Winsley Walker and Other Flying Objects - Nancy Craddock

                Winsley Walker and Other Flying Objects is an entertaining little book perfect for tween readers looking for a humorous and adventurous story. Unlike so many of today’s books for young people, there aren’t any sparkly vampires or wonky witches. This is just a good old fashioned story about a young girl and her family who live in a small town, growing up in a time before the digital age had taken over. The main storyline is about worry wart Winsley’s fears of her beloved grandfather’s idea to build a plane. Knowing that this surely won’t end well, Winsley does everything in her power to prevent him from achieving his dream and keeps a notebook of “worries”, perfectly illustrated throughout the book. She even goes as far as claiming her grandfather has died when a delivery man delivers some parts for the plane. The problem is that in a small town, everyone knows everyone else’s business, including who has died. I loved this book and even read a chapter to a friend’s child who giggled in all of the right places. The only thing I would add to the book are some illustrations to help a child with the transition from picture book to chapter book. I read this on my laptop and it formatted perfectly including the “worry” journal. The cover is colorful and enticing. This is a great book to encourage young children to pick up a book and read.

Moe Howard Died For Our Sins-Dale Andrew White

                Moe Howard Died For Our Sins is a small collection of short and humorous stories written by Dale Andrew White. Some of the stories are quite odd and most are over-the-top strange but all are funny if they fit your idea of humour. Lucky for me they are exactly my sense of humour and I thoroughly enjoyed all of them. In fact the only one I truly didn’t enjoy was the title story which, compared to the others, seemed a bit boring. My favorite story in the collection was Nature of the Beasts which gives a glimpse into the lives of a community of animals and their own prejudices. The story was not only funny, especially for an animal lover, but had a timely message for humans. Another favorite of mine was Life of the Party, a little tale about the Grim Reaper receiving an award and the odd party thrown in his honour. The story is very smartly written and enjoyable as are most in this book. All in all, this collection makes for a fun read, especially after a rough day and all you want to do is laugh. The formatting was a little off on my ereader but that could have entirely been due to my device. The cover, as of the time of reviewing this book, is fairly non-descript.

Alexia's Legacy by Ray White and Austin Hatcher

                Alexia was a young, beautiful and intelligent college student who was tragically killed by a drunk driver in 2014. Instead of dissolving in grief, her friends and family have helped put together this book with the proceeds going towards the Alexia Andeleanu Memorial Fund. It is for this reason I chose to read this book. I thought it would be hard to read due to the death of such a young lady and also because of the topic of leadership. I thought, how interesting could that possibly be to me? Much to my delight it was completely the opposite of what I thought it would be. The book is made up of small chapters that each center around different leadership skills and start with how Alexia exhibited these skills. This is done with Alexia’s own emails and journal entries. Interspersed throughout are pictures of Alexia which help to make this “how to” book more personal. At the end are some thoughts and feelings about Alexia from her friends and family. The book is very touching but also written in a way that is interesting and informative. The leadership qualities can be used in everyday life whether in a work environment or your personal life. Alexia sounds like she was an amazing and successful young lady and this book is well worth reading. The cover image is a picture of Alexia which gives a personal touch to the book. The formatting, pictures included, worked well on my ereader. This was a truly enjoyable read.