Adult Fiction Review: Brake Me

Brake Me - Athena Bliss and Marluxia Bliss

Goodreads

Storygraph

Overall Rating: 5/5 <- genuine average
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 5/5

Summary: Man sees car. Man wants car. Man daydreams for months about owning car. 

Turns out, car also wants man. Man buys car, car takes man on absolutely wild ride in more ways than one. Said ride includes high-speed chases, magical conversations, spectacularly written ex-lover tension and so much more that I don't even want to spoil it. 

Impression: Magic, sentient vehicles, snarky brats (multiple, as it happens), and a twist of abandonment issues. This book made me go outside and hug my partner's Ranger.

Conclusion/Recommendations: There are relevant taste notes which should be taken into consideration. Brake Me is a novella. It is part of a larger world but reads absolutely fine as a stand-alone. It is sexually explicit, LGBT+ positive, and involves consenting sexual relations between an adult man and his equally adult sentient car. If that's your vibe, run--don't walk--to get this book. 

After reading the ARC, I immediately went and bought the rest of the Sons of Echidna series. I devoured the whole series in a week and while each of those books is its own thing, Brake Me is hands-down the best in the series so far. I cannot wait to see what more Athena and Marluxia Bliss have in store (rumor has it the next one is titled Challenge Me).

Picture Book Review: Penny and the Plain Piece of Paper

Penny and the Plain Piece of Paper 

Miri Leshem-Pelly

Overall Rating: 4/5 <- genuine average
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Writing: 4/5

Summary: Penny, a colorful scribble of a little girl, is bored on her plain, white piece of paper, so she strikes out to visit other kinds of paper. She visits a newspaper, a map, graph paper, wrapping paper and a coloring book before returning to her original home, dissatisfied with the restrictive rules each other paper has. She decides instead to be herself on her plain paper and invite everyone she met on her journey to make a world of their own rules with her.

Impression: The illustrations are adorable, simple and fresh. Penny is unique in her world and each different paper world has its own stylistic look. You know Compass is from the Map because his lines and shapes are the same. Knowing the bears are from the Coloring Book goes beyond their black outlines and lack of color: they have the same rounded style as the rest of their world. Everyone fits where they start and show themselves to be clearly different from Penny.

Conclusion/Recommendations: Penny's story is cute, fun and flexible. An excellent story for early readers and story-times.

Blog Post: Picking Up Sticks

 

In the process of the last few years, I've been finding and losing myself. I've written my own fiction, reviewed a lot of other work, did some beta-reading for friends. I lost my way, learned some things about myself and generally feel like I've done a lot of growing up in a very short period of time, long after I should have.

One aspect of this is that I realized I'm not well-suited to keeping a regular blog or YouTube channel, obviously. I'm trying to get back into the habit of reading and reviewing, even if it's just for here and GoodReads. Reading and writing about that reading seems to help me with my own writing, too. 

Another major aspect of this introspection is a jarring realization of how much I still need to learn. My perspective as a public service worker has shifted with the pandemic and moving to a more personally-oriented public library. My perspective as a white person in a white-made society made for white people has shifted as I read more about history and the experiences of other people. I want to learn more and I want to share what I learn.

I'm also painfully aware that I'm exactly the kind of earnest, well-meaning, (nearly) middle-aged white woman who so irritates some of my friends of color. It's difficult to find ways to say what I mean without reinforcing the stereotype and further frustrating or earning their dismissal. 

One thing I've taken away from finally starting to listen is that it's been my privilege to not think about this. My privilege paved the way for me to not need to think about race growing up. It's my duty as a responsible adult with an interest in being supportive and equitable to think about it now, to read about it and learn about it now. Sometimes, it's been hard to read some of what I've read and then I stop and think, "Yeah, it's hard. It sucks. And some of my friends didn't get to wait until they were in their 30s to learn about it. They've lived it first-hand and didn't get the choice." I fell like I owe it to them--and all the other people of color who have suffered and continue to live and die here--to educate myself and respect the differences between what I experience and what they have experienced. 

And when it comes right down to it? What I think doesn't matter. What I do doesn't matter. What I say doesn't matter and shouldn't matter except to highlight what they think and do and say. This isn't my fight. It's theirs and I just want to help.

