Candy Bunny Reader

  Another great book by one of my favorite authors! Did you know around the time this book was released (October 2024), an actual flood happened in Asheville, NC, which is where this book also happens to take place? It was also because of a hurricane: Hurricane Helene. Robert Beatty decided that a portion of his sales from this book will go to help victims of the floods. i bought a copy of this book to help out the cause. Thank you, Mr. Beatty! Sylvia Doe and the 100-Year Flood is a middle grade urban fantasy novel about 13 year old Sylvia Doe, who has run away from another foster family back to Highground Home for Children, where she feels she truly belongs. This is quite a problem for her social worker and the state, since she can't permanently live in the place like an orphanage from the old days (the book takes place in modern times). But on top of that, Hurricane Jessamine has passed through the area and has flooded the area, destroying a lot of things and hurting a lot of p...

(Pic was found on Google Images)   Another great book by one of my favorite authors, Lyla Lee ! Gigi Shin is Not a Nerd follows Gigi, a preteen girl who loves art and wants to work in some sort of artistic field. She finds out through her art teacher about a summer art program that will feature one of her favorite artists, Christiania Moon, but it costs a lot of money. Gigi knows her parents will probably not want to pay for it, as they want her to study something more "practical", aka something not art-related.  Luckily, Gigi finds a way to earn money. After helping her younger brother Tommy with his math homework, Gigi decides to form a tutoring club called the Ace Squad with her best friends, Carolina and Zeina. A fourth girl named Emma eventually joins them. Their tutoring sessions at the library aren't always smooth, but by tutoring elementary school students, they know they will eventually get enough money to all go to the expensive art camp! This was such a fun boo...

  Fun fact: I actually read part of this series way back when I was in middle school, but I never read all of the volumes. Now I'm planning on reading all of them! Yotsuba&! by Kiyohiko Azuma is a cute, chill, slice of life series about a little girl named Yotsuba, her adoptive father, and their new neighbors. Every chapter follows Yotsuba as she goes on little adventures when she becomes fascinated with seemingly everyday items and occurences, from air conditioners to cicadas. The humor in the series often comes from Yotsuba misunderstanding things.  I enjoyed this series when I read part of it as a kid, but I think I love it even more as an adult! I think it's because it's such a sweet and heartwarming series about everyday life with such lovable characters. I definitely needed this book more as an adult especially when life gets so stressful. This first volume got 5 stars from me. Excited to read the rest of the series!

  This book was sooo sweet and sooo cute! The Sprite and the Gardener by Rii Abrego and Joe Whitt takes place in our world--with some magic! Sprites have lived for centuries helping all kinds of plants grow with their magic. Until humans came along and started doing gardening themselves. The sprites are still around but they help less and less. One little sprite named Wisteria secretly discovers a human girl named Elena who takes care of her mother's flower garden, as her mother is out working all day. Wisteria decides to secretly help Elena's garden grow, as long as she isn't discovered.  If you couldn't already tell, Wisteria does get discovered by Elena. And everything changes from there.  What a magical book! I love the whimsical illustrations, and I loved what a chill, slice-of-life cottagecore book this was.  It is a pure 5 star book . I want to read more from this author and illustrator. What was the last "chill" book you read?

My third favorite Sharon Creech book, after Bloomability and Ruby Holler ! Granny Torrelli Makes Soup is about Rosie, who recently had a misunderstanding with her best friend, Bailey (a boy). Rosie's grandmother, whom she calls Granny Torrelli, helps Rosie with her problem by having Rosie help her cook some soup, while she tells her a story of a similar situation that happened to her back when she lived in Italy. The second half of the book, after  Rosie and Bailey make up,  follows another dilemma, with  Rosie and Bailey meeting a new girl name Janine and thinking their friendship will fall apart. This time, Granny Torrelli has them help her make spaghetti and meatballs. She tells them another similar story from her youth, and then a pasta party happens.  It's a short book, but it really packs an emotional punch. What else did you expect from Sharon Creech? The food descriptions really had me thinking the food was delicious. I'm in the mood for soup and pasta, to...

  (Pic was found on Google Images) Another underrated and great book by LM Montgomery ! The Story Girl is about two brothers, Beverly and Felix King, who go to visit their cousins (named Felicity, Cecily, and Dan King) in Prince Edward Island for the summer, and part of the fall. The book in general is slice of life with no overarching plot, and it follows the situations, ranging from serious to comical, of the King cousins and some other friends. The family friends include Sarah Ray, a neighbor, and Peter, a hired boy for one of the wealthy families in the area, but the family friend that stands out the most is neighbor Sarah Stanley, or The Story Girl, which is what everyone calls her, because she loves to tell all kinds of stories. It’s also not to confuse her with Sarah Ray. The Story Girl likes to tell stories that have happened to people they know in their community, or stories she makes up herself, or even fairy tales and mythology. Almost every chapter of the book has Th...

  Yes, another Sharon Creech book! The Unfinished Angel is different than the rest of the books I've read from Sharon Creech so far. For one, it is a lot shorter. It's more like a novella. Secondly, it is magical realism! The story is narrated by an unnamed angel who guards a small village in Switzerland. They are confused why humans (or "peoples" as they call them) are the way they are, but they want to learn. The angel usually narrates in their unique voice what daily life looks like with what they often see, usually commenting on the same few people. The only one who can see and interact with the angel is an American girl named Zola, who came to live in the village with her father, whom the angel calls Mr. Pomodoro. He is planning on building an international school in the area (not the same one Dinnie from Bloomability goes to). The biggest event that happens in the story is a couple of runaway orphans are found in a chicken shed on a farm not far from the vill...

OMG.  This is a new all-time favorite! Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa is about Sentaro, an ex-convict who is paying off debt he owes by working at a small dorayaki shop. One day an elderly woman named Tokue comes in and notices the "now hiring" sign, and she asks Sentaro if she could work there. Sentaro notices that her fingers are all crooked, too, and he wonders if it's a good idea to hire her. After Tokue has him her try her own sweet bean paste recipe for the dorayaki, Sentaro loves it and hires her. More and more people start to drop by the shop and business is booming. One customer who visits frequently is a teenager named Wakana, who doesn't have a good relationship with her parents but eventually becomes friends with Sentaro and Tokue. Sentaro is happy that the shop is doing well thanks to Tokue, but the owner (his boss) finds out about Tokue and her crooked fingers, and she tells Sentaro she found out that Tokue came from a sanatorium that housed people...

I found out about this book because there is a CGI Studio Ghibli series of the same name directed by Goro Miyazaki (Hayao Miyazaki's son). I might or might not watch it sometime. The book is also by Astrid Lindgren, who is most well known for writing the Pippi Longstocking series. I could never get into the Pippi series (shocker, I know!), but this stand alone novel worked for me! Ronia the Robber's Daughter is about, well, Ronia, who is the daughter of Matt. Matt is the leader of a band of thieves who live somewhere in a big forest. Matt has a rivalry against Borka, who is the leader of another gang of thieves in the same forest. One day while hanging out outside, Ronia meets Borka's son Birk, who is around her age. They argue a lot at first, but then they soon become friends behind their fathers' backs. Eventually their fathers' find out and the two gangs get into a fight over it. It ends up with Ronia and Birk running away to live in a cave together. They enjoy ...