Rest of May books: Marvelous Middle Grade Monographs

I've been putting off writing book reviews for the other books I read in May, so I decided to just write about them all in one post. They are all children's books, on the high and low ends of the middle grade spectrum.

The sole new read of this post is The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. You can read the book summary here. This book was a lovely, sad, and engrossing fairytale with memorable characters. The title is a little misleading since Luna doesn't drink the whole moon, but is given moonlight to drink by accident as a baby, which makes her very magical. It gave me the same lovely sadness as The Last Unicorn, and was similarly filled with mystery and magic and wonder. I read it because I thought it was set in an Asian or Asian-inspired country, since Luna's dress and Xan's name feel Asian to me (and because of the origami cranes), and I wanted another Asian read for Asian American Heritage Month. It's not; the setting is more like a typical fantasy setting with the woods, but the Bog is unique. The poems of the Bog and Bog Monster's origin were lovely and echoed the beginnings of Genesis and John. There are some classic fairytale elements, such as the witch, the dragon, the foundling(s), and the seven-league boots, but this book felt both familiar and new. It will stay with me for a long time. 4.5/5 stars, keeping for now. Aesthetics moodboard  Trigger warnings: baby abandonment, babies left to die in the forest (they are always rescued), baby forcibly taken from its mother, imprisonment, corrupt power-hungry leaders, permanent disfigurement due to (magical paper) bird attack, grief and sorrow and regret, a forgetting and magic-sealing spell is placed on a child and it gives her terrible headaches, old woman (witch) becomes very old and frail in a way reminiscent of disease and dying, death, pain

 

I've been working on reorganizing and shelving my books, and I came across and read The Boxcar Children, which is the first and best book of the series and an old childhood favorite. This book, which is on the border between early reader and middle grade reading levels, is about the four Alden siblings who, orphaned and alone in the world, move into an abandoned boxcar and live off of the land, the dump, and oldest-born Henry's lawn mowing job. The depictions of finding crockery in the dump, swimming in the creek, and picking blueberries while living in a boxcar sounded so dang fun to me as a kid, and they honestly still sound really fun now. The kids are industrious to the point of being didactic, and the labor is really gendered for some reason, but this doesn't take away from the fun of the simple life. As a kid I mapped my siblings and myself to the four Aldens, as 2 are girls and 2 are boys just like us (I was Jessie, in case you're wondering). I gave this one away as I have limited shelf space, but I can always revisit it at the library. This is a good article, albeit spoilery. Here's a blog post by Danny Lavery, who agrees with me! 4 stars, sold/given away. Trigger warnings: poverty (but Fun™), food insecurity, orphans, old-fashioned gender roles, Protestant work ethic/values, illness, family estrangement, the doctor tells the kids' grandfather where they are without their consent/telling them despite knowing the kids don't want their grandfather to know they're in town

I watched the animated Disney Alice in Wonderland movie last month, which I'd seen bits and pieces of but hadn't watched all the way through. I enjoyed the movie and its iconic aesthetic, although I wish they'd stuck to just Alice's Adventures in Wonderland without adding stuff from Through the Looking Glass. Naturally, I reread both from the library while sitting at the Reference desk. Enjoyable and weird as always; I think it'd been too long since my last reread since there had been some things I'd forgotten. Obviously I recommend the two Alice books since they are my favorites. For full explanations of all the references, jokes and math, I recommend The Annotated Alice edition, which has both Alice books. The library copy I read had both books and originally had the cover at left. 4/5 stars for both. Trigger warnings: references to death and accidents, adult-seeming characters grab at Alice and scold/demand things from her, fantasy violence (off with their head), sentient animal cruelty, a moment of classism and ableism from Alice about a poor and "stupid" classmate, rudeness, weirdness

Pair Eyewear's "Take Me to the Sea" collection as Our Flag Means Death characters

