Oh, how the mighty have fallen! Every time I travel I pick up a Lonely Planet guidebook to learn more about the place and plan my trip, so was looking forward to something of the quality I've come to expect from LP. This book is something a middle school kid might have put together for an art assignment, and looks like something said kid copied and pasted together.
The book itself is small, about 4x6 inches, so it's like holding a stack of postcards in your hands. It should have worked, but the text is ridiculous, and the photos aren't good either. And another thing, while I hadn't heard of some of these festivals, mind blowing seems to be rather hyperbolic for this set.
This is the first in the 50 Series by Lonely Planet, and I had planned to pick up the entire set. Well, that's not going to happen. Skip this book, read the Goodreads summary for the list of festivals, and look up the ones you find interesting on Wiki. Trust me on this mates. Rating: 1 star.
138. Dare to Sketch: A Guide to Drawing on the Go
I'd recommend this one for beginner artists and people new to keeping sketchbooks. There's some good advice in here, and I like the loose style the author uses in his sketches. If you are not a newbie, this one is pretty basic, but the actual book itself is wonderfully designed, and the art fun to look at. Rating: 3 stars.
139. Here We Are: Notes For Living On Planet Earth
Bringing a child into the world has got to be a life changing thing, especially in the world we inhabit these days. This lovely picture book is written for the author's baby son, introducing him to this planet we all call home. The art is lovely and the message about taking care of oneself as well as the planet spot on. As with most books by the author, I appreciated the art more than the text. This would be good read aloud book for the littles in your life. Rating: 3 stars.
140. The Lotterys Plus One
2.5 stars.
This is a story targeted at 8-12 year old readers, and I think it's wonderful that books like these exist today.
This is the story of a large, blended, queer family told from the point of 9 year old Sumac Lottery. Her family consists of "four parents, children both adopted and biological, and a menagerie of pets, all living and learning together in a sprawling house called Camelottery." One day out of the blue, there is news that a grandfather she didn't know existed is moving in with them, and he changes the world as she knows it.
This is a cute story, and almost every possible alternative lifestyle choice is thrown into the mix, including all the kids being home schooled. Things are interesting and chaotic, but that's part of the fun. I did feel that there were simply too many balls this story was juggling to be really successful, but I appreciated the effort to try and include as diverse a group as possible. The other major issue is the premise as to why this family has the name they have, which means that money is simply not an issue. Maybe that would have been one too many topics to tackle, but given all the themes already in the mix, this was a huge oversight in my opinion.
There are too many characters, and none were fleshed out enough to be able to really tell them apart. Not sure why the story needed so many characters, and the action does take a while to get going. I was annoyed with the parents for much of the reading, because you can't really be so alternative and then behave in a conventional manner when it comes to dealing with an aging parent, or at least talk about alternatives. Granted, this is from a 9 year old's POV, so probably lots of this might have been going on behind the scenes. I enjoyed the final several chapters the most, and while I didn't love it as much as I expected to, I do appreciate that stories like these are now available for kids to read, so rounded up. Rating: 3 stars.
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