{ Binge, Borrowed, Bargain }: Circuses, Wonderland, & Mermaids

Book Riot does a thing called Buy, Borrow, Bypass that I like, and I wanted to do something similar but in my own style. So in my version, I'll share something I have binged or am about to binge-read (the Binge, obviously), something that I have discovered at the library (the Borrowed... again, kind of self-explanatory), and something I have found for free on Amazon for my Kindle (the Bargain).

{ Binge }

Violette Around the World, Vol. 1: My Head in the Clouds!
by Teresa Radice


Available as: hardcover, Kindle edition
Pages: 48
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Publication date: March 20, 2018
Suggested tags: middle grade (ages 9-12), graphic novel, historical fiction, circus/carnival


From Goodreads:

"A 12-year-old girl travels the globe with her parents' circus, having adventures and learning to appreciate the joys of being different.

"My name is Violette Vermeer: Dutch father, French mother...citizen of the world! My house has a thousand rooms...one for every place we've passed through!"

Her name is Violette, like the flower in the spring, like the seventh color of the rainbow. She lives with the Circus of the Moon, where her mother is the stuntwoman and her father is the insect tamer. At the end of the 19th-century, Violette is a curious, happy 12-year-old who is fascinated by the beauty of the world around her: music, painting, drawing, nature, and much more. She shares adventures with her friend Samir (a budding trapeze artist), her unusual animal friends, and her father's trained insects!

This, the first of three books, takes place in Paris, where Violette has to balance her time between the freedom of the circus and her homework at school. But Paris is the city of beauty and art, and soon she will make an encounter with a very special person!"

I grabbed this one just because I thought the cover was cute and I'm so glad I did! It's surpassing my expectations in every way - art, story, and charm. I love it so far, and I can't stop reading!

{ Borrowed }

One Fun Day with Lewis Carroll: A Celebration of Wordplay and a Girl Named Alice
by Kathleen Krull,& Júlia Sardà

Available as: hardcover, Kindle edition, ebook
Pages: 32
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Publication date: January 9, 2018
Suggested tags: children's (ages 6-9), picture book, nonfiction, biography


From Goodreads:

"The wordsmith Lewis Carroll is famed for the freewheeling world of Wonderland in his beloved classics Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. In this gloriously illustrated picture book, Carroll's childlike love of life is showcased alongside his brilliance at creating and adapting playful words and phrases. From brillig and uglification to frumious and chortle, the award-winning author Kathleen Krull uses many of Carroll’s own words to tell the story of a man who wanted to make children laugh and whose legacy continues to entertain and delight."

I am a serious Wonderland fan... I love the original books, I love all kinds of retellings, I love nonfiction books about how Wonderland came to be. So when I saw this picture book biography about Lewis Carroll and his brilliant wordplay, I had to snag it.

{ Bargain }

How to be a Mermaid
by Erin Hayes

Available as: paperback, Kindle edition, ebook
Pages: 214
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Publication date: July 7, 2015
Suggested tags: young adult (ages 13-17), fantasy, mermaids



First in The Cotton Candy Quintet series. From Amazon:

"All Tara ever wanted was to be a mermaid.

So she takes a year off between high school and college to don a fake tail and tour aquariums across the country in a professional mermaid troupe.

Everything's great until she meets a gorgeous real-life merman named Finn. Suddenly, what she thought was a dream turns out to be a nightmare -- she's turning into a mermaid herself. For real.

Yet when she returns to the sea to seek out Finn and reverse her transformation, she finds herself in the middle of an impending war between the land and sea. Tara may have always wanted to be a mermaid, but now it's sink or swim. In order to survive, she has to learn how to be one, too."

I'm a sucker for a pretty cover. And what girl hasn't dreamed of being a mermaid at some point in her life? So when I saw this one for free, I snagged it!

*** This Kindle book was free as of the publishing of this post... 

but please double-check the price before you buy! ***

That's all I've got for now! Enjoy your Kindle freebie and see you next week!