Margo hard at work

Can you spot the Margo?

We temporarily moved Margo's bed to the small nook below the shipping station.  It was meant for extra boxes, but Margo loves it so much we decided to just find another place for the boxes.

If she's not beneath the shipping station she's beneath N's desk.  It took her only seconds to figure out who her favorite human was out of the three of us working there.  I'm not even surprised it isn't me.

And if she's not beneath N's desk, Margo is with customers.  She can usually convince customers to open her gate.  And sometimes, she can even convince them to sit on the floor with her.

Interpretations VII

This post is long overdue, but I'm thrilled to finally share it.  I had the joy of being a part of the the Columbia Art League's Interpretations VII show as an artist this past year.  Though I could not see the show in-person due to being on bed rest during the time it was up, I still enjoyed the whole journey and am excited to eventually meet up with the poet I was paired with  I've been a part of Interpretations as a poet three different times: II (which I couldn't go to because I was recuperating from meniscus repair surgery), III, & VI.

What is Interpretations?

Columbia Art League describes it as:

"A marriage of 35 visual artists and 35 literary artists, each submitting one work of their own choice with any theme. Then, an art swap: Each visual artist receives a work from one of the writers; each literary artist receives an artwork. The task for each artist and writer: to create a second work of art or piece of writing, which is his or her interpretation of the other artist’s work. The result: A show of 70 artworks and 70 pieces of writing. The aim of the show: A reminder that we all see the world differently; our interpretations of the world around us are uniquely ours. How will each artist interpret the other artist’s work? How will the viewer interpret the written words and artworks in the show?"

This year was my first time applying as an artist.  

I submitted this piece:

Here is the interpretation:

Blooming Season
by Betsy Garrett

Stand tall
face the sun and revel in
the singular beauty of
your blooming season
hold no fear of the darkness
use your dormancy to rest
then rising taller and stronger
drink in the light and rain
gift your seeds with abandonment
surround yourself with an
adorned field of your offspring
stand tall
and be

Here is the poem Betsy Garrett submitted:

Be a Prairie

grow deep roots
extending feet
underground
hold onto each drop
of water
and nutrient
stand firm against
roiling winds
cyclone forces

sustain life
host pollinators
shelter birds
reptiles insects
boldly proclaim
diversity
attired in
breath-taking
ancient beauty

And this is my interpretation:

I had the good fortune of finding an old folk art book at a library booksale just days after receiving Betsy's poem.  I wanted to capture the cyclical beauty of the prairie giving life, and the life within the prairie giving the prairie life (the whole chicken and egg question), but I wanted to take an element of her poem and make it the subject.  My initial idea used snakes as the subject, but even I recognize snakes have too much baggage.  Thankfully I saw the birds in the old folk art book and changed direction.  

I'm not sure if I should call it a mistake, but I did not map out anything.  I decided to completely wing this (pun intended!).  Thankfully, I could see it in my mind the entire time, and I just so happened to have the perfect beads and materials.  Other than the cotton reptilian fabric, I used upholstery samples, which were unruly, constantly unravelling, and required needles that looked like weapons.  Unfortunately, to sew the teeny tiny beads to the piece I also had to use wispy needles that are no thicker than a strand of hair.  The upholstery fabric laughed in my face every single time I used one of those wispy needles to sew on a teeny tiny bead.

Now that I've experienced Interpretations as both a writer and an artist, I thought I would know which side I preferred.  I remember I would receive one word or two at a time when I was writing my interpretations.  I would have the words but not really know what to do with them.  After collecting one or two words at a time over three or so months, the poem refused to fully reveal itself until the week before the due date.  It happened that way every time.  As an artist interpreting the poem I could both see her poem as it was read in my mind and also my interpretation of the thing that spoke to me the most, which was the chicken and egg question.  My interpretation went through a few different subjects, but it was essentially the same piece of art with the pieces rearranged in each rendition.  Each time I paused my work on the piece I would take a picture, and like anything else I make, I would stare at it and let it tell me what to do next, what to fix, and how to grow it.  There were a few times I did the staring thing with this piece, and my mind was like, "Not that, you fool!"  Here's the thing about upholstery fabric.  It doesn't let you take back your stitches very easily.  You have to cut out the entire progress you made with that piece of thread.  So having said all that I'm not really sure what direction I will take next time.  It will likely come down to whether I have something fitting to submit and what that particular thing is.  There's a reason why this show is always amazing to see.  How we interpret the world and the interpretations others make of our interpretations is a wild, soul-stirring ride.

