Flood Town Books

07/27/2026

BOOK REVIEW ~ Terry Felda 🐕🐶🐾 Strays by Gia Gordan
“This book is for the misfits. For the awkward. For the quiet. For the misunderstood.
For the left out. For the left behind. For the grieving. For the conflicted. For the
ones shadowed by trauma.
For the ones with fur, feathers or fins. For the ride-or-die best friends. For the ones
who struggle with friendship. For the lost. For the found. For the chosen. For
anyone who has felt like a stray in one way or another. I hope in this story you can
find a place that feels like home.”
Is this you? Maybe someone you know?
Usually, I go with the opening sentence which was also an eye-catcher. But this
time it was Gia Gordon’s Acknowledgements that caught me off-guard. So I read
her opening sentence and kept going.
Campbell is in the 6th grade, surrounded by silence, secrets, grief and feels very
much like the stray pup she sees being dumped out on a vacant lot she knows is
haunted. Her best friend’s family isn’t as perfect as she first thought either.
There’s grief and secrets there too.
But as she befriends and feeds that stray, she learns how two people can
experience the same event but have very different reactions to it. She learns that
like that little dog, she’s resilient too. And courageous. Because sometimes, it
takes courage to ask someone you love to share their reactions and secrets...with
you.
At the end of the book, is Campbell’s life perfect? Nope. But it’s better, it’s hopeful
and there’s peace for her and her ride-or-dies. And that’s everything.
One review said it was “a necessary read for anyone who’s ever felt like they didn’t
belong.” A great choice for every tween, although I think girls might be more drawn to Campbell.

07/25/2026

07/23/2026

Fantasy reads

07/17/2026

BOOK SERIES REVIEW ~ Terry Felda‼️⛰️☀️ I SURVIVED…. By Lauren Tarshis 
“He couldn’t see. He couldn’t breathe. He was drowning….in dust,” introduces 11-year-old Ray and the dust storms of the 1930’s.  Each of the I Survived books are stories about young people living through horrific and terrifying events.
This series handles historical events in a very even-handed way, providing easy to understand reasons why these wars, environmental disasters and tragedies occurred and yes, there are heroes, after all the tagline is “when disaster strikes, heroes are made”.  They just don’t have superpowers.  
They’re the US Park Rangers and young journalist who figured out why the grizzlies were attacking people at Glacier National Park in 1967; the resistance fighters fighting the N***s in 1944 and the people who fought through every dust storm, losing lives and farms, but not their hope throughout the 1930’s.   
The stories use fictional characters, but each book ends with the real-life events and a bibliography of other books to read more about it.  Speaking of which, I highly recommend The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl.    
Great choice for readers ages 8-12 and even older.

07/17/2026

BOOK REVIEW ~ Terry Felda‼️🪄 Percy Jackson and The Olympians by Rick Riordan  The Lightening Thief, Book One   Who wouldn’t want to read a book that starts out at Chapter 1: I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher with “Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood.  If you’re reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now.  Believe whatever lie your Mom and Dad told you about your birth and try to live a normal life.”   
It’s the reason School Library Journal called this 5 book series, “An adventure quest with a hip edge”.   
It’s packed with funny allusions to Greek mythology and 12-year-old Percy Jackson who’s on a school trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and next he knows he’s trying to return Zeus’s stolen property and bring peace to Mount Olympus. Heady stuff there.      
Great choice for good readers, middle school and up.

07/17/2026

We’ve got your summer reads ready and waiting for you

07/15/2026

BOOK REVIEW ~ Terry Felda‼️😱 THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE by Jacqueline West 
“Ms. McMartin was definitely dead.”  I must admit, The Shadows Book 1 had me hooked at that first sentence. The 2nd chapter kicks off with “The Dunwoodys moved in two weeks later.” Olive Dunwoody is eleven years old and thinks the house filled with creepy paintings and talking cats is totally weird. But the weirdest thing is what happens when she finds an old pair of glasses – she can TRAVEL inside the paintings to Elsewhere and that’s where the story takes off. Because Elsewhere has secrets and plans that involve her family.    
So, Olive juggles both being the new girl in school and the sinister weirdness of Elsewhere. There are five books to this series, and we get to grow up with Olive as she makes friends, becomes a teenager and makes sure Annabelle McMartin is dead – for sure this time! 
One review said, “It’s like Coraline meets Harry Potter.”  It’s a fun easy read for everyone 10 and up. But I think girls will especially be drawn to Olive.