Review: Little Tales by Raymond Pyke

About the Book

Little Tales by Raymond Pyke

Independently Published on January 8, 2019

Amazon Description

A collection of short stories which will whisk you away to a world of pure imagination. There are tales of magic and fantasy; stories involving animals and nature; cracking adventure yarns; and unusual fables about fairies and giants. Although written from the viewpoint of a young girl, the stories will appeal to readers of any age group or gender. Actual names are avoided within the stories so that the reader can better identify with the main characters.

My Thoughts

This middle grade book felt like a treasury of short stories to teach morals to small children.  The tales were easy to follow and quite whimsical.  As a teacher, I see the importance of repetition and story on the development of the individual.  This collection expertly provides both of these things!  I have already made plans to tell some of these stories to my future children.

I am excited that Pyke included stories from a variety of cultures.  There are stories for each child to relate to.  This is made especially wonderful by his choice not to use any specific names.  I love that this allows each child to insert himself/herself into the story.  I would have loved to see more stories with male protagonists, however.

 My largest complaint about it is that several words were used that the targeted age group would not understand.  Unfortunately, many of these words are important to understand what is happening in the tale.  This encourages children to expand their vocabulary, but takes away from the flow and comprehension of the story.  I think that this is one case where Pyke should have considered what is more important-vocabulary expansion or moral growth.

Overall, I am incredibly excited about this piece! I was fortunate enough to be able to listen to the audiobook and the reader definitely brought the stories to life.  I look forward to reading much more from Pyke in the future!

My Rating

Review: Hansel and Gretel

Title: Hansel and Gretel
Author: Mike Klaasen
Publisher: BookBaby
Publication Date: June 8, 2016
Genre: Fairy Tale Retelling
Rating: 4/5 "I liked it!"

I received an eARC from the publisher in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

GoodReads Description
A famine decimates a magical realm, and the family of ten-year-old Hansel and his little sister face starvation. Their parents decide that the best hope for all of them against almost certain death is to abandon the children deep in the forest, but Hansel leads Gretel home by following a trail of pebbles that glow in the moonlight. Still desperate, their parents prevent Hansel from finding more pebbles, and then they abandon the children even deeper into the forest, where they become thoroughly lost. Hansel and Gretel follow a white bird to a shack in the woods and fall captive to Petra, an evil witch, who fattens Hansel for slaughter. Hansel tricks Petra into thinking he isn't fattening, then pushes her into the oven—only to discover that they may not yet be out of danger.

My Thoughts

What a wonderful read!  I truly enjoyed making my way through these forty four pages.

I loved that Klaasen was willing to put this novella into words that modern day students would understand;.  Too often, I find that the books we are encouraged to read in school have antiquated language that students drudge through.  This novella would be a wonderful starting point for any student who is interested in fairy tales!  Additionally, Klaasen includes the original tale at the end of the piece.  This provides a wonderful opportunity for teachers to work on comparison/contrast text structures with their students.  That's right, teachers, two methods for comprehension improvement are readily available in this novella!

Another wonderful assistance to students is that this book has very few errors.  Therefore, students will be able to practice their grammar skills with the sentences in this book.  

While I don't believe that this book would be suited toward my older students, I can definitely see my seventh and eighth grade classes having a ball!  If I am able to get a few more copies, I would love to use it for creative writing pieces!

About the Author

Mike Klaassen is the author of the series "Klaassen's Classic Folktales," which so far includes two of the Brothers Grimm tales retold a novellas:
"The Frog Prince" and "Hansel and Gretel." Mike has also written "Backlash: A War of 1812 Novel," and two young-adult novels: "Cracks" and "The Brute." He has published two nonfiction books: "Fiction-Writing Modes: Eleven Essential Tools for Bringing Your Story to Life" and "Scenes and Sequels: How to Write Page-Turning Fiction." Mike publishes "For Fiction Writers," a free, monthly, online newsletter about the craft of writing fiction. For more, see www.mikeklaassen.com.

