Freckle Juice: A Childish Book in the best way Possible

 Freckle Juice: A Childish Book in the best way Possible

The book Freckle Juice is another timeless classic put out in to the world by Judy Blume. I will always have a special place in my heart for this book. The reason is because this was the very first chapter book I ever read. I know, I know, the name of this blog is the "Teenage Book Blog" and this book is for ages 7-9 year-olds. But I just wanted to share my love of this book, and for any other teenagers reading this who have younger siblings, after my review they may suggest this book to them. But let's get into the plot summary.

Summary

This book follows a boy named Andrew Marcus. Andrew really wants freckles really bad since another one of his classmates has them. So one of his classmates offers him a recipe to make "Freckle Juice" which is a juice you can make, and once you drink it you drink it it supposedly makes freckles appear on your face. All Andrew has to do is pay his classmate for the recipe and he'll finally be able to have the freckles he dreams of having. If only it went the way Andrew wanted it to.

My opinion

There really isn't much to say about this book. It's a childhood classic. It's cute and funny and has a simple interesting plot that kids will love, and even maybe relate to.  One thing that I liked about this book is how it talks about freckles. I don't have freckled, nor did I grow up with them. But I've heard and seen kids and teens who have freckles and hate them. I'd like to think that even a few kids who read this book growing up learned to love their freckles, and realized how unique and cute they are to have. I'm not going to rate this book (I know this is a short review). I'm not since this book is more for smaller kids, so even though I read this book as a kid , I'm not really the target audience right now. But If your an adult who has kids or a teen with a little sibling i'd definitely check this book out. It's a great book to get a kid into reading.

Where To Buy

• Target
• Barns And Nobel
• Amazon
• Thriftbooks
• Goodreads

Or you're local Library 

By Your Side: A book that will always be by my side

By Your Side: A Book That Will Always Be BY My Side

The Book “By your side” Is a down to earth novel that needs more love. This book made me think and made my growing love of romance stories grow even taller. So I thought, since yesterday was Valentine's day, I should review this book. 

Summary

This book follows Autumn Collins. It’s winter break and Autumn and her group of friends are going to go on a trip together. Autumn is excited since this means she’ll have more time to spend with her big ol’ crush. But before her and her friends leave they stop by the library to finish up a project right before the library closes. That’s until Autumn goes to the bathroom and when she comes out the whole library is closed and nobody is around. Autumn panics know that she’s stuck in the library for at least 3 days. But it turns out Autumn isn’t the only person stuck in the library. In fact one of Autumn's classmates, Dax, is there too. Unfortunately Dax has a…Reputation (Taylor swift reference?), and more rumors about him then stars in the sky. So they are both less than pleased with being stuck with each other. But maybe it isn’t as bad as they both thought? Maybe they can actually be friends?

What I Liked

I loved the chemistry between Dax and Autumn. I thought that whenever they got along and were together, they were so adorable. I also liked Dax’s backstory and how interesting it was. At first I wasn’t the biggest fan of his for the first few chapters, but the more I learned about him and his past, the more I understood why he was the way he was. Finally, I liked how they handled Autumn’s Anxiety. It’s not every day you see a character with a mental health struggle and that topic is treated well. So it was great to see that. 

What I Didn’t like

Sigh… I really hated Autumn’s friends. I know that some of them were played off to be jerks but… I hated basically all of them the whole book. The only one I could tolerate was Autumn’s crush Jeff, And he was in a coma for like 50% of the book. The fact that Autumn was scared to tell them about their anxiety and was scared to tell them that she was friends with Dax made me so mad. THESE PEOPLE ARE TOXIC RUN GIRL!!! 

My last strife with this story is kinda a spoiler, so if you aren’t willing to get spoiled skip over the red highlighted text please.

 I don’t really like how Dax and Autumn don’t get together till near the end of the story. That’s how it is for most of Kasie West’s books so I wasn’t too surprised, but I still wanted them to just get together, and then battle their issues. This might just be me and it’s not that big of a deal, it’s just what I think, that’s all.

My Opinion

I liked this book. I liked the two main characters and how they interacted. I loved how the serious issues were used in the plot and how they were created. It really made me feel for the characters and their struggles. I’d rate this book a 8\10. There were a few things they should’ve changed, a few chargers that should’ve been cut but besides that I’d recommend this book to people who are interested in getting to the romance genre and are willing to read a book with lots of plot.

