Review - The Parker Inheritance

The Parker Inheritance is a suspenseful book with great characters. If you like word puzzles/riddles, then this is the book for you.

Twelve-year-old Candice finds a letter that her grandmother left in the attic of her old house where Candice is living for the summer. Candice is sure that she was meant to find it. But she's not sure who she can trust with its contents. She soon enlists the help of Brandon , the 11-year-old boy across the street.

Against a backdrop of the history of racism in the south, the two children struggle to find answers to the puzzle in the letter and puzzles in their lives. But not all puzzles get solved and not all endings are happy. It's a fascinating ride to see if these two kids can solve the grandmother's puzzle.

Review - Howl's Moving Castle

Wow! What a ride. From the start, Howl's Moving Castlegrabs you and takes you on a wild ride of magic, adventure, mystery and love.

At the beginning of the story, we meet Sophie, a plain young hat-maker. For some reason, the Witch of the Waste casts a spell on her and Sophie is instantaneously an old woman. She can't tell anyone about the spell and ironically sees the spell as an opportunity to set out on her own.

Tired and weary from a day of walking, Sophie must seek refuge in Howl's moving castle. Inside, she finds an unholy mess. She then meets the fire demon Calcifer, Howl's apprentice Michael, and eventually Howl.

Despite his reputation for evil-doing, Howl is not one to turn out someone in need. When Sophie tells him that she is the new cleaning lady, he allows her to be that and she sets to the task (barring a few limits which Howl has placed upon her cleaning.) The ragtag team of people in this 'household' become close.

Sophie learns about the ties that bind Howl and Calcifer. She learns much of the magic of the house and even comes to find out she has some magic herself. To no avail, she tries to help Howl elude the responsibility of finding the Prince and the Wizard of Suliman. She roots for Howl in his fight with the Witch of the Waste but she is still concerned over his womanizing and the inevitable heartbreak which will befall her sister Lettie.

So much happens in so many interesting places, I would do a disservice to say that this is a summary of the book. Suffice it to say, that I recommend that you read this book. Howl's Moving Castleis a fun-filled adventure that will leave you breathless.

Please note that the movie and the book are very different from each other. While we love Miyazaki movies, we thought the story in the book was better than the one told in the movie.


This book receives four cookies from us!

Review: The Mother Daughter Book Club - Pies and Prejudice

Because it’s the fourth in a series, I was worried that this book might be a disappointment. I need not have worried. MDBC:Pies and Prejudice was just as delightful, if not more, than the 3 stories that preceded it. The girls are growing up and it’s still fun to be a part of their diverging lives and then watch them come together for book club.

In this volume, Emma and the rest of the Hawthorne family move to England for a year for the father’s work. Emma is nervous, but excited that she and her mother will be able to visit all places Jane Austen. Her brother Darcy is not so keen on the idea but warms up to it eventually. The concern soon becomes what will happen to the Mother Daughter Book Club when they’re gone?

No need to worry. In this technological age, Emma and her Mom video chat into the meetings which are held at the Wongs (for technological purposes.) It doesn’t hurt that now everyone else can offer to bring food and Mrs. Wong won’t have to make any of her all-natural, tofu based ‘snacks’.

Outside of the book club goings-on, Megan is still into fashion and even starts a blog. Cassidy is playing great hockey and coaching a youth league. Emma has always known that she wanted to be a writer. In addition to missing Emma, seeing her friends with direction leave Jess worried because she hasn’t chosen a career path yet. Volunteer work with a wildlife rehab gives her renewed hope.

After Emma has a nasty encounter with a world-class queen bee, the MDBC ‘cooks up’ a way to brighten up Emma’s spring break by bringing her home. And a few months after Emma’s return to England, the group has the chance to come visit the Hawthornes there. These events tighten the bonds of friendship that have been built over the last three volumes. Sprinkled with some misunderstandings, a bit of romantic adventure and Emma’s publishing debut, this is a great read and a perfectly brilliant tie-in with Jane Austen and her writing. Loved it!


This book receives four cookies and a glass of milk.

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Learn more about Pies & Prejudice (Mother Daughter Book Club)at Amazon.com

Review - The Mother Daughter Book Club: Dear Pen Pal

This is another enjoyable book in a series of books that I have enjoyed so much. The girls in the book club are growing up and learning more about themselves and the world around them. This time they are reading books by Jean Webster. I haven’t (yet) read the Webster books but my interest is now piqued.


Jess is given a scholarship to the local private school where her greatest challenge is not the academics but a roommate that makes Becca Chadwick look like Miss Congeniality. Emma’s relationship with Stewart grows and she finds a new friend in an unexpected place. Megan explores her relationship with her mother through a visit from her grandmother. Cassidy learns about life as the Sloane-Kincaid family grows and changes.

