Things I've Said to My Children

There are some things in life that you never thought you would hear yourself say.

"Don't kiss your brother while he is on the toilet." is one of those things.
"The cat does not want to wear lipstick." is another.

But if you are a parent, then you might find yourself saying these things, and many more like them.

Nathan Ripperger is the father of five boys, and a graphic designer.  So it made sense to him to take the funny things he has had to say to his kids and illustrate them.

These illustrations have been featured on TODAY.com, HuffingtonPost, Bored Panda, and Buzzfeed. and now are available in the book "Things I've Said to my Children."

The illustrations are bright and colorful, and taken quite literally. 

For instance, "Why is there a toilet seat on my coffee table?" is a picture of a toilet seat, on a coffee table.

So while being fun to look at, the are not surprising.

And the phrases themselves are certainly odd and entertaining, but get a little repetative.  "Don't put *insert random object here* in your mouth." or "Don't put food in the *insert random object or bodily orifice.*"

This is a cute gift book, and fun to flip through once or twice, but it doesn't have a lot of lasting power.  I'm not going to giggle at them as hard the third or fourth time through. 

This would still, however, be a cute gift to give a parent of multiple children, or even to a parent to be, so they can know the kind of things they will say to their children one day.

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Come talk about books with us at the facebook group Lets Talk About Books.

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I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

If I Fall, If I Die by Michael Christie

"If I Fall, If I Die" by Michael Christie is a
coming of age story with all the best elements.

I was sitting in the break room at work, reading on my lunch break, when a friend walked in and said, "What are you reading?"

I did what I normally do, just held the up for her to read the title while I kept reading the page I was on.

"That sounds depressing," she said.

"If I Fall, If I Die" really is a depressing title but the story is anything by depressing.

Will has lived as long as he can remember Inside with his mother.  Will's mother suffers from panic attacks and sever agoraphobia.  She has never forbade him from going outside,  so in the opening of this book he goes outside for the first time.

Once outside he meets a boy who he think is his first friend.  This encounter opens up a whole new world for Will.

Not only does he go Outside, but he goes to school. He makes more friends.  He learns to skateboard.

He also finds himself in the middle of a mystery.  In looking for a missing boy he befriends a crazy vagabond, and finds himself on the bad side of a local bootlegger.

As Will moves further and further away from his mother, she finds herself more and more wanting to beat her own paranoid fears.

A typical "coming of age" story, I loved watching Will find his own way Outside, and find his place in a world that couldn't be more different than the one he grew up in.

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Come talk about books with us at the facebook group Lets Talk About Books.

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I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Q&A a Day 4 Year Journal for Creatives

 I like to consider myself to be a creative person.  I love to write and I love answering question when I'm stuck for a topic, so I was excited to be offered Q&A a Day for Creatives.

I guess I should have looked a little closer at the description though. 

Since this is a 4  year journal called Q&A I was expecting questions to write answers too.

What is actually is is 365 prompts to make small drawings.  Each page has one phrase on it, and is divided into 4 parts.  Each year you are supposed to make a small drawing on that phrase.


The back cover displays what the inner pages look like very well.

I'm not entirely disappointed though.  Fllipping through the book I found several prompts that I can use to write on instead of draw on.  AND, I've been wanting to flex my drawing muscle a little.  I'm not an artist, but maybe 4 years of small doodles can help me out!

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DISCLAIMER:  “I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.”

Shift by Em Bailey

“I believe in grey...Some things aren't straightforward. Not everything is true or false, real or imaginary, black or white. It's not that simple.” ― Em Bailey, Shift

Olive Corbett is just trying to disappear into the background.  She takes her meds, and avoids as much trouble as she can, even though she knows people are still talking about her "incident."

Then a new girl shows up, and the schools attention turns to her.

There are a lot of rumors about Miranda Vaile including that she was an orphan, who killed her parents.

Olive and her best friend Ami are the only ones who are not obsessed with Miranda.  Even Katie, the schools Queen Bee pushes girls our of her clique to make room for Miranda.

But only Olive seems to notice that the more Miranda prospers, the more Katie seems to fade away.

But who would believe Olive if she tried to convince someone that Miranda was stealing Katie's life?

Then, Miranda turns her sites on Olive herself.

Is she really just a lonely girl looking for a friend to gets her, or is there something Evil inside of Miranda Vaile?

"Shift" by Em Bailey is a young adult thriller, and the story keeps moving pretty fast once you get going.  There are supernatural undertones to the story, as Olive becomes convinced that Miranda is a shape shifter stealing the lives of other people.

Outside of that it has the usual drama of a teen novel.  A social outcast teen.  A "cool kid" love interest.  A no-nonsense best friend.  A "she used to be my best friend but now we're enemies" antagonist.

For much of the book I was pulled along by my interest in what Olive's "incident" actually was.  And trying to figure out why Olive's mom didn't approve of her best friend Ami, who seemed to be a good enough girl.  By the end I was trying to figure out what exactly was going on with Miranda.

I would give this novel 5 stars.  I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who likes YA fiction.