Nonfiction Review: Soul of an Octopus

Soul of an Octopus
by Sy Montgomery

Overall Rating: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Writing: 5/5

Summary: Sy Montgomery explores the science around octopuses while sharing her emotional and sometimes philosophical experiences volunteering with New England aquariums and her own personal diving trips. 

Impression: Most of the time I was reading this book, my husband got used to me wandering out into the living room to say, "Hey, listen to this! Did you know..." and then reading something randomly amazing about octopuses. Montgomery's prose is engaging and colorful, mixing both hard science and personal observation in a manner that keeps your attention on how incredible these animals really are.

Conclusion/Recommendations: I thoroughly enjoyed the book, though it was heavier on the philosophy and lighter on the science for my personal tastes. It's definitely a great book to whet your appetite for deeper exploration into cephalopod research.

Black History Month Review: Stamped From the Beginning

Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

Ibram X. Kendi

Overall Rating: 5/5 <- genuine average
Narrative: 5/5
Characterization: 5/5
Clarity: 5/5

Summary: A comprehensive look at American history through an anti-racist lens. The book moves through five major stages of human history and each stage is told with a specific "guide" in mind, someone who defined racism or anti-racism during that period of time.

Impression: Reading the history of racism and how deeply ingrained it is in American culture was very sobering for me. The writing here is excellent, clear and concise and empathic in its treatment of all sides of the issue. To say I enjoyed it would be only moderately accurate: it's not a subject to be enjoyed. It's a subject to be understood and learned from. I definitely know more and understand more about American history than I did when I started.

Conclusion/Recommendations: The Young Adult Readers edition of this book, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You was recently challenged in a high school curriculum and been the center of debate about teaching critical race theory in public schools. After reading this book, I believe that critical race theory is vital to this nation going forward. We need to question and understand what we have been taught and what we believe about ourselves. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in a primary on anti-racism and American history.

Graphic Novel Review: Solutions and Other Problems

Solutions and Other Problems
Allie Brosh

Overall Rating: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 5/5

Summary: The follow-up to Brosh's Hyperbole and a Half.

Impression: Allie Brosh has had a rough couple of years. Hyperbole and a Half was a raucous, bizarre exploration of anxiety and the weirdness that is life filtered through Brosh's unique viewpoint and graphic style. Solutions and Other Problems was formulated as a book rather than a series of graphic essays and the difference is notable. Not only is Brosh's tone more mature but her life has exploded in a lot of ways. She takes an unflinching (or vocally flinching and flailing) look at what happened, why it happened and why sometimes you can't explain why. Much darker and more existentially morbid than the first book, Solutions and Other Problems remains hysterically funny and uncomfortably relatable.

Conclusion/Recommendations: If you enjoyed Hyperbole and a Half for it's humor, you might enjoy this one. If you enjoyed it for its dark, morbid, off-the-wall perspectives, you will definitely love this. She has an incredible tone of existential horror which really appeals to Gen-Z dark humor.

Adult Review: Love and Other Consolation Prizes

Love and Other Consolation Prizes
By Jamie Ford

Advance copy provided by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Love and Other Consolation Prizes is the story of Ernest Young, a boy who was brought from China to be auction to "a good home" in the 1909 World's Fair in Seattle. The book opens in the 60s as Ernest over looks the second Seattle World's Fair and reminisces about his life and where he's come since then. He thinks about his wife, who now barely remembers him, and his children, the life he's built and how parts of it were taken from him over the years.

And it is beautiful.

Every word encompasses a world of sight, sound, taste, and scent. Ford's descriptions are to die for and I hung on every word. The characters feel with such incredible clarity that they could have stepped out from the pages and it wouldn't have surprised me.

From what I've read, this book is very much in line with Ford's other offerings, which include the Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which I have not read. The impression I have of this author is that his work flows from a sensitive place, an inner world which watches leaves fall and the way a slight breeze moves forgotten things across the ground.

Due to time limitations, I was only able to do an overview of this book, but I read the first two chapters, several chapters throughout, and the final two chapters. I had plans to cancel my hold on the book when I had an opportunity to explore it, but the lyrical story, sharp characters, and beautiful writing convinced me to wait and read the entire thing. This is an excellent book and if you enjoy bittersweet nostalgia and love that doesn't always fit the world's narrative, I think you would love this one, too.

