My list of favourite middle-grade books was the most difficult one to make! Until the second I hit 'Publish', I kept changing my mind about which books to include. I almost made this top fifteen - it is my blog after all, no one is dictating how many I should have here ... But I restricted myself. And yes, there are at least five more that I want to put here but didn't. The Girl Who Walked on Air The Girl Who Walked on Air is the perfect combination of adventure, suspense and drama. Louie dreams of becoming the showstopper of the circus, but for some reason, Mr Chipchase never gives her the chance to demonstrate her talent. On the day he does, everything changes, and Louie must demonstrate her courage in more ways than one. From the details of a Victorian circus to the high drama of performance, I enjoyed everything about this book! Charmed Life (Chrestomanci … [Read more...]
Top Ten: Books for Young Readers in 2018
I know that 'books for young readers' is a very vague title, but these aren't all chapter books, though the age-group for all the books on the list is similar. I also don't read as many chapter books as I do other children's books, but as I was making this list, I realised that I probably should read more because I've enjoyed each and every one of these! The Last Tiger (Mark Greenwood) A work of non-fiction, The Last Tiger is exactly the kind of book I would have loved to read age eight. Even as a child, I was fascinated by the wild world, and aghast at what humans were doing to it. The Last Tiger is the perfect mixture of seriousness and hope, bringing home to me that nature is in danger, but all is not lost yet.Read a more detailed review here. Tilly and the Time Machine (Adrian Edmondson) I would imagine that writing a fresh story about a time machine is incredibly … [Read more...]
Top Ten: Picture Books in 2018
It's when I make lists like this that I realise how many books I read each year. It makes me deeply conscious of how privileged I am to be able to devote so much time each year to reading. Year after year, I read more books. More often than not, I don't buy them - it's impossible to buy every book I want to read - but libraries, online platforms like StoryWeaver, Kindle Unlimited ... These are a great source of stories. Many of these stories were not published in 2018; they're just books I read last year. It was difficult to make this list, but here goes, in no particular order ... Lion Goes for a Haircut Author: Swati ShomeIllustrator: Sayan Mukherjee When a lion walks into a salon for a haircut, what happens? Here's a story that shows you why lions don't go for haircuts! I enjoyed it tremendously. Ammachi's Amazing Machines Author and illustrator: Rajiv Eipe This … [Read more...]
Invisible People
How does one begin to write about a book as powerful as Invisible People? Stories of hope and courage - that's what the cover promises, yet I did not expect to be moved as much as I was. I knew I would come across extraordinary stories because I have faith in the fact that there are extraordinary people in this world. But Invisible People? Each story moved me so much that I had to look away, swallow a gulp in my throat, and just feel all those thousands of emotions that make me human, before I could read on. In the preface, author Harsh Mander says that none of the stories in the book is fictionalised. At most, names have been changed to preserve confidentiality; other than that, the stories are true to reality. And every one of these stories shows us one thing: that when human beings are at their cruellest and most brutal, there emerge other human beings who redefine what … [Read more...]
Carthick’s Unfairy Tales
Have you ever thought of Cinderella from the point of view of the mouse? No, not one of the sweet singing mice in Disney's version. Instead, from the point of view of a hapless mouse who becomes a steed for one night. What happens to the mouse after Cinderella gets her 'happily ever after'? Does the mouse get its own happily ever after? Carthick's Unfairy Tales had me chuckling more than once. Full of wit, with surprises lurking at every corner, each story was thoroughly enjoyable. Yes, I did get annoyed in places because of Indianisms that, for me, jarred with the retelling of European fairy tales. Even so, the book was so much fun that I kept reading, curious to know what would happen next and what new turn a well-known story would take. From "Goldilocks" to "Jack and the Beanstalk", Carthick twists seven familiar tales into new stories that resonate with anyone who has … [Read more...]
Tilly and the Time Machine
Just thinking about Tilly and the Time Machine makes me chuckle, even though I finished reading it a couple of days ago. It's been a while since I read such a lovely book written for seven-year-olds. Tilly's father is a scientist who works for the government. Unfortunately, it seems as if his work is below expectations, so they have to let him go. The way Tilly sees it, letting him go seems to be a good thing. He has more time at home, he doesn't have to go to work, and Tilly can do lots of fun stuff with him (like jumping out of her window for him to catch her) - particularly important because Tilly's mother died not so long ago. When Tilly's father invents a time machine, of course Tilly knows how far back she wants to go. Sure, she is supposed to be presenting the Victorian age in her school project, but the Victorian age pales in comparison with what Tilly has in mind. … [Read more...]
The Peculiars
Kieran is one of only two male Reception class teachers on the Isle of Wight.His days mainly consist of singing nursery rhymes, tying shoelaces, trying to locate who has had an ‘accident’ by sense of smell alone, and vast, endless mountains of paperwork. Author profile on Goodreads Aren't you interested already? Writing good author bios is an art. I remember the first one I had to write. I spent a day agonising over it and then asked my father to do it. He was much amused - I never ask for writing help - and he did it in three minutes. The Peculiars intrigued me for many reasons. The cover, of course, is lovely. Secondly, I do like Chicken House as a publisher. I like the fact that at the back of the book, they tell you which page to read to give the book a try. (I never do it, but I like the idea anyway.) And I love the three words they choose to describe the book. Hot Key books … [Read more...]
Paradise End
Especially when I'm struggling with my writing, I find myself wondering all kinds of things. What makes a good book? What keeps me reading? When do I roll my eyes at melodrama, and when do I have to swallow a gulp in my throat? Where are all these boundaries? Also, I'm a picky reader. I used to beat myself up about not finishing books, but I think somewhere along the line as a literature student, I realised that it was impossible for me to read everything I wanted to read. There were books I actually enjoyed but could not finish. Middlemarch comes to mind, but there were many others. When I started reading Paradise End by Elizabeth Laird, I was overly critical. There were parts where I got thoroughly annoyed with the protagonist Carly, but then, I warmed to her and to her story. And I realised yet again that for me, the greatest stories are stories of … [Read more...]
History Mysteries: The Last Tiger
The Last Tiger broke my heart. The thylacine - what a wonderful, curious animal. A pouched dog with a wolf's face. A dog with stripes. The Tasmanian tiger. At the Asian Festival of Children's Content last month, I attended a talk by the history hunter, Mark Greenwood. It was a talk that filled me up. His storytelling brought me so close to tears that I ended up impulsively buying a book of his. (I would have liked to buy them all, but my pocket didn't permit it.) Despite all the emotion that prompted me to buy his book, I somehow didn't end up reading The Last Tiger until yesterday. Perhaps that was to eke out the feeling of a special kind of storytelling, but also, perhaps I was frightened of being disappointed. I was not: I loved The Last Tiger. When I was about ten years old, I read an entire Childcraft encyclopedia, Nature in … [Read more...]
Boy 87
Boy 87 came frighteningly close to becoming too much for me as a reader. As I read on, there was one stage where I was filled with a sickening sense of dread. I remembered Chalkline, which I could not finish reading because it was so well told that the story was overwhelmingly traumatic for me - more than I could take. And then I also remembered The Bone Sparrow, a wonderful tale of war and hope. Boy 87 fits somewhere between the two. At the stage when I was not sure if I could read on, I quickly skimmed through a few of the concluding pages. Was Shif going to be betrayed? Was something terrible going to happen? I never do this. But the dread was so sickening that I knew I would not be able to read it if things grew more traumatic. Boy 87 is about 14-year-old Shif, who is put into prison - not for something he does but for something he is going to do. … [Read more...]
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