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All My Friends by Hope Larson
Batman and Robin and Howard by Jeffrey Brown
Bury the Lede by Gaby Dunn
Cinder the Fireplace Boy (Rewoven Tales) by Ana Mardoll
Dear Justyce by Nic Stone
Ghastly Glass by Joyce Lavene and Jim Lavene
The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion by Alice Kimberly
Hot-Air Henry by Mary Calhoun and Erick Ingraham (Illustrations)
Invisible Kingdom, Volume 1: Walking the Path by G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward (Artist)
Moriarty the Patriot, Volume 4 by Ryōsuke Takeuchi and Hikaru Miyoshi (Illustrations)
Murder in the Bayou Boneyard by Ellen Byron
Murder Ink by Lorraine Bartlett, Gayle Leeson and Jorjeana Marie (Narrator)
My Life in Transition by Julia Kaye
Sarah Somebody by Florence Slobodkin and Louis Slobodkin (illustrator)
The Sign of Death by Callie Hutton and Nano Nagle (Narrator)
A Three Book Problem by Vicki Delany and Kim Hicks (Narrator)
Tiger Honor by Yoon Ha Lee
Tink and Wendy by Kelly Ann Jacobson
Trick or Treat Murder by Leslie Meier
Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire
A Whisker of a Doubt by Cate Conte and Amy Melissa Bentley (Narrator)
The Year We Learned to Fly by Jacqueline Woodson and Rafael López (Illustrator)

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December 2021 Sources

December 2021 Summary

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3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish

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Beat the Backlist 2023

Canadian Book Challenge: 2022-2023

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Hot-Air Henry: 01/14/22

Hot-Air Henry

Hot-Air Henry by Mary Calhoun and Erick Ingraham (Illustrations) is the second of the Henry the Siamese cat picture books. While this book was published when I was a child, I only discovered the series as an adult.

The gist of these books are that Henry is taken along when his human family are on their latest adventure. In this case, the Man is in the countryside to do his first solo flight of a hot air balloon.

Henry wants to participate and gets into the basket. He's shooed off the balloon but through a series of misadventures ends up back on and the balloon ends up taking off without the Man.

As with the other books in the series I've read, the majority of the pages are focused on Henry's solo adventure. First he's scared and then he figures out what's going on. Through experimentation he learns how to rescue himself.

In counterpoint Henry's family does what they can to track the balloon. They are there to meet the cat but otherwise don't do anything to rescue him.

This particular book has a dramatic climax where Henry has to keep the balloon afloat but has an angry goose making things worse.

Erick Ingraham's illustrations are wonderful. They're the right balance of realistic and humorous.

The third book is High-Wire Henry (1991)

Five stars

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