77 Books Like Ishkabibble Unafraid

I have a brother who is fifteen years my junior. When he was small, I often read him stories. One of our shared favourites, read over and over, was Sendak’s Wild Things. It’s a masterpiece.

He usually wrote the text, as well as making the wonderful pictures, and the text is short, simple, rhythmic, and beautiful. Sendak was a poet as well as an artist.

Think about it: a child of five and a young woman of twenty, reading the same book, poring over the illustrations together, and both having a whale of a time.

If you know a child of picture-book age who doesn’t own Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are—buy it for them!

I love children’s books that provide lessons for both kids and adults.

The salient friendship is not between the stuffed rabbit and the boy but between the stuffed rabbit and another toy—the Skin Horse. The life lessons for adults are revealed mainly through the discussions between the Velveteen Rabbit and the Skin Horse. About love, loss, aging, and what true love truly means. Pay close attention to the part where the Skin Horse, old and wise, explains what it means to be “real.” 

I recognized myself as one of those people who “breaks easily” or has “to be carefully kept.” Life altered this, but this book raised my awareness. Published in 1922, some of the language is old-fashioned, but I find that makes it more charming. 

I’m absolutely obsessed with this book.

It earned a spot on the 2014 Gittle List, a contest I hosted for 5 years for self-published children’s book authors. I’ve purchased several copies for both children and adults. Somewhere, there’s a video of my grandson reading it to me (well, a couple of pages).

It’s unique in character, words, and pace. Seeing the two characters becoming friends, being the closest of friends, having a fallout that separates them, and finding their way back to each other moved me to tears because that is what my son and I were doing, at the time. Finding our way back to each other.

The lessons of forgiveness and humility flow naturally without ever saying those words explicitly. 

Pooh Bear and his friends have been favorites since I was old enough to hold a book. A. A. Milne’s poetry is wonderful, but when Pooh and Piglet come on the scene, there’s a special magic. Clinically depressed Eeyore and bossy Rabbit and motherly Kanga entertained me long after I was technically the right age for reading their stories.

I love this collection because it includes so many favorites and really takes you on a journey through the charming world of the Hundred Acre Wood. 

The main mystery in this book is not a mystery to the reader. It’s a mystery to the main character, Stevie. I love this twist.

I don’t think I’ve ever read another book where the protagonist is trying to uncover their own past, and the reader knows what answers she’ll find if she succeeds. (Though there are a few surprises that the reader isn’t privy to until Stevie unearths them.) The heart of this story is its romance, which is beautiful, heartwarming, and heartbreaking all at once.

I loved everything about this book, honestly. I read it in two days, and the only reason I didn’t read it in one sitting is because I have a small child and that precludes sequestering yourself in a room to finish a book. 

This was a true page-turner—I could not put it down. From the first few pages, I was immediately pulled into the mystery and characters’ plights. I loved how the author kept a fast pace, keeping the action and tension high throughout.

Technically, this book is not comprised of short stories; it features segments of shorter narratives that gradually weave together to reveal a larger picture. The author skillfully played with tropes in the mystery and horror genres, presenting a thoughtful commentary on issues women face.

Imaginative and deftly told, this clever and satisfying book had me nodding along in grim recognition.

As someone who has been silenced at various times in my career, I was immediately drawn to this book. I expected it to be about how to find our voices, but it was so much deeper and more nuanced than that. I loved how Elaine talked about how there are times when silence serves us well, and I especially appreciated her exploration of how we silence others, often unconsciously.

I appreciated the way Elaine shared her own journey of unlearning silence, as well as many stories and case studies throughout the book—it stayed out of the theoretical and felt grounded in real life. I also loved the optimistic and inspiring invitation in the conclusion. Count me in!

This book is set in the late 70’s/early 80’s in Wellington. Even the cover is a familiar image to me (my father was involved in the construction/ finishing of the building depicted).

I will say that the dialogue was hard to get used to because it is very clipped but the story set in a city that I knew at that time was great. It centres around a police officer which is something else that’s familiar to me.

I did struggle a bit with the dialogue because it was difficult to tell who was speaking if there weren’t attributes but I couldn’t put it down because I really wanted to know what happened to Felicity Daniels. Setting wise this book is a trip down memory lane and I loved the journey.

It's a great read for a cold winter night or a lazy Sunday afternoon. The zombies are slow, methodical, and relentless. I prefer Romero's slow-shambling zombies over Hollywood’s gold-medal-winning sprint demons.

The story revels in claustrophobic tension with plenty of action, stealth, and more zombies than you can throw a pie at (you’ll only get that if you’ve seen the original movie). The story is faithful to the movie, and it was fun to space the book out over a couple of nights.

I am a sucker for a brother’s best friend romance, maybe because I have an older brother and I was always crushing on one of his friends.

A forbidden romance with a good guy gives us that added element of… will they get caught. If you’re like me, you can’t wait for that scene when our Hero and Heroine do get caught and hold your breath while we read how everyone reacts! Enjoy this one.