Non-fiction Review: The Happiness Hypothesis

The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
by Jonathan Haidt

Overall Rating: 4/5
Subject Presentation: 4/5
Characters: n/a
Writing: 4/5

The Happiness Hypothesis delves deep into the simple origins of psychology and philosophy to discover the relevant truths in old wisdom. A fascinating study melding science and philosophy, this book gives simple, clear explanations for the concepts presented and is firmly grounded in modern psychological science. An excellent read for mildly jaded cynics (like me) seeking a simple approach to finding some peace in a fast-paced world.

On a more personal note, I read this book for my Psychology of Happiness class a few summers ago and it really changed how I looked at things like "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" and some of the older origins of mindfulness and meditation. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and refused to give my copy up to the bookstore at the end of the summer session.

Children's Review: My Brigadista Year

My Brigadista Year
by Katherine Paterson

Final Rating: 4.5/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 5/5

Newbery Award-winning author Katherine Paterson presents a historical fiction story from a bright young Cuban girl who volunteers to take part in the Cuban literacy campaign of 1961. Lora leaves her comfortable home in Havana to trek deep into the mountains to teach the compesinos, the farmers living in the countryside, to read and write. She tells the reader about her year as a brigadista, one of those teachers who strived to teach and learn beside their students until Cuba could be declared by the United Nations in 1962 as an illiteracy-free country.

Through Lora's eyes, Paterson finds the voice of a young girl in an entirely different country, who sees race and social standing from a Cuban perspective. Her passion for literacy brings Lora into conflict with her family and her father refuses to allow her to sign up for the program until her grandmother convinces him how important it is.

Included at the end is Lora's epilogue, telling the reader where she went, where those families went, how their lives have changed. Her story is almost a call to action, describing the doctors fighting Ebola in Africa and reminding the reader that she wasn't and never has been a hero, but she still made a difference in those people's. How could she not go?

This book should be in every library. If Katherine Paterson isn't nominated for an award this year, I will eat something one would not normally eat (I don't have any hats). The story is powerful, the characters are memorable, and the message stands loud and proud: we can overcome fear and ignorance to be better people together than we were before. Read it. Read it to your friends. Share it with people on the street. It's worth it.

Fanfiction Review: The Billionaire and the Bellboy

Trump Temptations: The Billionaire and the Bellboy
By Elijah Daniel

Total Rating: that smell somewhere between skunk spray and old coffee grounds
Characters: 2/5
Plot: 3/5
Writing: 2/5
Giggle Factor: 8/5

Okay, guys, time to face facts. If you were fool enough to read this story, as I was by the eager pushing of my teen Pathfinder group you know as well as I do that this is terrible prose at its finest. Are there mistakes? Oh, yes. Is the grammar atrocious? Definitely. Did the main character have as much to define him as a squashed avocado? That'd probably be generous.

Did I laugh? Hell, yes.

In three short chapters, Elijah Daniel manages to send up both the romance genre (and its amateur offspring, the fanfic) and our current president before he was in a position to throw paper towels at Puerto Rican survivors of a natural disaster with all the personal empathy of a constipated moose. It reads like some of the worst earnestly written fanfiction I've ever read and still manages to grasp all the parts of Trump that I would never, ever want to grasp.

I think my favorite line will always be "his oily orange skin glistening in the sunlight as if he were a soggy cheeto." Bravo, Mr. Daniel. Bravo.

Teen Review: A Monster Calls

A Monster Calls
By Patrick Ness
Inspired by an idea by Siobhan Dowd
Illustrated by Jim Kay

Overall Rating: 5/5 
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
Illustrations: 5/5

A Monster Calls tells the story of Conor, a teen living with his mother. His mother is in the advanced stages of cancer and continually tired from chemotherapy, leaving Conor mostly on his own.

And then the Monster shows up. Dark and imposing and utterly tree-like (without resembling Groot in text or in illustration), the monster says he came walking to answer Conor's call and would tell him three stories.