2026

If I had to pick one word for 2025 I would choose the word, "challenging."

It was full of weird, rocky, and sometimes absolutely brutal blessings disguised as anything but.  I think I'm a little more open-minded to riding out the chaos without screeching like a pterodactyl in distress before I see what comes out of it.

Here are my 2026 Resolutions:

* Ask more questions but also listen more and better.

* When in doubt, humor it out.

* Once I'm able to, look for volunteer opportunities.

* Do everything in my power to become more comfortable in my body.

* Many, many breathing exercises.

* Find new avenues to keep family in life and don't give up.

* Get accepted into at least one art fair/opportunity (this one's a little bit out of my control).

* Keep working on my chapbook.  I've got it submitted to a few places, but if it comes back, fiddle some more.  Last year I grew comfortable with how my work isn't cohesive as a whole.  All of it together up may not work.  But first I try.  At some point next year I need to make the decision to divide and conquer.

* Keep creating things and encouraging others to do so.

* Business Goals: transition to CRM w/inventory of bigger awards, grow some, say yes or find answers to everything that's brought in, fiddle with showroom setup, add new things every time something old leaves, create last-minute awards case & Buy It Now area, extend hours (done!) and update hours everywhere (a surprising number of places), organize backroom to better suit different areas of work, update HVAC system even further and add vent hood to sublimation area, overhaul the website.

* Travel at least once with the nerd for nothing but pleasure.

* Work on not being so damn reactionary (just the stress noises and negative stuff like cursing).

* Read as much as I can, whenever I can, and write reviews for all the good books.

* I'm not even going to add tennis to next year's goals.  My first big goal is going for long walks when I'm able to.  Once I'm through PT, my plan is to hire a trainer to help me make sure I'm doing everything right and enough of everything right.

* Embrace cuddle mornings more.

2025

I don't normally do recaps, but 2025 was quite the year.  I can't say that I've grown a ton, but what I can say is that I am in the process of growing in some different ways I wasn't expecting.

This year:

* Robert and I bought an Awards/Personalization business (after shadowing a few months).  Though it was like the flip of a switch as 2024 ticked away the seconds into 2025, Robert and I were already hard at work, cleaning up the building, asking customers what they loved and wished we could do, asking our employee what things she wanted to change and things she didn't want to change.  I was scrubbing down bathrooms during the 2024 holiday break (before we realized we could squeeze bathroom refreshes into the budget).  So when January 1st came around it was both a big day and also just another day.

* We became commercial landlords due to buying the property along with the business.  Really this just means we will never have a snow day as long as we own the property and have a tenant next door.

* We not only bought the business but purchased some new machines for the business after traveling to Las Vegas for the APA conference.  The machines started arriving in March.

* We also refreshed the building - changed out all the slatwall in the showroom, added copious amounts of technology (security cameras, lights, smart outlets, monitors where we can see what's going on out front while we're in the back), overhauled the entire HVAC system for both our shop and the doctor's office next door, added/replaced storage in the back, stripped the bathrooms and tiny kitchen down and replaced everything.  We even added a door with a window in our workroom because there isn't a single window in the back, which is where we work 90% of the time (and one of the changes our employee asked for).

* Robert and I moved my dad to our city, got him about 80% moved in, and then had the unfortunate outcome of my dad saying the hell with us.  This caused some family drama that nearly consumed me.  But on the days it still gets me down I ask myself, would I do it again knowing the outcome?  Absolutely.  I know from outside sources he's happier, healthier, no longer isolated, falling, or unable to take care of himself.   

* I did two art fairs this spring, connected with people and their stories, sold some art, and watched as the weeds from my imposter plant blossomed some.

* I started seeing a G.I. doctor willing to help solve the cause of my symptoms, rather than just the symptoms.  He even referred me to Mayo, where I got even more help.  Took most of our summer, but I am on the right path.  I have a whole list of things I want to do again or try in my life that I thought I wasn't going to be able to do, and I'm getting closer to being able to tackle that list.

* Robert and I celebrated 20 years of putting up with each other.  

