The Running Bibliophile

Vacation Fever  by Marjorie Sharmat  is a young adult romance novel originally published in 1984, sometimes under the pseudonym Wendy Andrews. The story begins with seventeen-year-old Mia packing for vacation with her parents, fifteen-year-old brother Ted, and eleven-year-old sister Heidi. Although Mia's best friend insists vacations are the perfect place to meet guys, Mia isn't exactly thrilled about spending so much time with her family. Follow Mia on her journey and mishaps. This is a novel that I received as a birthday gift from a friend when I was in middle school. I had never heard of it, but it sounded promising. I remember thinking it was just okay at the time, but since it's been years, I decided to reread it as part of my journey to relive my childhood through books. The story quickly came back to me as I made my way through the book. It was a really fun read, even though it didn't have much depth or character development. One thing I did appreciate was how th...

The Witches by Roald Dahl: Honest Book Review, Themes, and Movie Comparison If you grew up loving spooky stories, there’s a good chance you remember the 1990 film The Witches . Recently, I found myself thinking about that movie again, and it led me down a nostalgic rabbit hole that ended with me finally reading the book for the first time. The first time I watched this movie was in middle school after renting it from a video store for a slumber party. I remember being completely terrified. So terrified, in fact, that I made my dad sit down and watch it with me and my friends. That reaction was unusual for me, especially since I’ve been watching horror movies since I was seven years old, starting with Poltergeist . For years, I thought The Witches was just a movie. I had no idea it was based on a novel by Roald Dahl. Somehow, I missed his books entirely as a child ... something I still find surprising. So reading The Witches as an adult felt both nostalgic and eye-opening. Quick ...

Whenever I shop at BJ’s Wholesale Club, I always make a point to stop by the book section. I can usually find something I’ve been wanting to read at a great discount compared to other stores. This time, though, I was disappointed to see the selection had shrunk from two tables down to just one. That said, I did have a nostalgic moment when I spotted The Girl in the Locked Room: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn. I first discovered her books in middle school and quickly fell in love with her storytelling, so seeing one of her titles on the table felt like a blast from the past. Naturally, I had to pick it up. While I’m not exactly the target audience for this book, I’d still give it four out of five stars. I was able to predict the outcome fairly early on, but that didn’t take away too much from the experience. The story reminded me a bit of The Doll in the Garden: A Ghost Story , though it didn’t quite reach the same level of creepiness or suspense. Even so, it was well written ...

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 ...