I read this in one day. At the desk and in the window at work, then in a wild desperate sprint at home that evening. I cried so hard by the ending. This is a masterfully-told story about a young boy coming to terms with the unthinkable, with survivor's guilt, with all the things that come before the after. Conor's story is heartbreaking and so very, very true to the experiences of anyone who has watched a loved one dying. The very idea of the book is gut-wrenching, terrifying and still holds a fragile, resilient hope at its center. That there will be an after. That we can move on.

The illustrations are intense, beautiful black-and-white pieces that mix pen and ink drawing with block cuts and stamping to produce the wildness of the untamed wilderness in a stark world that no longer cares for it. It evokes emotions of longing, of loneliness, of that feeling of watching a single crow flying overhead on a cloudy day. I could not review this book without gushing about the visuals. They added so much to the story, literally framing the narrative and giving the reader a sense of how important certain scenes were to Conor and the people around him.

I intend to watch the recent film release in the near future in order to post a book-to-film essay on Books by Day, Films by Night. There should also be a video forthcoming (I swear!) talking about what this book did better than the movie and vice versa on my (much neglected) YouTube channel.

Children's Review: Not a Box

Not a Box
Antoinette Portis

Rating: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
Illustrations: 5/5

I have forever been in love with this book. Not a Box details the inner lives of millions of imaginative children who can go on adventures with little flash and just the assistance of a box and a garden hose. The story is simple, the writing clean and unadorned. The images are the truth of the story, showing first the main character's physical reality with the box and followed by a red-sketched version of the same image only improved by the character's imagination.

One of the joys of this book for me is that the main character is entirely without gender. This story is designed to appeal to girls or boys or kids who haven't figured it out yet. Being a rabbit, the main character is also without human ethnicity and the simple style of storytelling transports any child into the not-a-box of this character. This is also an excellent choice for read-aloud storytimes, as the limited story and bold strokes of the illustration are very easy for children to grasp and expand on. Highly recommended for anyone who ever went to the moon in a box.

Childrens Review: Chickens to the Rescue

Chickens to the Rescue
John Himmelman

Rating: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 5/5

Chickens to the Rescue is one of my favorite childrens' books of all time. I am eternally disappointed that this book wasn't around when I was a kid. It follows the adventures of the family that live on the Greenstalk farm. As the story progresses, each member of the family has a puzzle they can't figure out and then the next page is always a two-page spread of a wild conglomeration of chickens solving the humans' problems.

Each page is full of life and activity and the chicken pages are the sort of hunt-and-find images that remind me of Steven Kellog's illustrations for Meg Karper's Jimmy's Boa books. There are dozens of things happening on every page and there is such delight in finding the weird things this or that chicken might be doing just on the edge of a page.

The story itself is straightforward and simple as each Greenstalk laments their problem where the chickens can hear them. It really isn't any more complicated than that, with most of the storytelling being supported in the illustrations. Himmelman's chickens are whimsical and wild, mischievous and with their own personalities throughout.

I highly recommend this book and it's sister books, Cows to the Rescue, Pigs to the Rescue, and Duck to the Rescue. Yes, just the one duck. He's a wonder-duck.

Blog Entry: I Live!

So, some of you may have noticed that there were two blog postings recently with no content. They have since been removed and I wanted to explain what's going on around here.

I let my schedule get away from me. I'm way behind in books I wanted to review, videos I wanted to make, and pretty much everything associated with this blog and its associated YouTube channel. I am still here and I am still planning to continue with reviews and vlogs. I'm just horribly behind at the moment.

Stay tuned to this space and the channel for more news.

PS: No, the Trump fanfic did not kill me dead. *significant glare at Avery*

Adult Review: Black Widow: The Finely Woven Thread

Black Widow: The Finely Woven Thread
written by Nathan Edmondson
illustrated by Phil Noto

Overall Rating: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Artwork: 5/5

This graphic novel follows a solo story arc of Black Widow, Marvel's talented black ops assassin. Filled with action and beautiful artwork, it's a solid addition to the Marvel comic universe and a pleasure to read and view.

While I enjoyed the artwork and the story progression, I didn't take away a great deal from the story itself. There were no new revelations about the character or her background, but it was fun to spend the time with Natasha. Not groundbreaking, but still an excellent story arc.