* I completely tore the shit out of my right achilles.  A day before my surgery I got a call from the hospital asking if I would be a part of a yearlong psychological study for people with achilles injuries.  They told me they were looking into the psychological impact of the injury, and gave me one of the most depressing and complicated surveys of my adult life.  I was just starting the hard work of all the things that went into my gut issues, trying not to drown in the family drama, nearing the end of my MLS degree, and still completely immersed in my first year as a business owner.  Just the act of someone asking me to be a part of a yearlong psychological survey process for what I considered a small blip in the grand scheme of things felt like the last of the wind being kicked out of me.  But honestly, each time I was absolutely consumed with despair during the initial healing after the surgery I thought about being a part of that study, and I knew I wanted to fucking win it, whatever that looked like.  Maybe that's the whole purpose of the study?  

* After getting through the bed rest part of my healing journey, I came back to work (after working from home during the bed rest) and discovered my one employee was fighting her own battle and was going to need to quit her job.  Robert and I immediately started the interview process, and I buckled down and tried to learn everything I was hoping to learn in year two of owning a business.  I failed spectacularly at this, but everything I've learned has been needed, and it took my mind off the injury.  

* So far the two employees I've hired have been incredible in their own ways.  One is absolutely fearless and willing to problem solve and make anything.  He even modeled two trophy toppers out of clay for a customer.  The other employee came right in, nested on the first day, filled the kitchen cabinet with her foods, learned sand carving in one day, and is incredibly wonderful with people.  She reminds me of a couple people I worked with at the library.  Any time they interacted with patrons I was right there taking notes.  So that's what I find myself doing again!

* I turned 40 in the midst of all of this.

* I officially got my Masters in Library Science.  

* I finally got to see Sara Groves!

stepping stones, a Hugh Prather readalike, and mushrooms

Despite the holiday/end of the year chaos still yowling around like a giant storm, I've somehow managed to finish a few stellar books and I'm smack dab in the middle of two books that have been excellent so far.  They are making any kind of adulting very challenging.

We Can Do Hard Things by Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle (Adult Nonfiction)

Though the format was chaotic, I got more than enough blurbs to use as stepping stones when I need them. I would classify this book as a read a little bit here and there, mark favorites with a year, maybe journal about how they affect me and apply to my life, but with one big caveat. I would tell myself to read all the answers to one question rather than a blurb here or there.

Though I'm not a podcast person, I am intrigued by the podcast that grew this book. Not enough to listen to it though! I'll keep starting my journey with the books that come out of social media and podcasts for a while yet. I like how there are so many different voices in this book. Jane Fonda comes instantly to mind. I didn't give her much thought prior to reading this, but now I am incredibly intrigued.

Here are a few of my favorite moments:

The very first question and the very first answer hooked me.

Why am I like this?

"I am a great mystery to me. Understanding why I do the things I do is important to me because the things I do affect the people I love. So I don't want to live on auto pilot. I want to choose carefully which patterns to pass on. I want to break cycles. I want to live with freedom and agency and intentionality. This means I have to look under my own hood and tinker with an examine my programming." - Glennon Doyle

Recently, I have been told I've been a bit reactionary, which is weirdly where I'm at when I'm on autopilot. I'm sure I shrieked like an unhinged pterodactyl when I was told this, but the reminder was helpful. When I read the first blurb in this book, it helped me think about why I want to interrupt the reactionary pattern. I also like the metaphor of looking under the hood. Why am I reactionary? Where does it come from? How does it affect others and myself?

How do I go on?

"One of my favorite words in the English language is alchemy. For me, it's about taking the thing that you're most afraid of and transforming into something meaningful and useful, maybe even beautiful."

-Suleika Jaouad

I have been stewing on this one! I think the hardest part is identifying what I'm most afraid of.

I also like this quote a lot:

"It makes sense that the antidote to the absurdity of life is the absurdity of life." - Amanda Doyle

A Rebellion of Care by David Gate (Adult Nonfiction/Poetry)

This was my first experience reading David Gate, and I enjoyed several poems. Though I will likely buy a copy, I'm not sure I would shelve it with poetry. It feels less like a collection where the poems work together to enhance the overall meaning and more like it belongs with the group of books that I will pick up every now and then to read a blurb or poem here and there. Hugh Prather came to mind almost immediately after I started reading this, and I really enjoy reading his works one blurb at a time.

On that note, one of my favorite poems was "Body Language."

"Whenever we divide our bodies
into what we like about them
and what we don't
we mutilate ourselves
you are not an inventory
of parts
in columns of pros
& cons
your body is more than gains
& losses
you are a whole being -
a poem
whose every word
makes meaning."

