Monday, May 16, 2022

"Chocolate-Covered Baloney" by K.D. McCrite

About this book:

  “The last thing April Grace wants is more change in her life—but that’s exactly what she gets! Plus, April has a new mystery to solve when Myra Sue starts sneaking around and acting very suspicious!
   From snooty new neighbors to starting junior high to getting a new baby brother to having her grandmother get a boyfriend, April Grace has had enough change to last until she is at least 87 years old.
   But when it rains, it pours, and April Grace is in for the ride of her life when her prissy, citified neighbor Isabel becomes her gym teacher and a long-lost relative suddenly reappears and throws everything into a tizzy. On top of that, April’s sister, Myra Sue, has been hiding something and sneaking around. April needs to find out what is going on before her silly sister gets herself into trouble again. More important, will April find the grace she needs to handle her topsy-turvy life and forgive past wrongs?”


Series: Book #3 in the “Confessions of April Grace” series. Review of Book #1 Here and Book #2 Here! There are three books in this original series and the first book in a new series about April Grace will be republished this summer.


Spiritual Content- A few Scriptures & the Lord’s Prayer are mentioned, read, & quoted (and mixed up); Prayers; Church going (When a pastor says there’s going to be change, April Grace decides to read the hymnbook instead of listening to the sermon because she’s had enough change lately); ‘H’s are capitalized when referring to God; Mentions of God & Jesus; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of churches, church going, services, sermons, hymns, & pastors/reverends; Mentions of a Christmas play (Book #2); A few mentions of those & events in the Bible; A couple mentions of being a Christian & acting like Christ; A mention of a revival meeting; A mention of someone looking old enough to be Methuselah’s great-grandmother; A mention of Billy Graham; A mention of a teacher’s handouts being as thick as the Holy Bible;
             *Note: A few mentions of aliens & being abducted; A couple mentions of someone having a spray for warding off negative energy; A mention of the wind howling like a ghost.
 

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘none of your beeswax’, a ‘wimp’, two ‘crud’s, two ‘duh’s, three forms of ‘shut up’, six ‘drip’s, seven ‘stupid’s, fifty-four forms of ‘dumb’;  A couple mentions of curses (said, not written; including a mention that April Grace and her sister are never allowed to say the bad language that Isabel and Ian used to use); Sarcasm, eye rolling, & being a smart aleck; Myra Sue & April Grace bicker & call each other names (brat, dingbatty, drip, dipstick, dope, doofus, dumb, and Myra Sue telling April Grace that she “should turn blue”) & April Grace snoops in her room (when it happens in front of adults or if one says something not nice about the other, they are reprimanded); April Grace and her best friend get into a couple arguments and call each other names, but they work it out by letting things cool down; A couple adults can be mean to another & while April Grace felt the same way towards this person at first, she realizes by the end that they aren’t being nice and they need listen to each other (that there’s another side to every story); *Spoiler* Myra Sue steals money from their mom and grandma and runs away from home to go to New York to be a star. Everyone is very worried, but thankfully the police find her before anything bad happens (Myra Sue realizes that it’s awful out there away from their home) *End of Spoiler*; Being sick & Throwing up; Mentions of wars & battles; Mentions of a mother abandoning her daughter twice to a mean aunt that starved and mistreated her; Mentions of throwing up; Mentions of things that happen to runaways (such as meeting strangers that hurt them, getting ran over by a car, freezing to death, or falling off the side of a mountain); Mentions of burglars/robbers/thieves, robberies, & stealing; Mentions of lies & lying; Mentions of hatred (including Myra Sue saying that everyone hates her & no one would miss her if she disappeared forever); Mentions of cigarettes, smoking, chain smokers, & that Isabel is trying to quit; Mentions of prank calls; A few mentions of gossip; A couple mentions of wondering if someone was kidnapped; A mention of an ax murderer; A mention of jail; A mention of swatting a misbehaving child; A mention of drivers “tell off” a slow driver;
             *Note: April Grace was upset in Book #2 when it was announced that her mother was pregnant, but now loves her baby brother and wouldn’t trade him for anything; Myra Sue wears a lot of makeup to school & washes it off before she gets home because she knows her parents wouldn’t approve; Mentions of brand names & stores (Kleenex, Bic pens, Pepto-Bismol, Jell-O, Pepsi, Tide, Purex, Squirt soda, Godiva, Russell Stover, Barbie, Heinz, Welch’s, Dial soap, Prell shampoo, McDonald’s, Red Lobster, & Wal-Mart); Mentions of TV shows, soap operas, characters, & hosts (The Cosby Show, Perry Mason, The Price is Right, Silver Linings, Days of Our Lives, Another World, Growing Pains, Who’s the Boss?, Bob Barker, & Vanna White); Mentions of music & groups (Huey Lewis and the News, Hall and Oates, Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi, & Patsy Cline); Mentions of magazines (Tiger Beat, Soap Opera Digests, Current Soaps, People, Today’s Theatre, Cosmopolitan, & Young Model); Mentions of car brands; Mentions of books, characters, & authors; A few mentions of the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes; A couple mentions of a movie & an actress (The African Queen & Katharine Hepburn); A mention of Google; A mention of Disney World; A mention of Oscar the Grouch; A mention of a vampire; A mention of someone being “an all-fired pain in the patootie”; A mention of April Grace & her friend watching a horror movie (even though they aren’t supposed to) & ending up staying up all night because of it.
 
 
Sexual Content- Mentions of dates, dating, girlfriends/boyfriends (including April Grace thinking her grandma has three boyfriends), & Myra Sue not being allowed to date until she’s 16; Mentions of potential love letters; A few mentions of flirting; A couple mentions of not wanting to witness any kissy or moony-eyed business between a couple; A mention of jealousy;
             *Note: A few mentions of when Myra Sue starved herself (an eating disorder, Book #1); A few mentions of that her mother would never approve of a dress that Myra Sue has; A couple mentions of April Grace believing that if you’re old you should not wear miniskirts; A mention of April Grace thinking she’s had enough change for any sixth-grade girl; A mention of a grandma saying she’s kept her figure; A mention of a man being a handsome smooth-talker that didn’t want his baby’s mother or their baby (unsure if they were married or not).  
 
-April Grace Reilly
                                1st person P.O.V. of April Grace
                                                Set in 1987
                                                        284 pages

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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens- 
My personal Rating-
This series has a special place in my heart, sass and all.
I really adore the lessons that are at the end of this third book and seeing April Grace’s growth. *happy sigh* Like the previous books, April Grace has such a way with descriptions and her reactions to different things make me laugh so hard at times. I still don’t think I would recommend it for girls around her age because of the sassiness/sarcasm and sibling bickering, but it can be a really fun series for those that are at least a bit older.
 
 
 
See y’all on Friday with a new review!



*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.

 

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