Teen Review: Maddie & Sayara

Promotional copy provided by Netgalley in return for a review.




Maddie & Sayara
Sanjyot P. Dunung
Expected publication date: September 7th, 2017

Rating: 2/5
Plot: 3/5
Characters: 1/5
Writing: 2/5

Maddie and Sayara are two regular 13-year-olds who meet at a spring break vacation in the Bahamas. They become fast friends and slowly, Maddie comes to understand the differences between her own country's laws regarding women and the "kingdom" where Sayara lives. When Sayara's cousin is arrested for daring to drive while female, Maddie makes a whirlwind decision: she is going to the kingdom to talk some sense into that stupid government.

I feel like I say this a lot, but I really wanted to like this story. It seemed like it had real potential for expanding the genre of politically-motivated stories in the tween/teen area. What I found was a painfully frustrating account of a "normal family" which is obviously very much not the normalcy of American middle class that I know, as her mother can afford to not work and hires a nanny for the three children so she can spent weeks on end in the spa and thinly veiled (no pun intended) references to a Middle Eastern country which requires all women to wear a "tent."

I was also appalled at Maddie's characterization. She steals her mother's login and frequent flyer miles to book a plane to a foreign country, so she can "find someone who can fix the driving ban." I have known a lot of naive teens and tweens, but none of them would even think about trying to go to a foreign country alone. None of them would assume that changing nation-wide laws can be done by one individual, especially a girl in a country that marginalizes women to the degree that the kingdom does. Naivety is one thing; reckless self-endangerment is something entirely different.

Also disturbing was the characterization of Maddie's mother: a supposedly middle class mother who neglects her children, spends lavish amounts of money to pamper herself and to make sure someone else raises her kids, and seems to emotionally abuse her daughter through unreasonable demands and silent treatment tactics. She also has intensely old-fashioned views about what women's roles in society should be, without a corresponding religious or social class basis for her opinions. It is stated that "that's how she was brought up to be" but the abusive effects of her behavior with Maddie are never addressed.

The writing also frustrated me. It seems that the author didn't expect that her readers would retain key plot points between chapters, so insisted on repeating--often in exactly the same words--those plot points throughout their relevant chapters. And while I appreciate Maddie's stream-of-consciousness approach to narrating, sometimes it is distracting from the story that is actually happening.

As a whole, I was disappointed by this tween/teen novel. Perhaps there are parents who care more about preaching the evils of overbearing faith institutions than a believable and relatable story. As an informational parable, it works relatively well and the pacing of information does keep you wanting to turn the page to find out what happens next. The information dumping is heavy-handed though, especially when it comes from a tween who doesn't seem particularly bright or able to make logical jumps on her own. The inconsistencies in writing and character development put this book very low on my recommended reads list.

Non-fiction Review: Women Who Work

Women Who Work
Ivanka Trump

Rating: 2/5

I want to preface this review with a note. I dislike Donald Trump. Intensely. But I'm also a professional and this review is as fair and balanced as I can make it. I will not attack, only review the book as it is.

Ivanka Trump aims to provide support and fresh ideas to the business-oriented woman. She covers several subjects including how best to organize one's life to maximize efficiency, recognizing the joy in the little moments rather than striving always for a perfect balance, and the importance of communication. Ivanka's first-person narrative style is engaging and the book itself is excellently readable. Concepts are well organized and presented, developed with Ivanka's personal touches and references back to her website community.

The ultimate failing of this book is that, like so many other books about being successful, it is aimed at a very narrow target audience: women with privilege. It assumes a level of pre-existing success to which the average reader has not had access. Many of her tips and tricks are sound and can be traced back to realistic business practices, but there is very little original material here, not to mention a complete blind spot regarding the working poor, women of color, and professional issues of the middle and lower classes. This book was written for white women who are educated and have been supported throughout their lives to a standard far about the average. This book was written to the self-purchasing women who buy clothing for the name and jewelry from collections. There may be some tips to be found here that might aid those women in their journey, but for most people, there really is very little to recommend.

