BookBunnies

Caramel reviews Hot Lava! Fiery Facts About Volcanoes by Alice Fewery

A couple of weeks ago, Caramel visited the book fair held in his school campus and picked a handful of nonfiction books for himself. Last week he reviewed one of them: Sea Bunnies by Kelly Hargrave. Today he talks about a second book: Hot Lava! Fiery Facts About Volcanoes, written by Alice Fewery and published in 2021. As usual, Sprinkles is asking questions and taking notes.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, this was the second book you got from the school book fair. Tell us about it. Why did you want to read it?

Caramel: Because I wanted to know more about volcanoes! And of course, the slime!! It comes with slime!

S: I can see that the book combined two things you like: slime and facts!

C: Exactly. I like books full of facts, and this book is full of facts. And I like playing with slime, and this book came with metallic slime.

S: What’s metallic slime?

C: It’s just regular slime but its color is metallic.

S: Hmm, I see. Did you know that you could make magnetic slime?

C: Not until you showed me that page you found. Can we link to it so we can make some of our own some time? We have to!

S: Okay, maybe we can. Here is the link: How to make magnetic slime.

C: Cool.

S: Okay, can we get back to the book now?

C: No. Of course, I’m kidding! Yes let us talk about the book.

S: You got me there. Okay, now tell me about the book.

C: It is forty pages full of “fiery” facts about volcanoes. For example, did you k know that when a volcano in the Krakatoa island blew up in 1883, it changed the climate of the whole world? The temperatures fell by 0.72 degrees Fahrenheit all around!

S: No, I had heard of the Krakatoa explosion, but I did not know that its climate effects were so significant. So the book talks about famous volcanic explosions, right?

C: Yes. It has two-page spreads on three other “famous eruptions”: Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii, Italy, which blew up in 79 CE, Mount St. Helens in Washington, USA, which blew up in 1980, and Mount Pelée in Martinique, which blew up in 1902.

S: Did you know about these disasters before, Caramel?

C: I had heard about Pompeii and Mt Vesuvius. And I am not sure but I think I might have heard about that one person who survived because he was in a windowless jail cell during the explosion of Mount Pelée. But I did not know about the others.

S: So you learned some things from this book.

C: Yes of course. I also learned a lot about the mechanism of volcanoes and a lot of new words about them. For example, apparently magma is called “magma” under the crust, but when it gets out we call it “lava”. So I knew both were molten rock, but I did not know they were exactly the same thing, just one is inside and one is outside.

Caramel is reading Hot Lava! Fiery Facts About Volcanoes by Alice Fewery, accompanied by the metallic slime that came along with the book. — Caramel is reading *Hot Lava! Fiery Facts About Volcanoes* by Alice Fewery, accompanied by the metallic slime that came along with the book.

S: So the book was “factful”, right?

C: Yes, that would definitely be one of my three words.

S: What other words would you use?

C: Colorful, and maybe slimy. But not in a bad way; I call the book slimy because it comes with slime. Really nice metallic orange color.

S: I understand. So tell me what other facts there are in the book before we wrap up this review and you go back to playing with that cool slime.

C: Okay. Maybe I can read to you some of the section titles.

S: Sure.

C: I’ll skip the famous eruptions because I already listed them. Then there are sections titled “What is a volcano?”, “Volcano varieties”, “Why do volcanoes erupt?”, “Life cycle of a volcano”, “Liquid rock”, “Hot water”, “Ash and dust”, “Gas and lightning”, “Weather warning”, “Supervolcanoes”, “Volcanoes in space”, “Living on a volcano”, “Visit a volcano”, “Make your own volcano”. And there is the glossary and an index.

S: Some of those sound really interesting! I’d love to know more about volcanoes in space and making your own volcano.

C: We can try making one at home some day, maybe?

S: Maybe.

C: And space volcanoes are really neat too. You should read this book Sprinkles.

S: Maybe I will.

C: But I’m not sharing my slime!

S: Hmm, we’ll see about that. Okay, let us wrap this up. What do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel enjoyed reading Hot Lava! Fiery Facts About Volcanoes by Alice Fewery, and playing with the metallic slime that came along with the book, though it did get into his fur a little. — Caramel enjoyed reading *Hot Lava! Fiery Facts About Volcanoes* by Alice Fewery, and playing with the metallic slime that came along with the book, though it did get into his fur a little.