In addition to everything that’s happening in Concord, the girls are reading Daddy-Long-Legs which is told through a series of letters. To broaden the experience for the book club girls, Mrs. Hawthorne sets up a pen pal for each girl. Their pen pals are from Gopher Hole, Wyoming and each has uncanny similarities to the girls in Concord. I would have liked to have focused a bit more on the pen pal idea. I've been thinking a lot lately about letter writing and how important it is.

Anyway, I try (but never succeed) to read these Mother-Daughter Book Club stories slowly so that I can ‘hang out’ with the group for just a little longer. I think that girls (and their mothers) reading these books can find a bit of themselves in each character. I look forward to the next in the series.



This book receives four cookies and a glass of milk.

Review - No More Dead Dogs

This is a book about a boy, dogs, football and detention - not exactly my usual read. But I have to say I enjoyed it.

Wallace Wallace’s father never told the truth. So Wallace Wallace was driven to always tell the truth - even if it got him in trouble. And when he reviewed, Old Shep, My Pal for English class, that’s exactly what the truth did. OS,MP was a life-long favorite of Mr. Fogelman, the English teacher. Wallace Wallace panned it as “the most boring book I’ve read in my entire life.” So it’s off to detention with Wallace.

Unfortunately, the English teacher’s version of detention is drama club practice. So not only is Wallace serving detention, he is serving it in the gym where the drama club is preparing their production of Old Shep, My Pal. It couldn’t get any worse – or could it? Wallace refuses to re-write his review AND starts critiquing the play. When Mr. Fogelman asks Wallace how he would treat this classic differently, Wallace does what he always does. He gives his honest answer. And that’s when the trouble really begins.

Wallace can’t get out of detention, can’t return to football practice and his whole life changes. But is it really a bad thing? Wallace’s basic reputation was based on a lie and it bothered him to no end. In the end, he found his truth.

This is an enjoyable read and fun characters. It's light, yet interesting subject matter make it a good summer reading book. I highly recommend it for boys in the middle school grades – even reluctant readers will enjoy it. The text is not too advanced and the pace is good. I also recommend this for girls who don’t mind a little football thrown in the mix.

This book receives four cookies - woof!

Review - Every Soul A Star

When the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth covering the sun partially or fully that is a solar eclipse. According to Wikipedia, “At least two and up to five solar eclipses can occur each year on Earth, with between zero and two of them being total eclipses. Total solar eclipses are nevertheless rare at any location because during each eclipse totality exists only along a narrow corridor in the relatively tiny area of the Moon's umbra.”

As total eclipses are rare so is a book as delightful and absorbing as Every Soul a Star. The three main characters Ally, Jack and Bree are brought together by this solar phenomenon.

Ally has grown up at Moon Shadow Campground. She has never really been in contact with the outside world. Her life is the camp, the stars and her search for extraterrestrials. When Ally learns that her parents are moving them back to the city, she’s afraid that life as she knows it will come to an end.

Jack is an overweight, shy boy who lumbers through life clumsily. Instead of failing him in science, Jack’s teacher gives him the opportunity to come along on an eclipse tour. Reluctantly Jack agrees thinking that surely his science teacher has made some sort of mistake.

Bree is a self-proclaimed ‘fashionista’. Her dreams for the future rest solely on becoming a fashion model. She doesn’t understand her scientist parents or her sister – none of whom have any interest in clothes, jewelry or makeup. When Bree finds out that her parents are moving the family to oversee Moon Shadow, her world falls apart.

Each character has the opportunity to tell their story as the chapters are titled “Ally”, “Bree”, "Jack" and repeat. Before reading this book, I didn’t really concern myself with the sky, stars, eclipses. But the way in which Wendy Mass describes the event of eclipse watching changed all that. Ms. Mass showed how an eclipse can occur simultaneously in the sky and in someone’s heart. That is to say, she told the story of how – despite all odds against – people can change. Good can eclipse bad, courage can eclipse fear, confidence can eclipse shyness. You just have to have your eyes open to the eclipse.

I loved this book and highly recommend it to boys and girls alike. Every Soul a Star is about people and their lives. It is about looking upward and inward. It is a truly enjoyable book of the greatest magnitude.


This book receives four cookies and a glass of milk (with a little moonglow and stardust for good measure.)

Review - What The Moon Saw

What the Moon Saw is one of those books that I tried to read slowly. I didn’t want it to end too soon so instead of sitting down and reading several chapters through at a time, I’d read a chapter and then soak it in. I enjoyed it that much.

