books

100 Things by Masayuki Sebe – a counting book with a difference

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100 Things by Masayuki Sebe is a counting book crossed with a look-and-find book.  On each page there are 100 things (as the title suggests), including 100 moles, 100 sheep, 100 fish and 100 cars.  Not only can you count the things on each page, but you can find all the things that are the same colour (how many green fish?), find the odd one out (where is the child wearing the hat?) and find specific things on the page (find the elephant holding a pineapple or the mole who’s farting).

The vibrant colours, the simple, child-like pictures, and the amusing details on each page make 100 Things stand out.  It’s the perfect book to share with children, especially on a cold Winter’s day when you’re stuck inside.

100 Things and Dinosaurs Galore (also by Masayuki Sebe) are published by the wonderful Gecko Press, the home of curiously good books from around the world.

Picture Book Nook: My First Car Was Red by Peter Schossow

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My First Car Was Red is a really unique picture book by German author and illustrator Peter Schossow.  It’s the story of a boy who is given an old, rusty pedal car by his grandfather.  Together, they repair the car and give it a new coat of shiny red paint.  The boy wants to take it out for a spin straight away but his grandfather takes him off to the Driving School to have lessons first.  When he finally gets to go off on his own his little brother wants to join him, and this is the start of a wild ride uphill and downhill, through fields, spooky forests and tunnels, nearly hitting pigs, and being chased by wasps.

The thing that really makes this book unique are the road signs throughout the book.  Each of the signs match up with the story perfectly (a speed bump sign for the bumpy field, a rockfall sign when they reach a cliff) and the story could almost be told without words, just the road signs.

The relationship between the brothers is realistically portrayed.  I especially liked when the little brother offered to kiss his arm better.  The story is perfect for boys (especially 4 and 5 year olds) because of the topic and the way in which the author talks about cars.  Boys will be hooked right from the start where Peter describes all the work they have to do on the car

“First we took the whole thing apart…Then we hammered, sanded, patched and painted.  I chose the colour – shiny red.  We drilled holes and tightened nuts; we greased and oiled and upholstered.”

My First Car Was Red is a story to be read again and again, finding new things in the illustrations each time.

8 out of 10

 

Learn how to speak Dragonese with Cressida Cowell

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Have you ever wanted to learn Dragonese, from Cressida Cowell’s books?  In this video you can learn how to say to following things in Dragonese: ‘Please would you be so kind as to spit out my friend?’ and ‘I don’t like that. It’s revolting, it’s gross, it’s really, really revolting.’  Have a go and impress your friends.

Earwig and the Witch by Diana Wynne Jones

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Diana Wynne Jones is the queen of fantasy.  She was writing the fabulous Chrestomanci series, about orphans, witches and magic long before J. K. Rowling and Harry Potter came along.  She has written lots of books, including the Chrestomanci series and Howl’s Moving Castle.  Earwig and the Witch is the magical book that she wrote before she died earlier this year.

Earwig is a an orphan girl who lives at St Morwald’s Home for Children with her friend Custard.  Earwig is quite happy living here and she says that “anyone who chose me would have to be very unusual.”  She is a pretty unusual child but she seems to be able to make anyone do anything that she wants, like cooking her favourite food or playing hide and seek in the dark.  One day a very strange couple come to the orphanage looking to adopt a child.  The woman has two different coloured eyes and a raggety look to her face, and the man is very tall and looks like he has horns on his head.  They adopt Earwig, but she discovers that the woman is a witch and only wants her as a slave to help her with her spells.  Earwig is trapped in the house and wants nothing more than to go back to the orphanage with her friends.  Will she be able to outwit the witch and escape?  And who or what is the mysterious man with the horns?

Earwig and the Witch is a funny story about a feisty girl trying to fit into her new family.  All the characters are quite strange and I especially liked Thomas the cat.  The cover is very cool and really draws you in, with the spiderwebs and spiders crawling all over it.  Marion Lindsay’s illustrations are spectacularly spooky and I love the little pictures of crows or spiders on each page.  The only thing I didn’t like about this book was that it ended so suddenly.  I would have liked to know more about her life in the house.  Earwig and the Witch is perfect for those girls who don’t like fairies, but who still like a bit of magic.