Marshmallow reviews Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

A while ago, Marshmallow and Caramel watched the 2016 movie Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and were quite disturbed by it. Only recently did Marshmallow come across the book which the film was based on: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, written by Ransom Riggs and published in 2011. To her surprise, she found it to be a quite satisfying read and decided to review it for the blog.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like books about magic and friendship, then this might be the book for you.

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): As Jacob was growing up, his grandfather Abraham always told him the most extraordinary stories about a house for peculiar children who each had special powers. This home was special, run by a bird who smoked a pipe. The children in the home were peculiar; some could fly, some were extremely strong, and the rest had other unnatural skills. But there were monsters after the children, and the monsters wanted to eat them. As Jacob grew older, he began to doubt the truth in these stories. That is, until he saw the monsters for himself.

Early in the book, Abraham is killed by the monsters that he used to talk about and suddenly everything changes. Abraham’s last words are “Find the bird. In the loop.” In an effort to make sense of these events and his grandfather’s final words, Jacob visits the children’s home. Unfortunately, the home he finds is not the bright paradise his grandfather described; rather it is a destroyed shell of a house because it was bombed on September 3, 1940. Jacob’s grandfather had uttered that exact date with his last breath. Upon further investigation and some excitement, Jacob is brought as a prisoner to the children’s home by some of the children. There he meets the “bird”, Miss Peregrine, who takes care of the peculiar children. Jacob’s grandfather’s stories were all true. And unfortunately, that means the monsters are real too.

Marshmallow is reading Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. — Marshmallow is reading Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.

Marshmallow’s Review: As mentioned above in the preamble, I had watched the 2016 movie Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children before I read this book, so I had a sense of what to expect. Here is the trailer if you have not seen the movie yet (certain aspects in the movie differed from the original story and book):

I had enjoyed the movie but was a bit disturbed by it. In the end I think that the book is as good as the movie, if not better.

I really enjoyed reading Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children because it has a fascinating premise, and the plot is quite intriguing and original. There is humor and action, all intertwined with a lot of strange, peculiar things going on.

I would say that Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is for readers older than 12 or 13. There are a lot of (unnecessary) bad words, and some of the events may be a little scary for younger bunnies. (That may have been the reason why Caramel and I were so unsettled when we watched the movie version.) There was some amount of kissing too, which may be uninteresting for some people.

The book has a lot of photographs (in black and white) that are all mentioned and talked about in the book. And the photos are all displayed. I found it amazing that the photos fit so perfectly with the story. As far as I understand, the author wrote the story based off these photos he found. I found the photos added nuance as they’re not something you see in a novel everyday. However, a couple of the photos (specifically pg 263) might be disturbing for younger bunnies, yet another reason why this book may be better suited for 13 and above.

All in all, I found Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children a fascinating book to read, and I look forward to reading the next book.

Marshmallow’s Rating: 95%.

Marshmallow rates Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs 95%. — Marshmallow rates *Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children* by Ransom Riggs 95%.

Caramel reviews Sea Bunnies by Kelly Hargrave

Caramel loves books with facts. He also loves soft squishy toys. So he could not help but get exceptionally excited when he visited the book fair in his school and he saw Sea Bunnies, a 2021 book by Kelly Hargrave. The book was colorful and full of interesting facts, and on top of all that goodness, it came with a new squishy friend! So of course today Caramel is talking about Sea Bunnies. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, you saw this book and had to read it!

Caramel: Yes! Can you imagine me passing by a book about our distant relatives? They are called sea bunnies, so they must be related to us somehow, right?

S: Hmm, i’m not so sure. Guinea pigs are not really related to pigs. So what are these sea bunnies? Are they mammals like regular bunnies are?

C: Well, not really. They are sea slugs.

S: Hmm, so they are not really bunnies after all.

C: No, but they have antennas that look like bunny ears, so people call them sea bunnies. And they are cute! Though maybe not as cute as most bunnies. Still they can be our friends.

S: Especially your new squishy friend, right?

C: Yes! My squishy friend is very cute. He might actually be cuter than the real sea bunnies, but that’s alright I think.

Caramel and his new squishy friend are reading Sea Bunnies by Kelly Hargrave. — Caramel and his new squishy friend are reading *Sea Bunnies* by Kelly Hargrave.

S: So let us get back to the book. Tell us a bit about it please.

C: The book has fifty pages. On each two-page spread, you learn about a new type of sea slug or sea bunny. There are about thirty different types they talk about. For example, there is one they call a Ninja Sea Slug. Then there is a sea angel. There is a leaf sheep. And so on.

