4 Paw Review

4 Paw Review: Monkey Mind by Rebecca J Palmer

/ Sandi Parsons / Leave a comment

Monkey Mind explores our Monkey selves, that little voice of doubt that plagues us all. When we listen to our monkey mind, we can create self-fulfilling prophecies.

I can’t do it.
They won’t understand.
I don’t belong.
They won’t like me now.

Monkey Mind provides children with an understanding of how their monkey mind acts and reacts. We follow Piper’s journey as she learns how others combat their monkey mind and finally arrives at the right solution to tame her monkey. Young readers can easily use the strategies Piper discovers to help them deal with anxiety and other issues caused by their troublesome inner voice.

The illustrations are divine with exquisite detail and give little (and big people) something to explore on every page.

Rotto says Piper from Monkey Mind could be his twin because Rotto’s Monkey is ALWAYS getting him in trouble. Rotto’s been giving Nana’s Stop, Look, and Listen technique a go when the neighbours’ cat is lurking. He’s got the first part down part, but his monkey keeps adding some extra words like BARK and CHASE. It’s a work in progress.

All up Rotto rates Monkey Mind an outstanding 4 Paws 🐾🐾

 

4 Paw Review: Fury by Shirley Marr

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Told through the eyes of unreliable narrator Eliza, Fury is not a typical whodunnit. Upfront we know the culprit behind the murder is Eliza herself.

“My name is Eliza Boans, and I am a murder.
I know. It’s pretty shocking, huh?”

Eliza’s opening lines feeds the reader many questions.
Who’s been murdered? Why? How?
More importantly, why is Eliza so flippant about her murdering status?

[Image Description: Rotto, a black and tan dog is sitting next to a green fairy mushroom which is displaying a copy of Fury by Shirley Marr.]

Told in flashbacks with snippets of information Eliza gradually reveals the answers — after a fashion, and in her own style.

The characters in Fury are flawed and display unthinkable behaviour — it’s one of the factors that makes Fury so compelling and hard to put down.

Rotto thought Fury was a fabulous read, well-deserving of the top ranking — 4 paws 🐾🐾

Chilli needs to take a life-lesson from Eliza and learn to confess her crimes. The 4 Paws photo shoot was ready to roll when I discovered the mask all chewed up in Chilli’s bed. Chilli, of course, tried to blame Rotto.

[Image Description: Cover of Fury (cover depicts a side shot of a women in a mask) next to mangled and chewed up butterfly mask.]

4 Paw Review: Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

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Book Review by Chilli AKA The Red Stealer & Rotto the RottStar (occasionally known as Rotto the Rotten)

Chilli is channeling her very best Mia Corvere and giving Rotto her best stink eye as she doesn’t believe he’s doing a good job at playing Mister Kindly.

Rotto says how much more not-cat could he be given he’s not a cat? And although he won’t consent to hanging about on Chilli’s shoulders he’ll happily curl up around Nevernight any day.

[Image Description: Left Chilli, a red heeler is wearing a long black wig and smiling. Top Right, Chilli in her wig is glaring at Rotto, a black and tan staffy kelpie cross – A copy of Nevernight is between them. Bottom Right, Rotto is curled around a copy of Nevernight]

Despite the not-cat 🐱saga, both Chilli and Rotto give 4 paws 🐾🐾to the entire Nevernight Chronicles for the smut, murder, political shenanigans* and overall awesomeness.
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*and the glorious footnotes –  who doesn’t love a novel with footnotes? The only thing  better than footnotes, is when the footnotes take the piss out of the footnotes.