Bibliophile Support Group

Evangeline of the Bayou is an urban fantasy middle grade novel written by Jan Eldredge and illustrated by Joseph Kueffler. You may have noticed that just last week I posted a Q&A with the author! There is no doubt that twelve-year-old Evangeline will become an amazing haunt huntress – not with a lineage like hers. Not only was her mother a force to be reckoned with, but Evangeline lives with her grandmother – a daily opportunity to hone her skills. And she’ll definitely get her animal familiar soon. Definitely. It will be better than some unruly cat named Fader. Dang cat. Perhaps her time will be now – now that she and her grandmother have been called to New Orleans to investigate a strange case bursting with secrets to be unearthed. Yeah. She’ll definitely be returning to her bayou a true haunt huntress… This is a fun one. There was one particular line that was so delightful that I made a special note to call out in my review: “…its spiri...

Next Wednesday y'all will be getting my oh-so-humble opinion of Evangeline of the Bayou , the Summer 2018 Kids' Indie Next List selection! (That means it was picked via booksellers at independent bookstores countrywide.) Until then, I have a Q&A with the Louisiana born and raised author herself: Jan Eldredge! (Don't forget to come back next week for my review!!) A Conversation with JAN ELDRIDGE Author of Evangeline of the Bayou 1) The glossary in the back of the book is so helpful! Where did you learn about all these creatures? Which creature from the book is your favorite? I have a small, but growing, collection of books about mythical creatures around the world. If I couldn’t find what I was looking for there, I researched library books, online websites, and the occasional documentary. Something that really surprised me as I started learning more about mythical monsters was the number of different cultures that share very similar ...

Please visit my new book blog, Tomes in My Thirties ! I hope you enjoy it and decide to follow it as my new primary posting location!

Oh, life. What an interesting, unexpected, sudden thing it is. Both beautiful and jarring, it happens out of nowhere sometimes. I am sorry I have been so very, very absent. Not only did my time to write shrivel up for a long time, but my reading has been minimal. How dare I, right? Yet, entering my 30s has been eye-opening. We, as responsible adults with families and friends, have so many more things dividing our time and attention that books and reading do tend to become a casualty. I have come to make peace that I will likely never read quite as much as I once was able to – at least until I retire, that is. However! I am devoted to getting back in the game a bit again. Currently I am reading THREE books: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (you aren’t surprised, don’t pretend like you are); Tank Girl One (omg my boyfriend showed me the 90s movie with Lori Petty and I couldn’t NOT seek out the original comics); and Monster Hunter International (an urban fantas...

In my final day of participating in the I Read YA Week celebration (you can keep partying, it goes on through Monday!), I found myself presented with a new challenge of: Create a graphic showcasing an inspirational YA quote. I'm not super tech savvy and I've never created a graphic before. But with just a little Google searching and a download of an app, I was able to create this: Thanks for joining me this week! I hope you all enjoyed it! Please follow or subscribe for notifications of new posts and reviews upcoming on the Bibliophile Support Group! #YAStandsFor @IReadYA

During the ongoing annual Scholastic event I Read YA Week, they are presenting readers with Daily Social Challenges to get us thinking on what #YAStandsFor to each of us individually. Today's is: Swap a YA book about the positive power of friendship with your bestie. Slight problem, my bestie is not a bibliophile. I know. I know.  But it's ok! Instead I will just spotlight a book I would share, if he was less bonkers and more bookish.   My choice: Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen. Unlike some of the initial books that ran through my mind in response to this challenge, this book shows the positive power of new friendships. It shows how friends can push you outside of your comfort zone, broadening your perspective on what opportunities are feasible to you... and in the case of Keeping the Moon , pursue a fresh start. And without being disingenuous, I can honestly say finding the right friend(s) at the right time can be a life changer. This novel highlights...

In honor of the annual I Read YA , Scholastic's #YAStandsFor Daily Social Challenge is: Give a shout out to your favorite literary fictional hero. OMG, can you ask anything more difficult from a bibliophile?!? I think this is only a step below: What is your favorite book? Seriously Scholastic, way to torture my poor, fragile, book loving mind! There are far, far too many choices and far, far too many beloved characters for me to choose. So, I am picking a particular heroine that stands out to me from a more recent read. Madeline, from Nicola Yoon's novel Everything, Everything is my choice. I am aware this book has been made into a movie, I have not seen it. But the novel was... lovely. My reason for choosing her: Madeline is a character whose Severe Combined Immunodeficiency disallows her from going outside the sanitized, safe world of her home and the company of her longtime nurse and single mother. She is positive, cheerful and intelligent - a girl who ha...