Where To Buy

• Target

• Goodreads

• Amazon

• Thriftbooks

• Barns and Nobel

• 
  

…Or Your local library

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret: A Meaningful, Wonderful, Enjoyable Book

 

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret: A Meaningful, Wonderful, Enjoyable Book

To say "Are You There God? It's me Margaret" taught me a lot would be an understatement. This book has to be my favorite book of all time. For me, I've read lot's of books, but this one helped me in ways that no other book had. This book showed me that reading could be fun and interesting. After I read it, I started to read more and and more. And no matter how hard I look or search I've never found a book quite like it. I never found I book that capture the honesty and ups and downs of girlhood and not being a kid anymore, but not being a teenager yet. This book is something I think every kid should read. It's awesome.

Summary

Now, really don't wanna go over too much of this book. Since i'd love for you to read this book for yourself and get your own opinion on it, but I will go over just a small bit of it. Okay so this book follows 11 year old Margaret Simon. Margaret and her family just moved from New York to the suburbs of New Jersey. Margaret is less then pleased with this choice and for the very first times, prays to god that it won't be too bad. Margaret really doesn't wanna leave her school and especially her grandma behind. When Margaret and her family finally move into her new house it isn't soon after a girl comes to her door who is her age. She says that the whole neighborhood knows who her family is because of a letter sent in the mail to them. They talk about school and how they are going to be in the same class. This girl's name is Nancy Wheeler (NOT A STRANGER THINGS REFERENCE I SWEAR), she invites Margret over to go hang out and go though her sprinkler. Since Margaret can't find her bathing suit Nancy says she can barrow hers. During this part of the book we really can see some of the topics that will be most prevalent during the story. During this part Margaret and Nancy are in the ladder's bedroom. Nancy tells Margaret to just change in the bedroom. She is a little off put about this (I WOULD BE TOO) but does. They talk about boys and makeup and bras. Margaret feels out of place since Nancy thinks it's strange she's never kissed a boy before and doesn't have bigger (ya know whats) because she's from New York and is supposed to look more mature??? Eventually in the book Margaret meets the rest of Nancy's friends and joins their secret club. A lot of this book follows Margaret as she tries to fit in. She wants to become more grown and that means getting her period and getting bigger (ya know whats). But as the book goes on we see that that's what all the other girls in the club want . We also see Margaret tackle finding a religion that she wants to follow. Since she was never raised with a specific one because Margaret's mother grew up Christian and her father and grandmother are Jewish, with her grandmother being more religious than her father. 

What I Liked

Um... Everything. I loved pretty much this whole book. The reading experience I had while reading this wasn't like any other I'd ever had. I liked the characters and their personalities, I liked the plot points, I liked the start of the book, I liked the ending of the book. I liked It all. The whole 160 pages. It's all just so well put together and just so...awesome. So I guess I'll just put what I should've been changed here too. Um, the book should've been longer, that's all.

  

Adaption

This book had a 2023 movie adaptation, that I loved. What can I say. All they did in the book was get rid of some characters that didn't have too much to do with the plot and they really focused more on Margaret's mom. I loved how they did this since we didn't really know her in the book. But now we got to see how life as a women is after your tween and teenage years. We also got to see the unfair expectations that other women can place on each other. It was just nice to see the relationship between Margaret and her mother grow. But that new plot didn't even take away from the original new plot. This movie followed the book to a T and did everything it should've done. (not to mention that Rachel McAdams is in this movie and so is Kathy Bates so that's a big plus).

Conclusion

10\10. Just perfect. This book was perfect. That's all I need to say. I couldn't get a enough of it. If only the book was longer. Just like 50 more pages that's all I need. I guess this was another win for Judy Blume and her awesome, great, classic books. I really suggest reading this book. It taught me a lot and kinda prepared me for middle school when I read it. I hope that you can enjoy this book as much as I did while reading it.

Where To Buy Links

• Target
• Barns And Nobel
• Goodreads
• Amazon
• Thriftbooks
  
  

Or Your Local Library 

Tuck Everlasting: An Eternal Classic

Tuck Everlasting: An Eternal Classic

Now I read Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt book back in the 4th grade with my class. We all were given copies of this book that we read together or the teacher read to us. I remember that at first I wasn't too interested. I kinda thought it was whatever. But after a while I began to fall in love with the story of Winnie Foster and the Tucks. Even now, I am still very fond of this book and I still have the copy that I was given back in 4th grade years ago. But, let's take a look back on this book and see what holds up and what doesn't.

Summary

I will try and go over the plot as much as I can without any spoilers. But basically, this book follows 10 year old Winnie Foster. Winnie and her family seem to be well off and own a forest known throughout the book as “The wood”. Winnie hates her life since her mother, father and grandmother all boss her around constantly. So while laying in her front while talking to a toad she hatches a plan to run away from home. So eventually Winnie does run away and almost drinks from a water spring in the woods before a random dude tells her not to. They bicker for a bit before eventually we find out that this dude's name is Jesse Tuck, and his ma and brother pop up and they all kidnap Winnie (Crazy I know).

