Halloween is almost here! We're having our own Halloween carnival in our driveway with just our little family (you can read how to throw your own here and here!), and I'm in full prep move. No Halloween party is completely without great music, so a Spotify playlist is a must! (No, this post isn't sponsored...but [...]
My latest post for the Knoxville Moms is about having a safe and fun Halloween at home, establishing new traditions to make the holiday feel special even if trick or treating is off the table. You can find it here! Happy Spooky Season! How are you celebrating Halloween this year?
Gillian McDunn's These Unlucky Stars is a beautiful look at family, community, and the way we are sometimes the unreliable narrator of our own story. Sixth-almost-Seventh grader Annie Logan was told she was born under an unlucky star. Her window breaks, her books fall into a mud puddle, and she doesn't have a single friend. [...]
Backstory: I grew up with a dog, two cats, and a verifiable zoo of other animals (birds, fish, a rabbit). But once I left for college and was no longer around the cats frequently, I developed an allergy. Flash forward 13 years, and my kid is cat-crazy. It would just make his life if he [...]
Eleven year old Aster feels as though she is the only student at her school who isn't gifted. Every day, she sets out to do a good, right thing, with lots of rules governing if it is good and right and how good, right things should feel. She does these things to build her own [...]
The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi transports us back to 1955 India, following a talented henna artist as her life changes forever with the arrival of a previously unknown sister. This novel offers a breathtaking view of a time and place I’ve never studied extensively. The setting is intricately described in a way that makes [...]
Jackie Fraser's The Bookshop of Second Chances is a meandering novel that explores what happens when one woman takes a leap of faith and changes her life, without really intending to. Thea is recently separated from her cheating spouse when she receives notice that she's inherited a house in Scotland. She sets out to sort [...]
Much like the rest of 2020, Halloween is going to look different this year. I KNOW. I truly do. I get it. I hate it, too. But this is our reality, and we have to adapt. My kids look forward to trick or treating all year long, and usually start talking about Halloween costumes in [...]
Y'all know how much I love books, and how one genre can't satisfy my reading obsession. Last year, I read a book alongside my first grader. He read it at school with his class, and I read it at home. We talked about it, and it was such a magical experience. We read picture books [...]
Paw Prints in the Sink 