Hi, I’m Rebecca. I write books and I write here at This Joyful Mess to inspire everyone to find JOY in the everyday messes of life. Here you’ll find inspiration, educational resources, and so much more. Please explore and connect—I’d love to hear from you!
Mama Why?
Because I said so!
Uh, no, this is the book, Mama Why? by Karma Wilson (illus. by Simon Mendez), McElderry, 2011
The poet in me loves the rhythm in this gentle story...
Another Sweet Picture Book
Quiet Bunny's Many Colors by Lisa McCue, Sterling 2010.
As with any picture book, the pictures are the first thing you notice. They were, in fact, what drew Mud Pie to the book at the library and compelled her to yank it off the shelf and stuff it in her over-full library bag. Predictably, she oohed and ahhed...
Review Unwritten—Katherine Paterson’s Bread and Roses, Too
Just after putting down this latest Paterson book, I had idea after idea about what to say. That was a month ago (at least) and the details have now faded. All my brilliant points of critique, all my Deep Thoughts. Oddly, details of the story itself are not lost, nor are one or two things I’d thought when I first read it. This is probably for the best
Two Undecodable Books (ok, maybe a little decodable)
An adventure story about fun and friendship.
Rylant uses short sentences, though I must say from a reading-developmental level (whatever it’s called), the vocabulary used requires decoding skills a Level 2 might not have. “Knocked” and “enough” are more...
Cinderella or Cinderella or Cinderella - All the Same
If a culturally rich adaptation of a classic tale is going to be on a required reading list for any MFAC program, I think it should be Yeh Shen.
A Little Moody over Judy Moody
Very Ramona-the-pest both in tone and content: the every-day becomes huge in a way that takes a child’s moods and struggles seriously.
Witness this!
This book was made up of poems from different points of view and usually in differing and discernible voices all telling one story.
The plot, though ... the story seemed to end at the wrong spot. It ended with...
A Compass of Gold, off to a Good Start: Pullman's Golden Compass
The power of a great opening: Pullman’s The Golden Compass begins, “Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen.” We see a bit of each method of creating conflict. We know...
The Gift of Suffering: The Giver by Lois Lowry
Lowry opens The Giver with a description of fear and immediately cements the unusualness of the world she’s created as well as giving us insight into the young protagonist, Jonas. She also is so deliciously good at creating a Utopia that seems wonderful, at the start, and only slowly...
ChuggaChugga ChooChoo!: Freight Train, the book
Conceptual, informative, this little book teaches object permanence (through the tunnel cut away) and prepositions like through and by, and it uses real...