Book Review | Book Chatter

Dawn Menge, the author of Queen Vernita’s Visitors was nice enough to send me a review copy of her book. It arrived at the perfect time too because my daughter was wandering around the house looking for a book to read before bedtime.

Here is a brief summary from the back cover:

“Queen Vernita invites twelve wonderful friends to visit with her during each month of the year. Queen Vernita and her friends enjoy fun activities throughout the Oceaneers Kingdom. Parents and teachers will love teaching the monthly calendar, days of the week and seasons through the storytelling adventures of Queen Vernita and her friends.”

First off, my daughter is always asking me what day it is or how many days until Halloween, or Christmas or Easter. She knows the days of the week, but she has no concept of time or how many months until something takes place. As parents, we have stopped telling her about future events because it prompts weeks and weeks of questions about where and when. This is one of the reasons I was so excited about this book. We settled ourselves on the couch and dug right in.

Queen Vernita misses her friends so she decides to have them visit throughout the year. Each page announces who is visiting for that month and then describes, in detail, what they did each day of the week. My daughter enjoyed this. A lot of the activities were silly in some way, like playing “belly ball” or “cosmic bowling.” We giggled as we read and my daughter had fun guessing what they were going to do next.

As a parent reading the book to her child, it got a little repetitive but I also know that children learn through repetition. This book is very colorful and the illustrations seemed to grab her attention. After reading it, my daughter flipped back to the pages that caught her eye. This book would be perfect for any child that is learning about the calendar or the days of the week.

For more information about the book and Dawn Menge, please click here.

I received this book from Booking Mama and Geri over at Running Press. This book caught my eye for a number of reasons. I love a good ghost story and this one happens to be a young adult novel. I’m always on the lookout for something for my son to read and from what Booking Mama had to say about it, I knew I had to read it. Plus, I am not that big on young adult books but with my son reading them now, I figured it’s good to know what’s out there on the shelves.

Here’s a blurb from Barnes & Noble:

“From moving to a new house to making new friends and preparing for high school, life for the new girl in town can be unsettling. But thirteen year-old Courtney is unprepared for how creepy life in Murmur, Massachusetts turns out to be. Her ivy-covered house overlooking the antiquated cemetery next door is one thing, but Courtney finds herself thrust into a full-fledged haunted adventure after meeting Christian and Margaret Geyer, a strange father and daughter with unfinished family business.”

This ghost story has all the right elements. A spooky house with a lot of history, a cemetery right next door, odd neighbors and the creeping ivy that has a mind of its own. I have been super busy this week so my time with this novel has been limited to late nights on the couch, all by myself. Let me tell you, I was spooked quite a few times and kept seeing things out of the corner of my eye.

As far as the story goes, I enjoyed the main character. Courtney is a girl I could get to know. That said, some of the other characters could have been a bit more developed. Their mysteriousness added to the story, but I wanted just a little bit more in the way of character development. Additionally, the story really centered around just a few people. While reading I felt completely isolated. Perhaps a bit more information about the town itself would have helped draw me into their world.

I will say that the book itself is stunning. Many of the pages are outlined in green ivy and included in the book are several newspaper clippings, maps, letters, etc. Since the story is centered around a journal, the reader gets to view some of these journal entries as the story unfolds. I really enjoyed the journal entries.

Going way back in time here, but if I were a young girl of ten or twelve or even a boy of that age I would find this book to be a real page turner. It has enough creepiness to hold your attention but absolutely no graphic or disturbing images. As a mom, I appreciate that.

I’m turning the book over to my son now so it will be interesting to hear what he thinks of it. Thank you Booking Mama and Geri for giving me the opportunity to read it!

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