Erin Soderberg Downing

Hello, my name is Simon and today I will be telling you about a book I didn't like but I think a lot of people would like. Controlled Burn is a book about fire and getting over fears.

First of all, what is the plot of Controlled Burn? Well, the main character, Maia, who is 12 years old, has her house burned down. She pulls her little sister, Amelia, from that fire. So Maia is considered a hero but she had a candle in her room and she thinks that it caused the fire. So she feels guilty for most of the book. Because of the fire, her sister gets some severe burns so as her sister heals, her parents send her to her grandparents in Minnesota.

Over the time she is there, she gets over fears like heights, swimming, and the biggest of all, fires. As she does this she keeps herself busy by helping her nine-year-old neighbor Griffin with his Boy Scout badges going on trips with her grandma, and teaching the dog that lives in her grandparents' backyard, Big Bear, but most of all she tries to build up the courage to climb the fire tower.

I think a good age for this book is 9-13. It has good character development but is slow-paced.

So in conclusion I think this is a good book to read if you need to get over fears or want a chill read. Thank you.… (altro)

Trigger warnings: Fire, emesis, hospitalisation, near-death experiences, physical injury, death of a brother, blood depiction, animal death, coma, contagion
Note that I bought this book and now I own it.

7/10, the library I normally go to does not have this yet and probably won't get it until next year since they got their last batch and my thoughts on this book is that it's alright and I would be happy if the library got more works from this author in the future and there were many positives about this. Where do I begin? It starts with the main character Maia whose surname I don't know yet and everything looks normal for the first few pages until the book hit me like a truck and for some reason that hasn't been explained the house caught fire and she saves her sister Amelia and I honestly thought she was older than her until I was disproven I guess. Maia's parents sent her away to a town called Thistledew which by the way has a population of 500 give or take a few and she spends most of the book there and I liked a few things about that, one I liked Maia as a character as she's dealing with an immense amount of guilt and she keeps wanting to rewrite the past and thinks about the fact that it could've gone better and it could've gone a lot worse. Two I liked the character development and I understand that Maia had some fears in the past but after the fire they just intensified from there however in the end she overcomes them experiencing character development and last of all were the supporting characters since the author wrote them well and they were enjoyable to read. Maia spends some part of her life healing from the incident and she was almost cut off from the rest of the world but at least her parents were still there her grandparents were supportive and Amelia eventually got through eventually ending this on a high note. Wow. That was great. That fire information was interesting also.… (altro)

Moon Shadow by Erin Solderberg Downing is a delightful middle grade read with a dash of magic!

Lucia Frank is dealing with a lot of change - her parents have divorced, she had to move to Sweden for the summer, her old best friend has kicked her to the curb, and she's trying to find her way with her new friends. She was born on an eclipse and now on her thirteenth birthday there's another one right on her birthday! But something funny happens that night... suddenly, she's waking up and seemingly in different places. Did the eclipse work some dark magic on her?

There is a lot of character growth in this book and it's such a nice change to fiction stories for the sake of fiction. I love a coming of age story that builds the lesson learning into the plot for a pinch of education but still packs in all of the fun. This book is definitely aimed at the middle grade reader and not necessarily for adults since I didn't enjoy it as much as some of the middle grade books that are aimed to make the adult have fun too. That doesn't make this book bad, but I just want to point out to any adults who might be thinking of picking this book up.

Moon Shadow shows the power of friendship, perseverance and learning to be yourself. It's a delightful read that I highly recommend!

Three out of five stars.… (altro)

This book was a pleasant surprise for me! I really was expecting this to be something sad and depressing and it was actually more about Sophie finding herself than anything. When Sophie finds a list of "dares" that her aunt made before she died, she knows it has to mean something. She sees this as an opportunity to finish Suzy's bucket-list, but also for Sophie and her 2 best friends to mix it up for their senior year. Sophie is struggling to find herself and doesn't feel like she fits in with her perfect family, much the way Suzy was feeling before she died.

Along the way Sophie, Ella, and Grace get help from Johnny Rush, Sophie's hot neighbor. The chemistry between Johnny and Sophie was really great, I just wish Sophie wasn't so blunt when she got around him. I didn't feel like it suited her personality. Their relationship was just a little off for me, but that didn't stop me from wanting them to get together... I mean hello, who wouldn't like a guy named Johnny Rush!! Also i liked that Sophie and Johnny were able to take a step back when it was needed. Sophie really had to figure out her feelings for her aunt and how best to remember her on her own. Basically what I'm saying is that the romantic relationship did not overtake the book, which I thought was awesome.

The best part of this book was the friendship between the 3 girls! They had their ups and downs and weren't afraid to call each other out for acting bitchy. They were all so different, but at the same time they balanced each other. Grace was able to let loose more when she was with them, Ella wasn't as focused on being so hard, and Sophie was the glue that bonded them all together.

There was a *very* surprising twist involving Sophie's family that made the story that much more interesting! I was surprised and hurt for Sophie... her family really did have some issues.

Overall: I totally recommend this book. It was a really great coming of age YA book which I think fans of 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson would like!

My Blog:
http://pinkpolkadotbookblog.blogspot.com

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