Book Review: The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

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The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray is a historical fiction novel that spans many years and tells of the friendship between former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune. I don't know if I would have picked up this book if it hadn't been the August selection for one of the book clubs I belong to in my area because I don't read a lot of historical fiction. However, I am so glad that I read it and was able to learn many things I hadn't learned about in any of my history classes.  I don't recall learning anything about Mary McLeod Bethune, and she is an important part of American history. The things she helped spearhead to provide African American people equal rights is quite impressive. One of the things I was horrified to learn about is Franklin D. Roosevelt's resistance to stop lynchings because he was afraid of losing the Southern Democrats backing for his New Deal Bill. Another thing that I fo...
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Book Review: Welcome To Junior High (Girl Talk, #1) by L. E. Blair

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book review of welcome to junior high le blair
Welcome To Junior High (Girl Talk, #1) by L.E. Blair is the first book in the Girl Talk book series taking place in Acorn Falls, Minnesota and featuring the unlikely friendship between four American girls by the names of Sabrina "Sab" Wells, Allison Cloud, Katherine "Katie" Campbell , and Rowena "Randy" Zak. The first edition in this series is told from the point of view of Sabrina Wells, who is excited for the first day of junior high and seventh grade. Everything that can go wrong on the first day of school does . . . along with making an enemy the principal's daughter, Stacy the Great.

The Girl Talk book series was one of my favorite book series when I was in middle school, and I was absolutely in love with the board game of the same name. I never put together that they had anything to do with one another until a few years ago. Additionally, I literally just learned was L.E. Blair is a pseudonym used by author Katherine Applegate, who I absolutely loved growing up. It's no wonder I loved this series so much. 

Even though I had loved this book series as a kid, I had actually forgotten about it until I read another blog that mentioned the series. As luck would have it, Welcome To Junior High (Girl Talk, #1) was on the shelf at one of my local Goodwill stores when I went there the same day as I read that blog post about it. Talk about kismet! I just had to buy it to add to my collection of books and reread it as part of reading my way through my childhood.

Reading Welcome To Junior High (Girl Talk, #1) as an adult brought back all the great memories I had about the book, and I fell in love with it all over again. The inner child in me related to most of the characters in the book, especially Sabrina and her embarrassing moments like when she thought a cute boy was waving to her and wasn't. It's a great book that deals with typical life lessons that pre-teen girls deal with like cliques and the pressure to fit in. The situations were very realistic making me think back to my middle school days.

Four out of five stars is the rating I gave Welcome To Junior High (Girl Talk, #1) by L.E. Blair because although it was written well for the age group it targets (ages eight through twelve), there were a few things that were a bit of a stretch like dance committees that decided the theme of the dance. Things might have changed since then, but when I was that age, we didn't have dance committees, and we certainly didn't have homecoming dances until high school.

If you liked Welcome To Junior High (Girl Talk, #1) by L.E. Blair, you may like Horseback Summer (Horse Crazy #1) by Virginia Vail.


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