Candy Bunny Reader

TW: Discussions of death Yes, another great book by Sharon Creech . She is a favorite author of mine now.  Chasing Redbird follows 13-year old Zinnia Taylor, or Zinny as she is nicknamed. She lives with her large family on a farm in Bybanks, Kentucky (not a real place in Kentucky, by the way). Living next door to them is her widower Uncle Nate. She was very close with her uncle, aunt, and cousin, as she would sometimes go over to their house to escape her noisy big house. But her aunt Jessie and her cousin Rose died a few years earlier, and Zinny feels guilty because she thought that she was responsible for their deaths (she was sick then her cousin Rose got infected and died, and aunt Jessie happen to die shortly after one day Zinny showed her a snake, which aunt Jessie was horribly afraid of). Even after everyone in her family told her it was never her fault.  Well, one day Zinny discovers that the small stone-paved trail behind her house that she sometimes walked with her...

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...