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Teddy Bear Tea
Teddy Bear Tea
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Teddy Bear Tea by Ellwyn Autumn is a children’s book that follows a few friends that meet for tea at promptly three. It is interesting and captivating, and I really loved it!

Teddy bears are usually the favorite companions children have, and this book reminded me of my own teddy bear. The storyline flows very fast and the rhymes are cute. Suddenly, you are in this amazing forest, having tea with the teddy bear and its friends. There is laughter and fun, and there is happiness and joy.

“Deer, chipmunks, and snakes,
With berries, tarts, and cakes,
Came together beneath a tree,
With Teddy, Rabbit, and me,For tea at promptly three.
It was a grand sight to see!”

The illustrations are adorable and reminded me of the old-school children books that I used to have when I was little. They are very vivid with bright colours, and I know that children will love watching them and identifying the teddy bear and its friends.

Something I really enjoyed as well was the font that was used in the book. It was captivating and it looked really nice. I also loved the decoration it has on the first capital letter of each page.

I definitely recommend it that you read this with your children and let them explore the images. Teddy Bear Tea is the perfect book to leave a positive feeling, right before bed time.
  
Lion Down (FunJungle #5)
Lion Down (FunJungle #5)
Stuart Gibbs | 2019 | Children
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Framing a Lion
While FunJungle is located in a mostly uninhabited area of Texas, there are some larger estates and ranches that border the park’s property. Living in one of those is Lincoln Stone, a radio and TV news personality that is known for saying very controversial things. He has a dog he loves, and, unfortunately, that dog has been killed. Lincoln is quick to blame it on the mountain lion that roams in the area, but the agent of the Department of Fish and Wildlife put in charge of the case doesn’t think that’s true. Thanks to Teddy’s reputation for solving puzzles at FunJungle, the agent turns to Teddy for help. Teddy agrees that the evidence left behind doesn’t add up. Can he figure out what happened? Meanwhile, Teddy and Summer, his girlfriend, are asked to figure out why the giraffes in FunJungle get sick every Monday. Will this case distract them from saving the mountain lion?

It’s nice to see Teddy get involved in one mystery that takes place outside the parks in this one. The mysteries are strong and are balanced perfectly, with clues that ultimately lead Teddy to the solution. The climax pulls in all the elements of the book in an unexpected way that leads into a page turning race to save the day. While this series has balanced the environmental message and the mystery well, this one got close to lecturing us a couple of times instead of working it in more organically. I thought the characters created for this book were a little thin and more caricature than character. Both of these complaints are things that adults will notice more than the kids who are the target age range for the books, however. The series regulars are still strong, and I especially love Teddy, Summer, and their families. The usual suspects also bring us several very funny scenes.
  
The Pantomime Prince
The Pantomime Prince
Samantha SoRelle | 2022 | LGBTQ+, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
"This is a little cracker of a book."
THE PANTOMIME PRINCE is a short but oh-so-sweet seasonal story about Teddy filling in on stage for his pregnant sister. Receiving flowers each performance is bittersweet when he longs for someone of his own but knowing the flowers are sent for his sister.

I won't go into detail about the story itself as I really don't want to ruin what is a little cracker of a book. Teddy makes his feelings known to the reader, giving me pause as my heart broke a little for him. Basil was a brilliant addition that had me laughing out loud.

My only wish would be that this was a longer story. I wish I could have delved a little deeper into the characters and their backstories. There are so many things I need to know. Samantha SoRelle did an amazing job of creating a short story that grabs your attention and characters that hold it from page to page. And for that reason, I want more. I don't think I'm ready to say goodbye to Teddy and Basil yet.

A fantastic read that is absolutely recommended by me.

** same worded review will appear elsewhere **

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
  
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Jul 31, 2021  
How awesome is this scrapbook page from author Teddy Jones about West Texas!?! Check it out on my blog, and learn about her women's fiction novel MAKING IT HOME. Enter the giveaway to win a set of all three novels in her Jackson's Pond, Texas-the Series or a copy of her short stories/literary fiction novel Nowhere Near and a $25 Bookshop.org gift card!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/07/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-making-it.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
In this third novel in the Jackson’s Pond, Texas series, fifty-five-year-old Melanie Jackson Banks encounters racism, intolerance, and violence both in her family’s distant past and in current day Jackson’s Pond. She leads family and community efforts to create reconciliation for past wrongs and also to demonstrate strength and defiance in the face of vandalism, cross-burning, domestic violence, threats to Jackson Ranch’s operation, and kidnapping. In the midst of this stormy period, she finds allies in her mother’s long-time companion, Robert Stanley; her mother, Willa Jackson; her daughter Claire Havlicek; and many others.
     
