The RAHM Report for 10/9/17

We're officially on babywatch around here (baby's due date is the 15th!), and there's not much to do besides wait and read. I read 12 books this week (including 5 very short ebook versions of comic issues) and I have four more in progress.

Finished Reading:

• Life Under Compulsion: Ten Ways to Destroy the Humanity of Your Child by Anthony Esolen
  I gave this book five stars. Esolen makes great arguments, and I love the way he uses literature to support them. At some point, I hope to write up more of my thoughts on Goodreads.
• Here Come the Deer! by Alice E. Goudey
  Miss Muffet and I read this aloud before nap time on three consecutive days this week. I didn't enjoy it as much as a lot of the other titles from this series, but part of that might be because there just isn't that much to say about deer and the three chapters - about whitetailed deer, elk, and caribou - became kind of repetitive after awhile. Miss Muffet loved it and has announced that deer are now her favorite animal. 
• Maurice's Room by Paula Fox
  There isn't a whole lot to this short chapter book about a young boy who collects things and keeps them in his bedroom, despite his parents' desire that he clean it all out. The writing was good, but the story is forgettable. 
• Squashed by Joan Bauer
  This was a feel-good fall read that would be perfect for young teens. Review coming soon. 

• Sylvania series by Kristin Kemper
  I was browsing Hoopla for something quick to read on Saturday afternoon and stumbled upon this interesting fantasy series. The main characters are three sisters who are tree witches. They live in a universe where everything is protected and helped by witches, so there are also star witches, sea witches, bird witches, etc. When the star witches try to recruit some of the other witches to help them cultivate life on Mars, two of the sisters - Rowan and Juniper - express interest in taking on the challenge, while Willow adamantly opposes the idea. Only one of the sisters ends up going to Mars, while the other who is of age stays home to be with her girlfriend. (The LGBT content was a surprise to me, but should not have been since it is clearly tagged on Hoopla. I just missed it.) I really like the artwork, and the story is available not just in these short digital issues, but as a webcomic as well, so I'll probably stick with it for a bit and see if I like where the story is going. 

I also finally decided to borrow all the remaining Stella Batts books from Hoopla and read through those. I checked out five, but Hoopla's copy of Something Blue  seems to be corrupted in some way, so I was only able to read these four:

• Who's in Charge? by Courtney Sheinmel
  Stella has the opportunity to babysit her best friend's dog in this book, and of course the dog goes missing. I mostly sympathized with Stella's mom in this one - I wouldn't want to be taking care of someone else's dog with a newborn at home either!  
• Superstar by Courtney Sheinmel
  In this book, Stella is invited to audition for her favorite TV show, only to lose the role to her sister, resulting in lots of learning opportunities about jealousy and not being a bad sport. Except that circumstances change near the end of the book, and things get kind of muddled, and I was a little bit disappointed in how it was all resolved.
• Scaredy Cat by Courtney Sheinmel
  Why do so many children's books include Ouija boards? My kids are not likely to read this series anyway, but if they'd read the earlier ones, I'd be disappointed to have to keep this one away from them just because of that. There were plenty of other ways to work fear and ghosts into the story without resorting to actual attempts to contact the dead.
• Broken Birthday by Courtney Sheinmel
  This was the best of the bunch I read. I would have loved reading about Stella's hospital visit as a kid, and I liked the way the story also looked back on everything Stella did when she was eight. There was a sweet feel-good ending, too, which made up for the Ouija board in the previous book.

Currently Reading:

• W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton
  I've read about 200 pages of this one. If the baby isn't born until the end of the week or after my due date, I might even finish it. 
• A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny
  I'm just past the halfway point in the Kindle edition of this book, and I'm loving it. I really hope I can finish it before going into labor! 
• The Secret, Book and Scone Society by Ellery Adams (ARC)
  I like Ellery Adams's writing style, but I'm just a couple of chapters into this ARC and I'm not sold on the setting or story. I hope I get more into it. 
• The Original Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy by Johnny Gruelle
  This is our current lunchtime read-aloud. It's not my favorite, but the girls are both loving it. 

I'll be linking up today with Unleashing Readers/Teach Mentor Texts and Book Date for It's Monday! What Are You Reading?