"A Long Road on a Short Day" by Gary D. Schmidt and Elizabeth Stickney

This isn't a complicated book. Nothing really bad happens in it, there's no antagonist to speak of, and it's only 59 pages long (11 of which are just pictures). 

 

It's your classic "take relatively useless item, trade for slightly better items until you get the thing you want" story. Like I said, not complicated. It's not the caliber of book I usually read or review. I got it from the library to complete two quests for the library's Winter Reading program, "Read a book with snow on the cover" and "Read a book that takes place during winter".

This is going to be a short review of a short book.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: EC. It seems designed to be read out loud to small children.

Aaaaaaand... 4 stars. (Don't worry, I'm going to read some worse books soon so you can have some different star ratings.)

 

[EDIT: I'm going to drop this rating to 3 stars instead, on the grounds that in hindsight this book is actually just kind of okay.]

(Endnote: For pretty much the whole book, I was like "Oh no, they're going to get caught in a blizzard!" and other such. They do not get caught in a blizzard.)

"Greenglass House" by Kate Milford

This book was said to resemble Ellen Raskin's The Westing Game. It does, kind of, in that everyone has their own story. There's an overarching plot to Greenglass House, but it spins lots of little sidetracks too. Aside from Milo (the main character) and his parents, nobody is who they seem to be. Well, there are a couple of minor characters who don't really have any secrets, because they're minor characters. But everyone else? Nope, no one is telling you everything. No one.

 

I'm not going to spoil any of the secrets for you. At least two of them surprised me a great deal, especially the one where |haha just kidding I'm sticking to my word|.

Milo and Meddy (the daughter of one of those sans-secret characters) try to figure out the mysteries. While doing this, they come up with characters for a roleplaying game, Odd Trails, which is clearly supposed to be Dungeons and Dragons but for trademark infringement yada yada. Also, it allows the author to come up with various mechanics and things for Odd Trails that aren't in D&D. Their roleplaying as Negret (Milo's sneaky thief-person character) and Sirin (Meddy's invisible angel-thing character) is fun to read about.

Part of my enjoyment of this book stems from the fact that I think I'd have gotten along fairly well with Meddy. That, or terribly; we're too similar to just kind of peripherally know each other. Milo is too quiet for me, in my old age, to interact much with.

 

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: Um... E10+ for some violence (someone |uses a gun to shoot at a character|, but misses.) Something like this, yes.

And it gets 4 stars. It was fun, and I liked it, but it's not a book I'd want to buy and reread a lot. (I should really read some worse books so I don't rate everything four stars all the time.)

Favorite lines:

    [The footsteps] had been too noisy for someone who knew how to move silently, but not noisy enough for someone coming up without caring about sounds they were making at all. Therefore, the person who'd arrived on the fifth floor was trying to be quiet, and wasn't doing it very well.

    Page 76.

    The Moonlighter's Knack, he thought triumphantly: you can steal any object protected by anything that opens with a key or combination, and also anything protected by hotel toiletries.

    Page 156.

(Endnote: I think this is the first book I've reviewed on here since the 2021 revamp whose author's last name starts with M.)

"The Samurai and the Seven Fox Spirits" by Valerie Fliss

(If the image is a bit wonky, that's my fault; the Internet doesn't have any pictures of this book's cover, so I had to make one myself by scanning in a physical copy of the book. At least it's better than the one for The Prince and His Ants, though!)

Well, that was pretty much exactly what I was expecting. It's about, *drumroll please*, a samurai. Also, seven fox spirits. It reads like an old folktale, which I'm pretty sure it was meant to.

Basically, a samurai wanders into a town that's been plagued by mysterious disappearances and other strange stuff. A small child convinces him to figure out what's going on, which he does, although it involves climbing a nearby mountain and having a fight with an oni (who |killed the former mountain goddess to become a mountain god himself|.)

(Warning: spoiler-tagged musing ahead, which does contain some ending spoilers.) I kind of liked how |not everything went back to normal at the end. The former mountain goddess is still dead, and the samurai has to take her place to prevent the oni from respawning over and over|.

 

(This post has a lot of parentheses.)

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for fantasy violence and some bits of creepy Japanese folklore (water sprites that try to drown you, odd ghost things, et cetera).

And, as you probably guessed, 4 stars.

(Endnote: There's another one of these, The Tower in the Forest, but I picked only this one up and not the other one because... the other one didn't appeal to me, honestly.)

"A Very Bookish Christmas" collection

Yep, the Christmas one of these. I'm going to do this review like the last one, with the mini-reviews and the multiple ratings and all.

(Note: As with the other one, my mom reviewed this, and her review tells you much more what the stories are about.)

Gingerbread Treasures by Rebekah Jones (The Sign of the Four)

This is by the same person who wrote The Windles and the Lost Boy in the Thanksgiving one, which I wouldn't have noticed except that it mentioned Arborville (the town in TW&tLB). It's my second favorite of these four stories; as with TW&tLB, it had a more action-y plot. It's still not the book version of an action movie or anything, but I think this is the only story in this collection where anyone gets in a physical fight.