Today I continue the Scholastic I Read YA celebration with the second #YAStandsFor Daily Social Challenge to: Tell us about the YA book that helped you find your voice. It's likely going to be a choice of many, but I have to choose the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. Some people may call it a Children's series, but as he ages up to seventeen in the series, I think we can safely say it falls in the YA category safely also. My reason for picking this series, is that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is the book that truly cemented by love of reading. As a kid, I loved reading Babysitter's Club and Goosebumps , Nancy Drew and other great stories - so I was already a fledgling bibliophile. But when my 6th grade teacher started reading from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to the class during the end of day free time, I fell truly, madly, deeply in love with stories. Never before had I felt so entranced by a narration, by the world build...

Howdy There, Bibliophiles! As part of Scholastic's teen community annual I Read YA , Scholastic is encouraging book lovers to share in fun challenges that spotlight how awesome YA is as a genre, a genre that is honestly pigeon holed by the age of the protagonist instead of the content of the story inside. So, I am going to participate in a few of these to get my toes back into the waters of the wonderful world of YA once more. I'd love for y'all to join in and tell me What Does YA Stand For... for you?!? For myself, YA stands for a genre that caused me some of  the best adventures in sci-fi, mystery and romance during my teenage years. I didn't stop reading YA when I entered my 20s, but my memories are vivid of when I identified with the characters that were placed in extraordinary situations. Whether the engrossing and wonderfully sarcastic heroines of some of Meg Cabot's early works when she wrote as Jenny Carroll - The Mediator series and 1-800-W...

Why hello there, loyal readers! It's been a long, long time since I last wrote about a new novel - or wrote much of anything original. Life has definitely changed for me in many ways, changing how and where I devote my time. But... whaddya know? I managed to finally finish a book! Gardenia is a YA genre mash of murder mystery with a dash of sci-fi/fantasy, written by author Kelsey Sutton. When Ivy's best friend died, it wasn't a surprise to her. Because, ever since she was little, Ivy has seen the numbers over everyone's heads. Their countdown, if you will. But she didn't know the cause of her best friend's death would be... murder. Labled as a bit of an outcast, due to her odd behavior and reaction to Vanessa's death, Ivy finds herself more alone than ever as she is determined to find her friend's killer. And she doesn't have much time, herself... as she's known her whole life. Now, she realizes, it may be that she may give u...

Hi My Lovelies!!! I apologize for being so absent this year - it's been Quite the Year!!! My life has been ridiculously busy and I unfortunately have to set aside my blog for a bit. Once thigns calm down - I do plan on returning to blogging and reviewing what I read. However, in the meantime - feel free to read through the 100s of reviews that have posted over all the many years of this blog. Have a happy and wonderful New Year!

The Haunting of Sunshine Girl is a YA supernatural novel by Paige McKinnon. The Awakening of Sunshine Girl is it's follow-up sequel, recently released this year. Sunshine has lived in sunny climates with her mother up until her sixteenth birthday, but now it is off to rainy, dreary Washington state. Her mom has a new job in a small little town. They move into a rather... creepy... house. She's trying to make the best of it. But things are seriously weird. It seems a cold breeze follows her throughout the house causing doors to slam. And she hears an eerie laughter that turns to sobs. She *knows* she is hearing it. And where initially her mom was skeptical but noticing some things... now she is completely oblivious to supernatural acts occurring right in front of her. Clearly she needs to figure out what is going on... Before it's too late. Okay. That synopsis was weak. Let's all agree to this. It was token. And the problem is... so was the book. I got 100 ...

Throwback review from June 2011! Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a middlegrade fantasy and Newberry Honor winner by Grace Lin. Minli lives in the Valley of Fruitless Mountain where she sees her parents work very hard every day in the fields with very little to show for it. Her favorite part of the day is the evening when her tired but pleasant father tells Minli tales about the Valley they live in and how it became Fruitless, as well as about the Old Man of the Moon, who knows the answers to everything. Then one day Minli decides to try and make things better for her family by setting out on a quest to find the Old Man of the Moon - knowing that he will know how to change their fortunes. So she sets out on a journey that causes her to meet a talking fish, a dragon who can't fly, a powerful king, and more! First off, I must say that I love the vivid, eye-catching cover and illustrations that decorate this charming, sweet, earnest tale of magic and fantasy...

First of all, I am so sorry for two weeks off the map!! However, I am back with a BRAND NEW REVIEW. Worth waiting for, yes?!? Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two by J. K. Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne is the script that carries on the story of Harry Potter in a new modality. Beginning as Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione’s children are at the start of their Hogwarts education, Cursed Child introduces us quickly to our primary child character, Albus Severus. We had a brief meeting of him at the very end of the original series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , in which his name brought us to shuddering tears or scoffs of bewilderment of the terrible name – I was in the former category, unashamedly. Now, though, we see that something happens in the start of young Albus’s time at Hogwarts that puts a strain on his relationship with his father, Harry. And as some initial years pass – quickly in a montage-like scene in script format – grow...