Book Review: The Last Carolina Summer by Karen White

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The Last Carolina Summer by Karen White is the story about Phoebe Manigault returning home to Mt. Pleasant, a suburb of Charleston, South Carolina, to help her sister with their ailing mother. When past memories resurface, Phoebe is thrown back into some childhood turmoil. I requested an Advanced Readers Copy ARC of The Last Carolina Summer from NetGalley, and I was ecstatic when the provided me with a copy for free in exchange for my honest review. So, a big thank you goes out to them! When I began reading this story, I just happened to be vacationing in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. I loved hearing about the different places, including streets and a bridge called the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, which I had to cross to get into Mt. Pleasant as well as Isle of Palms. It's always nice to be able to visualize the places and author writes about. With that being said, I'm not a fan of traveling over bridges, and one of the scenes of The Last Carolina Summer mentions a car going off ...

Book Review: Ramona the Pest (Ramona Quimby, #2) by Beverly Cleary

Ramona Quimby #2
Reading Ramona the Pest (Ramona Quimby, #2) by Beverly Cleary as an adult for the first time ever was a delight. How did I never read this book as a child? Maybe if this had been recommended to me by a teacher or librarian, I would have enjoyed reading in elementary school a lot earlier than I did.

Beverly Cleary did an amazing job of capturing how a five year old acts in kindergarten. I felt like I was back in school again. When I was in kindergarten, there was a morning class and an afternoon class. Unlike the book, we didn't have nap time because there wasn't enough time with such a short day. I enjoyed that the kids were in charge of certain things in the classroom like passing out the art supplies because that sort of thing was a huge deal when I was a kid.

I loved the fact that Ramona misunderstood a few things that her teacher said because kids of that age often misinterpret what is said by adults by no fault of their own, and they often do things that they think are no big deal but in actuality is a big deal like Ramona pulling Susan's hair, even though it was mostly innocent on her part. The one thing that bothered me in the book was that Susan was a tattle tale but never got in trouble by Miss Binney. The tattle tales rarely get in trouble in real life in my experience, so I guess Beverly Cleary was spot on with this, but why does this happen? 

The way the kids in the book teased each other and blew things out of proportion was spot on too. An example of this was when the other kids teased Ramona about being a kindergarten dropout. The teasing happens all too often in real life. How did Beverly Cleary capture kids so well in Ramona the Pest? This was a wonderfully written story for kids that adults can enjoy reading with their kids. I give this book five out of five stars.

Synopsis of Ramona the Pest (Ramona Quimby, #2) Ramona Quimby is finally old enough to go to school, and she is super excited about starting kindergarten. The precocious five year never means to be a pest, but it just happens. What adventures does Ramona have in her first year of school?


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