Amber Dickson rated Dress-up disaster: 4 stars

Dress-up disaster by Kelly S. DiPucchio
After telling each of her best friends that her costume for The Parade of Books will match theirs, Chloe must …
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After telling each of her best friends that her costume for The Parade of Books will match theirs, Chloe must …
As a newly-hatched bird is blown around the farmyard by a strong wind, he keeps learning passwords that will allow …
People on each floor of an apartment building try to guess what is making the noise they hear coming from …
Great story, but one thing really bugged me all the way to the end. At the start of chapter eleven (page 58 in the copy I read), in the 6th paragraph, the Chandler's housekeeper, Mai, says "Mrs Carmichael always have me decorate on Christmas Eve." It should have read "Mrs Chandler". Pity an editor didn't pick up this mistake. My mind just started trying to figure out the connection between the Chandler's housekeeper and the Carmichaels. I didn't realise it was a red herring error until I got to the end of the book and it wasn't revealed to be a plot twist!
An elderly Australian woman lets a mysterious and possibly sinister caretaker into her beach-side home and into her life.
This facsimile of the 1913 edition includes, along with the title story, "The nightingale and the rose," "The selfish giant," …
I read this to my daughter over several nights and we both really enjoyed it. It's a shame there are so many American words in a book set in Australia - we don't use the words gallons, miles, feet, inches, ranch, prairie, grits, sweater, gas... But never mind, it was good fun to read about the Thea Sisters' Australian adventure!
Just What Kind of Mother Are You? (2013, Transworld Publishers Limited)
Lisa Kallisto is one of those overworked, overscheduled mothers who never secure enough sleep at night. After getting her three …