[Middle Grade Reads] Timmy Failure: Now Look What You've Done by Stephan Pastis

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Title: Timmy Failure: Now Look What You've Done

Series: Timmy Failure #2

Author: Stephan Pastis [Twitter | Facebook | Website] 

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Genre: Middle Grade - Contemporary Fiction, Illustrations

Release Date: February 25, 2014

Source: checked out from library – review policy here.

Synopsis via Goodreads:

He doesn’t like to pull rank. To reveal that he’s this guy: Timmy Failure, founder, president, and CEO of the greatest detective agency in town, perhaps the nation. But he is. 

And he’s about to crack the biggest case of his generation: a school competition to find a stolen globe. It’s his ticket to bringing home a $500 prize, which is guaranteed to set him up for life. But someone is clearly trying to game the system. Hoodwink. Con. Defraud. So it’s up to Timmy Failure, with the dubious help of Total, his lazy polar-bear partner, and his unlikely new ally, eccentric Great-Aunt Colander, to find a way to avenge these shenanigans. Defeat this injustice. If he can only get his entry form in on time.

Timmy Failure is such a lovable character and for all his flaws. Wrapped up in his own detective business Timmy is convinced he's the greatest and smartest person in the world. This leads to a broken leg, on two occasions, and many shenanigans! 

The cartoon illustrations help break-up the text and act as a fun transition piece for readers transitioning from elementary school reading levels to the middle grade reading level. Timmy is both honest, oblivious, and paranoid in his detective work and personal relationships. Luckily, Great Aunt Colander is the voice of reason, helping to reign in a distraught Timmy while simultaneously encouraging his need to show the world he is the greatest. 

I laughed each chapter and found the antics to be joyously silly, however I wish the moral of the story was a little more clear for younger readers to grasp. I feel like it was lost in between one set of outbursts and the next. 

3-Stars: Great second book in the series. Looking forward to future releases. 

7 Life Lessons I Learned from Gabriel Garcia Marquez

It's always hard to find great writers who celebrate the heritage and passion that Latinos keep bottled up. Gabriel García Márquez was the first Columbian and only fourth Latino to win the Nobel Prize. Today I'd like to celebrate all the words Márquez shared with us and thank him for unleashing all the love, passion and dedication he had for life.

March 6, 1927 – April 17, 2014

source Wikipedia

Seven Life Lessons I Learned from Gabriel García Márquez

If it's a good book, then it's a good book. No movie necessary.

“I can't think of any film that improved on a good novel,
but I can think of many good films
that came from very bad novels.” 

As I get older my memories are all I have of what has passed. And that's reality. 

“What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.”

But even so, sometimes we have to let go.

“She would not shed a tear, she would not waste the rest of her years simmering in the maggot broth of memory.”

Men will never understand women.

“If men gave birth, they'd be less inconsiderate.” 

That there is always more than one truth.

"All human beings have three lives: public, private, and secret.”

Love really is infinite, not finite as we often imagine.

"My heart has more rooms in it than a whore house.”

Don't stop chasing that five year plan that's turned into 10.

“It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.”

Stacking the Shelves #4: April 13-18

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews

This week was slow-ish but still a good week. I'm also behind on my reading but family came into town so priorities. :)

Covers link to Goodreads

In The Mail

 

The Side of Salvation by Jeri Ready-Smith – won from Andrea at The Overstuffed Bookcase

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski (ARC) – won from Book Hounds

Digital Review Copies

   

Purchased

    

 

Library Checkouts

 

What's New on Your Shelf?

[Friday Favorites] Bookish Music, YA on IG, If I Stay, The One, Hemlock Grove and Orange is the New Black

Friday Favorites is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa's Wishful Endings, that spotlights a favorite author, book, series, publisher, cover, blog, etc. Basically whatever bookish thing that you love, recommend, and want to tell others about.

Articles I Favorited this Week

YA Authors on Instagram via YA Highway
Ed Sheeran Covered Beyonce Not bookish, but I still heart this.

Videos I liked

Original "Hey Now" for Day and June in the Legend trilogy (Marie Lu) performed by Gia Navas

and you should really check out all her bookish themed songs; they're original and she plays guitar!!! 

The movie trailer for If I Stay.... can I just say, ALL. THE. FEELS. 

Book trailer release for Kiera Cass' The One, the final novel in The Selection trilogy.

Bookish TV/Movie News

Book to show adaptation Hemlock Grove will premier season 2 on July 11. THANK. GOODNESS. I need more Roman in my life!

I'd like to introduce everyone to Roman Godfrey... like you needed it...

Book to show adaptation Orange is the New Black will premier season 2 on June 6.

[Event Recap] Jenny Han & Jenny Hubbard in Raleigh, NC

My first book signing as a blogger!

I was totally late thanks to work. :/ But that's okay because I got there just as Jenny Hubbard was getting ready to read, so really... it was perfect timing.

I didn't take many pictures/video because it was sooo quiet and I didn't want to be the crazy paparazzi lady in a local bookshop. However, I did capture a few sound bites for ya'll to listen to from the question and answer portion.

Coolest Things I Learned About Jenny Hubbard

• She worked at an all-male boarding school for 10 years and lived with the students for five years! 
• She didn't intend for Paper Covers Rock, her first novel, to be YA and didn't really know what that meant until after the fact. 

Coolest Things I Learned About Jenny Han

• She doesn't write a novel in sequential order. 
• In co-writing with Siobhan Vivian, they don't write from strictly one point-of-view, but they each write parts of every narrator versus alternation chapters, etc.

Bonus: Jenny Han was rocking some super cool nail art!

Both Jenny's are awesome and if you haven't be sure to check out their newest releases!

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard