Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express by Megan McDonald

Overview from Barnes and Nob;e:

Nearly 600,000 Stink books in print

When three guinea pigs from the local pet shop make a great escape, Stink Moody and his friends Webster and Sophie spring into action. Ta-da! The Fantastic Fur Friends round up the little hairballs and bring them safely back to Mrs. Birdwistle’s shop, where they discover — oohla- la! — guinea pig pandemonium! Time for the Great Guinea Pig Giveaway! Stink and company hit the road aboard the Squeals on Wheels Express in a crazy quest to find good homes for 101 squealing, whistling, chirping, wiggly piggies. FUR-eaky!

My thoughts:
Pets are another big obsession with children.  My kids keep asking when we are getting a dog or cat which leads to requests for smaller pets.  Stink and his friends are no exception.  They love the pet store and can't wait to help Mrs. Birdwhistle find homes for all the guinea pigs she has taken in to save them from being experimented on.  Stink even picks out one he really wants to keep as his own.  Using an old RV the gang drives around trying to give away as many of the 101 pigs as they can.  Pet ownership  is more than just wanting an animal and loving it, but taking care of all the other needs.

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780763642341
• Publisher: Candlewick Press
• Publication date: 2/10/2009
• Edition description: Reprint
• Pages: 144
• Age range: 5 - 8 Years
• Series:Stink Series , #4

Stink and the World's Worst Super Smelly Sneakers by Megan McDonald

Overview from Barnes and Noble:

"Stink is a delightful protagonist, and McDonald cleverly imparts information on smells. . . . A funny book for almost any collection." — SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL

When Stink Moody’s second-grade class goes on a field trip to the Gross-Me-Out exhibit at the science museum, he learns that his very own nose has amazing sniffing abilities — and that some people have real jobs sniffing stuff for NASA! Soon Stink is engrossed in toilet water, corpse flowers, and all things smelly. But is his fetid footwear foul enough to win a Golden Clothespin Award? Loyal fans will be holding their breath for Stink’s latest outrageous solo adventure.

My thoughts:
What kid isn't obsessed with smells, both finding them and making them?  This book capitalizes on that interest and makes having smelly sneakers funny and even desirable.  For some reason the whole sneaker thing kept making me think of the book Holes even though this one has absolutely nothing to do with that one.  Stink finds out that his ability to use his nose could lead to a career in the future.  Understandably, the rest of his family, and especially his sister Judy are less inclined to view his smell obsession in a positive light.

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780763636692
• Publisher: Candlewick Press
• Publication date: 2/12/2008
• Edition description: Reprint
• Pages: 144
• Age range: 6 - 9 Years
• Series:Stink Series , #3

Judy Moody: Around the World in 8 1/2 Days (Judy Moody Series #7) by Megan McDonald

Overview

Reissued in a way-cool paperback design!

Judy Moody cannot believe her ears. There at the lunch table, a girl called Amy Namey is interviewing Judy's best friends, Rocky and Frank. Even worse, Amy is dressed like Nellie Bly, daredevil woman reporter, much like Judy's emulation of a certain woman doctor. Is this clipboard-carrying girl destined to be Judy's new best enemy? Or new best friend? Judy Moody finds some unexpected potholes on the path to friendship as Class 3T takes a whirlwind tour of the globe, investigating everything from tooth-brushing sticks in Yemen to an Italian "spider dance" along the way. Fans will cheer as Judy finally masters the challenge of making new friends and keeping the old — for sure and absolute positivo!

My thoughts:
I love how Judy Moody is so enamored of Elizabeth Blackwell, first woman doctor.  I can still remember checking out a biography about Elizabeth Blackwell from my elementary school library in third or fourth grade, which was when I started to love reading biographies and autobiographies.  Fro some reason bits and pieces of that book still are lodged in my  memory, it just made that much of an impact and I also think I used it for some class project.  Having real people from history show up in a series like this is great for crossing over from fiction to non-fiction for young readers.

Seeing how these two girls end working together also showed how new doesn't always mean scary, but showed how you can't forget old friends when making new ones.

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780763648633
• Publisher: Candlewick Press
• Publication date: 1/26/2010
• Pages: 176
• Age range: 6 - 9 Years
• Series:Judy Moody Series, #7

Judy Moody, Girl Detective (Judy Moody Series #9) by Megan McDonald

Overview

It’s an honest-to-jeepers mystery! Agent Judy Drewdy sets out to solve the case of the missing puppy when a canine-cop-in-training vanishes into thin air.

Judy Moody is in a mood. A sleuthing, Nancy Drew kind of mood. So what’s a WBMS (world’s best mystery solver) to do? Go find a mystery, that’s what! And she doesn’t have to snoop for long: when Mr. Chips, a beloved crime-dog-in-training, goes missing, Judy Drewdy and her chums, agents Dills Pickle (Frank), Spuds Houdini (Rocky), and James Madagascar (Stink) find themselves smack-dab in the middle of a reallife, scare-your-pants-off whodunit. Was Mr. Chips stolen by dirty dognappers? And why are chocolate-chip cookies disappearing all over town? Watch out for red herrings—along with clever references to classic Nancy Drew mysteries—as Eagle Eye Moody and company are hot on the case!

My thoughts:
After listening to this story, my children were solving mysteries all over the house.  They were hiding clues and probing mysteries they made up in the car and on the bus to and from school.  It really opened their imagination to the idea of there being a mystery to solve.  I thought they would be clambering to read Nancy Drew books when it was done.  My daughter has been reading some of the newest younger version of the books, but not the classic version yet.  I love any books that not only captivate the reader during the reading of, but that boost the imagination for any period of time afterwards!  Plus I love hearing them think aloud as to what the solution to the mystery is going to be.  Where could Mr. Chips be?

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780763643492
• Publisher: Candlewick Press
• Publication date: 8/9/2011
• Pages: 192
• Age range: 6 - 9 Years
• Series:Judy Moody Series, #9

Judy Moody Declares Independence (Judy Moody Series #6) by Megan McDonald

Overview

When a visit to Boston spurs Judy's interest in Revolutionary heroes and heroines, she's soon on a quest for more independence in this hilarious new episode from Megan McDonald and Peter H. Reynolds. Huzzah!

She, Judy Moody, would hereby, this day, make the Judy Moody Declaration of Independence. With alien rights and her own Purse of Happiness and everything.

Hear ye! Hear ye! Everyone knows that Judy Moody has a mood for every occasion, and now a visit to Boston has put our famous third grader in a revolutionary mood. When Judy meets an English girl named Tori at the Tea Party ship, she is gobsmacked to learn how many liberties her British friend enjoys — her very own phone, private loo, and pounds of allowance. When a day of cheerfully doing her chores doesn't earn Judy Moody more rights, and staging a revolt in the form of a tea-throwing Boston Tub Party has her dad reading the riot act, Judy is forced into temporary retreat. Who would guess that a real-life crisis involving her brother, Stink, would finally give Judy a chance to show her courageous quick thinking - -and prove her independence, once and for all?

My thoughts:
From having a reenactment of the Boston Tea Party in the bathtub to having a new British pen pal, Judy shows how her independence and imagination carry her along.  My children laughed along with Judy, Stink, Rocky and Frank.  Judy decides she should be independent and writes her own bill of rights.  Judy is a fun third grader to spend some time listening to.  This audio book was checked out of our local library.

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780763648510
• Publisher: Candlewick Press
• Publication date: 1/26/2010
• Pages: 160
• Sales rank: 50,554
• Age range: 6 - 9 Years
• Series:Judy Moody Series, #6

Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich

Overview

Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum’s life is set to blow sky high when international murder hits dangerously close to home, in this dynamite novel by Janet Evanovich.

Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, and she’s flying back to New Jersey solo. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead, in a garbage can, waiting for curbside pickup. His killer could be anyone. And a ragtag collection of thugs and psychos, not to mention the FBI, are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying.

Only one other person has seen the missing photo—Stephanie Plum. Now she’s the target, and she doesn’t intend to end up in a garbage can. With the help of an FBI sketch artist Stephanie re-creates the person in the photo. Unfortunately the first sketch turns out to look like Tom Cruise, and the second sketch like Ashton Kutcher. Until Stephanie can improve her descriptive skills, she’ll need to watch her back.

Over at the bail bonds agency things are going from bad to worse. The bonds bus serving as Vinnie’s temporary HQ goes up in smoke. Stephanie’s wheelman, Lula, falls in love with their largest skip yet. Lifetime arch nemesis Joyce Barnhardt moves into Stephanie’s apartment. And everyone wants to know what happened in Hawaii?

Morelli, Trenton’s hottest cop, isn’t talking about Hawaii. Ranger, the man of mystery, isn’t talking about Hawaii. And all Stephanie is willing to say about her Hawaiian vacation is . . . It’s complicated.

My thoughts:
I borrowed this book from a friend.  She gave it to me last night and by this evening I was done.  I love how quick these books read, it wasn't like I spent all day reading it, although I did carve out more reading time today than I have been lately, but it just reads really fast.  I know I've read a lot of reviews that have complained that this storyline is getting stale.  Stephanie and her car troubles, will it blow up, be stolen, have a dead body in it or something else.  Stephanie and her inability to decide between Morelli and Ranger.  He lamenting on her job and ineptitude with bringing in skips.  Grandma and her funerals and viewings and her mom and pot roast and alcohol.  All that is true, but I can see myself continuing to read the series because it is comfortable and fun and kind of like the Star and OK magazines at the checkout at the grocery store, it is a fun diversion.

I have to admit that I am ready for her to make a decision on which man she wants in her life.  How long can she string them both along.  I get that Ranger isn't looking for a commitment so maybe for him it doesn't matter that she isn't just with him, but Morelli strikes me as the better choice of the two and I can't see him sticking around forever waiting for her to chose.

I liked the new twist with Joyce and that it was the bonds bus that blew up instead of her car.  It will be interesting to see how long Evanovich goes on with the series.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780345527714
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Publication date: 11/22/2011
Pages: 320
Series: Stephanie Plum Series, #18

Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich

Overview

Where there’s smoke there’s fire, and no one knows this better than New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum.

Dead bodies are showing up in shallow graves on the empty construction lot of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. No one is sure who the killer is, or why the victims have been offed, but what is clear is that Stephanie’s name is on the killer’s list. Short on time to find the murderer, Stephanie is also under pressure from family and friends to choose between her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Trenton cop Joe Morelli, and the bad boy in her life, security expert Ranger. Stephanie’s mom wants her to dump them both for a former high school football star who’s just returned to town. Stephanie’s sidekick, Lula, suggests a red-hot boudoir “bake-off.” And Joe’s old-world grandmother gives Stephanie “the eye,” which may mean that it’s time to get out of town.

With a cold-blooded killer after her, a handful of hot men, and a capture list that includes a dancing bear and a senior citizen vampire, Stephanie’s life looks like it’s about to go up in smoke.

My thoughts:
I still like to read this series, but they are starting to seem very similar.  I have a few friends who have decided they are done with picking up the Stephanie Plum books as they all seem the same.  She will have trouble deciding which man in her life she wants to be with, her car will catch fire or be destroyed, she will have trouble catching her bounty hunter skips, and her mother will lament that everyone else's daughter is married already and giving her grandchildren.  That said, it is a fun escape and a quick read so I don't see myself giving up anytime soon.  I know who I would pick out of Ranger and Morelli and I wonder if she will ever make choice or if that would end the series.  Would it take the fun and tension out of it if she made a choice?

Because I waited so long to get around to this one, I know that number eighteen is already out and I already have a tentative plan in place to borrow it from a friend to read, so it is nice that I don't need to wait to see who Stephanie goes on vacation with and where they go.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780345527707
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Publication date: 11/15/2011
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 336
Series Title: Stephanie Plum Series

The Funny Thing Is... by Ellen Degeneres

Overview from Barnes and Noble:
Ellen DeGeneres published her first book of comic essays, the #1 bestselling My Point...and I Do Have One, way back in 1996. Not one to rest on her laurels, the witty star of stage and screen has since dedicated her life to writing a hilarious new book. That book is this book.


After years of painstaking, round-the-clock research, surviving on a mere twenty minutes of sleep a night, and collaborating with lexicographers, plumbers, and mathematicians, DeGeneres has crafted a work that is both easy on the ears and very funny. Along with her trademark ramblings, The Funny Thing Is...contains hundreds of succinct insights into her psyche, and offers innovative features including:

• More than 50,000 simple, short words arranged in sentences that form paragraphs.

• Thousands of observations on everyday life — from terrible fashion trends to how to handle seating arrangements for a Sunday brunch with Paula Abdul, Diane Sawyer, and Eminem.

• All twenty-six letters of the alphabet read aloud.

Sure to make you laugh, The Funny Thing Is...is Ellen in top form.

My thoughts:
So yesterday when I went to the library to find the Chelsea Handler book I wanted to check out I discovered the call number that houses similar titles.  Not that I didn't know they were there somewhere, but I love stumbling across books that I am interested in but hadn't been looking for.  It is like hitting the library jackpot!

I enjoyed this book, it didn't make me laugh quite as hard as Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang did yesterday, but there were definitely parts that set me off.  It was interesting too to read Ellen's book because a few months ago I read her wife Portia de Rossi's book and she was mentioned in it. 

Against Ellen's wishes I read this book while driving and flossing my teeth at the same time.  Not really, but she cautions against it right from the front and urges us all to floss.  Not bad advice.  Also a good point, if you are using something to make sure you can use your phone hands free you may also need to concentrate on it as well!