Review: Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi

Title: Furthermore
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: August 30, 2016
Genre: Fantasy, Middle Grade
Rating: 5/5 "I loved it!"

I borrowed this book from the public library.  Dutton Books and Tahereh Mafi did not request this review.



Description from GoodReads

A captivating and colorful adventure that reads like a modern day fairy tale, from the bestselling author of the Shatter Me series.

Inspired by her childhood love of books like A Secret Garden andThe Chronicles of Narnia, bestselling author Tahereh Mafi crafts a spellbinding new world where color is currency, adventure is inevitable, and friendship is found in the most unexpected places.

There are only three things that matter to twelve-year-old Alice Alexis Queensmeadow: Mother, who wouldn’t miss her; magic and color, which seem to elude her; and Father, who always loved her. The day Father disappears from Ferenwood he takes nothing but a ruler with him. But it’s been almost three years since then, and Alice is determined to find him. She loves her father even more than she loves adventure, and she’s about to embark on one to find the other.

But bringing Father home is no small matter. In order to find him she’ll have to travel through the mythical, dangerous land of Furthermore, where down can be up, paper is alive, and left can be both right and very, very wrong. It will take all of Alice's wits (and every limb she's got) to find Father and return home to Ferenwood in one piece. On her quest to find Father, Alice must first find herself—and hold fast to the magic of love in the face of loss.


My Thoughts
Before we get into my thoughts on this book, I NEED to share my story of getting this book into my hands.  Way the heck up here in Northern Minnesota, if KMart doesn't have it, you either buy it on Amazon or consider yourself screwed. Furthermore was my most anticipated book in 2016.  August 30th came.  KMart did not have it.  September 30th came.  KMart did not have it. Neither did our library.  So, I spoke to my librarian friend and told her of my plight!  She came to my rescue and bought this book specifically for our library!  YES!  Then, when the book came in and was processed, she didn't even bother putting it on the shelf before putting it in my hands. I picked this book up and just held it and petted it.  It's so freaking shiny!  I actually ran home from the library and fan-girled to my guy about it.  I'm pretty sure he thought I was either crazy or going to blow up because there was so much squeaking and squealing!

Anyway, at some point I have to tell you about the amazing-ness that is Furthermore.  My absolute favorite part of this book was Mafi's ability to create a new and amazing world.  Even though some crazy things (rainlight, down exits, doors into other worlds) Mafi makes her audience believe that these things are totally possible because the setting is so believable.  I loved that she was able to keep her facts about both worlds in this book straight.  This made it so much easier for me to understand what was going on and what kind of magic worked in what world.

Another thing that I absolutely loved was Mafi's narration.  I loved that she chose to write in a third person omniscient point of view.  This allowed her to really add an extra level of description and plot to the story with ease.  Additionally, the narrator was very good friends with the characters.  This makes for some HILARIOUS chapter headings. I refuse to spoil these for you.  Get the book.  See them for yourself.

Alice was a wonderful character.  I loved that Mafi just allowed her t be the twelve year old that she was slated to be.  Mafi didn't try to make a twelve year old who was well-behaved and a perfect angel. Instead, she presents Alice as a troubled preteen who has a hard time staying out of trouble and deals with parental strife and chaos.  Alice is so realistic, that I could actually picture her fitting in very well with my seventh grade class.

While the length of this book may intimidate some students, I think that it would be useful for talking about the universal ideas of self-acceptance and choices.  Mafi does a terrific job not only providing evidence of these universal ideas, but of stating the theme of the novel right at the conclusion.

About the Author
She was born in a small city somewhere in Connecticut and currently resides in Santa Monica, California with her husband, Ransom Riggs.  She drinks too much caffeine and finds the California weather to be just a little too perfect for her taste.  When unable to find a book, she can be found reading candy wrappers, coupons, and old receipts.