Candy Bunny Reader

Sheeta's Little Big World is manga trilogy by Yuki Kamba . It seems to take inspiration from the Studio Ghibli movie The Secret World of Arrietty , with elements of survival stories. Sheeta lives with other littlefolk in a small village in the woods somewhere after he was abandoned by his father. He becomes close friends with another boy named Nala. One day, the two boys see smoke coming from a giant tree from afar, and Nala runs away to see what it is. Sheeta then has a mission to find Nala and find his father, too. Sheeta relunctantly teams up with another littlefolk named Izuna, who holds a grudge against Sheeta's father for something he did to him in his past. As they travel, they learn to survive of the land, and encounter other littlefolk with problems they help to solve. It doesn't sound too bad, doesn't it? That's what I thought at first. The first book had a solid beginning. Book 2 still wasn;t too bad--I just didn't like how a large chunk of it was sp...

  Funny enough, this book's title has the word "stranger" in it! I read this book last year and it blew my mind. It's the true story of this guy named Christopher Knight who willingly lived in isolation in Maine for 27 years (1986-2013). He was dubbed the "North Pond Hermit". This book is written by a journalist who interviewed Christopher shortly after he was arrested. You can read the full review on my blog here . Do you know any other strange but true stories?

  My second book from Jen Wang ! The first book I read from her was The Prince and the Dressmaker , a long time ago. You can read that review here . Ash's Cabin follows Ash, a transgender mixed-race teenager who wants to find and restore their eccentric grandfather's old cabin, which is very isolated from the world. Ash gets a bunch of books from the library and watches a bunch of YouTube videos to learn how to survive in the wild. They also raise money through dog walking so they can buy supplies for camping and food. They are finally able to go on the trip when the rest of their family goes to Disneyland. Ash stays with their aunt and uncle and cousin first (who have their own house out in the country) before going to the cabin. When the aunt, uncle and cousin go on their own trip later, Ash lies about staying in their house so they can go find their grandfather's cabin. Camping out and restoring an old cabin isn't easy! But Ash and their dog Chase find surprises alon...

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 ...

Another classic middle grade! My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George is about a preteen boy named Sam, who got fed up with life in his small apartment with his big family in New York City, and he decides to go to the Catskill mountains and try to find the parcel of land that once belonged to his great grandfather. He finds it and ends up living off of the land for about a little over a year. Each chapter is detailed on how he lives in the wilderness, from hunting to berry picking to making clothes to keeping himself warm with fires. Sam learned everything from books he read at the library. He also becomes friends with some of the wild animals, such as a falcon he names Frightful. He even meets other humans that happen to cross his path, such as an English professor who initially got lost. Despite living almost isolated, he ends up becoming  famous in the community. Well, I'll tell you right now that I just gave it 4 stars . It was an enjoyable book, but it wasn't an...