Mrs. Peanuckle's Mushroom Alphabet illustrated by Jessie Ford (Board Book)

Another winner in this series! Though it's one of those board books with a lot of information, it will fascinate anyone who loves mushrooms. I liked how a few letters were reserved for information about mushrooms - decompose, their kingdom, and Q for questioning. If you question whether a mushroom is edible or not, it's best to ask a grownup or leave that mushroom alone! The illustrations, including how the words are presented, are inviting, eerie, magical, and highlight the beauty of mushrooms.

this journey is my own

It's been a wild couple weeks.  On December 5th I officially started walking again.  It was a lot of lurching at first!  Monday, December 7th we took the last wedge out of my boot.  And then, after a week of walking and lurching, Robert and I took off for Minnesota for the third time this year.

This time had nothing to do with the Mayo Clinic though!  After twenty years of trying, Robert managed to score us tickets to see Sara Groves, who is one of my favorite artists and someone whose music has literally changed my life.  When I started college in the spring of 2004 I was alone in a new town.  I started playing tennis with another student, Scott through a tennis club, and we became tennis buddies.  We didn't talk much but at one point mentioned the schools we were going to and discovered we both attended church alone.  We started taking turns going to each other's churches each Sunday and sometimes going to both.  We played tennis and we went to church together but were very much painfully alone.  Loneliness nearly ate me up as a kid and going to college was not a magical cure.  I recognized he had his own issues with loneliness, but we did not talk about how alone we were or really anything of any substance.  We were tennis buddies and provided each other company when going to church.

One day he lent a CD to me.  It was Conversations by Sara Groves.  Naturally the CD got stuck in the CD player in my car, and I was so mortified!  Even though the CD was stuck in my car, it still played, and I listened to it nonstop.  There were a handful of songs that were very reassuring at that time in my life and helped me feel less alone.  Eventually I was able to get the CD back to Scott.  Shortly after that he said he was going to Russia after his graduation to bring a bride home.  Seriously!  It was his decision, and I didn't feel it was my place to say anything.  I didn't even really consider us friends.  Outside of church and tennis we led different lives and didn't talk much about those lives.  So I didn't say anything.  And he disappeared.  We sent emails initially, but his emails stopped suddenly, and I never heard from him again.  I didn't think we were friends at the time, but he let me borrow a CD that very much gave me the strength I needed to survive a tough but soul-shaping couple years of my life.  

One Sara Groves CD led to another and another, and with every new album there are a handful of songs that help me feel less like a stranger to myself.  

Robert knows all this, understands how much her music means to me, and has tried to get tickets the past twenty years.  Sara Groves sings at churches, women's conferences, and other semi-private events.  The closest Robert got to getting tickets one year was by pretending to know someone in the church's congregation, which was the requirement for that particular concert.

The concert we finally scored tickets to was at Art House North, which is owned by Sara and her husband and located in their St. Paul neighborhood.  It's a place that supports artists of all kinds and is appropriately in an old church.  Robert bought the VIP tickets which included a Q&A with Sara Groves while enjoying pie and cider all while sitting together in pews.  The Q&A was incredibly personal and also sad due to Sara Groves losing her father a week prior to the concert.  One person in the audience asked Sara Groves if she was writing a song about her father, and she played us what she had composed thus far.  Because this concert was a celebration of the 25th anniversary of Conversations, Sara Groves had forgotten some of the music.  She even ran home to get some of the music!  She played piano, had her fabulous band backing her up, and shared her vocals with her daughter and two friends.  She played the entire album, made a few mistakes, told stories behind the songs, and even invited the audience to sing one of the songs with her, which is a moment so precious I will take it with me for as long as I live and even past the grave.  

It was brutally cold with piles of snow everywhere in St. Paul.  Plus the church had stairs.  I went from barely walking to tackling icy sidewalks, snow drifts, and stairs all in the matter of 24 hours.  I walked into PT Monday and was not at all surprised to learn I was officially transitioning to a tennis shoe and wearing the boot only at night.  My physical therapist said I may need a crutch the first few days of transitioning to a shoe, and I was like, "Dude I got this!"  I had no issues the first day but the next day I was in the worst pain I've been in thus far on the achilles tear journey.  I didn't use a crutch though and made it through a ten hour day at work.  It's been tough but doable since then.  I broke down and bought yet another pair of shoes though.  I am wearing heel cups for the moment, so the tennis shoes I wore prior to the injury are way too tight with the heel cups in them.  I bought a wide in my size, and the pain is better now.  I hope nobody I know ever goes through an achilles tear, but I've been taking notes for ways to make it better if anyone asks.  