Pair Eyewear is a company that makes glasses with little magnets in the top outer corners of the frames and plastic decorative magnetic frame toppers that you can magnetically attach to the glasses in order to switch up your look. Needless to say, they own my whole life and I am obsessed with them. (If you'd like to try them out, please use my link above; it'll give us each free money to spend at Pair.) The most recent collection as of this blog post is their "Take Me to the Sea" collection, which is of course very ocean-y and beach-y. This makes sense for summer, as everyone has the beach and The Little Mermaid on the mind. As soon as I got the email announcing this collection, as well as little thumbnail bubbles of the various topper styles and their names, it immediately reminded me of one of my current favorite shows, Our Flag Means Death (whose 2nd season cannot come soon enough). Without further ado, here is my blog post detailing which topper is which character or scene or setting from OFMD (kind of contains spoilers for the show).

The Nautilus Shell

This topper (which I bought) immediately reminded me of Ed's purple T-shirt, especially as it fades to very nearly black. However, in the interest of including all the OFMD characters, I'd assign this topper to Ivan, as the colors would look poppin' with his dark aesthetic.

The Ocean Stars

My first inclination was to assign this topper to Mary, as she is the girliest woman (of two) in the show. However, she's mostly shown wearing jewel tones and black, and this doesn't feel right for her. I think it'd work great for Alma, her and Stede's preteen daughter.

The Twilight Waves

This one is beautiful, and brings to mind the famous Japanese painting "The Wave". It kind of reminds me of that romantic scene where Stede and Ed are standing on the deck under the humongous moon.

The Shoreline

This one IMMEDIATELY brought to mind one of the last scenes in season 1, where we see Stede on a beach push a rowboat into the waves and set off to get his ship and man back.

The Seaside Tort

This topper is Jim, because of the orange :)

The Royal Blue to Seafoam Gradient

This topper is Oluwande, because it's teal :)

The Aqua Tiles

STEDE. This one is Stede in his blue suit all the way. I also bought this one.

The Marine Medallions

I've decided to assign this pretty stained glass-esque topper to Mary, as it's reminiscent of her Cubist-like paintings.

The Land & Sea Glass

Speaking of Mary's painting, this is clearly the lighthouse painting she made Stede for their anniversary in the left corner, with The Revenge in in the right. (link)

The Kraken

This one is so clearly Ed. After all, The Kraken is his alter ego.

The Shark Frenzy

This one would be perfect for Calico Jack, since he (probably) gets eaten by a shark, but I'd rather give it to Wee John as he doesn't have a topper yet.

The Stylish Seagulls

Buttons. The man wears seagulls on his head. Enough said.

The rest of the toppers in the collection aren't included in the promo pics, so I'm going to include individual pictures of each one.

The Plaid Driftwood Split

I'm assigning this one to Lucius, since he wears a plaid neckerchief and has a stripe-y shirt. Plus, he spends a lot of time standing (not working) on deck.

The Sailor Jerry Tattoo

I'm giving this one to Black Pete, as he has tattoos and it's very nautical and pirate-y.

The Canine Captains

Fang, immediately, because he loves dogs and wasn't allowed to have one on board The Queen Anne. Although, the dogs are clearly co-captains... the corgi is Stede and the French bulldog is Ed

 

The Beach Balls

I've decided to give this one to The Swede, as he is full of childlike wonder and would love to play with a beach ball. It could also be Louis, Stede & Mary's young son.

The Mermaid Tails

This one brings to mind when someone (the Swede?) asked Jim if they were a mermaid. However, I'm giving it to Spanish Jackie as I think she'd dig the colors and design.

The Watercolor Reef

I'd give this one to Roach, as he loves to cook and eat sea creatures.

The Nautical Split

This topper is fairly staid, so I'll give it to Izzy Hands (he'd definitely find fault with it tho).

The Sea Turtle Spots

I'm giving this topper to Frenchie, as it's funky like him. I love how it's rainbow-y like the show

 

The Jolly Roger

This one is all the pirate flags they make together <3

If you want to see the whole collection yourself, it's here on the PE website. If you want to try out the glasses for yourself, please use my link here so we can each get $25!