heavily in horror novels and thrillers? Are they scary?
Speaking of horror and rabbits, I had to include Winterset Hollow. I never quite made it through this book but I need to try again. Although it is scary!!
Rabbit Hill I read a while ago, but I remember thinking it was a very good read and I am planning on reading it with Wyatt this spring, along with the next one on the list, The Remarkable Rescue at Milkweed Meadow.
I could not make this list without including these three – The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, The Velveteen Rabbit, and The Penderwicks. I love all three of them! The Velveteen Rabbit though makes me sob, and it made me cry even as a little girl. I never wanted to make my toys feel bad after that. And can someone tell me what a Skin Horse is because it sounds terrifying.
And a bonus eleventh book!
I absolutely love John Lewis-Stempel and this book was no exception. Hands down, he is one of my favorite nature writers.
And there we have it! All of my favorite books with rabbits on the cover!
Hello everyone!! Wyatt and I have been keeping busy the past two months! I am extremely excited about the year I have planned for him, and so far we have really enjoyed it.
We kicked off the school year with a field trip to the Henry Ford Museum to see their dinosaur exhibit that they had. It was all created with metal and steel and welding, and I loved the industrial feel of it. The dinosaurs were all interactive, with different ways to manipulate them into motion, whether by a pulley system or through controls on a computer system. It was a great way to start the school year and introduce our first science unit, which is all about prehistory.
We have slogged our way through all those single celled organisms that just keep evolving. They are not super interesting right away, are they? I did like learning that the first trees were giant mushroom trees! I didn’t learn that in school so that was a new thing for me too! We are starting with dinosaurs this very week, thank goodness! Wyatt is very excited. The Detroit Science Center just opened an exhibit with dinosaurs as well so we will be taking a field trip there soon too.
In history, but not prehistory, we have been studying the Anishinabe tribe of Michigan. We are focusing on Michigan history this year and the curriculum I bought is very open, with eras and prompts to guide me but the actual material is up to me. I decided we were going to read The Birchbark House and focus on the Anishinabe in particular. I tried to do this in as culturally sensitive a manner as I could. We spent time learning about what they ate, about their beliefs, what resources they used, what their homes were like, and so on. We spent about a week or so on each different aspect of their life. We built a wigwam, painted a winter cabin, and filled out a tissue box information cube, which Wyatt loved adding to every week. Every side covered a different topic, like a very short report in cube form. I also loved adding to the area of our table where we displayed his History materials. I added a pretend black crow that we named Andeg after the crow in Birchbark House, a bit of birchbark, his cabin and wigwam that he made. It started to take over! We are starting the fur trade next and we won’t linger long on that topic – and we aren’t going to keep trap or skin or keep pelts around either. Lol.
We both enjoyed The Birchbark House, but dang, I cried so much near the end! Poor Wyatt felt so bad that I was crying. It dealt with very real challenges and issues that Native Americans in that time would have faced, and Wyatt and I had some good discussions about these things, even though they made me cry.
In literature, we read Alice in Wonderland, which I have to tell you guys, I really didn’t enjoy it. I don’t think I am into absurdist lit very much! Wyatt however really enjoyed it, all the nonsensical of it, so maybe it is a hit with kids and that is why it is in the curriculum. I was happy when we were done. We started The Phantom Tollbooth next, which fits into that same sort of absurdist genre, but I am liking it so much better than Alice. Wyatt loves it too. We just started it this past week and had fun with the first project, which was creating a peg doll Milo and a clay Tock. I ended up making Tock since Wyatt had a challenging time manipulating the clay. He has limited use of his right hand and arm so sometimes things like that are a stretch. I usually make him try but it was so small that I ended up doing it. He painted Milo though, and I helped with the hair and face.
Wyatt is still working really hard on practicing and learning reading. We had two years where he was really heavily medicated, overmedicated actually, and it really slowed down his progress. Now that he is appropriately medicated for his seizures, things are so different and have returned to the way he was acting and learning before taking that particular medication. The past year it has been so great to see him really get back to the Wyatt he was, to be curious and energetic and lively again. He never really lost that but it was sort of cushioned by the sedative they gave him for his seizures. So we are going over basics again and he is on fire with it. We are using a program called Prenda Treasure Hunt Learning in addition to The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts. We really spend a good chunk of our day working on these skills. He will get there in his own time – he loves reading and books and picks it up so quickly now, plus he is so motivated.
In art, we studied Charley Harper! We had so much fun. We studied him in September and then I let October be a more Halloween crafty month for art. Harper is a modernist who painted nature. He called his art minimal realism and I just love it. I am not usually into that style but I really like his version – perhaps because of the subjects of his work. Wyatt really enjoyed it as well, all the shapes and lines and colors. We did two projects, and had a third that never developed – which bothers me so we might have to revisit it so we can do it. I wanted us to construct an owl mobile inspired by his piece Hexit. I need Billy’s help though with construction as my brain couldn’t quite fashion the wings correctly for my design. The two we did complete turned out very nicely! We started out with Wyatt’s version of a woodpecker based on Harper’s Baffling Belly, and then I bought a unit study for Fall at the Pond from TPT and it was fantastic. Wyatt had so much fun with it!! It took a few days because there was a lot of time for painting and then waiting for it to dry, so that made it fun too, the waiting.
