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Cindy M
An accountant and CPA by profession, I found myself a book reviewer for Squeaky Clean Reads by happenstance. When the opportunity came to transform that website into Compass Book Ratings, I was excited to seize it and meld my business background with my love of books. As the mother of three teenage sons, I have read a large number of children and young adult books and I believe that there is great value in a content review service. As much as we would love to read everything our children read, there just isn’t enough time. I also appreciate being able to select books for myself that are really worth my precious and limited reading time. I believe there is a book out there for everyone–they just have to find it!
The Obsidian Blade by Pete Hautman is a science fiction, time-twisting novel that feels like three books in one.  The beginning of the book is slow-paced and slightly depressing; the middle of th…
March 19, 2013 is the one year anniversary of Compass Book Ratings.  On this date in 2012, we flipped the switch on our new website with a searchable database (If you haven't tried it, you really shou…
Thank you to all the patrons who entered their libraries in our 2013 Library Giveaway.  It was fun to see libraries from the East Coast to the West Coast entered.  The winner of the 2013 Giveaway was …
The Terrible Thing that Happened to Barnaby Brocket by John Boyne starts out with a delightful premise:  a boy who defies the law of gravity and floats.  The opening reminds me a bit of…
With the posting of the book review and content analysis of Running Barefoot by Amy Harmon, Compass Book Ratings now has 700 books in our database.  We fired-up the website on March 19, 2012 with 228 …
Lemony Snicket, author of the Series of Unfortunate Events, returns with "Who Could That Be at This Hour?", book one in a new series, All the Wrong Questions.  This is a book with …
Wonkenstein (The Creature From My Closet) by Obert Skye is a "picture novel" in the style of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books; this type of book is quite popular with elementary school ch…
The Newbery Award is awarded annually in January to books published in the previous year.  The winner and honor books are selected by a committee and the award recognizes "distinguished children" book…
The FitzOsbornes in Exile by Michelle Cooper is Book II in the Montmaray Journals.  Written as the journal of Princess Sophia of the fictional country/kingdom of Montmaray, the book lit…
Bomb:  The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin is a 2013 Newbery Honor Book for a good reason.  Sheinkin masterfully weaves together the differ…
Jepp, Who Defied the Stars by Katherine Marsh is historical fiction that examines what it meant to be a dwarf around 1600 in Europe.  This unique perspective leads to a book that is thought-…
Always October by Bruce Coville is one of the rare pieces of fiction that takes a step away from a host of animal based novels and into gutsier territory.  However, it is not a scary book and children…