Recommended for 7+     7 out of 10

Northwood by Brian Falkner

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The best books grip you from the first few sentences and you want to keep reading until you get to the end.  Northwood  by Brian Falkner is one of those books.  Here are the opening sentences:

“This is the strange story of Miss Cecilia Undergarment and the black lions of Northwood.  It is probably not true, but who really knows for sure.”

Straight away, you want to know all about Cecilia Undergarment (like why does she have such a funny name?), why the story is so strange, and what are black lions?  So now you’re sucked into the story and want to find out what happens to Cecilia.

Cecilia Undergarment lives with her extraordinary family in her extraordinary house, which is shaped like a huge bunch of balloons (to find out why you’ll have to read the book).  Wouldn’t it be great to live in a house made of balloons!  One day while looking out her window she sees a sad and neglected dog trying to escape from the house next door.  She rescues the dog, but the dog’s mean owner destroys her home and sends her balloon room floating away, until it lands in the dark forest of  Northwood.  The forest is home to the ferocious black lions and anyone who has entered Northwood has never returned.  Cecilia and the dog, Rocky find refuge in Northwood at Castle Storm, which is ruled by the horrible King Harry.  Cecilia is determined to find a way out of Northwood, but King Harry will do anything to stop the people leaving.

Brian Falkner has created an amazing world.  When I started reading I was transported into the world of Northwood and felt like I was right there with Cecilia on her adventure.  I could picture the dark tarblood trees of the forest and the dusty rooms of Castle Storm, smell the damp forest, and hear the low rumble of the black lions.  Cecilia is a really cool character and someone who you would want to be friends with.   I also really loved Donovan Bixley’s illustrations, especially the way he portrays King Harry, and the cool cover that really stands out.

Recommended for 9+     10 out of 10

Barry Hutchison’s Doc Mortis video blog

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In his latest video blog, Barry Hutchison talks about the release of his latest Invisible Fiends book, Doc Mortis.  He also answers reader’s questions, including one of mine – which of your characters would you least like to be stuck in a lift with?

 

The Bridge by Jane Higgins book trailer

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The Bridge is the brilliant new dystopian thriller by New Zealand author, Jane Higgins.  It is the very deserving winner of the 2010 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing.  I’m currently in the middle of it and don’t want to put it down.  My review will be posted later this week.

In the mean time, here’s the blurb:

The City is divided. The bridges gated. In Southside, the hostiles live in squalor and desperation, waiting for a chance to overrun the residents of Cityside.

Nik is still in high school but destined for a great career with the Internal Security and Intelligence Services, the brains behind the war. But when ISIS comes recruiting, everyone is shocked when he isn’t chosen. There must be an explanation, but no one will talk about it. Then the school is bombed and the hostiles take the bridges. Buildings are burning, kids are dead, and the hostiles have kidnapped Sol. Now ISIS is hunting for Nik.

But Nik is on the run, with Sol’s sister Fyffe and ISIS hot on their trail. They cross the bridge in search of Sol, and Nik finds answers to questions he’d never dared to ask.

Doc Mortis blog tour and short story

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I discovered Barry Hutchison’s Invisible Fiends series earlier this year when I was looking through our new titles in the library.  Children’s horror/ghost stories are one of my favourite genres and Barry has to be one of the best writers in this genre.  The Invisible Fiends series is incredibly original and terrifically scary.  Barry has taken the idea of an invisible friend, something that comforts children, and turned it into something that scares the pants off of me, let alone the children these books are aimed at.

I have no idea how he does it, but each book in the series gets creepier and he amps-up the terror.  First there was Mr Mumbles, then Raggy Maggie,  The Crow Master, and now there is Doc Mortis.  On the Christchurch Kids Blog, Barry described Doc Mortis as “a deranged imaginary friend who hides in an old abandoned hospital and likes to think he’s a surgeon. He kidnaps children and performs operations on them while they are still awake, turning them inside out, giving them the heads of dogs, and much, much worse.”  He’s also said on his own blog that Doc Mortis is the only book to have given him nightmares while writing it, so it’s going to be pretty freaky.  I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.

Barry Hutchison has just started his Doc Mortis blog tour.  Check Barry’s blog to find out where he is and when.  One of the most exciting parts of the blog tour is that he is posting a five-part short story about the origins of Doc Mortis.  The first part can be found at the excellent  Book Zone for Boys blog, and it will send a chill through you.