Next up we are learning about Canadian artist Emily Carr, and we will continue on with Michigan history, dinosaurs and math and reading! Wyatt has had a great two months and I am looking forward to the upcoming months and all of the various things we will be doing.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone! We had a pretty good week last week – we love Halloween over here, especially Wyatt. I loved seeing him so happy and enjoying himself with his cousins! He wanted to be a snail this year, so Billy and I put on our thinking caps and made this kid a snail costume.
As for reading, it was dismal around here. I don’t think I read at all, all week, until yesterday when I got a chance to read for about fifteen minutes. This week, I am going with some easier reads, two middle grades from my November TBR. One is for my patreon book club that I am in and the other because it is written by the author of The Bear and the Nightingale and I am so curious about how she writes for kids.
Billy and I are deep in the world of pottery right now, watching The Great Pottery Throw Down. We are also watching What We Do in the Shadows as well. (Team Nandor!) We usually fall into bed wiped out at the end of the night, and I do embroidery while we are watching tv, so we have been sort of watching things that are easy to watch.
We are also watching our Comfy Cozy Cinema movies! We only have a few weeks left (then we start Comfy Cozy Christmas) and we watched a few Hitchcock films in October, then leveled off with Practical Magic. Now we are heading back into definite comfy cozy watches, with tonight’s movie Skylark. Then we just have the Grand Budapest Hotel, and our final watch Chocolat. We are actually having a watch party for Chocolat, where we all press Play together on November 17th and then chat over on our discord, The Dames. (no video chat so don’t worry about being in your pajamas!) Edit: Skylark wasn’t available streaming so we watched Bringing Up Baby!
And that is about it for today! I hope you are all doing well!!
I am looking forward to the relative quiet of November, after a very busy October. Every year our October is jam packed. I like to whirlwind our way through the month, soaking in the moments, then like magic, on November 1, seeking the quiet and solitude of my birth month.
This is when the fall gets slower for me. The days are now short, with night closing in early, and all the hijinks of Halloween are done. I look forward to our slower paced days. Days of school and our art projects, the wolf embroidery I am working on for Wyatt, a return to slow cooked meals, Billy’s sourdough. Quiet hikes in the woods. Books and reading, movies, comfy beds with soft cushy blankets and flannel sheets, backyard fires with family.
Wyatt has this picture book called Thanksgiving in the Woods, and I still read it with him every year, and Billy usually listens too. We all love it. It is about this family who has just what the title says, a big family Thanksgiving in the woods and it is based on the author’s real life Thanksgivings. Every year we read this, and every year, Billy and I talk about how cool that would be. Wouldn’t it? I would love to gather everyone I love together at a big table in the woods filled with food and laughter and music. With tents and lights and bunting, with a big bonfire and games. Wouldn’t that be amazing? I just need to find the woods. But on days like today, blustery and beautiful with bright leaves littering the ground, the crazy chaos of last nights trick or treating behind us, I can imagine it, that meal.
We do have some fun things planned, things like stargazing in our backyard under blankets, with hot chocolate and cookies, calling for owls, getting back to nature, to gratitude. I pulling out our sweaters and warm clothes today, in preparation for the cold weather that will soon be arriving. (even though it was 80 this week! Ugh)
I am excited about our November scouts meeting this month. Billy’s mom is a potter, and she is going to work with our kids on making ornaments, that she will take home to be fired in her kiln. We are also going to open the box that we received from another pack in Oregon, who lives in the high desert there. Our two packs each gathered nature items from our area to send to the other, and I am excited to share with the kids what the Oregon pack sent with them. I peeked at it already and I think they will all like seeing what is in there. In our box, we sent leaves that were labeled, a sprig of white pine, which is Michigan’s state tree, a cicada shell, acorns and sycamore seeds and chestnuts, seeds from a Michigan apple, an apple tree bud from my confused apple tree, local honey, and a few other fun things, like a bag of Petoskey stones. I am looking forward to what they think of our stuff as well! And if anyone lives in another region who is reading this, and would like to send nature representatives to our pack from your area, let me know, because this was fun!
And, I need to refill my coffee so I will end here. Have a wonderful day everyone, and whatever you do today, try to do something that makes you smile.
“In November, the earth is growing quiet. It is making its bed, a winter bed for flowers and small creatures.” – Cynthia Rylant
Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are back to watching and sharing about comfy cozy (and sometimes, chilling) movies for the fall season. Feel free to join in with us!! Our link will be live for a whole week after we post about a movie. You can read Lisa’s post about Dracula here! This week was a wild card freebie week!
This week’s comfy cozy movie is Practical Magic, starring Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Diane Wiest, and Stockard Channing, all of whom are perfectly witchy witchy.
