The Cabin Key by Gloria Rand & Illus by Ted Rand

Gloria and Ted Rand are an amazing husband/wife team. However, I think they sometimes write books for adults more than children. As a somewhat nerdy/serious kid, I loved them then and I love them now, but they are not books that are going to get kids worked up. They are quiet and generally somewhat nostalgic. And they tend to be wordy. 

This story is no different. Using memories of the Rand family cabin, the story follows a little girl and her experiences at the cabin through her childhood. 

Great story, but you need to know your audience. Are they thoughtful? Can they sit quietly for several paragraphs before another page turn/picture? 

It was a very snowy day when I was taking picture, which seemed  fitting. 

I even had a snowy pinecone. 

Ted Rand does such brilliant landscape/nature scenes. 

The little girl is entrusted with unlocking the door, which is a huge honor. 

Aren't these pictures great? 

Carrying in the wood

Love, love, love this picture! 

The joys of enamelware.

Listening to stories and watching the flames.

Coziness. Doesn't that blanket look realistic?! 

Also, the next picture (that I didn't get a picture of) shows the little mice scurrying around, so not cozy and no sleep for me. 

The family cabin is all very well and good, but mice ruin all the warm fuzzys. My husband's family has a family cabin in the Rocky Mountains. One time we took my cousin and his wife for a weekend and didn't bring quite enough bedding, so we gave them the sleeping bags and ended up using the sheets/blankets that were already on the bed. It was dark when we went to sleep and I just thought there was sand in the sheets, but.... in the morning, I saw it wasn't sand. It was mouse dirt. 

I still love the cabin, but I don't plan on forgetting sleeping bags ever again. 

Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty & Illus by David Roberts

Somehow, I had never really read any of these books. I heard all the great things about them, but I somehow never saw one in the library or bookstore to pick it up and look at it. 

They are fun little STEM related books!

In rhyming text and adorable illustrations, we learn the store of little Ada Marie, who "said not a word till the day she turned three."

I am not always a fan of rhyming text, but this text works. 

Her first word was "Why?" 

I love the brother and his tattling, pointing finger. 

Once she started asking, she didn't stop. 

Her family tried hard, but it was difficult to keep up with her questions.

Even at school Ada was always questioning and wondering.

I love this illustration!! 

Then she moved on to smell experiments

But her family had to put their foot down about something. 

She was sent to time out. 

Doesn't her mother have the grooviest fashion sense? 

When they came out to see if Ada had reconsidered her behavior, they found their hall covered in her musings, diagrams, and questions. 

I love that they support Ada in her endeavors. 

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart

Okay, this book. I was pretty sold on it just from the blurb--a father-daughter duo traveling around the country in an old bus? Yes please, fulfill all my dreams. 

And the cover! See that cover? 

That there is Coyote sitting on the top of Yager, the school bus, with Ivan the cat. A few wispy leaves, a touch of red, and a fancy script?  

A GREAT COVER. 

(Whoever said you shouldn't judge a book by the cover was full of baloney. A good cover is pretty vital. That is one thing I have learned as a school librarian--no matter how good the book, kids will not read it if the cover is some cheesy thing from the 1990s.) 

So a great cover, a great premise, and it even delivers. 

SO GOOD. 

The first page sees Coyote in a gas station in bare feet, choosing her slushie flavor wisely, (watermelon is always a mistake) while her dad is filling up. Strong start with an interesting female lead with plenty of depth. 

Coyote's hippie father Rodeo operates under the belief that if the past was hard (and it was) the only way to deal is to pretend it never happened. So his life (and by default, Coyote's life as well) is one giant game of pretend nothing bad ever happened and that we don't miss anyone at all. 

Which worked fine when Coyote was 8. But now that she is verging on being a teenager, she is beginning to question that philosophy a little bit. After a phone call from her grandmother that lets Coyote know a childhood park with nostalgic, personal treasure is being torn up, she has to finagle her father from Florida to Washington state to reclaim her treasure in a weeks time without him really being aware of it. Because going "home" is a hard no from Rodeo. Too painful. Just like his rule about Coyote never calling him Daddy. 

Hard, absolute no. 

With the help of a fate and a few wayward strangers, Coyote gets him very, very close to the goal before he figures out what is going on. That is when things fall apart a little bit for Rodeo. 

But when things fall apart Coyote can finally put them back together again in the right order for the first time in five years. Because sometimes fathers need their daughters. Just like daughters need their fathers to be fathers, not just traveling companions. 

My only minor complaint about this book is that the people they picked up along the way seemed a little like someone was checking off a checklist. An African-American? Check. A single Hispanic mother and son? Check. A misunderstood lesbian? Check. A crazy goat? Check... (oh wait--that was just a bonus.) That is not to say these characters were not well developed. I loved all of the characters. And how they joined Coyote's story was well done. The identities just seemed a teensy bit too coincidental. 

Don't let that put you off the book though--It was so good! I laughed and I cried. And there was hope. And a goat. And a bus. 

Read it!