Book Review: An Unlikely Love by Brianna Kesler

I am an avid reader and just finished "An Unlikely Love"by Brianna Kesler for the second time. First time I picked it for pleasure and an less than $10 LDS fiction book. I really enjoyed it. It was fun flirty and held some deep thoughts. The second time I read it I read it as part of the

2013 Summer Book Trek Reading Challenge held by http://www.newldsfiction.com/ .

I loved it even more. I really enjoyed the characters. They are deep and brought a lot of thought. There is an element of truth and unabashed honesty to the characters that endeared me to them. Vanessa is a smart honest witty sarcastic girl who has hidden pain, while Xander is a fresh faced smart, though somewhat naive, guy who is trying to keep his job wile wanting true love at the same time submitting to the contract he signed to be married by age 25.

I laughed out loud so much that i couldn't read it unless my husband was completely asleep- otherwise he would want to know what was so funny and I would have to STOP READING and tell him. It was better to wait until he was completely asleep and then I could keep reading ;)

I was pleasantly surprised when I read the authors bio at the end and realized that this was written by a young mom and recently married gal who had been homeschooled. I hope that at the same age my girls that I homeschool can be so well spoken and understand the workings of the marriage!
I would definitely recommend this book as a fun, and thought provoking summer read.

Willow

Don't let the Pigeon drive the bus

We love books. As such I have a "recommended but have not read yet" book list. As we need more reading material I see if it's at the library and ut it on reserve. There have been a n a lot bunch we have enjoyed and many that we have fallen in love with. We recently have found a new love or obsession could be the better word for it:


Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus is by Mo Willems.

It is absolutely hilarious! I discovered these books when a dear friend of mine had a book bridal shower for her second daughter. I got a great list of books from that shower! And an idea for my own baby shower for my third :) Anyway I digress (as usual you'll find :) ) A gal at the shower gave the mother to be a set of these books and then read them out loud. There were times when we literally had to cover our ears (at her suggestion). She had a great set of character voices and made it so funny to listen to her read these after the gift giving part of the shower was over.
I recently found these books again and shared them with my girls.They are quite a hit!!! Oh my! Our sides are splitting and we're just laughing as we read these. They have become a favorite in a short time. When we did a "split and conquer library run" 5 minutes before they closed I grabbed these off the shelf:
I was able to grab:
The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!
Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!

I have the rest of what they had at the library on hold for fast pick up for our next trip. We'll be getting:
The pigeon wants a puppy!
Knuffle Bunny free : an unexpected diversion
The pigeon has feelings, too! : a smidgeon of pigeon

And then this morning as I was preparing breakfast I heard the story being read from under the table. My oldest was reading it to her sisters. There's a whole series of books and Mo Willem has quite a few. And since we homeschool I had to find a way to make this whole experience educational :) We'll be finishing the stories and making up what could happen next. The pigeon sees a truck at the end of the book which leads quite well into more possibilities outside of the book. Here are the resources I found that I plan on incorporating bits of into our lessons this week:
Short and sweet ideas

Full unit of ideas

These unit will be incorporated into our work boxes too! Hope you had a great day with your nearest and dearest!