You don’t need to love alligators or crocodiles to enjoy this educational children’s book.  I found this book fascinating as I loved how the author compared and contrasted these two different reptiles in such a easy, informative way that gives kids this information.  There is lots of different information from how and where they live, to their physical features, their babies, and then, the author wraps up the information in a few illustrations at the end.  The author included some websites and a list of other books on this topic at the back of the book for future research, if you’d like more information.  This 24-page book wouldn’t be complete without an index and that’s in the back also.

I enjoyed this book and I would highly recommend it to any child.  I’m sure they’d learn something about these reptiles or it would refresh what they already know.  I know children would enjoy looking at the photographs inside this book as they fantastic.  The pictures inside this book aren’t drawings or cartoons but they’re photographs of real crocodiles and alligators in their environments which just adds to the enjoyment of this book.    Fantastic book!  5+ stars  

Series: Amelia Peabody #7

As I stated in my previous update, it may have been a mistake to jump to the seventh book directly after the first. It’s possible that I would have been more invested in the characters and more lenient with some of the narrative twists and turns that presented themselves. But then again, maybe not.

The shenanigans in this book included an amnesia subplot and a lot of running around Egypt being attacked by a mysterious enemy. The ending was rather ridiculous. I’m not sure if I’ll be wanting to revisit Peabody’s world or not in the future. The master criminal angle was a bit much.

The cat, Anubis, was the highlight of the book.

Previous updates:

65 %

Skipping to the seventh book in the series after only having read the first may have been a mistake. But I was trying to combine a book for both Snakes and Ladders and BL-opoly, and this book has both a dog and a domestic animal (the dog) on the cover. And as I recall, the first Amelia Peabody book was alright, and had a character who set his pocket on fire with his pipe (more books should use that scenario).

This one appears to be combining an amnesia storyline where a husband forgets his wife of a decade because apparently he's secretly tired of domestic life or something (I'm not entirely clear on that point but it sounded like a silly excuse), a doctor called Schadenfreude who claims that men and women are natural enemies (see silly excuse above), and some master criminal who deals with antiquities who apparently has shown up in a previous book.

At least there's a cool cat called Anubis.

Crocodile Virgin - alas not a real crocodile or having sex with a crocodile but a crocodile shifter.  It was rather a dull story., and the names didn’t make sense.

Djinni - I do not know why one version of the title is a woman depicted as an elven form of Venus but there you go. Also why Niki as her name? And considering where the tale takes place would the angel’s name be Hugh

I told my 11 year old I was going to finish more books than her while we are stuck inside. 

So far I'm winning.

These short blurbs are my way of tracking my 2020 Reading Challenge until BookLikes fixes the tracker. Positive thoughts friends.

Dates read 1/18/2020-1/19/2020