First, let me say that this movie had the best 90s vibes! It took me right back to my youth, being a teen/young adult in the 90s. The clothes alone – my own wardrobe could have stepped out of this movie back then, and was a blast from the past to see again onscreen. I mean, those dresses. I would have worn mine with Dr. Martens though. And those shorts with that tee? I think I had so many of those type shirts back then! I would probably still wear the green dress and cardigan look there honestly.
Ok, now that I have that out of my system, let’s go on.
Quick summary: Raised by their aunts after their parents’ death from a family curse, the sisters were taught the uses of practical magic as they grew up. As adults, Sally and Gillian must use their magic to destroy the evil spirit of Gillian’s abusive boyfriend before it kills them.
This movie is about, well, witches. The Owens women have always been witches, and everyone knows it. Growing up Sally and Gillian were shouted at by kids in the street, and watched their eclectic aunts, Aunt Frances and Aunt Jet, meddled in the love lives of others, mostly upon request.
They also lived under a family curse, one that states that any man that they fall in love with will die young. Love to Sally looks too dangerous, unpredictable, and tragic, and she vows to never fall in love. Gillian on the other hand is her complete opposite, and can’t wait to embrace that roller coaster that they see played out before them in their aunt’s kitchen whenever the lovelorn come calling. Sally even casts a love spell on herself, creating the perfect man who can never exist, full of qualities like two different colored eyes, one blue and one green and who can flip pancakes in the air, because if the perfect man can never exist, then she is safe and can never fall in love. Or so she thinks.
The sisters go their separate ways in life, with Sally living a quiet life on the island with her aunts, and eventually getting married and having babies, and swearing to live normally and without magic. Gillian is off on wild adventures, but the two keep in touch, writing long honest and open letters to each other. While they are not close in distance, they are close in spirit.
And that is my favorite part of this movie. Their sisterhood, their relationship. They are each other’s ride or die, the one you would do anything for. They are there for each other, and in one of my favorite parts of the movie, Gillian returns to town for just one night, when she senses her sister needs her, and they spend the night just talking and talking and laughing. When Sally wakes up the next day her sister is gone, like it was all just a dream.
This movie is full of cozy aesthetic – the big old Victorian, the beautiful garden, Sally’s shop, the cozy looking cardigans, the quaint village (full of jerks but whatever it is pretty),cats, the fact that Gillian never wore shoes, that GREENHOUSE, eating cake for breakfast, and of course midnight margaritas! (fun fact: they all were actually drunk in that scene) Just so many quirky weird little things. I love that kind of stuff.
But then there is the other side of the coin, as there always is. Darkness, anger, grief, sadness. The balance that is life, ups and downs, good and bad. And the real magic is how we get through those times, with help from those we love, from our family, from our friends.
Is this a great movie, on par with Rear Window? No. Was it a fun movie from my youth? Yes, 100%. Billy and I loved rewatching it together the other night (because you KNOW I dragged him to the theater to see it with me in 1998), and joked about getting up for a midnight margarita at 8pm but then opted for ginger tea instead. Ah the difference time makes.
And remember: “Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.”
If you watched anything this week link up with us! This week is wild card week! This link will be open for a week.
This week’s prompt is a Halloween freebie! Since Halloween for me is more about Wyatt these days, my post this week is spooky middle grade books that I want to read. Going to the library with Wyatt I see all these fun looking middle grade books that I want to read too! I usually end up with one for myself every time we go. I grew up reading Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Mary Downing Hahn, and Betty Ren Wright, all of which scared my socks off as a kid and made me sleep with the blankets pulled way up over my head. I haven’t changed too much!
The Vanishing of Aveline Jones – This is the third in the series, and I just read the first two this fall. It is really well done series, with just enough freak out factor even as an adult. I would have definitely loved this series as a kid!
The Legend of the Skeleton Man – I really enjoy Joseph Bruchac, and I think this one would be one that makes you want to sleep with the lights on.
Scary Stories for Young Foxes – Ok, I don’t know much about this one other than I love foxes and there are foxes. Sometimes that is all it takes for me!
Ghost Book had me at its comparison to Studio Ghibli and Coco. ( Can any adult watch Coco without crying?)
Small Spaces is by the author of The Bear and the Nightingale and I feel like I have to know how she writes for middle grade! I loved The Bear and the Nightingale.
Wyatt and I read a picture book a few years ago that was super cute about the jumbies – I don’t think that the middle grade of The Jumbies will be so cute however. It looks pretty scary to me! And I just learned that they were both written by Tracey Baptiste. Well, now I really have to read it!
That cover of Evangeline of the Bayou – it is just so full of rich color and it feels…mossy. And damp. You can feel that cover. And it takes place in New Orleans, one of my favorite cities!
The Secret of Nightingale Wood by Lucy Strange. Honestly, all of Lucy Strange’s books have been on my TBR for ages and ages. I really need to read them.
Doesn’t this name just sound good when you say it? The Clackity. The Clackity.
And then one reread!
The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright. This book scared the heck out of me as a kid, and I sort of think it still might. Dolls scare me in general and the idea that they could move while I was sleeping or something is absolutely horrifying.
Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.. 