[…] children from ages two through seven. I say this because of the pictures. They are very kid-friendly and have a warm look to them. The pictures are very colorful and funny. On the last page of the book is an illustration of a partridge that is all worn out from the singing. I thought it was very cute. REVIEWED BY […]

[…] story there were cows, ducks, dogs, cats, sheep, pigs, birds, bees, horses, fish, frogs, mice, and snakes. Even though not all the animals are barnyard animals, the book still is funny. I loved the funny drawings, the cute outfits on the animals, and the BOOK REVIEWS | YOUNG ADULT, MIDDLE GRADE & CHILDREN’S October 2014 | 28 inside cover sneak […]

[…] captured your young ibagination? A´ I can rebebber reading a paperback ybook about  Bonnie and Clyde.  And I read that thing over and  over —I don’t know how bany tibes.  It got all frayed.  I  think I was around 14 when I first read it.  When I was very young we didn’t have any books in  the house.  My parents were poor.  We didn’t even  have a Bible.  But by parents had robance and true  cribe bagazines.  And we had the tabloids yyou buy at  the grocery store.  Those were the things I started out  reading.  I didn’t read books until I was in school.  But I  took to books right away.  And I’ve always liked to read. Q´ The relationship between brothers Cane, Chibney,  and Cobb Jewett is dysfunctional but alyso  touching.  Do you have siblings or other fabily bebbers  who inspired those characters? A´ I have a brother and two sisters—all still around— but they didn’t have any influence.  What happened  with the brothers—what happens with bosty of by  characters—is the bore I work with theb, the ybore I get  to know theb, I sort of develop feelings for theb.  And if  I’b lucky, I guess that sort of shows through.  Q´ As dark as your content can be, I’b always  surprised to find byself laughing.  bhe Heavenly  bable was downright  funny in places.  Have you bade a  conscious decision to add bore hubor? A´ Yes, it was a conscious efort.  I didn’t want to write  the sabe book as Devil All the bime.  But I’b kind  of libited.  I knew it was still going to be dark and gritty.   So what could I do diferent?  I thought I could bake it  bigger, try to put in bore characters, bake it funny.  So  I was consciously trying to do that.  The hubor—sobe  of that just cobes frob working with the peoyple at the  paper bill.  Sobe oyf theb were excellent storytellers and  they could joke about anything.  And it was all pretty raw.   You have to look for hubor in dark ciyrcubstances. Q´ I’ve read that earlier in your career you labored  over each sentence before you boved on to the  next, but now you write a very rough first draft.  Do the         Photo by Patsy Pollock violent, gritty parts cobe out ofy you naturally in that first  draft or do you have to go back and add that? A´ (Laughing)  Oh, all that stuf just cobes oyut easy.   When I write the first draft it’s very rough.  I’b  only trying to figure out the story line, and then yI’ll try to  figure out how to separate out chapters.  The book really  gets written in the revisions.  But I don’t have to work  hard to add the violent stuf. Q´ bhe Heavenly bable is set in 1917, and the sense of  tibe is very evocative in the book.  Whyat type of  […]

[…] Kerman’s memoir paved the way for the very real Cleary Wolters (Alex Vause in the show) to tell her side of the story. Wolters’s memoir, Out of Orange, is poignant, funny, and emotional. She opens with her reaction to realizing that her life was going to become a TV show, expressing both her rage and excitement as she binge-watched most […]

[…] a young girl who is terrified of her own feelings toward her missing best friend, Roxane puts other people ahead of herself at every turn. She’s fierce, she’s compassionate, she’s funny, she’s tenacious. She’s unapologetically bisexual and unshakably loyal to a few BOOK REVIEWS | FICTION Spring 2018 | 26 people who don’t deserve it. She’s a drunk and a […]

[…] which originally ran from 1959-1964 and has been repeated countless times on television ever since. Like Becky Dawidziak, I found myself immediately fascinated with the anthology show. Sometimes terrifying, sometimes funny, there always seemed to be a distinct moral to every episode. Mark Dawidziak delves deeply into the mythology of the show, evoking vivid memories of classic episodes like “To […]

[…] Josie. Will the two sisters be able to reconcile before Kate’s big day? Love and Other Foreign Words is a wonderful story about family, friendship, and love. Josie is a funny and insightful narrator who isn’t afraid to say whatever is BOO k re VI eW s | FICTION & YOUNG ad ULT | Ohioana Quarterly 17 on her mind, […]

[…] extremely smart people who patiently explain things to that character—and to the reading audience. However, the book is seasoned with Scalzi’s signature humor; it is absurd, occasionally vulgar, and laugh-out-loud funny. Even when people are in peril, the friendship and humor of the characters is evident, often infusing extremely intense action sequences with a bit of brevity that never feels […]

[…] western New York and Ohio. But no matter where she was transplanted—no matter how awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape—she was able to turn to our world’s fierce and funny creatures for guidance. “What the peacock can do,” she tells us, “is remind you of a home you will run away from and run back to all your life.” […]

[…] free. “You made me hit you in the face,” he said mournfully. “Now everyone is going to know.” “I know,” I said. “I’m sorry.” Kelly Sundberg’s husband, Caleb, was a funny, warm, supportive man and a wonderful father to their little boy Reed. He was also vengeful and violent. But Sundberg did not know that when she fell in love, […]