Review (Book) - My Kingdom for a Horse [edited] by Betty Ann Schwartz

This is an anthology of poems [about horses] that I read as a requirement for one of the challenges in the Take Another Chance Reading Challenge. This book jumped out at me because of the beautiful title.

When I first went through this book, I didn't care for the illustrations. I really like bold, bright pictures (and I think kids tend to like these too). Reflecting on the book, though, I realize that the paper the artist used does give the images a dream-like appearance, which goes perfectly with the dreamy poems.

Most of the poems in this book were nice. They were all short and none were longer than a page (unless the picture took up a two-page spread). My favorite poem of the book was "The Unicorn" by William Jay Smith. My list of honorable mentions: "Equestrienne" by Rachel Field, "My Pony" by Ruth Feder, "Retired to Pasture" by Anita Wintz and the excerpt from "The Fly-Away Horse" by Eugene Field.

However, the book isn't perfect. I didn't like "Merry-Go-Round" by Mark Van Doren. I found the child in this poem selfish, and I don't think kids these days need to read anything that might even only subconciously promote selfishness. I also didn't understand the text alignment of "Tommy" by Tony Johnston. After reading "Giddy Up" by James Minor several times, I think I finally understand the text alignment, but there's only so many times you can read the words "giddy up".

This book wasn't outstanding, but it was good. If I was asked to recommend a short poetry book, I would put this on the list, as long as I remember it. I would definitely recommend suggesting this to horse lovers. I plan on recommending it to one of my younger teens and her sister who are obsessed with horses.

Amazon recommends this book for ages 9 - 12, but as I just said, I think this is a nice book for a horse and/or poetry fan of any age.

My Rating:

Reviews (Books) - Casey at the Bat by Ernest Lawrence Thayer

Please excuse me if this review is not up to par. I’ve been having a VERY difficult time trying to review the general story of Casey at the Bat because I don’t like writing “bad” reviews. If I didn't have to do it for the Take Another Chance challenge, I wouldn't.


*Please only read this if you are okay with “spoilers” (if by some chance, you don’t already know the story).

I don’t recall reading the story of Casey when I was young. Reading it now, at 21, I’m very glad I didn’t have to have the experience when I was young. For the life of me, I can’t understand why this story would be in the children’s section of a library! The words are extremely difficult, and there are some even I haven’t heard of (such as “doffed”). People actually shout “KILL the umpire!” and I can only imagine what the crowd did to the poor man after he had to call Casey’s strikeout. While the book may be full of “hope” (though it’s hard to see any hope through all the sullen words), there are no happy endings.

Illustrated by Gerald Fitzgerald
Personally, I don’t care for these types of illustrations. You can basically tell from the front cover what kind of illustrations are throughout the book, but the colors smudge together and the pictures don’t have clear outlines. I did like the page that was formatted so the text would fall at the same angle as the line from 3rd plate to home.

If, for some reason you wish to subject yourself to this book, it can be found on Amazon here.

Illustrated by Christopher Bing
These pages are designed to look like a newspaper from 1888, complete with black and white illustrations (“photos”) which may come off as less than impressive to those looking for colorful illustrations that “pop” off the page. Other newspaper clippings and/or other paraphernalia included on each page. These clippings have the tendency to be amusing and relate to parts of the story (i.e. an ad for voice lozenges on the page where everyone is yelling, and an article about revolvers on the “kill the umpire” page). They also try to shed a little light on some of the difficult words or terms, such as showing what the “cover” of a baseball would look like when it is “torn” off in the story.

This version of Casey at the Bat can be found at Amazon here.

Well…that’s that. You know I don’t like the story. I’ve highlighted all the good points I’ve been able to find in the books, which unfortunately isn’t much because there’s only so much that can be changed if you’re only illustrating a story someone else wrote. So, nice try illustrators; next time pick a better story to illustrate.

I see no reason for a library to need multiple versions of this story. If you have to get one for your library, I'd choose the latter.

My Rating (for both books):

Review (Audiobook) - The Host by Stephenie Meyer

"Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact and continue their lives apparently unchanged. Most of humanity has succumbed.

When Melanie, one of the few remaining "wild" humans, is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too-vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

Wanderer probes Melanie's thoughts, hoping to discover the whereabouts of the remaining human resistance. Instead, Melanie fills Wanderer's mind with visions of the man Melanie loves - Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she has been tasked with exposing. When outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off on a dangerous and uncertain search for the man they both love.

One of the most compelling writers of our time, Stephenie Meyer brings us a riveting and unforgettable novel about the persistence of love and the very essence of what it means to be human." (back cover)

It's been days since I've finished this book and I'm still not sure how to put this review into words, but I'll try.

***DO NOT read this book if you are looking for a Twilight read-alike. The only similarities I found between this book and Twilight is the female protagonists' occasional clinginess, and Stephenie Meyer's (sometimes excessively) descriptive writing style.

I tried to read this book as soon as it came out and couldn't get past page 18. I don't know if was the descriptiveness or the fact that I had no idea what was going on, but I just couldn't do it. Sorry, Steph. When I found out we had the book on CD, I thought I'd give it another try.

I made it well past page 18 the first time I listened to it, but something still wasn't quite right. Narrator Kate Reading sounded emo and completely uninterested in the book, and sometimes it felt like Stephanie Meyer was trying way too hard to think of one-word chapter titles. I think it was about the end of the third CD when the plot finally began to interest me, and by then I was thinking okay, I've made it through the boring part, and the book feels like it should be about one-third to halfway over now. WRONG. I opened the case to find out how many CDs were included: 20. The plot had gotten more interesting, and once male characters entered the story Reading seemed to relax and finally started changing voices for the different characters, but it was still difficult to push forward knowing how far I still had left to go...

