Between the Pages

The Confidence Code for Girls     While The Confidence Code for Girls by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman is a non-fiction book with genuine intentions for helping girls feel more confident in everyday situations, the book is poorly organized, is not focused/doesn’t have a direct point, and does not provide attainable suggestions for building confidence. Summary:     The Confidence Code for Girls is a book that is directed to help tween aged to teen aged  girls cope with their lack of confidence. The book is designed to give facts about lack of confidence in girls, to provide suggestions for building confidence, and how to practice those suggestions to ultimately find the confidence they need. Author Praise and Critique:     In reality, this book gives unrealistic suggestions and scenarios to try to help girls. A lot of the techniques the book suggests are not an accurate evaluation of what young girls will use. N...

My Plain Jane My Plain Jane, by Brodi Ashton. Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows, is a story that tells of mischievous ghosts, an unexpected romance, and of, most importantly, Miss Jane Eyre. This book is a magnificent spin-off of the book by Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre.  Plot Summary:      Jane Eyre is an extraordinarily plain girl that lives at an all-girls, boarding school called Lowood in England. Charlotte Brontë, yes that Charlotte Brontë, is Jane’s best friend at Lowood, so she thinks. Jane’s actual best friend is a ghost, yes, a ghost. This particular ghost’s name is Helen. Helen died of the “graveyard disease”, this is common at Lowood as it is very common for girls to suffer from frostbite (while still inside) and mild starvation (better put as extreme hunger). Helen is very outspoken (ironic for a ghost, right?), but only Jane can hear her, because (as Jane learns later in the story) she is a “beacon”. I “beacon” is someone who can command gh...

Royals Royals by Rachel Hawkins is a royally funny story that is also serious and sophisticated all at the same time. Plot Summary: Daisy Winters is completely overwhelmed. No, no, and no. She is everything, but royal. Daisy works at the Sur-n-Save in Florida and is getting excited about going to Key West for a week with her best friend Isabel. Eleanor (Ellie) Winters, Daisy’s older sister who is a newly accepted member of the Scottish royal society, is engaged to sweet, shy Prince Alexander James Lachlan Baird of Scotland. Daisy is blindsided by the news of Ellie’s engagement. Of course, Daisy and her parents must visit Scotland to meet Alex’s mother, the Queen of Scotland, and Alex’s trouble-maker brother, Sebastian. Now that Alex and Ellie’s engagement has been officially been announced to the public, Sebastian is the most eligible bachelor in the world. Daisy finds herself in Scotland in under a week leaving behind Isabel, the trip to Key West, and her summer. As soon ...

      My Summer TBR List is never final. I will always be buying new books and trying my best to read a bunch of books at a time, simply because I could not decide which to read first. While the List changes frequently, I will be sure to consistently update y'all on what I am reading through reviews of the new books, Instagram, and more.  Since I have not read all of these books (I have started some...definitely.), I will not give summaries of all of the books. I will only give summaries and ratings for the ones I have already read all the way through. #1: Jane Austen in Scarsdale or Love, Death, and SATs (Based off Jae Austen's Persuasion )  Author: Paula Marantz Cohen      Anne Ehrlich, a college admission guidance counselor, is totally dedicated to her job. When she graduated from Columbia University thirteen years ago, she heeded the advice from her wealthy family, mostly from her grandmother Winnie, ...

      Why is it that we love to read when we are not forced to do so? When you have a summer book assigned by your school or parent that you have to read, it just is not as fun as it would be reading your favorite genres or titles for pleasure. For me, this I what summer is about. During the summer, I read as many books as I can. Every spare moment goes to reading. For you, this may not be the case. When I started posting on this blog, I vowed that I would get more girls interested in reading. I did not just mean school reading or assigned/forced reading, I meant reading for pleasure too. My goal is not to get you to do read every second of every single day, but it is to get you interested in reading when you are not forced to do so, because we can learn a lot from books. Below are some of my favorite summer books that I think you will love. Some of these books made me adore reading in the way I do now. Fifth and Sixth Grade Titles: 1.      Sc...

Happy Summer! The days we have been counting down months, weeks, days, and seconds for are finally here. You know what this means, summer reading! I am in the process of compiling all of my greatest recommendations for summer reading into one huge blog post. Each book will have a star rating, a cover photo, and more. It will be in the same format as the quarterly reading post, but it will be separated by grades. (5th and 6th grade and then 7th and 8th grade) Stay tuned!

        At my school, you have to read a book per quarter and write a review for your classmates. Sounds easy, right? All I have to do is read a little bit along the way. While in the car, at bed time, while getting ready for bed, there more and more and more circumstances where we could read. But, do we? No, we don’t. After lacrosse, soccer, dance practices or violin, insert your instrument here lessons, we have to eat dinner, finish our homework, get ready for bed, and after all of this, sleep. Today’s world does not permit anyone having any free time or any moments to themselves. Now that Quarterly Reading is due in about a week, people are scrambling. This, Procrastinators, is dedicated to you. Here are a couple of quick and easy books that are interesting and could be read in 3-7 days. #1) When my Sister Started Kissing:          When my Sister S...