(Because it doesn't say in the beginning synopsis which Sherlock Holmes mystery this is inspired by, I thought it was the Dancing Men one, what with the gingerbread men and all.)

Rating this E10+ for mild violence and mentions of death. 4 stars.

Molly and Anna by Sarah Holman (Pollyanna)

I didn't love this one, despite the fact that it's by the same person who wrote my favorite story in the other one. Molly and Anna has... less of what I liked about As Long as I Belong, maybe? Something like that. That's not to say I disliked Molly and Anna, but I didn't like it as much as As Long as I Belong.

Rating this E10+ for discussion of racism. 4 stars.

Sylvie of Amber Apartments by J. Grace Pennington (Anne of Green Gables)

I feel like this one was just kind of there. It's not bad or anything, but it also doesn't really interest me. Accordingly, I don't have much to say about this.

Rating this E, 3 stars.

Sincerely, Jem by Kate Willis (Daddy-Long-Legs)

This one is indubitably my favorite. There's a reason it provided all three of the favorite lines (below). I think part of my affinity for this is because I really like the main character; she's just so fun to read about. I'm having a hard time finding things to say about this novella, but it's hilarious and fun and entertaining, so those are three adjectives for you.

Rating this E, 5 stars. (Yes.)

Were this collection a collection of videogames, I'd rate it: E10+.

The collection, on a whole, gets 4 stars. And guess what? Unlike with the other one, it's the actual average of the individual story ratings.

Favorite lines:

    Dear Longfellow,

    Here are thirteen pages of hilarious rubbish.

    Page 358. It's in Sincerely, Jem.

 

    The profs had an ugly sweater contest. (Page 360).

    ...

    Oh, if you have time, sometime, anyway, do tell more about the ugly sweater contest. I have a whole story going in my head about the English teacher wearing his regular clothes and accidentally winning and the art teacher making something sufficiently ugly but with a surprising amount of symbolism or something. How far off am I? (Page 362).

     ...

    You are dead on about the ugly sweater contest, though it was the creative writing teacher, not the English teacher. And you forgot the science prof who thought they were all crazy and dressed as nicely as possible. (Page 363).

    This is an exchange from the letters in Sincerely, Jem, that makes me chuckle every time I read it. It's actually spread out over multiple letters, but I collected it in one place so I could write it here.

    The best prank I ever did was convincing my art teacher in high school that it was a holiday, and we were all there by mistake. Since Columbus Day is a thing, I made up Amerigo Vespucci Day, told all the other students what I would have been doing to celebrate it if I hadn't been in school, and asked my teacher what her plans were.

    Page 363. Also from Sincerely, Jem.

(Endnote: It was kind hard not just rereading Sincerely, Jem again while writing this post. It's such a fun story and I like it so muuuuuch...)

"A Very Bookish Thanksgiving" collection

This is a collection of Thanksgiving stories that are each inspired in some way by a classic book. I know it's past Thanksgiving now, but eh; I read this when it was still seasonable.

Anyway, there are five stories in here, and I'm going to give each one of them a mini-review, complete with videogame rating and star rating. I'll also stick an overall rating on the end.

(Note: My mom reviewed this a while back, so you should probably read her review first. At least, it would make mine more intelligible.)

A Promise of Acorns by Kelsey Bryant (Jane Eyre)

Not my cup of eggnog. It's about someone taking care of a curmudgeonly professor's grandchildren, and it just... didn't have enough plot for me? I don't know. I don't have any reasons to dislike it, I just don't have any reasons to like it much either.

Rating this E, though it's a bit boring for young children. 3 stars.

As Long as I Belong by Sarah Holman (Mansfield Park)

Probably my favorite, or at least tied with The Windles and the Lost Boy (see below). Theoretically, it would seem like this one would have a lot of the same problems for me that A Promise of Acorns had. I think I like the emotional-ness of this one better, if that makes sense? Like, APoA had its main character be more serious and subdued, and As Long as I Belong's main character was... not that? She seemed like she cared a lot more about things than APoA's main character did, even though the text of APoA informed us that the main character did in fact care.

This one doesn't seem like the sort of story that would appeal to me, but it did. If you told me that this one was going to be my favorite, I would have laughed at you (and been predisposed to not like it, but that's another thing entirely).

This mini-review got long. I'm rating this E again, and 4 stars. (Honestly, if I had half-stars, I'd probably give this 4.5 stars instead. But I didn't exactly like it enough to give it 5, so here we are.)

The Windles and the Lost Boy by Rebekah Jones (Peter Pan)

My other favorite. I think this one has the most exciting plot of all of them, and it's probably the only one I might have picked up if it wasn't in an anthology my mom said I might like. It's a tad bit farfetched, but then, so is Peter Pan.

Rating this E10+ for mild violence and mentions of abuse. (It'd probably get T from the ESRB as a game, though.) Also, 4 stars.

