The Running Bibliophile

I Am Made of Death by Kelly Andrew is a young adult book that is told from the perspective of two different characters. It opens with Thomas Walsh taking a job as an ASL (American Sign Language) interpreter for a mute girl named Vivienne who hasn't spoken since a family vacation gone wrong. Vivi must be accompanied at all times and isn't allowed out after dark. She has decided to take matters into her own hands and have a medically questionable surgery to fix her issue. A huge thank you to NetGalley and Scholastic for providing me with an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of I Am Made of Death by Kelly Andrew for free in exchange for my honest review. This is a book that I wished for, and my wish was granted. To say I was excited is an understatement. The character development for both Thomas and Vivienne was exceptionally good, especially for a YA book. We learn their backstory continuously throughout the storyline, so the development is slow. As for the writing, it was well written...

Scariest. Book. Ever. (Goosebumps House of Shivers, #1) by R.L. Stine is a new book series for children in middle grades.  It opens with twins Betty and Billy being dropped off at their Uncle Wendell's house while their parents fly to London for two weeks.  What their parent's don't know is that someone is after Wendell and one of his books.  To keep the book safe, the twins must help their uncle. First and foremost, I'd like to thank NetGalley and Scholastic for the Advanced Readers Copy (ARC).  As a tween and teen, I loved R.L. Stine's Fear Street book series, so I was excited to be approved to receive Scariest. Book. Ever. (Goosebumps House of Shivers, #1) for free in exchange for my honest review.  I solely requested this book because of that, so I had no idea what to expect going into the story. I'm not the target audience for this book, but I'm sure I would've loved it if I was eight to ten years old.  There were a few red herrings, which was ex...

The Get Along Gang and the Missing Caboose by James Razzi is a children's picture book originally published on May 1, 1984 by Scholastic, Inc.  It's about a group of friends who have a caboose as a clubhouse, and it's missing!  Who took it, and will they be able to find it? This was a popular book series and television series when I was growing up, and when someone mentioned online, I knew I had to read one of the books for nostalgic reasons.  The Get Along Gang and the Missing Caboose was well written, and the illustrations were phenomenal.  It certainly brought back fabulous childhood memories.  I love the fact that the lesson of the story is that you can accomplish anything, especially with teamwork.  I also loved that they stood up to the bully of the story. Five out of five stars is what I gave The Get Along Gang and the Missing Caboose by James Razzi.  This is the perfect book for children three years old up to six years old. Follow Us On Soc...

The Invitation  by Diane Hoh is a Point Horror novel for young adults published by Scholastic in September 1991 and is about five unpopular high school students receiving an invitation to the party of the year by one of the most popular girls in school.  The five unpopular students hope this will be a night they'll never forget. Diane Hoh was one of my favorite authors as a tween and teen, and I thought I had read all of her books with The Invitation being one of them.  However, in reading this book as an adult, none of it really felt familiar with the exception of maybe a line or two, so I don't think I ever read it. The majority of the characters were unlikable, and I was surprised that there was such an overabundance of unpleasant characters in this novel.  I found it even more remarkable that a couple of them were down right cruel.  The only two characters that I found likable are Sarah and Riley. With that being said, as a whole, The Invitation by Diane Ho...

The Lifeguard by Richie Tankersley Cusick opens with Kelsey and her mom taking a ferry over to Beverly Island to vacation with her mom's boyfriend and his three children. However, Kelsey's beach vacation isn't the paradise it should be. There's a note under her pillow from Beth, who's missing, and Issac, the local drunk, won't stop bothering her. On top of that, there have been several drownings on the island. Little does Kelsey know that lifeguards don't always save people.  I am in the process of rereading my way through my childhood. When scrolling through Instagram, I saw a post from the user talespointhorrorbookclub where they were voting between two books for their book club, one of which was The Lifeguard by Richie Tankersley Cusick. I decided that this should be the next book for me to reread. Not remembering much about the YA Novel, it was like reading it for the first time. However, as the book progressed, little tidbits starting coming back to m...

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1) by J.K. Rowling was published on June 26, 1997, two days before my birthday. However, with it being a children's book, I didn't hear much buzz about it until it was made into a movie a few years later. As additional books and movies were released, I continued to hear even more chatter from adults about the series and how they loved it. When I finally joined my first two book clubs in 2010, they were absolutely flabbergasted that I hadn't read any of the Harry Potter books. At this point, it was more that I was being stubborn about it and didn't want to jump on the bandwagon. In fact, I jumped on the Twilight bandwagon before reading this series. It wasn't until 2011 before I eventually broke down to read this series, and I read them all one after the other without really reading much else. By the end of the series, I was burnt out on it. When I first picked up the Harry Potter series, I didn'...