Gum Girl!, Book 1: Chews Your Destiny

Chews Your Destiny by Rhode Montijo is about Gabby Gomez a young girl in love with chewing bubble gum. While Gabby loves gum, her parents do not. So, one day her mom forbids Gabby to chew anymore bubblegum, but Gabby cannot resist. In her pocket she has a gumball and on the way to school, she chews it. But this gum wasn’t ordinary gum, it was the gum that turned Gabby into a superhero, it turned her into Gum Girl! Gabby then begins her adventures helping people as Gum Girl; however, she has to keep her identity a secret from her parents, which makes the situations she gets into a whole lot stickier than any piece of gum she’s chewed before. Along with hiding her identity from her parents, Gabby has to deal with her nemesis from school, Natalie.  Natalie, who looked like Harold from Hey Arnold, was gross, especially in a scene involving a booger. Despite the unhygienic Natalie, this book reminded me of a type of Captain Underpants style of book for young girls. I liked this book, loved the illustrations and I look forward to reading more about Gaby’s adventures.

Mighty Alice Goes Round and Round: A Cul de Sac Book

“Mighty Alice” centers around a girl, Alice, as she navigates through aspects of her four-year old life. The book covers everything from Halloween, to haircuts and her preschool class. This was the first book I read by Richard Thompson and I loved it! Alice and her friends were hilarious! The story made me think of my own family, like the way Alice and her brother Petey spoke. Their conversations made me laugh because I could picture my nephews saying the same type of unusual statements. They say the oddest things to us, and I enjoyed how Alice was filled with the same type of whimsy. I feel as though that is sometimes lost in novels when adults write from a child’s point of view. So I appreciated the tone of the novel. Also, I want to be a preschool teacher so I loved when Alice and her friends poked fun at their preschool’s curriculum. It made my day!  I could see the way lessons can sometimes feel condescending to the students, which made me rethink the way I plan on presenting lessons. I think what I liked most about this book though, was that it was fun, just plain fun. The comic strips were entertaining, funny and enjoyable for all. I can’t wait to read more by Thompson!

My Book Bucket List...

My Book Bucket list...

The Secret Garden

The Amber Spyglass

Eragon

The War of the Worlds

The Gift of the Magi

Lies

Lord of the Flies

Heidi

The Wonderful Wizrd of Oz

Slaughter House Five

Savvy

Gone With The Wind

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Tess of the Durbervilles

A Christmas Carol

Just Listen

Alice in Wonderland

1984

Antigone

The Scarlett Letter

The Wind in the Willows

Book Bucket List Challenge....

So, today I was checking yareads.com to see if there were any new reviews because I haven't been on the site for awhile and while I was scrolling down the page I saw an article for their book bucket list challenge.





I had to read the article because I had never heard of a book bucketlist before and i'm glad I did.





Yareads started a challenge this year to get their readers to read the books they've always wanted to read but haven't got around to.





The challange is to make a list of books you've always wanted to read but haven't, read them, then review them and link yareads to the reviews.





So I have decided to join this challenge to encourage myself to read the books that are on my to read that I normally would never get around to.





I hope you all join this chllenge too.

Alternate Covers of Howl's...

I just posted my review of Howl's moving castle but I thought I should add another picture of the book .

This cover is the U.K edition and I really like the cover colors and font.

Review #1... Howl's Moving Castle.

If your a fan of Japanese anime, your probably familiar with the name Hayoa Miyazaki. Who is one of Japans most celebrated film makers. But did you know that Howl's Moving Castle, one of his most famous movies in America was a book before it was a film? If you answered 'no', that's ok because as admirer of Miyazaki and a voracious reader I only recently discover that this amazing movie was a book first. When I mentioned I hadn't read the book yet to another Miyazaki fan, she immediatly lent me her copy, which I devoured almost instantly.

Although I was scared to read the book, for fear it wouldn't compare to the movie because let's face it Miyazaki could make anything into a masterpiece, I read the book and was instantly hooked.

Diana Wynne Jones the author of Howl's moving Castle, paints a picture so descriptive that although at time to others it may seem boring, had me captivated from the very first chapter, not a very easy thing to do by the way.

Synopsis...

For those of you who don't know what the book is about Howl's Moving Castle, is a story about...

Sophie Hatter, a milliners daughter who after her fathers death is apprenticed at his hat shop, her sisters are apprenticed elsewhere and on the way to visit her sister she meets a stranger. And this chance encounter leads to an extrordinary adventure that changes her life and makes us question whether we should live life the way society and tradition dictates or should we take the initiative and carve our own path and make our own good fortune.

After this chance encounter Sophie is put under a curse by the Witch of the Waste,and she then meets the Wizard Howl, his apprentice Michael and the fire-demon Calcifer. Striking a deal with Calcifer, Sophie stays in Howl's household (a moving castle), and becomes his cleaning lady and she's taken on for a wild ride of wizard adventures as she learns to speak her mind and look past outside appearances to what lies deeper inside a person, their heart.

Although I love the book and the movie there are some differences so I'll point out a couple.

Spoilers..

In the move Sophie befriends the scarecrow Turniphead while in the book she is scared of him.

In the movie, Howl turns into a bird on a couple occasions while that never happened in the book.

In the movie, there is a war going on while in the book the war is talked about but it hasn't started yet.

Notable Lines...

"I think we ought to have a happily ever after. - Howl

And you'll exploit me - Sophie

And then you'll cut up my suits and teach me."- Howl

Rating...

Out of 5 stars I would give Howl's Moving Castle 4 stars.