Bad Badger - A Family Story by Maryrose Wood - an Audio book from Libby

 I listened to this story while on a visit to Rapid City in the heat of the summer of 2026. It was a delightful "escape" and thoroughly enjoyable continuation of the earlier Bad Badger book, recommended to me by John Stevenson. The first one is his FAVORITE book, he says. So of course I had to order him the sequel, as well as a stuffed badger!

This one is even better than the first. The patient unfolding and explaining of complex human feelings and development are just beautiful. And they are instructive for a young person OR an older one! There are important relationship skills that are beautifully explained and modeled by the characters. One in particular is allowing for bad moods and why one might want to be forgiving in tense situations. The story also illustrates the stresses of parenthood in an empathetic and caring way. 

I haven't heard John's reaction to this story yet; but I'm anxious to hear what he thinks!

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

 This was a delightful little story with good illustrations. It's a chapter book with a good message, that kept me reading. I liked the fresh idea of telling a story from the animal's perspective. The animal characters and the humans both were interesting and life-like. I enjoyed the way the story came together and the satisfying way it came to be resolved.

I would love to share this book with John, in particular. I will save it for him, although it's hard to imagine him reading...both the boys are so into their technology! But maybe it will be handy when we travel this spring if he is "off" his technology? 

Brian's Winter by Gary Paulsen

 In an interesting departure from a series, Paulsen kind of negates the ending of the first book and the second book in the series (The River) by back tracking and speculating on what would have happened if Brian, the 13-year old who was the central figure in The Hatchet had not been rescued. What if he had had to have stayed through the winter? This book answers that question.

I enjoyed this one much more than The River because it was more like the first book, with details about exactly HOW Brian managed his resources and was able to survive. I liked how Paulsen continued to show us Brian's thinking and analyzing throughout the story so we could figure things out along with him. And, he had an interesting rescue experience that was unexpected as he found a trapper's family who took him in. It would have been interesting to read more about that experience, but maybe youth lit has to end before too many pages? Whatever. At any rate, this one is good, with beautiful descriptions of winter's beauty in the wild. I'll take it with me to Rapid at the end of the month for John and Henry to enjoy.