Last Stop in Brooklyn
Last Stop in Brooklyn
Lawrence Levy | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics, Mystery
6
7.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Mary is a case when she feels like someone is following her. But she cannot tell who at the moment. Once she sees her friend's husband talking to Colleen. She thinks the worse of her best friend's husband.

On her way out, she confronts a man see that is following her. When she does, he wants her to look into his brother case that is that Ben Ali is not a killer.

There seems to be some corruption going on in the NYPD in the year of 1894. Who does all the cover-up? Who the Killer of more than a dozen woman.

Looks like Mary get pulled into an investigation that has to do with Sage Bombing and as she gets more into the case of Ben Ali she finds more clues and finding the killer. Who is Jack the Ripper, the killer?

You will be turning the page to find out. Have you read the book you learn about that time period in NY? We even meet Teddy Roosevelt before he becomes President of United States and the reason why or at least partly.

If you are a historical Fiction fan you will enjoy this book. It a Mystery and part historical so you will get both if you are a fan of both or one or the other.
  
Lethal Intent
Lethal Intent
Cara C. Putman | 2021 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
8 Awesome Lethally Good things about Cara Putman's new book!

• Cara Putman opens your eyes to just how far some people will go to find a cure

• From the first page, Cara Putman focuses on the details, explaining things (like medical terminology) through Caroline and her new job at a medical research company

• The legal and medical terminology added a great layer to this story and really made the whole thing totally realistic in its intensity

• Cara Putman wrote this story as if You were there with Caroline learning all this information for the first time and figuring out exactly what was going on, which I believe made it that much more compelling and it hooked me from the first page

• The characters are spot on, both Caroline and Brandon play off each other and show the intricacies of a couple learning how the other thinks and processes information

• I LOVED how Caroline was strong in her convictions or wrong and right; and how she was willing to stand up for what she believed in, no matter the personal costs

• Brandon... What a soft teddy bear with the heart of a lion for the kids in his care. I truly loved his patient nature and how he was so concerned with the kid’s welfare. Cara Putman did a great job drawing out his character and giving little mysterious hints about his background throughout the whole story

• The combination of suspense, mystery, thrill, and the medical end to this story was such a good combination that kept me up way past bedtime


Cara Putman weaved a wonderfully dramatic story set amid an up and coming cure being found! It was fun to learn from the characters the processes involved as well as learning what can hypothetically be done to medically treat people. I really enjoyed this experience with Cara Putman, and I am already looking forward to my next book from her. 4 out of 5 stars.
  
My Life with Bob
My Life with Bob
Pamela Paul | 2017 | Biography, Essays
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I need to read more books about books, because the few that I've read, I've really enjoyed! Earlier this year I read Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, and loved it. I have holds on Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way Through Great Books and The World Between Two Covers: Reading the Globe. (I also have a hold on The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, but I'm not sure that quite counts.) And, in looking up the links for those books, I just put holds on three more books about reading, since this is a genre I apparently enjoy!

My Life with Bob is about the author's reading life. Bob is a notebook she uses to keep track of what she's read. Just title and author, and whether or not she's finished it. Very simple. But in looking back through what she's read, she recalls where she was, and what she was doing or going through at the time. So the real story is how her reading choices fit into her life, and how being a bookworm affected her life.

I enjoyed the book, with the slight irritation (in the latter part of the book) of her insistence on calling Young Adult literature, Children's Lit. Children's books are picture books and books for young readers, not The Fault in Our Stars and The Hunger Games. Those are Young Adult, and there's a pretty big difference in my opinion. Maybe not in the professional world; she is the editor of The New York Times Book Review. But it's frustrating to hear her talk about Kid Lit and lump Harry Potter in with a 36-page autobiography of a teddy bear written for kids under 10.

I was also a little shocked to learn (in the book!) she wrote a book about how porn is destroying the American family, and testified before Congress about it, sponsored by Senators Orrin Hatch and Sam Brownback. I normally don't have a problem reading Republican authors - I often don't know the exact political leanings of authors - but I'm reading about her reading choices, and suddenly they are all suspect. (She disliked Ayn Rand, at least, so that's something.) The book was published in May of last year, so after the last presidential election. Anyone who acknowledges working with the GOP at this point, and isn't embarrassed by it, immediately gets a black mark in my book.

So ultimately I'm torn on this book. I liked reading it. I dislike the author. (I will never even try to be non-political on this blog. Sorry-not-sorry.)

You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com