Go Get Them, Girl!

 Mrs. Plansky's Revenge by Spencer Quinn

Mrs. Plansky finds that she has been a victim of fraud.  All of her savings and investments are gone.  The police tell her the odds of getting any of her money back (or even catching the criminals) are very low.  Mrs. Plansky, unwilling to be a helpless victim decides to track down the criminals on her own.

I like Mrs. Plansky.  I like the fact that she refuses to fall behind the times just because she is getting older.  I like that she is determined to still find joy and fun in life even though she is a recent widow.  And I loved how she did not panic and fall apart when she finds out her money is gone.  She is a fun character and I enjoyed following her adventure and listening to her internal dialogue as she works through everything.  There were a lot of fun and interesting situations that she gets herself into.  And you even start to like some of the people who scammed her.  I was a little disappointed that this intelligent, savvy woman fell for a scam that seemed so obvious to the reader.  And when she gets to Romania there are a lot of conspicuous coincidences that start to strain believability.  But the book is a lot of fun to read and any criticism I have mentioned here did not lessen my enjoyment at all.

I got a free copy of this book from Bookish First.

That's Quite A Banana

 Banana by Zoey Abbott

A dad does everything with his daughter.  Thay always have a great time together.  But then dad gets a banana.  At first, they have fun together with the banana but then dad starts spending all his time with the banana instead of his daughter.  What should she do?

I think it is fun that it is banana that distracts the father.  The point is it could be anything.  So why not a magic banana?  And I think it is cute that when the dad feels bad the daughter knows exactly what to do to make him feel better.  But.  I do think this is a cautionary tale aimed more at the parent reading the book than the child the book is being read to.  Which is not necessarily a bad thing.  If you can inform the parent while entertaining the child that is a good thing.  But the major problem I have is the message it gives the child that if they think something is taking too much of their parent's time, they should destroy it.  I think this book encourages children to just get rid of things they don't like and I don't think that is a good message.  Probably not something I will read to my nieces.  

I got a free copy of this book from Librarything.com, Early Reviewers.