Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

I'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. I've been discovering some great reads there--possibly including the one I'm reviewing today (I'm not really sure; it was on my library wish list).    Title : Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms Author : Katherine Rundell; read by Biana Amato Publication Info : 2014, Recorded Books. 7 hours. First published by Faber & Faber, 2011, as The Girl Savage Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (via Goodreads): Even a life on the untamed plains of Africa can’t prepare Wilhelmina for the wilds of an English boarding school in this lovely and lyrical novel from the author of Rooftoppers, which Booklist called “a glorious adventure.” Wilhelmina Silver’s world is golden. Living half-wild on an African farm with her horse, her monkey, and her best friend, every day is beautiful...

I think this was the result of a random search through the library's juvenile historical fiction. I'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. I've been discovering some great reads there!    Title: Nothing Else But Miracles Author: Kate Albus, read by Carrie Coello Publication Info: Tantor Audio, 2023. 7 hours. Hardback published 2023 by Margaret Ferguson Books, 288 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb : Twelve-year-old Dory Byrne lives with her brothers on New York City's Lower East Side, waiting impatiently through the darkest hours of World War II for her pop to come home from fighting Hitler. Legally speaking, Dory's brother, Fish, isn't old enough to be in charge of Dory and her younger brother, Pike, but the neighborhood knows the score and, like Pop always says, "the neighborhoo...

Another installment in my quest to understand walking, hiking and the huge mental health benefits that I, at least, get from doing it.     Title: On Trails: An Exploration 
 Author: 
Robert Moor, read by Jason Grasl Publication Info: Audiobooks.com, 2016. 11 hours. Original by Simon and Schuster, 2016. 
 Source:  Library 

 Publisher’s Blurb: 

   From a brilliant new literary voice comes a groundbreaking exploration of how trails help us understand the world—from tiny ant trails to hiking paths that span continents, from interstate highways to the Internet. In 2009, while thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, Robert Moor began to wonder about the paths that lie beneath our feet: How do they form? Why do some improve over time while others fade? What makes us follow or strike off on our own? Over the course of the next seven years, Moor traveled the globe, exploring trails of all kinds, from the minuscule to the massive. He learned the tricks of master trail-...

Thanks to the author and Great Escapes virtual tours for the chance to read and review this cozy mystery. Gone Crazy (Rory Naysmith Mysteries) by Terry Korth Fischer 5-STARS With its sensitive depiction of Native Americans and solid, rich characters, Gone Crazy thoroughly entertained me. ~Novels Alive About Gone Crazy Gone Crazy (Rory Naysmith Mysteries) Mystery 3rd in Series Setting – Nebraska Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Wild Rose Press, Inc. (July 22, 2024) Paperback ‏ : ‎ 284 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1509255974 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1509255979 Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0D47XQ8WZ A formal declaration of love scares the bejesus out of small-town Detective Rory Naysmith. As Valentine’s Day approaches, he evaluates his relationship with bookkeeper Esther Mullins, and decides to take her on a romantic date that ends with a poet’s murder. Assigned to the case, Rory pushes his private life aside. Things gets tricky after Esther is appointed Executrix for the estate—then rumors start that...

Another of my random history reads.     Title: Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War Author : 
Lynne Olson. Read by Arthur Morey & Kimberly Farr Publication Info : Random House Audio, 2017, 19 hours. Original hardback by Random House, 2017, 526 pages. Source: Library 

Publisher’s Blurb (via Overdrive): 

 A groundbreaking account of how Britain became the base of operations for the exiled leaders of Europe in their desperate struggle to reclaim their continent from Hitler, from the New York Times bestselling author of Citizens of London and Those Angry Days When the Nazi blitzkrieg rolled over continental Europe in the early days of World War II, the city of London became a refuge for the governments and armed forces of six occupied nations who escaped there to continue the fight. So, too, did General Charles de Gaulle, the self-appointed representative of free France.     As the on...

Participating this week in the fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle . Check out his blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. I've been discovering some great reads there. Title: Red Fox Road 
Author : 
Frances Greenslade Publication Info : 
Puffin Canada, 2020. 238 pages (Kindle edition) Source: Library 

Publisher’s Blurb: 

 A thirteen-year-old girl on a family vacation becomes stranded alone in the wilderness when the family's GPS leads them astray. A compelling survival story for ages 10 to 14, for fans of Hatchet and The Skeleton Tree . Francie and her parents are on a spring road trip, driving from British Columbia, Canada, to hike in the Grand Canyon. When a shortcut leads them down an old logging road, disaster strikes. Their truck hits a rock and wipes out the oil pan. They are stuck in the middle of nowhere. Francie can't help feeling a little excited -- she'd often imagined how...

Another book I picked up from the fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop  hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle . Check out his blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.     Title : Chasing Helicity Author: Ginger Zee Publication Info: Disney Hyperion, 2018. 204 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads): Helicity is well aware that her name is unusual - kind of like Helicity herself. The word Helicity means to spin, and for as long as she can remember, Helicity has been fascinated by the weather. The weather is Helicity's escape from her own reality - may that be school, her father's strict discipline, or her brother's imminent departure for college where he's all set to play football. One fateful day, Helicity and her horse head out on a long ride to take a break from life at home. Even with her vast experience with weather, Helicity is unprepared for the elements she faces. The choices Helicity makes before,...

