It's only when I began writing this post that I noticed that most (six out of seven) of my favourite middle-grade reads from 2023 have blue covers! How odd!I made a conscious effort to read more middle-grade books this year, also because I want to write more middle grade. It's an age-group I enjoy interacting with, and I want more MG literature that moves and changes me, urging me to read on. Here are the books that I read and loved in 2023. An Alien in the Jam Factory I read this wacky book at the end of November 2023, and I loved it so much that it's going to be part of the February 2024 edition of Read, Write, Explore. An Alien in the Jam Factory is a book that I think most children can identify with, even though the protagonist is a genius who meets an alien, a situation that most children cannot identify with. What makes me feel it has … [Read more...]
Hour of the Bees
The six months of the year when my writing programmes are on are almost impossibly busy. Add book launches, travel and literature fests to a busy season, and I've had barely any time to read! But in the midst of it all, I snatched snippets of time to read the gorgeous Hour of the Bees that I was hard put not to sob over at the airport.Carolina (who prefers to be called Carol) has to spend all summer on a ranch in New Mexico, while her friends have sleepovers and get ready for a new year at school. Through the yawning summer months, she must take care of her little brother Lu and her Grandpa Serge, as her parents make arrangements to move her grandfather out of the ranch and to a home for people with dementia. Carol knows she will hate it and makes her friends promise to text her all the time.But soon, she realises she doesn't quite hate it. There's something magnetic about her … [Read more...]