Grand Intentions by J. Grace Pennington (Great Expectations)

A young aspiring writer is invited to house-sit for her grandmother, who's going on vacation for six months. While there, the writer develops a crush, falls in with a group of (unintentional) baaaad influences, and gets some character development. I usually end up skimming parts of this one when I read this collection; nothing untoward, I just don't like reading them.

Rating this E10+ for mild alcohol use. 3 stars.

A Fine Day Tomorrow by Amanda Tero (Little Women)

The one I skip most often. It's definitely not bad, but I'm not super fond of Little Women, and I think I had the same problem with it that I had with A Promise of Acorns. It's set during the First World War, which is one of my favorite eras to learn about... but it really focuses more on the Spanish Flu pandemic, which was just grey and depressing, as I've lived through a pandemic (though I'm thankful that the COVID-19 plague was nowhere near as bad as the Spanish Flu).

Rating this E but boring. (Hey, maybe I should make that a separate category; "nothing objectionable, but small children wouldn't bother" or something?) I'm also giving it 3 stars; as I said, it wasn't bad, it just didn't appeal to me.

All right. Were this collection a collection of videogames, the whole thing would get rated: E10+ for mild alcohol use, mild violence, mentions of abuse, and... yeah, that's pretty much it.

 

Overall, I give this 4 stars. I know the average is actually 3.4 stars, but not everything has to work like math.

(Endnote: These are all Christian fiction, and they all manage to have at least some discussion of Christian faith. How well that was worked into the story--basically, how much it felt shoehorned in, if at all--varied from story to story.)

"D&D Dungeon Club: Roll Call", story by Molly Knox Ostertag, art by Xanthe Bouma

I picked this up off the library shelves because why not? It's not like it's especially long, and the worst-case scenario is... probably what happened with Dungeon Academy: No Humans Allowed, honestly. And the art is by one of the people who worked on Five Worlds, so that always inclines me favorably toward a book.

 

Thankfully, this book was far better than DA:NHA. Admittedly, that's a low bar, but the bar being low doesn't mean you didn't jump high. Does that make sense? No? Maybe?

Anyway, this is your classic "loner gets friends" story. Most of it takes place outside the characters' D&D game, but the loner getting friends is mirrored in the game. The red guy with horns on the cover is the main character's D&D character. His name is Sir Corius, and he has a long-lost sister named Corinth.

Yes.

(The main character is the girl in the lower left corner.)

 

There's Drama! when the guy in the lower right corner gets added to the Dungeons & Dragons group that was formerly inhabited solely by Jess (lower left corner girl) and Olivia (the one in the middle with the yellow shirt). Jess (and by extension, Sir Corius) thinks this is a terrible idea. And so, midway through the book, we have the obligatory "main character decides she doesn't need any of this and accidentally-but-kinda-intentionally ruins something someone else cares about" scene, with Sir Corius letting lower right corner guy's character |fall off a cliff into a river of acid|.

 

They left the possibility of a sequel open, which I appreciated, and not just because I like Xanthe Bouma's art. For most of this book (and Five Worlds, for that matter) the art was just good art, but there were a couple spots that looked a lot like parts of Five Worlds. (Did I mention the art is good?)

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: A hard T for {T or so an antagonist casually saying "You know he's gay, right?" about lower right corner guy, who I'm pretty sure isn't. It's just in one spot and would be pretty easy to censor out if you had your own copy, but it bugged me}. (That's a content warning tag, by the way; see the "Spoiler tag explanation" page at the top for how those work.)

I'm going to give this... 3 stars. It would be 4, except that the thing I put in the content warning tag automatically drops any book a star or so. (I might get this book myself, in which case I would censor the thing and like the book better.

(Endnote: Somewhere in the middle of the book, the two players in Olivia's campaign [but mostly Jess] dramatically derail the story. I've run games, and I've had that happen, and I responded in pretty much the same way that Olivia did: end the session so I can figure out where to go from here.)

"No Passengers Beyond This Point" by Gennifer Choldenko

The basic premise of this book is one which I've run into a couple times before: kids moving to a new town, which turns out to be supernatural somehow. The town in this one, Falling Bird, is... well, kind of like Aldermere, but bigger and higher-tech and also less nice.

As in, it's one of those magical towns that don't want to let you leave. So, naturally, the characters spend almost the entire book trying to leave. They landed in Falling Bird while trying to fly to Fort Baker, Colorado, to go live with their uncle; this will be important later.

Because y'know Falling Bird? It's the entrance to |the afterlife|. And y'know that plane the main three were on? It ended up |as a fireball over Colorado|.

Also, Mouse (one of the three protagonists) is six years old. She's very smart for her age, but she doesn't just act like someone older; the author made her believable in the less sophisticated way she views the world, her unshakeable faith in her imaginary friend, and her strong opinions on the Solar System.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for scenes of peril and jerkfaces.

If you read this review expecting me to rate No Passengers Beyond This Point 4 stars, you were correct.

(Endnote: The book never actually discusses what's in |the afterlife|. I'm guessing this was in order to avoid offending people, but it was also necessary to avoid giving away The Reveal! too soon.