 I'm not ordinarily a huge fan of books in verse. This one will have to be an exception.     Title: Louder Than Hunger Author: John Schu Publication info: Candlewick Press 2024. 528 pages Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: (Goodreads)  Revered teacher, librarian, and story ambassador John Schu explores anorexia—and self-expression as an act of survival—in a wrenching and transformative novel-in-verse. But another voice inside me says, We need help. We’re going to die. Jake volunteers at a nursing home because he likes helping people. He likes skating and singing, playing Bingo and Name That Tune, and reading mysteries and comics aloud to his teachers. He also likes avoiding people his own age . . . and the cruelty of mirrors . . . and food. Jake has read about kids like him in books—the weird one, the outsider—and would do anything not to be that kid, including shrink himself down to nothing. But the less he eats, the bigger he feels. How long can Jake...

Important stuff, but hard to hear. Title: Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? Author: Bill McKibben. Ready by Olivery Wyman Publication Info: Macmillan Audio 2019. 11 hours. Hardback by Henry Holt & Co., 291 pages. Source: Library Blurb: (Goodreads): Thirty years ago Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about climate change. Now he broadens the warning: the entire human game, he suggests, has begun to play itself out. Bill McKibben’s groundbreaking book The End of Nature -- issued in dozens of languages and long regarded as a classic -- was the first book to alert us to global warming. But the danger is broader than that: even as climate change shrinks the space where our civilization can exist, new technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics threaten to bleach away the variety of human experience. Falter tells the story of these converging trends and of the ideological fervor that keeps us from bringing them under control. And t...

Another review via Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours. Thanks to Lori at GEVBT, the author, and the publisher for the chance to read this new release.   A Lethal Lake Effect (A Victoria Square Mystery) by   Lorraine Bartlett About A Lethal Lake Effect A Lethal Lake Effect (A Victoria Square Mystery) Cozy Mystery 9th in Series Setting – Victoria Square, McKinlay Mill, NY Publisher ‏ : ‎ Polaris Press (June 6, 2024) Number of Pages: 306 Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CYYDN1GH Things go awry for Katie Bonner when her former mother-in-law, Margo, throws a housewarming party at her lakeside rental and one of her guests ends up dead in the water. Maxwell Preston was a devoted husband–and a not-so-great dad. He was a beloved pharmacist who didn’t take care of his ramshackle property, which is destined to be a hot commodity on Victoria Square when his heir puts it up for sale. But most of all, Preston was a stranger to the others who attended the party. Meanwh...

Participating in the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop  hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle , with loads of reviews of Middle Grade fiction (books for roughly ages 8-12).   Title: Just Keep Walking Author: Erin Soderberg Downing Publication info: Scholastic Press, 2024. 242 pages. Publisher's Blurb: Two years after her parents’ surprising and painful split, twelve-year-old Jo and her mom find themselves on the 100-mile hike on the Superior Hiking Trail along Lake Superior’s north shore –a journey that Jo had always looked forward to hiking with her dad. It’s not a situation that either of them ever predicted they’d find themselves in, yet here they are in the wilderness with their entire lives stuffed into a pair of thirty-pound packs. Along the trail, they’ll suffer through endless aches and pains, scorching heat, and crippling self-doubt. They’ll encounter bears, moose, and other wildlife and meet and collect an assortment of unlikely friends...

Participating in the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop,  hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle , with loads of reviews of Middle Grade fiction (books for roughly ages 8-12).  I'm grateful to the hop for giving me a renewed interest in MG fiction.   Title: Keeping Pace Author: Laurie Morrison Publication info: Kindle edition, 2024, Amulet Books. 207 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: Grace Eller has spent most of middle school working toward one goal: beating her former friend Jonah Perkins’s GPA so she can be the best student in her class. But when Jonah beats her for eighth grade top scholar and then announces he’s switching schools for ninth grade, it feels like none of Grace’s academic accomplishments have really mattered. They weren’t enough to win—or to impress her dad. And the summer looms over her head. With nothing planned and no more goals or checklists, she doesn’t know what she’s supposed to be working toward.   Eager fo...

Participating in the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop,  hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle , with loads of reviews of Middle Grade fiction (books for roughly ages 8-12).  This is a review of the audio book. Title: Clean Getaway Author: Nic Stone, read by Dion Graham Publication Info: Penguin Random House audio, 2020, 4 hours. Hardback by Crown Books for Young Readers, 2020, 240 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: How to Go on an Unplanned Road Trip with Your Grandma: * Grab a Suitcase: Prepacked from the big spring break trip that got CANCELLED. * Fasten Your Seatbelt: G'ma's never conventional, so this trip won't be either. * Use the Green Book: G'ma's most treasured possession. It holds history, memories, and, most important, the way home. What Not to Bring: * A Cell Phone: Avoid contact with Dad at all costs. Even when G'ma starts acting stranger than usual. Set against the backdrop of the segregation history of the Ame...