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Daniel Tiger's Grr-ific Feelings

Education and Games

8.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

App

**2015 Parents' Choice - Gold Award** **Common Sense Media - 50 Apps All Kids Should Play at Least...

Qigong Training

Sports and Health & Fitness

(0 Ratings) Rate It

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Learn about Qigong training with this collections of 185 tuitional video lessons and guides. ...

Jamie (131 KP) rated Island of the Blue Dolphins in Books

Jul 22, 2017

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Scott O’Dell | 1960 | Children, Young Adult (YA)

8.3

(18 Ratings)

Book Rating

Strong heroine (2 more)

Accurately conveys feelings of loneliness

Brings a little known piece of history to attention

Pretty depressing for a middle grade book (1 more)

Themes of loneliness will likely be missed by many given the age group

The story of the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island

This was my absolute favorite book growing up and I still cherish it more than a decade later.

Island of the Blue Dolphins is based on The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island: Juana Maria, a Nicoleño Native American left alone on San Nicolas Island for 18 years. She was the last surviving member of her tribe and died after she was rescued. This incredible story has largely been lost in the greater narrative of American history.

The story follows a young girl named Karana as she learns to survive on her own. Facing certain death, her tribe flees the island and Karana is left behind. The story has plenty of adventure as Karana fights to survive, learning how to be resourceful – hunting for food and materials for clothing, building shelters, and dealing with the local wild dogs and other dangerous creatures on the island. Where this book really shines is how the writing managed to portray Karana’s feelings of isolation and loneliness which really struck a chord with me.

The book is beautifully written and I’ve read it countless times since it was first gifted to me in elementary school. I look forward to when my own daughters grow older and I can share this story with them. This is a wonderful book for all ages that I absolutely adore. Fantastic for middle grade girls just getting into reading.

Kudos

Haley Mathiot (9 KP) rated The Espressologist in Books

Apr 27, 2018

Thoughts: Ok, so if you like to sit down on the couch in front of your Christmas tree with a cup of hot chocolate or a coffee, a blanket, and a cute fun light-hearted book that will make you smile and laugh a bit, this one is for you. There was a grand total of two kisses (no sex!), and no (zero!) bad words. It’s appropriate for ages 8-14.

But I wouldn’t go higher than 14. With that in mind, I’m 18. I guess I didn’t see what was great about this book. Maybe I’m hard to please (though I doubt it, because I was pleased by Perfect Chemistry. That sucked too.) but really, this book was pretty lame. There were parts where I thought “oh that’s cute” or “oh no!” but that’s about as exciting as it got, and that was the extent of my interaction with the plot. There was a lot of drama, and all of it was ridiculously unrealistic. The characters were shallow and had no relatability, and had what I call “happyland syndrome” when it came to their dialogue. I just didn’t like the dialogue—the things they said were either too perfectly thought out to be realistic, or just sounded silly. The writing was very mediocre, even for a contemporary YA novel. Lastly, the ending was weak.

Again, in for a light-hearted-relax-goof-off-waste-my-time kind of book? The Espressologist is for you. If not? Skip it. You aren’t missing much.

**Thank you to Kathryn from Henry Holt In Group for supplying my review copy**

Kudos

Whatchareadin (174 KP) rated Forever Layla in Books

Apr 3, 2019

David Foster is 17 years old, a few days away from being 18, on the road as a sound guy for his best friend, Michael's Band, and his life is about to change forever.
Layla is 24. She's in town from California and when she see David for the first time, like this, she's not quite sure what to do.
How does Layla know so much about David? Did his friends put her up to this as a prank for his birthday? But Layla knows things he would never tell Michael. So as David gets to know Layla better and as she gets to know the David she already knows in a whole other way, they form a bond that is not so easily broken.

Forever Layla is a story of love, happiness, trust, and science all wrapped up in one. David is living in 1994 and Layla shows up in his life from 2014. David is the kind of man every girl dreams of meeting, but Layla is afraid to mess up his life what she already knows. How can she make a life with him without giving away too much about who she is and how and why is now in his life.

This is a very well written book and it was very difficult to put down.

I loved the story of David and Layla. I was rooting for them to be together Forever as the title suggests. Their love was intense and amazing. To have a love like that with someone that you are willing to give up so much of yourself in order to make them happy and make their dreams come true.