Review: My Personal Yearbook

Pages: 63
Publisher: Prufrock Press
Source: Review Copy (Thank you!)
Description (from Prufrock Press): Kids will love looking back at their copies of My Personal Yearbook, complete with reflections about their lives, lists of favorites and hot trends, letters to their future selves, and more. Created by the editors of Creative Kids magazine, the fill-in pages of this book are full of color, cool graphics, and fun activities to help kids document their current passions and interests. Activities include creating a soundtrack for one’s life, making a mock social media page, writing an autobiography, preparing a Twitter-style feed documenting a day in their lives, creating a photo timeline, compiling friends’ advice and reflections, writing a bucket list, taking quizzes about their lives, and much more. Kids will not only enjoy filling in the many pages of this personalized yearbook, they’ll love looking back at it for years to come.

My Personal Yearbook is a fun activity book suitable for I'd say just about everyone. It's something that I've been doing every week or so, and I always end up writing on more pages than I thought I would.

I love the colours and illustrations. The layout is superb- everything just looks so good. It invites some weird doodles and haphazardly taped pictures. It's so authentic and I love that. It's something I have fun with now and in the future I'll appreciate doing. The only layout thing I don't like is that the book is not a hardcover. I think if it were it would be even cooler. It would have a scrapbook or photo album-like feel. It's something so important- you look back at this book and it will remind you of your life, so I'd like it if the binding was sturdier so I could write on it, and heavier so I could stick papers and drawings in that wouldn't fall when I move the book. If that's the only thing I have against the layout you know the book is awesome.

The pages are very complete and are so interesting! There are a lot of topics that I wouldn't even have considered writing down and I had a lot of fun thinking of my year so far. I always left some stuff black because I know times will change. This isn't just a book- at times it's an activity. It's a wonderful time to reflect the past and contemplate the future. The book tries very hard to capture your personality. There are features like "Dear Blabby" where you write a fake advice column which is really cool to look back on and see if you're opinions changed. There's page for texts, tweets, cool stuff, world issues, slang words and translations, and so many other things that are a part of daily life and that I'd want to remember.

I love this book. It's something I do every once in a while, and even after I've posted this review I will keep using My Personal Yearbook. Life is so fast sometimes; I always try to keep a diary or journal but it never works out. Sometimes I just want to slow everything down and appreciate my life, and My Personal Yearbook helps a lot with that. It's something that I want to complete and be proud of. It's decently long (a little over 60 pages), which means that there's enough to do to cover the entire year.

I recommend this book for everyone (especially students) who want to save a year in their life in a colorful, fun book. You won't regret it because it's a blast.

Review: Witch Hunt

Author: K.C. Blake
Source: Review copy (thank you!)
Synopsis: A magical game of Hide n Seek begins.
Find the missing player and win.
The game resets; everyone forgets and starts to play it again.

Starr Hughes hasn’t believed in magic since her mother died. As a reporter for the school paper, she believes in hard facts. Hiding under the headmaster’s desk, planting bugs, and breaking into a fellow student’s home are all on her to-do list. So when she hears the mysterious group known as the It-Squad are about to start playing a secretive game, she wants to know more. She’s especially interested in the group’s gorgeous leader, Dylan Winchester.

With her boy-crazy best friend at her side, Starr is going to discover that not only are witches real, they need her help. Someone is using the game to steal their memories, their powers, and perhaps their lives.

Buy the book (Amazon /)

Witch Hunt is an entertaining book. It has what I call "readability". It's something that makes the reader pick up the book and instantly get into the story. There were a few things that I didn't like at all, but for some reason I just very much enjoyed the writing style of Witch Hunt to the point where the faults didn't bug me that much.

I'll start with my biggest issue. I didn't feel like any of the characters were realistic or likable. A lot of the plot was also unrealistic although I could accept that since the story wasn't meant to be realistic; just fun. I didn't like Starr at all in the beginning but somehow she grew on me. Privacy is so important to me, and Starr completely disregarded it. She was a classic snoop and I don't like those type of characters (or people) at all. That's a me thing though. I was a bit surprised that I didn't like most of the characters. They were so flawed and I didn't feel like their redeeming qualities were enough to, well, redeem them. So let's just get it out of the way that this is not a character oriented book.

The plot on the other hand was entertaining. I loved the premise and I had fun with what was happening. I keep saying the word entertaining because that's what this book was. Fun, and light. I always knew what to expect from this book: that I'd get into an engrossing read. The only part of the plot I didn't enjoy was something character related. I guessed the villain from the beginning so there wasn't much unexpected stuff happening.

After finishing Witch Hunt, I kind of love the world. This is the second book in the series but each book is about new characters so it isn't necessary to read the first book (I didn't). It was obvious to me though that the setting is somewhere with a lot of room for great stories. There's so many possibilities in this world. I would have enjoyed a few more details about the magical details but that didn't take away from the fun. It's been a while since I read about witches and now I'm wondering why it's been so long.

If you're looking for a light and fun read with a bit of magic, danger, and love, you should try Witch Hunt. 3 stars,

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