...Cut to 3/4 of the way through book. At this point, the story was so good that I had to get the hard copy of the book at work to read while I worked; it was nearly impossible to put down. However, I did find that I missed listening to the book at this point. Without a narrator voicing the different characters, I found myself having to re-read portions of pages because there was so much dialogue and it was occassionally difficult to tell who was saying what. I had to intentionally leave the book at work so that when I got home I would go inside and read my schoolbooks like a good girl. When I got home I had to drag myself out of the car and away from the audiobook (and I still didn't get my school done).

The most interesting thing I found about this book is that it's the only book I can think of where I would have been just as happy with the "first ending" (second to last chapter), as the "second ending" (final chapter) - polar opposite endings.

Overall, I'm glad I stuck it out for the ending (I cried for pages). However, I would not recommend this book easily. With Twilight and a handful of my other favorite books, I'll quickly say, "you have to read this book," no matter who I'm speaking to. However, I honestly think that whether you will read and enjoy this book depends more on your personality. For instance - Do you give up if you don't like a book within the first few chapters? You may not be able to get throuh this book. Are you hard-headed and refuse to give up on a book until you finish it? You may get through the book but be so frustrated that you fail to enjoy the book. Are you patient, don't mind being confused occassionally, have a lot of time on your hands, and/or like science fiction with a touch of romance? This book may be for you.


While there is certainly no more "inappropriateness" in this book than there was in Breaking Dawn, because of its sheer size, I would recommend this for adults or older young adults. Actually, scratch that. Like I said before, it completely depends on their willingness to read and personality as mentioned above.

If you have opinions on this book, I'd love to hear them. I am really quite interested in hearing opinions about the two possible endings of the book.

Amazon does not have a recommended age on this product, which from my short experience I believe means it would be considered a higher level than most Young Adult books.

My Rating:

Take Another Chance Reading Challenge

You may have been able to tell from my Daily Dose post from yesterday, that I really enjoyed my trip out to Las Vegas last year. What does that have to do with any form of reading challenge, you might ask?

When I first saw the Take Another Chance Challenge, it half appealed to me because of the Roulette wheel, and half did not, because of the title. I don't really like re-reading books if I didn't like them the first time because I feel there are so many more books out there to read that I would enjoy the first go-round. Turns out, this challenge doesn't have to do with re-reading at all. Find Your Next Book Here's 2009 challenge was appropriately (judging by the Vegas/gambling-style buttons/banners) called the Take a Chance Challenge, therefore this year's challenge is called Take Another Chance. Phew, what relief. This challenge now appeals to me because of the totally random ways they get you to discover books for you to read.

I'm a bit late joining the challenge, but here are the rules:

~ The challenge runs throughout all of 2010.
~ There are three participation/"gambling" levels. Midway through the challenge you can decide to change which level you are going for.

• A Small Gamble: Complete 3 out of the 12 challenges
• A Moderate Gamble: Complete 6 out of the 12 challenges
• Gambling it All (I personally feel this should be re-named "All-in"): Complete all 12 of the challenges

~ Each challenge completed will earn at least one entry (more for the more difficult challenges) for the prize drawing (winner's choice from Amazon under $25) at the end of the challenge. If all 12 challenges are completed, you will get 5 extra entries.
~ Books used for other challenges are allowed to cross over to this one.

What are the challenges?

Rather than confuse you to the point of not bothering to give this challenge a chance, I'm just going to redirect you to FYNBH's post. I'll just use the following space for my reading plans:

1. "Read Your Doppelganger" - I guess I'll be reading Casey at the Bat by Ernest Thayer. I spent too long looking through our online catalog and the author section of Children's Books in Print and couldn't come up with much else. I plan on compensating for the length by reading and reviewing two versions.
2. "Blogroll Roulette" - I chose Abby (the) Librarian's blog to pick the...other blog. The blog I have to choose my book from wound up being Interactive Reader, and I've narrowed my choices down to one of the following: A Kiss in Time, The Hunger Games, Deadly Little Secret, Heart of a Shepherd, or Nothing but Ghosts.
3. "100 Best Book" - I don't know what book I'll be reading yet, but I know it will come off the 2009 BBYA list.
4. "Prize Winner Book" - It will wind up being a Caldecott or Newbery winner.
5. "Title Word Count" - Random.org gave me the number 2, so I'll be reading Planet Pregnancy, Forever Changes, or Blue Bloods for this portion of the challenge.
6. "Genre Switch-Up" - I rarely read Science Fiction, so for this one I'll be listening to Stephenie Meyer's The Host.
7. "Break a Prejudice" - I'll definitely be reading something along the lines of The Clique/A-List/Gossip Girls...
8. "Real and Inspired" - I'm going to go with Peter Pan and Peter Pan in Scarlett. (Thanks to one of our shelvers to this awesome suggestion!)
9. "Same Word, Different Book" - Twilight. I'm not sure which two versions yet, but that's my choice word.
10. "Become a Character" - Elisabeth: The Princess Bride. If I have to write as a character, I might as well have the same name as the character.
11. "All in the Family" - Call it cheating if you want - it probably is; but I'm probably going to do a few Curious George books for this (Margaret & H.A.). Unless, of course, someone has a better recommendation of longer books, but still in the J/YA section, or REALLY good adult book.
12. "Author Anthology Pick" - I've pulled the only three anthologies we have in the Children's department, and they are (I'll choose from one): Big Bear's Treasury, My Kingdom for a Horse, and Talking to the Sun.

Because there is a turning back point, I'll say I'm going all-in.
...I mean I'll "gamble it all"...
Wish me luck!