A fun rhyming adventure with a frog in a bog ecosystem, what will happen when a fearsome hog comes into the scene?

A lot of great science tie ins: "Being green, he couldn't be seen, moss creating a camouflage screen." make this a good book for learning science concepts as well as the overall theme of friendship.  Fun and colorful illustrations accompany the lively text of Frog and Hog's days together. 

Extra science information is added at the end including a frog's life cycle, common bog plants and animals that were illustrated in the book, bog exploration activities, bog facts and crafts.  These features make this a good book for classrooms to have for easy lesson-planning. 

As another bonus, a donation towards conservation will be made by purchasing this book.

This book was provided for free in return for an honest review.

"...but at the end of the day, and on some strange, out-of-this-world level, we formed a connection.  A connection which just saved our lives."

Two teenage girls who are just about as opposite as can be have crashed their cars on the perilous 'Death's Cliff.' Flora feels overlooked by her parents, who put all their effort into her athletically inclined brother, Derek.  Flora's grades in school are dropping she drinks a lot. Flora's best friend Mia is the only other person who understands her, Mia's parents are away all the time on lavish vacations and seem to care more about her beauty pageant sister, Laney. Flora, who is drunk and Laney, who is too preoccupied with her chapstick crash their cars into one another on Death's Cliff.  Their spirits are now stuck somewhere in between, in Lichburn and the Shadowlands.  Their bodies are not quite dead, but might be if their spirits cannot get word to their loved ones where their dying bodies are in time.  They'll have to work together to find their way back to life. 

I probably would have connected more with this story if I were still a teenaged girl.  Both Flora and Laney's characters are filled with teen angst and drama.  I actually really like the plot of the story, which kept me reading; the characters just fell flat for me.  Flora and Laney are opposites in life; however, they both read the same in the book.  The point of view in the book also switches back and forth between Flora and Laney, but since their voices are so similar, I would sometimes have to go back and look at who's voice I was reading from.  The most interesting character in the book was Sara, a spirit guide in Lichburn. She had a very unique voice and intriguing story.  I would love to know more about her life and death.  The setting of the semi-afterlife, waiting room areas of Lichburn and the Shadowlands was also a curiosity.  I know that Flora and Laney's characters didn't know much about it either, but I could have done with some more explanation.  I did enjoy the loop at the end, and there are some good lessons in here for younger readers.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

Witchstruck
Set during the reign of Mary Tudor, Witchstruck follows the story of Meg Lytton, who serves the Lady Elizabeth while she is imprisoned at Woodstock.  Meg is special though, the gift of witchcraft has been passed to her by her aunt.  Lady Elizabeth uses their special powers to attempt to foresee herself on the English throne despite the fact that witchcraft is a deadly offense; especially with her very Catholic sister, Queen Mary on the throne.  With Queen Mary betrothed to Philip of Spain, A Catholic priest and novice are sent to Woodstock to make sure Elizabeth and all of her ladies are practicing their Catholic ways.  Trouble brews when Meg is caught practicing witchcraft and the famed witch hunter Master Dent is brought in, Meg's family also wants a favor from Queen Elizabeth to begin an uprising in favor of restoring Elizabeth to the throne.  With all this going on Meg must protect herself from being implicated as a witch, protect Lady Elizabeth from being accused of treason, and try not to fall in love with the Spanish novice priest.

I pretty much love anything set in Tudor England and pretty much anything involving witchcraft, so this one was an easily likeable read for me.  I loved that Meg was a 'real' witch and felt it her duty to practice her craft, not just a woman good with herbs and curing illness.  Although, Meg was not exactly careful about when and where she practiced, which ended up getting her in trouble in this perilous time period; but I definitely did like that she was powerful.  The romance with almost-priest Alejandro was a little quick for me, but in the YA world this is often the case; nevertheless, I was still entranced by their romance.  I really did enjoy this fast-paced, suspenseful and magical adventure in Tudor England.  While she may not have made the smartest of decisions, Meg's character was still very likeable and I will be reading the second book of the series, Witchfall, next!

"It is unfair.  People versus mosquito.  Who should win?  We built rockets and cathedrals.  We wrote poems and symphonies.  We found a passage though time.  And yet.  We also wreck the planet for our own habitation and the mosquito will win.  Unless we succeed in changing course, it will win."

Prenna James is from the future.  In 2090, the Earth is failing to support human life; global warming has destroyed the food supply and a blood plague transmitted by mosquitoes has been killing people rampantly.  A small group of survivors has figured out how to jump through time and have escaped to the past in the year 2010.  When Prenna arrives in 2010, she appears in a haze, naked, and with a weird number on her arm, in the middle of a small fishing pond right in front of Ethan Jarves, leaving him even more stunned.  As a time immigrant, Prenna and the rest of the survivors have strict rules to follow set forth by their leaders in a very cult-like fashion.  The most important rule, and the one Prenna wants to break- Never fall in love with a time-native.

I liked the premise for this story; people returning to the past because future Earth is inhospitable due to human actions and global warming.  This is a great topic to discuss since we can actually do something about it now, which Prenna discusses in the book when she is in 2014.  I liked Prenna's character, a strong-willed female within her community who senses something is wrong and tries to change it.  I think many young readers will relate to Prenna.  That being said, Ethan's character falls a little flat, other than being a super-smart guy in Prenna's class who happened to be there when she arrived, he is just sort of played off as a love interest.  There were also a lot of points in this book in the plot-hole and suspension of disbelief categories that as an adult reader made me think 'huh?'  Example, in the middle of trying to prevent a murder and save the future Earth, let's produce a mysterious fake ID and have sangria on the beach!  Middle grade YA readers probably wouldn't worry about that stuff as much though and would probably find the book a bit more enjoyable. 


This book was provided for free in return for an honest review.