Derrick Storm 3: A Bloody Storm

Derrick Storm 3: A Bloody Storm by Richard Castle

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Another short, if strange installment to the story of Derrick Storm. A lot of death, betrayal, injuries, and apparently some lady issues if his dreams and interactions regarding Clara and April are any indication. All of these books should really just be one book. It is annoying and aggravating to have such a short, split story to read as a "book."

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That's Not My Train

That's Not My Train by Fiona Watt

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Picked this up for my son because he loves cars and planes, so thought he might enjoy this more automotive book in his collection (he has a lot of the animals). He loves That's Not My Truck, but so far hasn't really dived into this one. I like that the transport books have some different textures that the animal books don't. A nice change of pace, especially when you have several of the series.

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That's Not My Mermaid

That's Not My Mermaid by Fiona Watt

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


The kids love this series and my daughter loves mermaids, so she was especially thrilled to find this at the bookstore. Like the others, it repeats the "that's not my..." theme with a different characteristic and texture for each spread. The last one, of course, is the one they're looking for in the book. The textures can be repetitive, but the mix them up so they aren't in the same order.

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Derrick Storm 2: A Raging Storm

Derrick Storm 2: A Raging Storm by Richard Castle

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I could have finished this last night, even though I started it late, but I wanted sleep more. This does not feel like reading a book. It's like reading short installments with no real beginning and end. I hope at the end of the series it will feel like combined I read a full book or something is even more seriously wrong here. They are short enough that if I had a solid block of time, I could probably finish the entire series in one day. Seriously, they are that short. This is not a book, which is part of why it can't get more than a 2 star "okay" rating. A book might be liked and get 3 stars even if it isn't great, but this isn't really a book, so it fails on default. It's enjoyable, but it feels like you barely get back into the swing of the story and, oops, over. Go find the next "book."

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Derrick Storm 1: A Brewing Storm

Derrick Storm 1: A Brewing Storm by Richard Castle

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a humorous installment in the Derrick Storm series. Unfortunately, it's also surprisingly short. Especially since this is supposed to be the printed copy of Castle's books from the TV series and those all look like decent sized hardbacks. While part of the story is resolved, it leaves a very big cliffhanger with the purpose of tying in to the second book. I guess one plus is that it shouldn't take long to read them all if they are all this short. On the other hand, it feels like we, as readers and Castle fans, got jipped out of the full story. Still, I miss Castle, and the story voice is on target for him, so I'll still end up reading these.

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Secrets of Animal Camouflage

Secrets of Animal Camouflage by Carron Brown

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Some of the Shine A Light books have actually scared my daughter, despite showing her how they work. We put them aside for awhile as a result and tried again tonight with this new book. She was excited to play with the flashlight and unless it was a well hidden creature we were supposed to count or something, had little trouble finding some of them even without the light. Overall seemed much more engaged in it. My son, who is only 2, mostly followed the light and tried to flip the pages early to get at the flashlight. We got a space one for him, though I expect he'll enjoy it more when he's older just like our daughter.

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That's Not My Puppy

That's Not My Puppy by Fiona Watt

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Similar to the other "That's Not My..." books, it goes through a series of textures (in a different order) before finally finding "my puppy" at the end of the book. Dogs have been a recent interest of our oldest daughter, so we thought this would be a good addition to their basic animal collection.

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That's Not My Pony

That's Not My Pony by Fiona Watt

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


We got this for our "That's Not My..." collection because both our kids like horses and seem to enjoy this series. While my daughter was excited to see the horse, my son kept pushing it away in favor of That's Not My Truck. Still, this will be a great addition to their collection in a sturdy book form that they can read or play with alone sometimes.

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That's Not My Truck

That's Not My Truck by Fiona Watt

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was the first book out of the box that my son dove for. He loves cars, which is why we got this as one of the board books specifically for him. He also has enjoyed his other books from the "That's Not My..." series. Not much of a surprise that he spent a good hour flipping through the pages, checking the different textures, and shoving the book back at me to read for him. I expect this one to stay in his read pile for awhile.

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All Better!

All Better! by Henning Lohein

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a cute little book about how to take care of small injuries. "Clean it, kiss it, put a bandaid on it. All better." As a bonus, it includes reusable stickers as jumbo bandaids that kids can actually put on the animals as they read the story. I'm sure eventually they can lose their stick, but hopefully they will last a good long while and the kids will get many reads out of them first.

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Big Keyboard Book

Big Keyboard Book by Sam Taplin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a fun and easy breakdown to reading music for very young children where they rely more on shapes and colors they are already learning, but it does also follow staff forms (though the staffs aren't written in so the pattern might not be obvious until they start reading real music). It's a self contained way to learn some favorite kid's songs, including some that even use simple chords, requiring some coordination to do the entire tune.

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Shadow's Nighttime Adventure

Shadow's Nighttime Adventure by Megan Roth

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


The kids picked this out as their "treat" when doing some bulk shopping at Costco. Mostly drew their attention because they like cats and they could "pet" this one with the felt cutouts.

The story itself us simple and mostly rhymes, telling of Shadow's adventures in the night. Cute, so long as they don't get the idea of letting our indoors only cats out in the night. I have no desire to feed the local coyotes, and our pets wouldn't have a clue how to survive outside their home.

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Cars Track Stars 3: Driven to Win!

Cars Track Stars 3: Driven to Win! by RH Disney

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This was the third and final book from the Track Stars! set at Target. The only one of the three that is not level 1. This one skips up to level 3, written for grades 1-3, and essentially tells the story of Cars 3. While my son likes the car pictures and will point to his favorite characters, he is also loving playing with all the stickers that came in the back of the collection. Makes sense seeing as he's not old enough for preschool yet.

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Cars Track Stars 2: Race Around the World

Cars Track Stars 2: Race Around the World by Walt Disney Company

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This is the second of three books in the Track Stars! set from Target. It is essentially a Preschool-Kindergarten summary of the second movie. Very simple in the telling with lots of pictures for small children.

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Cars Track Stars 1: Race Team

Cars Track Stars 1: Race Team by Dennis R. Shealy

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This was 1 of 3 books in the Track Stars! collection from Target. It essentially is the continuation of the first movie, telling how all the cars from Radiator Springs make it to one of Lightning's races that he wins. As a level 1 Step Into Reading book, it is written in an overly simple style for Preschool-Kindergarten.

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After Moonrise

After Moonrise by P.C. Cast

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This is two short stories written by two different authors that focus on characters from two different branches of After Moonrise, an agency of psychics that works for the public, sometimes with authorities, to solve strange cases involving the supernatural (ie dead people).

Possessed by P.C. Cast
Kent talks easy and is obviously determined to do his job, but his relationship with the twins and whole possession bit leave a lot to be desired. If that line of possession hadn't taken over the whole story and turned things so weird, I might have enjoyed it more.

Haunted by Gena Showalter
Levi is sweet under his gruff persona and Harper's no-nonsense approach is a good fit with him. I wondered exactly how the early preview would tie in with Harper's painting. After Possessed, I was thinking more along the lines of dream visions or second lives. This took on another approach to the whole after life thing. We even very briefly see Kent again and hear him reference his "ladies." Lana, while appearing to belong with Harper as a friend, seems the most in limbo with her afterlife. She can't really work with After Moonrise in her previous capacity as a ghost, and apparently she was good if Kent called on her to potentially help "his ladies" in the first segment.

Then there's this preview of Alice in Zombieland that I first thought was part of this book and not a teaser. That alone is rather confusing and disturbing in it's own sense. Can't say it exactly made me want to pick up that book to finish the tale.

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