December Book Review

I rediscovered one of the simple joys of life over the holidays: reading in bed under the covers until the wee hours of the morning. I think I rediscover this every Christmastime, but it never gets old. It reminds me of when I was a kid and would read with a flashlight all night to finish a book. I don't think I fooled anybody with the flashlight trick, but kudos to my parents for never telling me to stop. There's just something magical about books at night; they seem to come alive even more than they do during daylight. Maybe it's the feeling that the rest of the world is asleep and you're alone with your book in a secret, silent place where anything can happen.

Anyway, on to the books. I finished Shannon Hale's Books of Bayern series with River Secrets and Forest Born. I liked River Secrets, but I loved Forest Born, probably because it has more girl power. It's up there with Enna Burning as my favorite of the series. Shannon Hale's characters are just so wonderful and real, and I really identified with Rin, both because she's just trying to figure herself out and because I used to sit outside under our cottonwood tree and listen to it "talk." Yes, I'm weird.

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, by Beth Hoffman. I loved this one too. It's about 12-year-old CeeCee, who moves to Savannah with her great-aunt after her mother dies. She's lost everything, but she finds so much more, including a strength she's always had but never realized it. Lovely characters, lovely story, and more girl power. (I think that was the theme for the month.)

It's a Book, by Lane Smith. OK, I usually don't include picture books in my book reviews, but this one is fabulous—and it's really a picture book for grown-ups anyway. It's a book about a book that doesn't tweet, blog, text, scroll, or do anything else "cool." It's just a book, one that will suck you in for hours and, if you're lucky, have you reading under the covers at 3:00 in the morning.