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camiandkitread's reviews
364 reviews
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
When I was in kindergarten, my class got to go to the school library every week or every other week. They took us to the section of books appropriate for our reading level and let us pick out whatever we wanted. It seemed like there were a million books to choose from but I always checked out the same one since I had memorized it and didn’t actually know how to read (don’t worry, everyone figure that out pretty fast and put an end to it).
One day while I was waiting in line to check out my book, I spotted “Farmer Boy” displayed proudly on a shelf in the big kids section. We weren’t allowed to go over there, but I told myself I would read that book one day. I think I knew it was a Little House book but assumed it was also about Laura Ingalls and how she had to be a farmer boy for her family since they only had girls.
I didn’t read “Farmer Boy” until I was eight or nine and I was so devastated that it was about Almanzo and not Laura that I hated it! All those years of building up to being able to read “Farmer Boy” on my own, what a let down!
After rereading it again, I realized that I don’t actually hate the book. It’s a charming story and filled with sweet characters and small adventures. But I still can’t completely let go of my childhood disappointment either and remained disappointed that Laura wasn’t in the book at all.
One day while I was waiting in line to check out my book, I spotted “Farmer Boy” displayed proudly on a shelf in the big kids section. We weren’t allowed to go over there, but I told myself I would read that book one day. I think I knew it was a Little House book but assumed it was also about Laura Ingalls and how she had to be a farmer boy for her family since they only had girls.
I didn’t read “Farmer Boy” until I was eight or nine and I was so devastated that it was about Almanzo and not Laura that I hated it! All those years of building up to being able to read “Farmer Boy” on my own, what a let down!
After rereading it again, I realized that I don’t actually hate the book. It’s a charming story and filled with sweet characters and small adventures. But I still can’t completely let go of my childhood disappointment either and remained disappointed that Laura wasn’t in the book at all.
Under the Same Stars by Libba Bray
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
I haven’t read a Libba Bray book since middle school/high school—shout out to “A Great and Terrible Beauty”—so I wasn’t sure what to expect from “Under the Same Stars.” But I saw the description included WWII and a friend was scrapping for an ARC so I figured this was one to prioritize on my TBR.
1940s Germany, 1980s Berlin, and 2020 New York didn’t initially seem like they’d blend well together. But if it’s about WWII, I’m probably sat, so I gave it a try and boy were my expectations shattered. “Under the Same Stars” took three separate, distinct historical events and used them as a background to tell a narrative about the power of love and resistance.
The book was well researched and handled the different historical events believably. Although I personally thought the 2020 scenes were a little heavy handed in regards to the pandemic, the scenes set in the 1940s with the war and Holocaust and the 1980s scenes with the dangers and differences between East Germany and West Germany were written beautifully. They seemed very respectful to those who suffered—to all different degrees—during the oppressive regimes.
1940s Germany, 1980s Berlin, and 2020 New York didn’t initially seem like they’d blend well together. But if it’s about WWII, I’m probably sat, so I gave it a try and boy were my expectations shattered. “Under the Same Stars” took three separate, distinct historical events and used them as a background to tell a narrative about the power of love and resistance.
The book was well researched and handled the different historical events believably. Although I personally thought the 2020 scenes were a little heavy handed in regards to the pandemic, the scenes set in the 1940s with the war and Holocaust and the 1980s scenes with the dangers and differences between East Germany and West Germany were written beautifully. They seemed very respectful to those who suffered—to all different degrees—during the oppressive regimes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Not one of my favorite books in the series, but “Little House in the Big Woods” is always a cute, cozy story.
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death and Racial slurs
Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields by Wendy Lower
dark
informative
medium-paced
3.5
“Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Field” is a difficult book to rate because it was well researched and well written but covers such a heinous topic nobody should really “like” this book.
Wendy Lower did an excellent job of showing that Nazi women who participated in the atrocities of World War II were not just concentration camp guards or the odd statistical outlier. There were hundreds of thousands of women—teachers, nurses, wives, secretaries, and more—who willingly assisted with the deliberate extermination of Jews and any other group the Third Reich deemed undesirable.
Some women were undoubtably just cogs in Hitler’s war machine, but other women took pleasure in assisting in the genocides—whether in an official capacity or not. Many of the specific stories, especially in Chapter Five: Perpetrators, got very intense and deeply unsettling (as they should). But, Lower presented the facts and her take on them in a way that was extremely respectful of the victims and did not glorify the perpetrators intentionally or unintentionally.
