I'm Sally Apokedak, and I
live with my son and my
daughter and my old, old
mother, in the lovely city of
Atlanta.
Born to missionary
parents, I spent my early
years in Taiwan. By the time
I was six, I'd been around
the world. The wanderlust
I acquired early followed me
into adult life, taking me to
work in places as far-flung as
Barrow, Alaska, and Santa
Cruz, Bolivia.
My most fulfilling job,
though, was staying home,
taking care of my family. My
husband was a quadriplegic
and we adopted two children.
You can read more about
me on my bio page.
54000 / 80000 words.
68% done on my WIP!
I'm talking about life and
children's books, because
the two seem to get all
tangled up together for me.
I've loved both--the life
and the books--ever since
I was...well...a child.
I review books that I
have bought or borrowed
or begged. Sometimes I
beg them from authors
and publishers.
No matter where I get
books, I always give my
honest opinion when I
write reviews. I am not
qualified to review books,
really. I'm just a reader
with strong opinions. I love
talking about what I read
and want to get others
excited about children's
books, too.
Many links on this blog
lead to Amazon.com. If you
like my reviews and you
click on a book title or
cover picture and then buy
the book (or anything else)
from Amazon, I will get a
small percentage of the
sale price. Feel free to do
that. It helps support my
book-buying habit. I made
about thirty bucks this way
last year.
Excellent review. I can tell this is your favorite author because you talk all about the story and none about the cover, paper quality, etc. Not that those other things don’t give an impression, but if you truly love a story, they fade into the background, at least in my experience.
Becky
I don’t really talk about the paper quality and covers of every book. Only the ones that really stand out. These Wilderking books stood out when they first came out simply because they are hardback with dust jackets. That was pretty rare for Christian children’s books. Since then, though, we’ve had Randy Mortenson’s Landon Snow books, and Wayne Thomas Batson’s The Door Within. So I can’t really make all that big of a deal about Wilderking packaging.
Right now I think I’d have to that Landon Snow is the most beautiful children’s book I’ve ever seen.
Batson’s book is second. Tommy Nelson did a wonderful job on it. Paper over board, plus a dust jacket. The pages are dusted with blue and the font is blue. The map is wonderful, the font for the chapter titles is great. The only thing they could have done to improve the book is given it ragged edged pages, I think. However, if they would have done away with the dust jacket they probably could have knocked a couple of dollars off the price of the book.
The Wilderking books? Very nice hardback books with cool covers and fine paper weight. They are very nicely done.
I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for the review. I’ve commented on the covers of books I have loved, btw. I reviewed Liparulo’s Comes A Horseman and while the book was awesome in my opinion, I still mentioned the delightfully freaky cover. Now I’m all self conscious about it.
I remember that review, Gina. I liked his cover, too, and didn’t think you were strange for commenting on it at all. =0)
I enjoyed your review — and I agree that the Feechie songs will go down in literature history. They’d be fun to hear on stage.
I’m curious about the missing half star of course. We’ll have to chat offline so you can give me the scoop. Have you sent this link to La Shawn Barber’s Fantasy Fiction for Christians site? I think she’d enjoy reading your review.
A kindred spirit in the book world.
http://www.lashawnbarber.com/ffc/
Oh could you imagine these books as movies? They’d be wonderful.
Ah the gator gabbles (is that what they are called?) and the wild boar hunts and that Dobro riding all lank and loose on the back of a horse. LOL I’d love it.
I haven’t sent this to La Shawn. Thanks for the suggestion.
And, no I won’t tell you where I was bored. Because I know a lot of people weren’t bored–many found the second book to be better than the first. Which reminds me I meant to link to other reviews. Ugh. I’ll do that tonight.