I think I'm going to be looking for some more of her books at the library next week, just don't tell her since she seems to be very worried about if you have paid for the book!

Details
•Pub. Date: September 2004
•Publisher: Simon & Schuster
•Format: Paperback , 192pp
•ISBN-13: 9780743247634
•ISBN: 0743247639

Meet The Author
Ellen DeGeneres's first book, My Point...and I Do Have One, was an instant national bestseller that spent more than six months on the New York Times bestseller list. DeGeneres has won an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, and a People's Choice Award for her work as a writer and actress on her television series Ellen, and received Emmy nominations as host of the 39th Annual Grammy Awards, as an executive producer of HBO's If These Walls Could Talk 2, and as star and executive producer of her critically acclaimed one-woman HBO special The Beginning. DeGeneres made history when her on-screen persona Ellen Morgan became the first openly gay leading character on television, but her groundbreaking legacy had already begun in 1986, on the Tonight Show, when she became the first and only female comic invited by Johnny Carson to sit down with him after her stand-up performance. In September 2003, DeGeneres launched The Ellen DeGeneres Show, her own nationally syndicated daytime talk show.

Undead and Undermined by MaryJanice Davidson

Overview:

All-new in the New York Times bestselling drop-dead funny series.

Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor thought she couldn't die. So what's she doing in the morgue? It could have something to do with a time- traveling trip she made, and a foe with a wicked agenda that could finally be the real death of Betsy-if she's not careful.

My thoughts:

When I started this book my first thought was, "I think I missed some of the books in this series".  Then I read the review I wrote last summer for book 9 and I had noticed the same thing then.  I guess my memory is only good up to a certain point because I never looked into read the missing books.  Partially because I already know what the outcome will be based on where the characters are now and partially because I just forgot.

The beginning of this book states that it is book three of a trilogy within the series.  So while it is Betsy's tenth book the next book will be book eleven and also book three of the trilogy, which is such a mouthful it makes me think of her whole quandary with time travel.

Betsy and Laura return from time traveling to the past and the future to find that their travels have changed things in the current present.  They had thought since they were always in the past that maybe everything would be fine, but there are changes.  Jessica is now pregnant, Nick's name is now Dick and he was never bitten so he doesn't hate Betsy and future Mark has come back with them from the future.  Adventures ensue that involve more time travel to hell, more vehicle crashes, a morgue, some deaths, some coming back from death and shoes missing and changed.

In the beginning of the series I loved Betsy and her vain shallowness, her sarcasm and her loyalty.  Most of the time I still feel that way, but now always.  Sometimes I've had enough of the shoes and sometimes I wish she could focus a little more so the story could move a bit faster, but usually I still like her.  It is starting to seem as though each time she tries to save someone or fix something she thinks is broken she is also making a bigger mess of things and in her attempt to fix she may be creating the actual mistakes she thinks she is trying to mend.

When will Laura tell her what she knows about the Book of the Dead?  She has tried and we know from book 9.  How do events come together to bring the future she saw in 1000 years and can that be prevented?  Is it really her doing?

Product Details

Hardcover: 304 pages

Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; 1 edition (July 5, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0425241270

ISBN-13: 978-0425241271

Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich

Synopsis
Diesel, the man with mysterious powers, leaves the world of Plum and travels to Massachusets where he awakens a woman to her own mysterious powers.


My thoughts:
I’m glad that Diesel is starting his own series. I know the Between-the-Numbers books were technically their own series already, but since Stephanie Plum was in them too they seemed more her books than his. In his adventure with Lizzy so much more about Unmentionables is revealed. I loved Lizzy’s friend Glo and her penchant for believing in magic and adopting animals she couldn’t take care of in her apartment. I think I could have done without Carl the Monkey though. He is amusing in small doses, but if he is in all the books I think his antics will get old.


Lizzy and her money pit of a house are easy to relate to. Salem and Boston are both places I have never been to. I loved the ghost squad that hung around her house; it was like they thought they were the Ghostbusters from the movie with their talk about readings and ectoplasm. I wonder if they will be in future books. I checked the web site and the Diesel books are going to be published in the fall in September while the Stephanie Plum series is in June.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Lizzy’s cupcakes and her cookbook. I wonder if Janet went through something similar in her quest to have her first book published. I also wonder if Lizzy and Diesel will stay in Salem to find more stones or if they will travel to other locations.

Product Details

Pub. Date: September 2010
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Format: Hardcover , 313pp
ISBN-13: 9780594222682
ISBN: 0594222680

Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich

Synopsis

Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum has inherited a “lucky” bottle from her Uncle Pip. Problem is, he didn’t specify if it brought good luck or bad luck!

