Book Review: The Treasure at Devil's Hole by Jody M. Mabry

Francis "Bug" Mosser knows the Sikeston Outlaw Gang's treasure is hidden near his home and he's determined to find it with the help of his brothers and his best friend. They go down into Devil's Hole looking for it, but their mom comes along and makes them go home before they can find anything. Unfortunately, there are others looking for the treasure too, which means they're in for a big adventure.

The Treasure at Devil's Hole by Jody M. Mabry is an exciting middle grade historical fiction novel that takes place in 1946. It's a book about a treasure hunt, a bully, bad guys and friendship. There's even a little love thrown in, although my son who read the book didn't seem to notice much! The characters are all a bit quirky, from Bug's brother Tom, who is always digging, to the bully Tad who appears to be up to something, and the teacher's new boyfriend who doesn't seem to fit in.

My son Carter, who is 11, read this book and says it is more of an adventure story than a funny story, although there was one time when the dynamite blew a boulder through the ceiling of the house that he thought was pretty funny. He recommends The Treasure at Devil's Hole to readers who like adventure stories and treasure hunts. I'm guessing it would be a good summer read for reluctant readers as well.

Carter's Rating: 4/5

Connect with the author on his website, Facebook and Twitter.

This review was written based on a copy of The Treasure at Devil's Hole that was provided by Pump Up Your Book in exchange for an honest review. This post includes Amazon Affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase, we will receive a very small commission but your price remains the same.

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Getting back to blogging

It seems that blogging has dropped to the bottom of my list for the past year, and was pretty low for the year or two prior to that. I love to read, and am continuing to do so, but as my regular readers know I haven't been around much. My last blog post was almost a year ago!!

There are many things that have taken me away from blogging. Work has been much more challenging and interesting these past few years, but that means I really don't want to get back on the computer when I get home at night - or on the weekends.

Family life has been more busy with kids having multiple activities in the evenings, leaving little time to just hang out and write about the books that I read.

I will admit to a bit of a Facebook addiction, which means way too much time spent scrolling through my newsfeed instead of doing something more productive. This is one of the things I'm working on and hoping that this will free up some time for getting back to the blog.

Overall, life is good. Work is …

Book Review: The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett

Peter Byerly is distraught over the loss of his wife nine months ago. He has retreated to their cottage in the English countryside, hoping to return to his love of collecting and restoring rare books. But when he opens a book about Shakespeare forgeries and finds a Victorian watercolor of a woman who looks just like his wife, Peter is soon on a search for the origin of the painting and the truth about Shakespeare's real identity.

The Bookman's Tale: A Novel of Obsession by Charlie Lovett is a wonderful journey for anyone who loves books. It follows Peter's search in 1995, which turns into a bit of a thriller at times. But Lovett also takes the reader back in time a bit so we can learn the story of his relationship with his wife and how he came to be a bookseller. He does a beautiful job of expressing Peter's feelings about the rare books he encounters, and his feelings are contagious.

And then he takes us back even further to the history of one particular volume, whos…

Banned Books Week: Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park

This is the end of Banned Books Week and unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of time to write about banned books this year. But I did want to include at least one post about it, so today I wanted to share one of the book series that it seems most people are surprised to find on the list: Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park.

According to Wikipedia:
The Junie B. Jones series came in at #71 on the American Library Association's list of the Top 100 Banned or Challenged Books from 2000-2009. Reasons cited are poor social values taught by the books and Junie B. Jones not being considered a good role model due to her mouthiness and bad spelling/grammar. This is an interesting example of a banned book. Many times there are serious, controversial topics featured in books that are challenged. Things like homosexuality, drugs, vulgar language, etc. You can actually understand why people may not want their children to read those books, and why they may challenge their inclusion in school libra…

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