I feel buoyed from the concert and ready to finish out the rest of the holiday rush at work while amping up my physical therapy.  I've been told this next part is going to be difficult, but I think I'm in a good place to do the hard work.  I also finally received confirmation that I graduated on Friday, which is a relief.  I think I can finally heal from the library trauma now that I'm not constantly peeling back the bandaid so to speak.  I chose not to go to the graduation ceremony.  I really only have Robert to celebrate this small achievement with, and we haven't done the cap and gown thing at our other graduations.  Also, the night of the commencement ceremony Robert I were on our way to Minnesota!  I can't think of a better way to celebrate than seeing Sara Groves and hearing the songs that convinced me to keep trying.

I also made it back up to my office this weekend.  I still need a chauffeur AKA Robert to climb the stairs, but I was thrilled to finally be in my special place where I can continue to sort, reflect, celebrate, accept, and unwind.  Whatever art happens moving forward is going to have a lot of extra joy, hard work, intention, and striving going into it.  

nonfiction winners

I just finished two more books worth checking out.

The Miracle & Tragedy of the Dionne Quintuplets by Sarah Miller (Teen or Adult nonfiction)

I enjoyed Miss Spitfire, Caroline, and most recently Hick by Sarah Miller. All three of these books were about women who interested me. After reading Hick I looked through Sarah Miller's remaining books to pick out the next book and nothing really stood out to me. I said the heck with it and went ahead and put one on my to-read list any way. And I'm glad I did. Sarah Miller has this way of completely capturing your attention and writing about characters in such a way that you end up caring immensely about them whether you want to or not.

Prior to reading this I hadn't heard anything about the Dionne Quintuplets. This book is heartbreaking. The entire family ends up being messed up in one way or another (though there are a few characters I think were messed up before the quintuplets were born). The whole thing is appalling. The parents were put in an impossible situation. Nobody knew how to handle five babies being born at the same time (totally fair) and everyone's dark side came out. It was a complete train wreck. I couldn't stop reading and was once again ensnared in Sarah Miller's wealth of research and narrative nonfiction prowess.

There's nothing new to read here - families are messed up, humans are flawed, and emotions rule us despite our best efforts. But Sarah Miller will have you on the edge of your seat wanting desperately for not just the Dionne quintuplets to thrive, but for all the Dionne children to get the hell away from their childhoods and parents and have a fighting chance.

This is Orange by Rachel Poliquin & illustrated by Julie Morstad (nonfiction picture book)

A celebration of the color Orange. The cover is immediately arresting, both delicious and powerful. With marbled, creamsicle end papers, an otherworldly, scribbly cantaloupe, monarchs flying from the pages carrying the souls of loved ones, and a colored pencil spread that deserves to be framed, the illustrations alone carry the celebration, history, and importance of the color orange. There's nothing special about the text, but this tiny book delivers a punch. From the linguistic journey of the word Orange to the roles Orange has played in defining itself, art, culture, history, literature, architecture, religion etc. There's nothing untouched by Orange. I'm ready for Poliquin and Morstad to write about the rest of the colors!

2025 Music

Music is fuel for me, so when Spotify and Apple share my end-of-the-year stats, I get pretty jazzed about it.  I listen to both.  I have my monthly playlists in Spotify.  Each month has whatever floats my boat.  The first song I like each month begins the new playlist, and I delete that month from last year.  Apple has all of my longer playlists, and also all the music I've ever owned from records I've converted to discs I imported to spoken word albums I also imported.  None of the hard-to-find stuff ever shows up in my stats.  I will forever be gobsmacked by how much music is out there that Apple and Spotify do not have.  It's one of the reasons I still look at cds when I see them in the wild.  

Here are just a few of my favorite moments from this year:

Needtobreathe is always in my top five.  This year they were my top artist in both this year.  They have some incredibly profound moments in their lyrics.  I'm excited they're at the top, but I'm ready for a new album from them!    

  

I love most kinds of trap.  It's the genre I listen to the most.  I never heard of it until about fifteen years ago, so I feel like I'm making up for all the time it didn't exist in my life.  At first I had to buy these trap cds that weren't sold in our country.  Thankfully, it's a lot more common right now, and there are gobs of sub genres.  The past couple years I've been listening to quite a bit of Hanzo, who is a music producer from Germany.  It's about as intense and imaginative as trap gets.  The best example of this is their song, Invasion, which is about aliens taking over.  Other than the PSA announcement at the beginning, there are only a few words sprinkled throughout, but Hanzo uses the music to tell us exactly how the invasion is going down.  