S: So they all have interesting names!

C: Yes, in the beginning the author says “each sea slug featured in this book has been given an awesome nickname.” And they are awesome nicknames!

S: I agree. They are all pretty imaginative and evocative nanes.

C: Those would be some words I could use to describe the book!

S: I guess so. But I’d also assume you would want to say “colorful” and “fact-full”, right?

C: Yes! The book is very colorful and full of facts!

S: Any facts that were new for you?

C: Of course! I didn’t even know that there was an animal called a sea bunny, to start with. So yes.

S: True, the name was new, but what else did you learn about these creatures?

C: They have tentacles, and some have wing-like extensions. Some glow in the dark. Some are pink and have toxins. They can be all sorts of colors. There are over two thousand different types of sea slugs!

S: Those are all very interesting facts Caramel! I’m glad you read this book.

C: Me, too! And I’m glad I have a new squishy friend!

S: I know. Okay, this is probably a good time to wrap up the review so you can continue to play with him. What would you like to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny adventures!

Caramel and his new squishy friend strongly recommend reading Sea Bunnies by Kelly Hargrave and learning more about these amazing creatures. And of course who doesn't want another squishy friend? — Caramel and his new squishy friend strongly recommend reading *Sea Bunnies* by Kelly Hargrave and learning more about these amazing creatures. And of course who doesn’t want another squishy friend?

Marshmallow reviews The List of Things That Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead

Marshmallow has already reviewed When You Reach Me (2009) and Goodbye Stranger (2015) by Rebecca Stead. Today she reviews Stead’s newest novel, published in 2020: The List of Things That Will Not Change.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like books about family and you want to read about how different characters tackle change, then this might be the book for you.

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): When Bea’s parents tell her that they are getting divorced, they give her a green notebook. In it is a list of things that won’t change, even though almost everything else might:

Mom loves you more than anything, always.
Dad loves you more than anything, always.
Mom and Dad love each other but in a different way.
You will always have a home with each of us.
Your homes will never be far apart.
We are still a family but in a different way.

Her parents’ divorce is amicable; the reason for the divorce is that Bea’s father is gay.

After the divorce, Bea’s life splits in two different parts, sometimes living with her mother and sometimes with her father. Later, her father gets engaged with another man, Jesse. Bea really likes Jesse and looks forward to him becoming a part of the family. Not to mention that Jesse has a daughter Bea’s age named Sonia, and Bea has always wanted a sister.

But Bea has other issues to face. She has eczema which is annoying to her, and she goes to therapy to deal with her stress. Everything is now different, but Bea keeps herself up by talking with her friends and family, who are always there to support her. Bea and her family will struggle to reach their happy ending.

Marshmallow is reading The List of Things That Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead. — Marshmallow is reading *The List of Things That Will Not Change* by Rebecca Stead.

Marshmallow’s Review: I found this a touching book. Bea is very thoughtful, and this book really highlights and goes into her thoughts and feelings. It was sad to see how some of the folks in the book mistreated Bea’s father and his new partner because of their sexual orientation.

The List of Things That Will Not Change was extremely realistic and felt very down to earth when I was reading it. Every character was unique and well thought-out, and the narrative and tone of the book felt very genuine. That said, I don’t quite think the end was one hundred percent fulfilling, but it was definitely satisfactory. However, I did like how all the loose parts were tied up in the end. I also found it interesting how not everything was perfect in the end but it was realistic. (I’m not going to say much more!)

The List of Things That Will Not Change would be appropriate for all ages, presuming that the person would understand the plot, which I felt was easy enough to understand, though it had some extra nuances for an older reader who would see all the threads from beginning to end.

Bea’s relationship with Sonia might remind some readers of a book I reviewed a while ago: To Night Owl From Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer. There are indeed some similarities but also a lot of differences. Bea’s health issues reminded me a bit of Guts by Raina Telgemeier, another book I reviewed for the blog. And compared with the other books I have read of Rebecca Stead, the tone and voice of this book was very similar. The setting and tone were more reminiscent of When You Reach Me, but the realism was quite like that of Goodbye Stranger. But The List of Things That Will Not Change has definitely a unique and original story, and I really enjoyed reading it; I think most bunnies would, too.

Marshmallow’s Rating: 95%.

Marshmallow rates The List of Things That Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead 95%. — Marshmallow rates *The List of Things That Will Not Change* by Rebecca Stead 95%.