Like those of you who come to my blog looking for book recommendations, I often check out book vloggers/bloggers and 'what's new in children's lit' to see what I should be checking out next. That's how I heard about Book Uncle and Me by Uma Krishnaswami. Firstly, I don't think I've ready any children's books from an Indian author before so I was interested to see if the styles would be at all similar and what kind of themes would be explored. Secondly, this book is about two of my favorite things: books and community activism. :-D Our main character, Yasmin, is a voracious reader and she gets all of her books from a lending library run by Book Uncle who sets up his 'shop' on the corner by her apartment building. There is no price for these books and if you want to keep it then that's perfectly okay. Yasmin and many members of her community come to see this little library as a constant in their lives but one day their world is upended because Book Uncle has been told that he must leave. What transpires next is nothing short of inspiring and that's just what I think is so phenomenal about this book. It teaches children that their actions matter and that activism can be accomplished by every member of the community. It's a great way to talk about 'doing your part' that doesn't make it overbearing or heavy-handed. It's also a great way to expose children to a different part of the world. 8/10

Note: This book will also make you extraordinarily hungry.

Welcome back to the Sassygirlbooksmz, last we saw the Banovic’s kids life was starting to take slightly different turns, Zax’s eyes have started to see a little clearer when it came to Leighann, Adriana was and still is madly head over heels in love with Haze and Kevin bulldozed the ever selfish Savi out of his path and managed to find love with L’wren. But who said it was time for rainbows and roses this is LA and the Banovic’s we are talking about.

In this edition of our favorite family the lid has been removed and booms and revelations have been unleashed. Kevin has it all a growing business and the love of a great woman but fear that his truth will be exposed is pushing his inner-self to leave behind his doubled life.

Zax can’t help but start realizing that his chance with LD has slipped or is slipping away from him, and being around her is getting harder and harder to handle.

Wholly Brenda (90210 moment), the truth that Adriana was so desperately holding on too struck her hard as hell the moment Haze found out BOOM WTF MOMENT (so thankful no commercial interruption when this happened). But damn you can feel the pain, betrayal, love being pulled from the revelation but I gotta say I’m hoping and still rooting for #Hazriana..

On the key players sweetie Kristin isn’t so sweet after all she is being naughty and when the sheets cool down what will happen when golden boy Zax finds out, and what would happen to Joel if Zax finds comfort in LD (time is ticking before Zax embraces his Banovic tendency to take what he wants no matter what).

Savi is out of it still but time is only a matter of time since a ghost from the ashes has risen…. I’m guessing this is his wild card to control Kevin….it’s only a matter of time..

And finally the moment we all been waiting for the voice taunting Kevin has been revealed and it’s a whopper but the bigger questions are why? How? What does he really want? And the fact that I (I mean we have to wait for the next book is like waiting for the next DAMN season premiere) this is why I’m anti summer all shows go into hiatus and apparently so do the Banovic’s.

I gotta say Gillian Felix is killing me very softly here because books 1-4 were like this great setup for the book boom that is Bad Uncle and no teaser on book 6 is urgh.. Well played Gillian.

****best line thus far Zax telling Adriana that her life is like a soap opera loved it****.

Now back to you at Sassygirlbooksmz headquarters. Sassy Girl Books.

31/8 - I have wonderful memories of sitting up in bed reading this with my maternal grandma (these grandparents were seventh day Adventists) as a 4, 5, 6-year. I would get up in the morning, when I was staying over night with them, and dash down to Grandma's bed to read 'stories' with her while Grandad made breakfast for everyone - scrambled eggs with toast 'soldiers' for Grandma and me, toast for Grandad and rockmelon for my brother. I loved those mornings, and by association I loved those stories.

Years later, at high school, despite my now obvious atheism, I was the only one in my religious instruction class that actually knew any of the bible stories - the parting of the red sea, King Herod's plan to kill all the babies in Judea in order to kill Jesus while he was still a baby, the building of the ark, and so on. This didn't change my later opinions on what was and was not real when it came to the bible, but the stories definitely stuck in my mind - they're still in here 25 years later.