Saturday, September 29, 2018

Little Red Rodent Hood, Ella Unleashed.

Little Red Rodent Hood (Hamster Princess #6)
Vernon, Ursula. Little Red Rodent Hood (Hamster Princess #6)
September 25th 2018 by Dial Books
E ARC from Edelweiss Plus

You want it. You need it. It doesn't matter what fairy tale this covers, your students (even middle school ones!) are going to want this story!

Unfortunately, the E ARC I had turned the pages sooooo sloooowly that I sort of lost track of what was going on; I would quote some particularly delightful lines, but even the bookmarks take forever to load. I made an entire plastic needlepoint coaster while waiting for the pages to turn.

So, here's the Goodreads synopsis. I just love these books so much that I wanted to make sure everyone knew that this is now available. Plus, I still really want a Hamster Princess t shirt that says "I am something that happens to other people!"

From Goodreads.com
"Most monsters know better than to mess with Princess Harriet Hamsterbone. She's a fearsome warrior, an accomplished jouster, and is so convincing that she once converted a beastly Ogrecat to vegetarianism. So why would a pack of weasel-wolf monsters come to her for help? Well, there's something downright spooky going on in the forest where they live, and it all centers around a mysterious girl in a red cape. No one knows better than Harriet that little girls aren't always sweet. Luckily there's no problem too big or bad for this princess to solve.

In this sixth installment of her whip-smart Hamster Princess series, Ursula Vernon once again upends fairy tale tropes and subverts gender stereotypes to brilliant effect. This is a "Once Upon a Time" like you've never seen before."
Cherry, Allison. Ella Unleashed.
September 25th 2018 by Aladdin
E ARC from Edelweiss Plus

Ella does pretty well dividing her time between her dad's place and her mom and her stepfather Krishnan's. She is beginning to enter the junior division for showing Elvis, Krishnan's dog, and enjoys going to the shows and hanging out with her family. Elvis's training isn't going all that well, but she keeps trying. She would like her dad to come to see her, but knows that he is uncomfortable being around her mom. She has a great idea-- if her dad were dating someone, he wouldn't feel so awkward, AND if he had something else to occupy his mind, he wouldn't concentrate so much on Ella! After realizing that the teacher she wants to set him up with already has a boyfriend, she and her friends set up a profile for her dad on the Head Over Heels dating web site, and start to answer e mails from women and try to set up dates for him. She arranges to meet a woman at the zoo, but doesn't like her three children. Another woman agrees to meet her father at an Italian restaurant at the mall, but when her dad is understandably confused about why the woman is talking to him, the "date" doesn't go well. Finally, she e mails a local yoga teacher, pretends to have a biking accident outside her studio, and gets her dad to meet her that way. This seems successful until Beth and her dad go to a dog show and some secrets are revealed. Ella finally has some honest conversations with her family about how she is feeling... and she gets a new puppy!
Strengths: The information about showing dogs was really interesting, and a nice break from children who walk dogs. There are lots of books about that. It's also good to see a family with a workable shared custody arrangement, and middle school readers will find Ella's attempts at fixing up her father amusing.
Weaknesses: This is very similar to Schwartz's Smart Cookie, and Ella's lying and arranging to meet people online was a little concerning.
What I really think: This will be an optional purchase, since I have similar titles.
Ms. Yingling

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