Mrs. Piggle Wiggle

Goodreads Synopsis:    The incomparable Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle loves children good or bad and never scolds but has positive cures for Answer-Backers, Never-Want-to-Go-to-Bedders, and other boys and girls with strange habits. ‘[Now] in paperback . . . for a new generation of children to enjoy.' 'San Francisco Examiner Chronicle.

Meet Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle! She's the kind of grown-up you would like to have for a friend-and all her friends are children. She is a little lady with brown sparkly eyes. She lives in an upside-down house, with a kitchen that is always full of freshly baked cookies. Her husband was a pirate, and she likes to have her friends dig in the back yard for the pirate treasure he buried there.

Best of all, she knows everything there is to know about children. When a distraught parent calls her because Mary has turned into an Answer-Backer or Dick has become Selfish or Allen has decided to be a Slow-Eater-Tiny-Bite-Taker, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has the answer. And her solutions always work, with plenty of laughs along the way.

So join the crowd at Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's house-and enjoy the comical, common-sense cures that have won her so many friends.

My Thoughts:

-    I wish Mrs. Piggle Wiggle were real, and that her cures for all sorts of behaviors really worked. It would be amazing!

-    I loved reading this as a kid. I remember wanting a neighbor like Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. It was still fun to read as an adult. I love books that you can read at any age.

-    My daughter read this by herself, and she enjoyed it. She thought it was really funny. I kinda wish we had read it together. It would be a fun book to read aloud.

-    I recommend this to everyone! 

Coraline: Graphic Novel

From Goodreads:    When Coraline steps through a door in her family's new house, she finds another house, strangely similar to her own (only better). At first, things seem marvelous. The food is better than at home, and the toy box is filled with fluttering wind-up angels and dinosaur skulls that crawl and rattle their teeth.

But there's another mother there and another father, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go. Coraline will have to fight with all her wit and all the tools she can find if she is to save herself and return to her ordinary life.

This beloved tale has now become a visual feast. Acclaimed artist P. Craig Russell brings Neil Gaiman's enchanting nationally bestselling children's book Coraline to new life in this gorgeously illustrated graphic novel adaptation.

My Thoughts:

-    This wasn't my favorite adaptation of Coraline, but it was okay.

-    I didn't care for the art style very much. It didn't capture the mood and story.

-    I liked the original much better. The pictures in the original book are more satisfying.

-    The story is still really fun and creeptastic.

Top Ten Tuesdays: Authors I Want to Meet

Hosted by The Broke and The Bookish

Top Ten Authors I'm Dying to Meet

I've met a lot of authors, but there are a lot I'm dying to meet, and there are a lot I won't meet until I die. Lets stick to the living authors.

Stan Lee


Maria V. Snyder


John Flanagan


Lisa Schroeder


Gene Yuen Lang


Neil Gaiman


Raina Telgemeier


J.K. Rowling


Rainbow Rowell


Holly Black

Landline

Goodreads Synopsis:    Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble; it has been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems beside the point now.

Maybe that was always beside the point.

Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her — Neal is always a little upset with Georgie — but she doesn't expect him to pack up the kids and go home without her.

When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.

That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts...

Is that what she’s supposed to do?

Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

My Thoughts:

-    I read this back in February, so I hope I can remember my thoughts and feelings.

-    This wasn't my favorite Rainbow Rowell book, but I still liked it. I didn't care for the characters, but the story gave me a lot to think about.

-    Georgie and Neal let their marriage drift like a lot of marriages do. Marriage isn't easy. You have to constantly work on it, and I liked that Georgie and Neal had some time apart to analyze their marriage and themselves. 

-    There was a lot of nothing that happened in the middle. It was just more of the same.

-    I wish Neal and Georgie didn't have kids. I didn't like the idea of what if they didn't get married because then their kids wouldn't have been born, and I think it was unfair to add them into the mix. Their existence shouldn't have been part of the equation. It bugged me that that was an option. 

-    This book made me think about my own marriage, and I wondered where I would be if I didn't get married. I'm happy with how my life is going. I have a wonderful husband and amazing girls. I wouldn't go back if I could. 

Star Wars: C-3PO

From Goodreads:    Star Wars Special: C-3P0 #1 will reunite the acclaimed and award-winning writer and artist team of James Robinson and Tony Harris for the first time in nearly two decades, the tale follows “golden rod” on a solo adventure leading up to his appearance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens — and reveals what led to this change in appearance.

“That’s a really exciting part of doing this story,” says Robinson. “I saw a photo of C-3PO with his red arm the other day and I thought ‘Wow, I’m the writer who gets to explain that.’”

You may not be fluent in over six million forms of communication…but this book is a must have in any language.

My Thoughts:

-    I finally caved and bought this issue. My curiosity got the better of me. Every time I went to pick up comics, I would resist buying this. I told myself that I had enough comics, and I didn't need it. But I HAVE to know why C-3PO has a red arm!

-    The artwork is very different. I'm not sure if I like it or not. It is sometimes hard to see what is going on. It kind of looks like stained glass windows, which is cool. 

-    There are too many droids to keep track of, but it doesn't become a problem later on.

-    These droids have an odd amount of emotion. 

-    I wish there had been more than one issue, so we could get back story. I want to know how the droids got on the planet and what they were doing. The mission was explained towards the end, but there are big gaps to fill. 

-    My curiosity was satisfied. I know why Threepio has a red arm and whose arm it is!

Beauty and the Beast

My Thoughts:

-    I wasn't going to go see this in theaters, but I needed a night out, and I didn't know what else to see. It was the first time I've gone to a movie alone. It wasn't so bad. 

-    I have been really skeptical of this movie. I love the animated film so much, and I was scared of what they were going to do to it. I wasn't happy with what I was seeing and hearing in the trailers. 

-    The movie wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. There were a lot of good things going on. It was alright.

-    I really wish Emma Watson's singing had been dubbed. It was painfully obvious that she had been auto tuned, and it hurt the ears. She also had to cut notes short because she couldn't sustain them. Other than the singing, I really liked Watson as Belle. She fit the role. 

-    I didn't like Beast's face. It was too CG. When Beast turns back into a man, it wasn't horrible. I was really happy that he looked better as a man. Thank the maker for Dan Stevens not have a horrible nose, chin, and huge eyebrows. It is my only complaint about the animated film. Every time that animated dude turns around, I yell, "Change him back!" Not the case here! Thank you! 

-    In the trailers, I wasn't sure about Lumiere, Cogsworth, and Mrs. Potts, but in the end, I really liked them. The bantering between Lumiere and Cogsworth made me laugh.

-    I liked what they did with the Maurice and Lefou characters. Their roles adapted into something more. Maurice was a more prominent character, and they showed his love and protectiveness over Belle. It was sweet to see a loving father figure. This version of Lefou had a bit more backbone, and I loved that. As for the "gay" moment in the movie. It was totally a publicity stunt, and I'm not even sure you could call it a gay moment. 

-    Overall, it was good. I wouldn't buy it or anything, but it was better than I was expecting.