I listened to a lot of Latin music last year.  I wondered how that was going to show up in my genres.  Spotify has some crazy genres!  Last year our neighbors tore down their house and have been building a new house.  This is a common thing in my city.  On my street right now we currently have four tear downs/rebuilds in various stages of destruction/completion.  As the walls were going up at the neighbor's house in October of last year the framing crew listened to El Alfa nonstop.  The sound of it blaring from the cavernous shell of the home is something I'll never forget.  Every spare minute I had was spent on the porch listening to El Alfa blast from that shell.  Even though nothing could come close to that same quality of sound, I started listening to El Alfa even when I wasn't on the porch, and this opened the doors to all kinds of Latino and Brazilian music thanks to both Spotify and Apple doing such a great job recommending similar music.

  

I always get a huge kick out of seeing my stats at the end of the year, and I really enjoy seeing others.  My Arizona brother's top song was a Bluey song!  There have been some interesting posts and articles about parents and how their kids have taken over their Spotify Wrapped.  There are ways to fix this of course, but it's always a delight to see my Arizona brother's top songs of the year peppered with the music his kids listen to.  I hope he doesn't fix it! 

enjoying the calm

I feel like I'm in the eye of of the end-of-year tornado.  Mostly caught up at work.  We're managing to stay just barely on top of things, but that will do for the moment.  Yesterday was the first day I didn't work past the point of what I had to give, and we got home at a decent hour.  I've been managing to still take Sundays off, which have been devoted to school work.  Robert hasn't been so lucky.  He's working today.

Next week we meet the other side of the storm.  Teetering piles of things to do at work.  I also have PT twice, a dentist appointment, a doctor's appointment, a get together with my poetry friends, a holiday party, and a special concert Robert and I are traveling to St. Paul to see.  Mostly good things.   But today it's like my brain and body know about what's to come.  Though I didn't finish as strongly as I hoped, school is done.  It's my first Sunday with nothing on the schedule.  I have decided to hunker down and start a new embroidery project.

I just wrapped up this piece, which feels like a meadow reprieve from the gray and cold of December.

I like to include progress pics, but there aren't that many for this piece.  It came together quickly and was easy to get lost in.

cliffhanger

I've had a lot of books let me down recently.  Right now I only have five minutes here and there to read, so I'm not even sure it's any book's fault.  When I was working at the library I worked with a lot of brilliant people.  A few people had these elaborate book rating systems, and over the years I eventually developed my own.  It's pretty simple.  I have only a few categories, and I simply rate them on a scale of 1 to 5.

My categories are characters, language, details, illustrations (if applicable), delivery/clarity of message for nonfiction, conflict/resolution/story for fiction and narrative nonfiction, and two categories that are pretty squishy.  First, if it's a book written for children I make sure my old self is thinking about it from a child's perspective (tricky and squishy).  Second, I rate my gut feelings.  Sometimes I love a book that has completely appalling structural and/or grammatical flaws.  Sometimes the book chips away at my soul but the audiobook narrator's delivery stays with me (The Stranger in the Woods).  Squishy but's that what gut feelings are.

I love getting through my rating system and being completely surprised.  The latest book in the Witches of Brooklyn series surprised me.  I don't like mega cliff hangers.  I recognize it's a perfectly acceptable thing to do, and the author doesn't need to humor my lack of patience.

Witches of Brooklyn: Curse & Reverse by Sophie Escabasse (juvenile graphic novel)

Folks, number five in the Witches of Brooklyn: Curse & Reverse ends with a mega cliffhanger.  It really doesn't wrap up anything at all.  It ends during the super murky outcome of a life and death duel!  I was super miffed after finishing.  I couldn't even rate it for a while.

But it still got a high score, and it's really because the series is just so spectacular.  There's so much world and character building going on.  I love the characters and care about them just like they're my family.  The illustrations are incredible.  I got so lost in the spreads where the writer/illustrator depicted the passing of time.  There's a fine blend of comfort and adventure, which is important for me.  I like action just as much as anyone else, but please include a movie night with friends or a mini nail painting party!  I'll accept the cliffhanger with only a little grumbling but only because I adore this series.  And when I talk about it with others, I will highly recommend waiting until the sixth book comes out!