January Favorites

I've been pretty horrible this month about posting reviews of the books and short stories I've read. So instead of posting multiple reviews, I'll just tell you about my three of my favorites. The majority of the books I've read this month were children's books.

The Black Book of Colors by Menena Cottin can be called nothing short of genius. How do you describe to a blind person the color yellow or blue? Cottin takes that question and describes each color: Thomas says that blue is the color of the sky when kites are flying and the sun is beating hot on his head. The layout of the book is very simple with every page black with white lettering. The raised illustrations are beautiful. Instead of just looking at the words and pictures, you can feel them The words are not only in English but also in Braille. I think this book is one everyone should read. My January pick for the Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge.



The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle by Jim Butcher. I read this for Laza's Graphic Novel Challenge. I just discovered Jim Butcher and his wonderful series, The Dresden Files, in December. Welcome to the Jungle is the first graphic novel in the series. There's a mauling in the zoo and wizard Harry Dresden is called in to solve the case. The police wants to call the mauling a "gorilla attack" but Harry knows that's not the truth. I read this in one setting. The one thing I didn't like is that after reading Storm Front and others in the series, I have in my mind my own version of how Harry looks.





Delicate Edible Birds by Lauren Groof came out this week. Already there are great blog reviews about this short story collection. Groff, if you don't know, is the author of The Monsters of Templeton. Curious I read one of the included stories, "Lucky Chow Fun". Readers who have read The Monster of Templeton will find the setting of the story, Templeton, familiar. This story about the consequences of apathy left me spellbound long after I finished reading it.