Book Review: OCDaniel

OCDaniel is a book about a lanky 13 year old boy named Daniel who likes to write, hates football, likes to make up stories with his little sister and has OCD, (which he doesn’t know about.) He can’t help but keep on flipping a light switch on and off and keeps trying to avoid writing the number four. He spends a lot of time hiding these ‘strange habits’ which he calls Zaps, because he doesnt want anyone thinking he’s crazy. Until, he receives a note saying: I need your help; signed by a ‘fellow star child’ and his life gets even weirder.

It was absolutely fun to join Daniel as he joins a girl nicknamed PshycoSara on a murder investigation, follow him as he flails at football games, and getting to know about his struggle with his OCD.

Daniel’s voice is very authentic and relatable, and I found myself cracking up, feeling sad, and grinning the whole time I was reading the book.

When I read it for the first time, (yes, I’ve gone back to the book and re-read it at least four more times) and I was nearing the end of the book, I was just praying and begging for it to not end. I loved the characters so much, I wanted to know more and more about them, their stories. But yeah, it ended. (But guess what? There’s a prequel for OCDaniel in the voice of Sara now! It’s called ‘Sara And The Search For Normal!’ I’m so excited to read it!)

This book is about friendship, family, and neurodiversity. It’s about feeling different and finding people who understand you. I totally recommend it.

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That feeling of getting a new book.

I just love getting good new books, you know? It’s so fun, I just get so hyped up while looking for the next few books that I want to order to read, surfing on the net, reading book reviews, and then ordering them. And then the wait starts; days stretch ahead… but then this message pings on the phone: your order will be delivered today.

And I sit there in anticipation and excitement, waiting for it to arrive. Then the doorbell rings and I run to open the door and to me at that moment, the mailman seems just like a celestial messenger bearing precious gifts in his hand.

I always try to hold my excitement in, but I end up grinning so hard, my cheeks hurt. As soon as I sign and stuff, and the door closes behind me, I let out a squeal of joy and go and hug my parents and thank them for ordering the books, then rip the packaging apart and turn the book around in my hands, smell it, run to my bookshelves, put the book up in my bookshelf (colour coded+mood coded) admire it, run back to my family, tell them I’m reading it so they’d better not disturb me, find a corner in the house, fill it with pillows and then sink in to read the book.

That is, if my mom doesn’t take the book away and tell me to finish all my tasks first, because she knows that I wont do anything if I start reading, and that usually ends up in me begging and wheedling her to give me the book. She sometimes gives in and sometimes doesn’t. I just have to hope she does.

I’ll need to write a seperate blog about the actual reading of the book, and one about finishing a good book and one about people interrupting me when I read, that’s just so ugh! Well anyway, stay tuned for that!

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Book Review: The Remarkable Journey Of Coyote Sunrise

Whenever I sit down to make a big art piece, I always like having to listen to audio books, as it makes it even more fun. So, when I sat down to work on a big drawing, and was surfing through Scribd, looking for an audio book, I saw The Remarkable Journey Of Coyote Sunrise, written by Dan Gemeinhart. They say, don’t judge book by its cover. But when I see a funky and/or beautiful book cover, I gravitate towards it, ignoring the others. Which I shouldn’t, but I do. So, when I saw a girl with sunglasses sitting on top of a school bus with a kitten, I just had to listen to it. So, I plopped on my earphones, got my pencil, and hit play.

Coyote Sunrise has been living with her dad on a school bus for 5 years, driving around the United States, ever since her mom and sisters died in a car accident; never going back to their home. never looking back.

Until, Coyote finds out that a park in her neighborhood was getting grazed down. She had buried a memory box there along with her mom and sisters and she just had to get it back before it got lost forever. The only problem was that she had to make her dad drive all the way across the country to the park without him knowing it. As she hatches plans and goes on this one heck of a journey, she is joined by an array of quirky yet amazing strangers, all going through something in their lives.

I was so invested in that story; I loved every single character in it. Coyote. Rodeo. Salvador. Lester. Val. Ivan.  EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. I was rooting for them and smiling and chuckling and tearing up and sighing throughout the whole audio-book. You should definitely read/listen to it.

Written from Coyote’s point of view, this book discusses everything from slushies, kittens and good books to friendship, love and kindness.

Some quotes from the book:

“Losing something can sure make you realize how much you loved it, even if you knew you loved it all along”

“Maybe we’re all a little broken. Maybe we’re all a little fragile. Maybe that’s why we need each other so much.”

“I just wanted everyone to be happy. It’s hard, though, when everyone carries around a heart inside them that is so loud and so strong and so easily broken.”

“Sometimes trusting someone is about the scariest thing you can do. But you know what? It’s a lot less scary than being all alone.”

“And every book ever written is about love, really, whether it knows it or not. So, yeah, I know a thing or two about love.”

There were way too many beautiful lines in this book, which I’m probably going to do note down and put up here someday, when I get a hard copy of this book.

This is the kind of book that makes you happy and sad at the same time, you know, and obviously it made me laugh out way more times than I can count. So yeah, if you are into contemporary fiction, you should DEFINITELY read this book. Its brilliant.

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