I forgot to mention earlier that there's this other dude in a yellow suit who talked to Winnie before she ran away (Winnie has no survival skills), and he asked her and her grandmother if they knew about the woods and stuff and Winnie's grandmother yaps about elves or something when she hears music.

Anyways back to the kidnapping. Winnie gets taken to a cabin in the woods where Jesse's father is. The family has no clue what to do since…ya know… they just kidnapped a kid. But eventually the family tells Winnie about the family secret which is that they can't die because they drank from that spring that Winnie was going to drink from earlier (which to me seems like a fate worse than death). So Jesse is technically 104 years old, not 17 like he said to Winnie earlier.

Okay, so this book's plot is so thick for being like 144 pages so y'all will have to check the rest out for yourselves. 

What I liked

Okay I have a ton of bias towards this book considering that it's a childhood classic for me. Although I know I can't be the only one because it does seem that this book was read in a lot of other schools. But I really liked the mysterious nature of this book. So many plot twists happen and things get revealed, it's just so interesting and doesn't leave you bored. Another thing I was fond of was the writing. Listen, I am no Shakespeare, but this book's writing was 2 chef's kisses. I just love the writing the older I get. My final favorite thing was the way the book made me sympathize with the characters. I know that my summary made the Tucks seem like criminals who kidnapped a child but they really are good people at heart and only did it for her safety and the rest of the world's safety.

What I Didn't Like

Y'all, we need to address the elephant in the room. Okay so during this book Jesse and Winnie become great friends. Really great friends. So much so that at one point Jesse tells Winnie that when she turns 17 she should take a drink from the spring so they can get married and live their lives together. Okay, so this book isn't a romance book or anything but I find it so strange that we have this 104 year old 17 year old man telling a vulnerable 10 year old to practically ruin her life the moment she turns 17. Well you may think “it was okay when twilight did it,” OKAY BUT BELLA WASN'T 10 YEARS OLD WHILE EDWARD WAS 17 (I have not watched or read twilight so just know that I barely know anything about it)!!! Even when you take away the 104 year old part we still have a 10 year old and a 17 year old wanting to get married possibly once she's older. I don't know, it just kind of makes some parts of the book uncomfortable. I'm not sure if that was the meaning but that's just how I felt about it. 

Adaptations

So normally at this part of the review I would give a conclusion part but Tuck Everlasting has had 3 different adaptations so I'll go over those real quick.

So the first adaptation came out in 1981 which was 6 years after the book came out in 1975. I don't really know what to say. You can watch the full movie on YouTube for free. It just looks kinda creepy and the quality is bad. I'm not sure if it was made for a TV movie or what. But it's probably the most faithful adaptation of this book.

The next adaptation came out in 2002 with a Disney movie starring Alexis Bledel as Winnie Foster. This movie is so different from the book it's crazy. So first of all Winnie's family went from just kind of protective in the book to now in the movie they are control freaks who want to send her to a boarding school. Well, that was mostly her mother's idea since for some reason they practically cut out Winnie's grandmother. Also the most important change was that Winnie went from 10 in the book to 15. I think they did this because they really wanted to market this movie as a romance story. Which they do have in the movie. I still think this movie is fine on its own, you just have to try and separate it from the book.

Last but not least is my favorite adaptation, the musical. This musical is actually pretty good. It's way more faithful to the book than the movie since now Winnie is back to being 10 (but the strange Jesse and Winnie friendship is back). They also included 2 new characters as well which I thought were great additions. They also add this whole circus side plot line where the man in the yellow suit is part of a traveling circus. It's a fun musical and has some pretty catchy songs.

Conclusion

Well after all that Yapping I probably should wrap things up. Tuck Everlasting is an enchanting story. It's a story of growing up and I love its themes and what it has to say on greed and on enjoying life while you're still here. Sure it did have its flaws but I'd still rate it an 8/10. It might be my nostalgia but who cares. I loved it

Where to buy

• https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tuck-everlasting-natalie-babbitt/1100210050?ean=9780312369811

• https://www.target.com/p/tuck-everlasting-by-natalie-babbitt-paperback/-/A-88895282#lnk=sametab

• https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/tuck-everlasting-by-natalie-babbitt/251093/#isbn=0312369816

• https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/84981.Tuck_Everlasting?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=clogofZkBS&rank=1