Flip by Martyn Bedford

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Have you ever wished you were someone else, with a completely different life, a new face, a new family?  In Martyn Bedford’s new book Flip, Alex wakes up to find himself in a strange bedroom in an unfamiliar house, in a different part of the country.  The woman calling out to him is not his mother and the strangers sitting at the breakfast table aren’t his father or his sister.  Alex gets the shock of his life when he looks in the mirror – the face staring back at him is not his either.  Is this just a really bad dream or has something terrifying happened to him?

He discovers that the body he now inhabits is that of Philip Garramond (or Flip to his friends), a boy who is almost the complete opposite of Alex.  Flip is sporty, fit and popular with the girls (something that Alex has never experienced before).  Alex’s initial reaction is to deny that this is actually happening to him, but the more time he spends in Flip’s body the more it seems he’s stuck in this new body.  He attempts to contact his parents and returns to his old home, but he’s in Flip’s body so nobody recognises him and he ends up distressing his old family and friends.  Alex is determined to find answers and trawls the web for information, leaving his details on various blogs and forums.  He finally gets a message from someone called Rob, who leads him to a website about psychic evacuation.  This site provides him with the answers he’s been searching for about his condition, and when he meets Rob in person he starts to come to terms with life as Flip.  However, Alex holds onto the hope that he can return to his own body and he decides there is only one way to do that.  It’s a huge risk and it’s something that he can never undo.

From the very first page, I was swept up in Alex’s story.  Martyn Bedford keeps the reader hanging, wondering whether Alex will accept his new life as Flip or try to get his old life back.  The tension builds right up to the end and the thrilling climax.  Alex is a really interesting and likeable character who I could really empathise with.  I know if it were me in his shoes, I’d be determined to get back to my family and my old life.  I found myself really wanting to take my time reading Flip because there was so much more to the story than Alex wanting to find out what happened.  There is a lot of discussion between Alex and other characters about the nature of the soul/psyche which added to the story, making it have more of an impact on me as a reader.  Flip is an excellent first YA novel by Martyn Bedford and I’ll look forward to reading more by him.

Recommended for 14+      9 out of 10

Check out the amazing book trailer too:

The Devil Walks by Anne Fine

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When I first read about Anne Fine’s new book, The Devil Walks, I knew it would be an amazing book.  Anne Fine described it “as a venture into 19th-century gothic” and it sounded like the kind of dark, creepy story that I’d love.

The Devil Walks is the story of Daniel, who has been hidden away from the world for most of his life by his reclusive, disturbed mother.  However, this changes one day when a stranger takes Daniel from his home.  This stranger, Doctor Marlow, takes Daniel into his home, where he is embraced by his family.   Meanwhile, shocked by her son’s kidnap, Daniel’s mother is taken to an asylum where she hangs herself.   The house where Daniel spent his life is sold, along with everything his mother owned to pay her debts.   Daniel’s only inheritance is the one possession that Daniel takes with him from the house; his mother’s dolls house that is modeled on the house she grew up in, called High Gates.  In the dolls house are a family of dolls, including a stick-thin woman who looks remarkably like his mother.  During one of his games with Dr Marlow’s daughter, Sophie, they discover another doll, hidden in the house.  This doll is two-in-one, at one end a mischievous looking boy, and the other end a man with ‘green eyes that gazed out with a more piercing look and the thin smile had curdled into something sourer.’  The more time they spend with this doll, the more it’s wickedness creeps into their lives.  Just when Daniel is settled into his new life, Dr Marlow tells him he is being sent to live with his only surviving relative, his Uncle Severn at High Gates, the house that was the model for his dolls house.  Daniel is not sure what to make of his uncle – one moment he’s cheerful and the next he is pounding his fists on the table in anger.  As Daniel explores the house and the grounds, he discovers the terrible truth about his family and the sinister dolls house that his uncle will do anything to get his hands on.

The Devil Walks is one of the most spine-tingling books I’ve read in a long time.  Days after finishing the story it’s still stuck in my head and I keep going back over the story in my head.  The story is so dark and mysterious that I was hooked right from the very first page.  Anne Fine’s beautiful writing made me feel like I was right there with Daniel through the whole ordeal, from being hidden away in that dark house, to the labyrinth of rooms at High Gates.  I think the reason I liked the story so much was that it had everything that I love about Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s gothic stories, like Shadow of the Wind and Prince of Mist.   The Devil Walks is definitely one of my highlights of 2011 and I highly recommend it.