March PageHabit Unboxing

Hello Everyone!
So it was bound to happen that the day after I finally post my March wrap-up I receive my very late PageHabit box. This was the first time I received PageHabit. For anyone who doesn't know, PageHabit is a monthly bookish subscription box where you can pick from one of eight genres: mystery, literary fiction, young adult, romance, science fiction, historical fiction, horror, or fantasy. They also have both monthly boxes (which is what this is) and quarterly boxes that are curated by the author of the featured book (the quarterly boxes come in young adult fiction, literary fiction, or cookbooks). Each book is annotated by the author on little sticky notes throughout the book and comes with a letter from the author. Each box also contains a short story and a donation to children's literacy in a selected country every month. The boxes are $29.98 plus shipping, so comparable to OwlCrate. So without further ado this was March's PageHabit, young adult version.

So right on top was the author letter which I set aside so I wasn't spoiled for the book before I got there. Unlike OwlCrate this box doesn't tend to have a theme. Right on top was a beanie. One of those ribbed fisherman style ones with the fold over brims and a little leather tag that says 'bookworm'. It's bookish but very understated and I love beanies so even though it's April I'll probably still wear it as long as the weather is still rather crappy. It's very classy and understated which is exactly what I love in a beanie.

Next, underneath the hat was the card for this month. Unlike other book boxes, this card doesn't say what's contained in the box but one side tells you what country they donated to for improving literacy rates. This month's country was Kenya and the card gives some information about things like school attendance rates, literacy rates, sanitation and other information about the charities and such which is pretty cool.

The other side of the card talks about the referral program as well as has all the books contained in the boxes for all the different genres which is nice since I believe you can purchase just the annotated books from them as well if you're interested in any of the books from the other genres.

Next in the box is a package of adult coloring sheets in a garden theme. There are 24 sheets and 12 designs and each one is perforated along the middle so you can fold them into greeting cards  if you choose to. It's pretty cool. The designs are really pretty and who doesn't love coloring?

Underneath that was little box with a photo holder. It's a red cable with magnets that you use to attach the photos to it and can hang on the wall or whatever to display photos. It's pretty cool. I'm not sure where I'll hang it but I'm sure I'll use it.

The last actual item in the box is a set of faux leather stickers. There's a strawberry and a unicorn and a cat, a ring and a shooting star. They're cute and the picture shows them attached to a bag but I think I'll just stick them to my bookshelf like I do with all my stickers. Maybe I'll stick the unicorn to my cellphone case though, it's pretty cute.

Before the short story and the book and the associated things there is an ad for a book series called The Charlotte Holmes Series by Brittany Cavallaro. The first book seems to be called A Study in Charlotte. It follows the teenage descendants of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson: Charlotte Holmes and Jamie Watson who attend a private school together and get thrust into mysteries worthy of their famous ancestors. They sound pretty interesting and I might pick up the first book to give it a try sometime.

 There's also a very pretty PageHabit book mark. It's kind of a cream color with water colored flowers and greenery on it. One side has the PageHabit logo and some flowers while the other has a quote from Jane Smiley which says, "Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book". It's a great addition to the rest of my bookmark collection.

The last thing before the book is the short story that is included with every box which this month is called The Appointment by Kelcie Des Jardins. I've never heard of it or the author but it's very short so I'll read it quickly enough. It's got a nice understated cover.

Finally all that's left is the book and the author letter. This month's book is The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. It's a YA contemporary novel about a girl named Xiomara Batista in Harlem who feels unheard although she has a lot to say and ends up pouring herself into a notebook. Then she's invited to join her school's slam poetry club and finds a way to give her feelings words. It sounds really awesome and it's written in a very poetic prose style. I'm already looking forward to reading it, even though I haven't heard of this book before.

Like I  said each book has  letter from the author and is annotated by handwritten sticky notes through out the book:

Here's the cover of the dust jacket without the sticky note. I think it's a beautiful book. I'm not really a huge fan of books that have people on them but I really do like this cover, I think it's very artistic:

The naked hardcover is just white with black lettering on the spine, very simple and clean and nice:

Like I said the whole book is written in a poetic prose style. Which is pretty cool. It reminds me of the book Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse about the Great Depression which is also written in free verse. I loved that book as a preteen and I'm hoping to love this one just as much.

So that was the March PageHabit. For something about the same price as OwlCrate I feel that PageHabit has less things in it but I really like the annotations in the book as well as the fact that some of the proceeds get donated to support literacy efforts so I'm going to continue getting PageHabit for a while. I might add on some of the romance books eventually for my mother, maybe some other genres from time to time as well.
Happy Reading!
Emma and Richelle
(and Luka, the husky who makes an appearance in the background of the photo of the open box)