This is the story of a girl named Clara Luna (“clear moon”) who feels that she is out of place in her Walnut Hill, MD environment but she doesn’t know why. Sensing the girl’s restlessness across the thousands of miles that separated them, her grandmother sends Clara an invitation to her home in a small village in Mexico. Nervous, but curious, the girl agrees to go. A bit of the backstory is that Clara’s father had illegally immigrated from that Mexican village to America when he was in his late teens. He never talked much about his past with his American family and he had never visited his parents since his departure.

It took Clara longer to reach her grandparents’ home (one plane trip and three bus rides) than it did for her to feel comfortable there. She went for walks and learned quickly about how she could do her share for the family. She listened to her Abuelita’s stories about being a healer. In alternate chapters, the grandmother told her past and Clara told the present. Clara quickly became close with her grandparents. She even learned that she might be a healer like her grandmother. Clara met a boy goatherd named Pedro. They became close friends and talked and walked through the mountainside. Their encounters gave the greatest description of the beauty of the natural world in the village.

Clara felt hollow and misplaced in a world where value is placed on material things but found her spirit while living in a shack in a small mountain village. This book was very enjoyable for more than her story. It had a message that reminded the reader that life is about more than the things we own. Life is about the connection between people and nature. It’s about the lives and the spirits that we touch. The book’s language was beautiful in its simplicity and with some Spanish interspersed, it really evoked a sense of ‘being there’.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. It is not just a girl story. It is the story of the human condition.


This book receives four cookies and a glass of milk (I'd even add a little cinnamon to that milk because the book was that good!)

Review - The Mother Daughter Book Club

I enjoyed this book immensely, so much so that I ordered its sequel – in HARDCOVER! If you knew me, you’d know that I never ever order a book in hardcover. I can wait for a lot of things but for the sequel to this book, I just couldn’t wait.

Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I enjoyed this book because it's about a book club. But, you're wrong! I actually didn't want to like this book BECAUSE it's about a book club. I think CookieBooky book clubs are the best and didn't know how one could hold a candle to our meetings. But I can tell you that I wouldn't mind bringing cookies and a game to one or two of this group's meetings.

The Mother-Daughter Book Club is the story of four girls from Concord, Massachusetts - Emma Hawthorne, Jess Delaney, Cassidy Sloane and Megan Wong. Three of their mothers are all in yoga class together and they decide to form a mother-daughter book club much to the chagrin of their daughters.

Actually, Emma Hawthorne, the daughter of the town librarian Phoebe Hawthorne doesn’t mind the idea of a book club too much, though. She is a bookworm and loves to read just like her parents. In fact she and her brother Darcy got their names from their parents love of all things Jane Austen. This family loves books so much that they have bookshelves in their dining room! Emma is sweet and kind-hearted, she has a slight weight problem and this makes her the target of jokes by the Fab Four – Becca Chadwick and friends.

Jess Delaney is Emma’s best friend. She lives at Half Moon Farm with her father and twin brothers. She is also sometimes the target of the Fab Four’s snide remarks (“Goat Girl”). Jess is a shy girl but she is beautiful like her mother and she can sing. Jess’s mother doesn’t live with the family because she is pursuing her dream of being an actress. Jess misses her mother and worries that their family is broken forever. It is difficult for Jess to attend the mother-daughter book club meetings without her mother but Mrs. Hawthorne has made her an honorary member. Because of her singing voice, Jess is encouraged to try out for the school play despite her shyness.

Cassidy Sloane is new to Concord, Massachusetts. Her ex-model mother, Clementine, moved the family from California back to Massachusetts after Cassidy’s father died in a car accident. Mrs. Sloane thought it would be best to live near her parents. Cassidy is sad for the loss of her father and having to move to a new town. She is a tomboy and loves to play sports. She is not into ‘girly’ things and is not a big fan of reading. She’s not happy with being in the book club and she’s especially not happy when she finds out they don’t allow girls on the ice hockey team.

Megan Wong was good friends with Emma Hawthorne in elementary school. They played Barbies together often. After Mr. Wong invented some popular computer gadget and made millions, Megan moved to a better part of town and started hanging out with Becca Chadwick. Yes, she is one of the dreaded Fab Four. Megan doesn’t want to be in the book club because she is not really friends with Emma anymore and she spends a good deal of their club time texting Becca Chadwick. Megan’s mom wants her to be a world-famous scientist working to save the earth but Megan’s dream is to be a fashion designer.

Mrs. Hawthorne has chosen the book Little Women for them to read for the year. The author makes very interesting analogies between what happened in Little Women and the distinctive personalities of the March girls in comparison with the four girls of this story. I enjoyed the comparisons as well as the way the story proceeded - each chapter from the standpoint of one of the four girls. The book shows how the group grows and how the girls learn and change as well. It was a very interesting book!