Book Review: The Little Bee by Nicola Killen

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The Little Bee  by Nicola Killen  is a children's picture book about a girl name Ollie who follows a bee to a magical, secret garden. But, the next day, the beautiful garden was gone, and the little girl misses her new friends. What will she do? This beautiful book has an expected publication date of May 5, 2026. I'd like to thank NetGalley, Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, and Beach Lane Books for approving my request for a digital Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of The Little Bee . I received a copy for free in exchange for my honest review. Nicola Killen wrote such a beautifully worded story that I found myself immersed in the story, and I'm not even the target audience. It's a charming tale that should encourage children to explore nature and make them want to plant their own secret garden.  Equally beautiful were the illustrations. I found myself taking the time to actually look a the pictures as I read. It's a great story to read   at bedtime  with ch...
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Book Review: Teamwork (Sweet Valley Twins, # 27) Created by Francine Pascal

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sweet valley twins # 27 Teamwork (Sweet Valley Twins, # 27) created by Francine Pascal is a story about twin sisters, Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, deciding they want to visit their great aunt, but their parents decide that the girls need to learn a lesson about money and earning the bus fares themselves. Determined to show their parents that they know the value of money and being responsible, they decide to start their own dog walking business, which quickly expands to dog sitting. Taking on a second client for dog sitting, the girls and their friend, Ken Matthews, quickly learn that the dog has been abused and take matters into their own hands to keep him safe.

Sweet Valley Twins is the series that made me an avid reader, and now, that I'm rereading the series as an adult, I love the fact that it teaches kids valuable lessons about serious issues and how to deal with them as a kid. I know some adults might say that Teamwork glossed over the issue of animal abuse, but we have to keep in mind that the target age group of the book series are for kids between the ages of eight and twelve, so you can't go into too much detail about the issue so as to not upset or scars kids for the rest of their lives.

Why didn't the girls and Ken just tell Mr. and Mrs. Wakefield that they thought the dog named Joe was being abused? Well, the girls had been told by their parents that they needed to handle things themselves and not to come to them with complaints, so Jessica and Elizabeth took that as they couldn't come to their parents with such a serious concern because they didn't want to be seen as irresponsible. I actually think that many kids would have done the same thing . . . However, as a kid, I would've immediately gone to my parents if I thought someone was abusing an animal. 

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