Polly Diamond and the Magic Book: Book 1...

Polly Diamond and the Magic Book written by Alice Kuipers and illustrated by Diana Toledano is a children's book written for ages four to eight years.

Polly loves words and writing stories and lists. She believes amazing things happen in threes. Her mother is expecting another baby, so her three-year-old sister, Anna (the sparkle princess) moved into Polly's room. She's not happy about it.

Her father is a contractor and always has a project going in the house. Polly's new magic book allows her to make things happen that she writes. She's imaginative and creative. It is a fun story to read. I gave it five stars.

I received an Advanced Reading Copy from Chronicle Books and NetGalley. That did not change my opinion for this review.

Link to purchase: https://www.amazon.com/Polly-Diamond-Magic-Book/dp/1452152322

I found the writing style of this one, quite interesting.. The whole thing is narrated through refrigerator notes that mother and daughter leave for each other. You get to learn how their relationship is and what problems they face.

(I don't know about you, but I never communicated with my mother like this. Plus, our refrigerator door isn't magnetic)

Upon finishing this in one sitting, I wasn't very fond of the story, as it added drama just for the shake of drama. It was just too predictable without adding its own flavor.

Title: 40 Things I Want To Tell You

Author: Alice Kuipers

Publishers: HarperTrophy Canada

Publication Date: Feb 21st 2012

Page Number: 240 pages

Blurb:

Amy (a.k.a. Bird) seems to have the perfect life: loving parents, a hot boyfriend, the best friend ever. She even writes an online advice column, full of Top Tips, to help other teens take control of their lives. But after a new guy shows up at school, Bird can’t seem to follow her own wisdom.

Pete is the consummate bad boy. He’s everything Bird is not: wild, unambitious and more than a little dangerous. Although she knows he’s trouble, Bird can’t stay away. And the more drawn she is to Pete, the more cracks are revealed in her relationship with Griffin, her doting boyfriend. Meanwhile, her parents’ marriage is also fracturing, possibly for good.

Bird is way out of her comfort zone. All it takes is one mistake, one momentary loss of control, for her entire future to be blown away .

What I Thought:

It's just me or the cover of this edition is the different crop of What Now, Tilda B?'s cover? Oh, never mind. It still a beautiful cover, anyway.

Amy Bird was Ms. Perfect. She also have her own conseling site about "how to take control of your life" (with some tips in it) for teens, she have a BFF (the pretty, rich and loyal Cloe), a charming boyfriend (a neighbour-turned-bestfriend-turned-lover Griffin) and everything about her future seemed well planned (Oxford University for next education destination). But when she met Pete, a new student in her school, everything went to opposite ways. When I read part one, I thought this book gonna talked about love triangle or probably loyalty. But the problems in part two went deeper. There were problems which involved parents and also a baby. And then, everything in Amy's life turned upside down, from Ms. Perfect to Miss Take.

I must admit I enjoyed reading this. This is my second Alice Kuipers's book after Life on The Refrigerator Door which I read a couple days ago. But this book have the heavier material rather than the former ones, because it involved teenage pregnancy (teens and pregnancy always be a biggest problem, even in the real world). I like the way the story goes, but the ending seemed an utopia. Well, I think because this is a YA, we can't give the MC too many burdens. But this is a good book, after all

Opening Lines:

"There's something I've been meaning to tell  you." I leaned back in my desk chair, resting the phone between my cheek and my ear, and doodled on the pad of paper by my computer. There were ten items on my to-do list and I scratched a pen line through the fourth: Tell Cleo.