My thoughts:
I was starting to feel like the Stephanie Plum series had reached its end, how many cars can one somewhat inept bounty hunter manage to have blown up or destroyed?  But I am glad I got around to reading this one because parts of it had me laughing out loud.  I think Vinnie had more page time in this one than in the others (although truthfully it has been a while since I read the other ones so I could have just forgotten him since he isn't one of my favorite characters).  Vinnie was funny in a sad sort of way.  He is flawed and knows he is flawed but doesn't seem to be making decisions to hurt the people in his life, he is more like a child who doesn't anticipate the possible outcome of his actions.

Stephanie and the lucky bottle she inherited from her uncle go through quite a few adventures.  There are totaled cars, bounty hunter rebondings that go awry, grandma and her penchant for open casket funerals, mobsters, bombs and the ongoing attraction she has for both Ranger and Morelli. I must be a safety first kind of woman because I think I would go with Morelli and get out of the bounty hunter business.  Ranger is always there to back her up and get her out of a jam but I can't see him sticking with her long term.  I understand the attraction to them both but what she has with Morelli when they are in their on-again times seems more genuine and real.

I've read more than once that a  movie for the first book in the series is supposed to be coming out in 2011, but I haven't seen a release date.  It's been so long since I read the first book that I can't decide if I should go back and reread it (once the date is released) or just plan on enjoying the movie as it is since so much seems to change when a story goes from a book to a film.

Product Details


Pub. Date: June 2010
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Format: Hardcover , 309pp
Series: Stephanie Plum Series , #16
ISBN-13: 9780594222699
ISBN: 0594222699

Janet Evanovich's website:  http://www.evanovich.com/

Undead and Unfinished by MaryJanice Davidson

Product DetailsPub. Date: July 2010
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Format: Hardcover, 320pp
Series: Betsy Taylor Series, #9
ISBN-13: 9780425234358
ISBN: 0425234355

SynopsisVampire Queen Betsy Taylor returns in the ninth novel in the New York Times bestselling series. Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor is having a tough time getting through the Book of the Dead-until the Devil strikes a bargain. She offers Betsy a chance to finish the cursed (literally!) thing, and finally discover all its mysteries. There's just one catch... Betsy and her half-sister Laura have to go to Hell long enough for Laura to embrace her dark heritage (after a rebellious youth of charity work) and finally make nice with her mother, aka Lucifer. That means interacting with their family's past. In doing so, they're impacting the future in ways they never anticipated. Of course that's what Mother wanted all along. Damn her.

My thoughts:

This week I felt like I hit the library jackpot. When I walked by the new shelf there were two books that I had been wanting to read just sitting there waiting to be checked out with no need to request and wait. I decided to read this one first. As usual it was a quick, funny read. I realized as I started that I must have not read the eighth book in the series because the events that had happened prior to the start of this one weren't ones I knew about. I guess I'll have to look for that one soon.

Most of this book takes place between Laura and Betsey as they travel through time so that Laura can learn to use her powers to travel in all dimensions so she can eventually take over for her mother, the devil, during her anticipated retirement. Through their travel they realize that what they are doing is messing with their own time line but that they always were there so the time line has always been interfered with. Betsy is as usual, she is sarcastic and self involved but is starting to recognize more and more that she is this way. One of her visits takes her to see herself in the future which opens her eyes to ways she would like to change.

This is a good summer book. I just wish I had read the book that came before it first, but with a library book I didn't really have the luxury of waiting to read it. I wonder how much longer Davidson will continue the series. I enjoyed her series about Fred the Mermaid but I believe she has ended that one already. I'm just not sure how much is left for her to do at this point.

"Finger Licken' Fifteen" by Janet Evanovich

This was a fun easy read from Janet Evanovich featuring Stephanie Plum as a bounty hunter who has bad luck with cars and capturing her skips to bring in to be rebonded. Stephanie and Morelli are on a break due to a fight about peanut butter and Ranger needs her help solving a series of break-ins that look like they could be an inside job from someone at Rangeman. Add in a cross-dressing fireman, Grandma Mazur, a severed head, a dancing chicken and a barbecue contest and you are in for so fun.

I've enjoyed this series since I found it a few years ago. I like how Janet runs a contest every year for someone to come up with a title based on the next number in line and then thanks them in her dedication. Her regular emails from one of the character POV are a nice add in. From the start it felt like I was sitting down with an old friend.

That said some of the antics are starting to get less plausible and how many cars can Stephanie really have burned to a crisp? I did laugh out loud on more than one occasion prompting my children to ask what was so funny, but none of the funny parts were really appropriate to pass along to them.

I would recommend this book to someone looking for a fun read.