Wendy Lower did an excellent job of showing that Nazi women who participated in the atrocities of World War II were not just concentration camp guards or the odd statistical outlier. There were hundreds of thousands of women—teachers, nurses, wives, secretaries, and more—who willingly assisted with the deliberate extermination of Jews and any other group the Third Reich deemed undesirable.
Some women were undoubtably just cogs in Hitler’s war machine, but other women took pleasure in assisting in the genocides—whether in an official capacity or not. Many of the specific stories, especially in Chapter Five: Perpetrators, got very intense and deeply unsettling (as they should). But, Lower presented the facts and her take on them in a way that was extremely respectful of the victims and did not glorify the perpetrators intentionally or unintentionally.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Antisemitism, Mass/school shootings, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in Wartime America by Michael Benson
Did not finish book. Stopped at 28%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 28%.
Benson meanders around so much half the time I lose track of what he’s trying to talk about.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is a tricky book for me to review because while it's another classic adventure story, the constant, casual racism is distressing for a modern reader.
Huck does show a lot of character growth the more time he spends with Jim and eventually works to help liberate him but he feels that he’s doing the wrong this since Jim was enslaved. While it’s easy to dismiss this as just pure racism, I think it really shows how children often have a good concept of what’s right but can struggle with it if all they’ve been taught is what’s wrong.
It’s a classic book and features all kinds of typical scrapes and harebrained schemes that Mark Twain’s characters always have, but be prepared to discuss the overt racism in the book if giving “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” to a child.
It’s a classic book and features all kinds of typical scrapes and harebrained schemes that Mark Twain’s characters always have, but be prepared to discuss the overt racism in the book if giving “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” to a child.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
Moderate: Alcoholism and Alcohol
Minor: Blood, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
“Fourth Wing” was fun and adventurous, “Iron Flame” was repetitive and torturous, and “Onyx Storm” was…well, boring and predictable for the first 85% of the book.
It was definitely an improvement over “Iron Flame” but didn’t have the punch I was hoping for until the last few chapters where it ended on another tremendous cliffhanger.
It was definitely an improvement over “Iron Flame” but didn’t have the punch I was hoping for until the last few chapters where it ended on another tremendous cliffhanger.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Cassandra Clare has a way of making me gasp out loud and shriek with glee like no few other authors can because she uses tropes and twists so well—truly, Clare is able to weaponize those tropes and use them to devastate a reader in the best and worst ways.
I wasn’t quite as invested in “The Last Hours” series as I have been in the other series within the Shadowhunter Chronicles (Nothing holds a candle to you, “The Dark Artifices,” my beloved). But I still enjoyed reading “Chain of Gold” and am looking forward to reading “Chain of Iron.”
I wasn’t quite as invested in “The Last Hours” series as I have been in the other series within the Shadowhunter Chronicles (Nothing holds a candle to you, “The Dark Artifices,” my beloved). But I still enjoyed reading “Chain of Gold” and am looking forward to reading “Chain of Iron.”
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Death, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Infidelity and Grief
Escape Into the Night by Lois Walfrid Johnson
adventurous
challenging
informative
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
“Escape into the Night” was a book I had read several times as a child and recently rediscovered along some boxes at my mom’s house.
I was curious to revisit it since I didn’t really remember the plot and of course so much of our portrayals of and most critically the language surrounding slavery has evolved so much since the book was originally published in 1995. Surprisingly, it’s not that bad. The way Johnson wrote the enslaved people’s dialogue is definitely problematic as is the reliance of the white saviors trope, but again, it’s not bad for 1995.
The book does touch on on very difficult and upsetting topics, primarily slavery, so adults providing a child with this book should be prepared to have a conversation with them.
I was curious to revisit it since I didn’t really remember the plot and of course so much of our portrayals of and most critically the language surrounding slavery has evolved so much since the book was originally published in 1995. Surprisingly, it’s not that bad. The way Johnson wrote the enslaved people’s dialogue is definitely problematic as is the reliance of the white saviors trope, but again, it’s not bad for 1995.
The book does touch on on very difficult and upsetting topics, primarily slavery, so adults providing a child with this book should be prepared to have a conversation with them.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Death, Blood, and Death of parent