Adult Review: Manhattan 1609

Manhattan 1609 (Book one in the Manhattan series)
Harald Johnson
Paper omnibus expected release date: Oct-Nov

Final Score: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 4.8/5

This is one of those books where I need to preface it a little. The author is a patron at my library and we struck up a conversation at the desk recently about books and reviews. When I asked if he was writing one, he told me that he'd written three and was putting out a paper omnibus edition of the series sometime in October or November. I offered to read the first one and review it for this blog and my YouTube channel. So, yeah, I have a slightly personal stake in this.

That said, Manhattan 1609 blew me away. From what Harald had said about his subject matter, I had expected an interesting story with lots of history and, because I'm skeptical of the quality of self-published books in general, a mediocre writing style.

This is not your average self-published book.

The story begins with Henry Hudson's trip across the Atlantic, exploring the explorer and his crew as they travel. It shifts then to the perspective of Dancing Fish, a native of the Lanape tribe living on the island of Mannahatta. The introduction of Dancing Fish blew the story wide open for me and I became completely invested in the storyline, his history and his future, and where he might be going. As a teenaged character, he's accessible to younger readers as well as adult readers who may commiserate with his new parents.

Once both sides are introduced, it's time for worlds to collide as Hudson continues to search for the elusive India passage. He comes into contact with the natives and Dancing Fish's tribe, eventually taking the young boy onto his ship as translator, away from everything he's known and the people he cares about to see a wider world off the island.

It's not very often I get to finish a book and immediately write to the author, but that is exactly what I did. I wrote to tell him that I was ecstatic about this book and that I would be recommending the omnibus purchase to my collection manager as soon as I'm back at work. I want everyone to read this and I want to be able to hand people a copy, look at them seriously and say, "You're gonna love it."

The only element of the writing that bothered me and decreased my overall score was a stiltedness early on with the crew of Hudson's expedition. The Hudson chapters before he meets Dancing Fish read like a paraphrasing of someone's journals rather than the development of a unique character. This fades immediately upon his arrival and contact with the local people, but it did make the first few chapters a little sluggish to read.

All in all, though I loved this novella. As soon as there's money in my budget for it, I'm buying the rest of the Kindle editions so I can see where he goes. An excellent historical fiction that gives you all the sense and feel of living in Manhattan back when it was still Mannahatta, still just as full of culture, beauty, artwork, and conflict as it is today.

Childrens Review: Unraveling Rose

Reader copy provided by Edelweiss+ in return for a review.



Unraveling Rose
Brian Wray
Illustrated by Shiloh Penfield

Rating: 4.7/5
Story: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Illustrations: 5/5

Unraveling Rose is the sweet story of a stuffed bunny who likes everything just perfect who develops a loose thread. Eventually, that loose thread drives her to distraction and eventually to picking at it all the time, pulling out her own stuffing. She decides to make a change, restuffs herself and stitches it up, then through time and patience and practice, learns that not everything has to be perfect. The end of the book includes questions and answers about OCD and resources for parents and teachers.

Rose herself is utterly charming, sympathetic and adorable, as is the boy who snuggles her and reads books with her. The illustrations do an excellent job of portraying Rose's increasing distress over her loose thread and the relief afterwards of finally having a direction to go that may help.

I feel very strongly that more children's material needs to exist to address compassionate ways to recognized and approach mental illness. It's a very personal passion, since I lived most of my life with an anxiety disorder that went undiagnosed until my early 30s. Putting this kind of material into the hands of children, parents, and teachers is so important.

While I acknowledge the lack of material currently circulating, I had some concerns about this title. The author makes direct suggestions of what parents and teachers should do, rather than directing each question to an authority. The author, while very well-informed and certainly well-intentioned, makes it seem easy for a child to make the changes needed to accommodate OCD and anxiety; this is far from the truth. It takes a long time, proper medical and potentially pharmacological interventions and a lot of trial and error. The steps presented can alleviate problems, but will not fix the root of the compulsions and anxiety. Ideally, I would like more emphasis placed on discussing problems and compulsions with a trained professional rather than hinting to parents that they can handle this kind of thing on their own.

Vlog Posting: Joshilyn Jackson Makes Me Cry

Hey, guys! I just wanted to let you know that there's a YouTube-exclusive book review video up right now on my channel. I would love it if you could check it out and give it a thumbs-up or a comment!