Brenda SeabrookeReseñas

Abby and her mother used to live in Florida. But, her father is off fighting in the war against the Nazis and has been listed as missing in action. They had to leave Florida to stay with relatives in New York state. The closer it gets to Christmas the more Abby misses her father. Everything is different here....they don't put a starfish at the top of the Christmas tree, it's snowing and cold, and instead of going to the beach, her cousins want to go sledding and build snowmen. Then her cousins tell her the story of the ghost....every Christmas the spirit of a girl appears. The more Abby learns about the mystery, the more intrigued she is. Then she actually sees the ghost. Can she help the ghostly girl find peace?

This book is a short, quick read. Perfect for middle-grade ages and up, the story is an enjoyable Christmas themed ghost story. It's geared towards children, so there is nothing inappropriate or too frightening for kids. As an adult, I still enjoyed the story. The book is well-written, interesting and lightly spooky. It made for a nice afternoon read. I will definitely be reading more by this author. I love reading kid's books as palate cleansers between heavy adult fiction titles.

Brenda Seabrooke has written many other middle-grade books including Stonewolf and The Haunting of Swain's Fancy.

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So there are two kinds of vampires, and Jeff finds the good one in his closet locked into a trunk by the vampire's evil cousin. Eugene eats a lot and sleeps in the bathtub while the story proceeds.

There are a few reasons why I like this book. The first reason I like this book is it is very accurate in its historical information. The way the book describe how the boys are the ones that go out and work and the girls of the family stay home and do chores around the house is correct. The book is also very descriptive about how the group of men dumped tea into the Harbor to rebel against the British government. There is also a historical note in the back of the book that goes into more detail about the incidence. The second reason I liked the book is because of the illustrations. The pictures showed what people dressed like in that time and what their houses looked like. There was a lot of detail in the pictures of dumping the tea into the harbor as well. The main idea of this book is to teach about the Boston Tea Party and what life was like in those times.

Anton is a hard working farmer who has a bad year. He becomes so desperate to feed his family that he almost shoots a swan, but is unable to kill something so beautiful. The swan rewards him by dropping diamonds. The farmer and his family never go hungry again. Although the message of "The Swan's Gift is good, the book may fall flat with most children of today, especially those living in an urban environment.

What do you get when you add a wolf plus three little pigs? In a creative twist, the answer is far from predictable! Brimming with humor and irony, this transitional chapter book tells a tale of friendship, kindness, and new beginnings. The story is broken up into 4 manageable chapters (no table of contents), 3 of which consist of 12-14 pages embedded with boldly colored pencil drawings that illustrate the content of the text and allow readers to crisply envision each scene. The fourth chapter is significantly shorter with a greater number of full-page pictures. Sentence structure, length, and composition vary, most often switching between description and dialog. Though filled with sight words and repetition, struggling or beginning readers may require additional support owing to the volume of text and mildly complex language used to convey sound, motion, and emotion.

(easy, picture) A young girl goes on a vacation to her grandparent's house in the country. While there, she gets to explore and enjoy the simple things in life such as looking for diamonds on walks with her grandfather. The diamonds are actually dew droplets. When they return from their walk on this particular day, they have not found any. When the grandmother throws out the dishwater, it forms not only diamonds on a nearby bush, but also beautiful rainbow bubbles that the child and grandfather can enjoy. Being at her grandparents is obviously a special time for this little girl. A good conversation to hold with children after this book is to ask them what they like best about visiting their grandparents. Maybe children could write a thank you note or draw a picture for their grandparents to mail or take home. Nowadays, many children are even being raised by grandparents, so perhaps the recipient of such an activity would be most appreciated.

A picture book that tells how The Night Before Christmas came to be--based on research.

15 year-old Courtney, along with her 8 year- old brother Bucky and their Mother find themselves stranded in Limbo Key Florida. With little in the way of resources they move into a rental property on Cemetery Street, the least desirable location on the Key. Not for the first time, Courtney has to deal with not having enough money for food or new clothing, starting all over as the new kid in school and dealing with a Mother who is aimless at best. To make matters worse, there are reports of satanic activity on the Key and strange things happening in the nearby cemetery.

Courtney proves herself to be a resourceful and likeable heroine. She not only manages to look after herself and family, but also to solve the mystery and get the boy. Courtney maintains a healthy self image even while wearing clothes from the local thrift store and not having enough money to buy her lunch in the school cafeteria. She doesn’t back down when a school prankster continues to harass her and manages to find her way in a new environment.

The book’s setting is picturesque, the tone is light and the characters are likeable. The story is fast paced and will make for an enjoyable read for the tween and early teen crowd.

This book is about a man who has had a very hard year. His wheat crop of the year failed and left his family with limited resources. They were running out of food. He decided to go hunting one cold night. He came upon the most beautiful swan he had ever seen. He didn’t think he could shot it. The swan rewards him with water droplets that turn into diamonds. So in the end he got rewarded and everything fell into place.
I liked this book. It was okay. The moral of the story was a good one I thought.
You could use this book I class to discuss how a good dead gets rewarded.

good - ML

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Media: Watercolor and pencil