The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly is the debut young adult novel by Stephanie Oakes. It is an amazing book and I absolutely loved it! It’s a powerful, harrowing and haunting story that had me gripped from beginning to end. You can read my review here on the blog.
Thanks to HarperCollins NZ I have 3 copies of The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly to give away.
Thanks to everyone who entered. The winners are Chris K. and Melinda.
Lifespan of Starlight is one of my recent favourite YA books and last week I had the chance to interview the author, Thalia Kalkipsakis. You can read my review of Lifespan of Starlight and my interview with Thalia here on the blog.
Thalia very kindly offered a signed copy of her fantastic book, Lifespan of Starlight, as a prize. To get in the draw all you have to do is email bestfriendsrbooks@gmail.com with ‘Lifespan of Starlight Competition’ in the subject line and your name and address.
Thanks to everyone who entered. The winner is Annie.
Today I’m hosting an interview with the lovely Desna Wallace, author of My New Zealand Story: Canterbury Quake. Desna is a good friend of mine and I was super excited for her when her book was published, and even more so when it was chosen by kids around New Zealand as a 2015 Children’s Choice Award finalist! Canterbury Quake is a fantastic book that perfectly illustrates what it was like for the children who had to cope with the many earthquakes we had here in Canterbury.
Thanks to Booksellers New Zealand I have a copy of Canterbury Quake to give away. To get in the draw all you have to do is leave a comment telling me ‘What is your favourite book that immerses you in a time or place?’ It could be a fantasy story that takes you to another world or a historical story that transports you to another period of history.
Competition closes Monday 20 July (New Zealand only).
Today I’m hosting an interview with Kyle Mewburn to celebrate Dragon Knight: Fire, Kyle and Donovan’s finalist book in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. You can read Kyle’s interview here and Donovan’s interview from last week about Little Red Riding Hood: Not Quite and Dragon Knight: Fire.
Thanks to Booksellers New Zealand I have a copy of Dragon Knight Fire to give away. The main character in the Dragon Knight series is Merek, who is half boy and half dragon. To get in the draw just leave a comment on this post telling me ‘What is your favourite mythical creature?’
Competition closes Thursday 16 July (New Zealand only).
My Best Friends Are Books is part of the blog tour to celebrate the Children’s Choice Award in the 2015 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Tomorrow I’m hosting interviews with Yvonne Morrison and Donovan Bixley here on the blog and you can read my review of their wonderful book, Little Red Riding Hood (Not Quite).
Thanks to everyone who entered the competition. The winner is Chris.
To celebrate Chris Riddell being named the new Children’s Laureate I have a very special giveaway. I have a limited edition copy of Fortunately the Milk signed by both Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell to give away to one lucky reader. I absolutely love this book, both for Neil’s story and Chris’ illustrations!
Thanks to everyone who entered the competition! The winner of the signed book is Laraine.
Clueless detective Timmy Failure is back on the case in his latest book, Now Look What You’ve Done.
He doesn t like to pull rank. To reveal that he s this guy: Timmy Failure, founder, president, and CEO of the greatest detective agency in town, perhaps the nation. But he is. And he s about to crack the biggest case of his generation: a school competition to find a stolen globe. It s his ticket to bringing home a $500 prize, which is guaranteed to set him up for life. But someone is clearly trying to game the system. Hoodwink. Con. Defraud. So it s up to Timmy Failure, with the dubious help of Total, his lazy polar-bear partner, and his unlikely new ally, eccentric Great Aunt Colander, to find a way to avenge these shenanigans. Defeat this injustice. If he can only get his entry form in on time.
If you’re looking for a book full of ‘greatness,’ ‘shenanigans,’ quirky characters and antics that will make you laugh out loud, then Now Look What You’ve Done is the book for you. Timmy’s latest shenanigans have everything I loved about the first book, but even sillier. There’s more Molly Moskins, more Total (Timmy’s 1500 pound polar bear partner), more Corrina Corrina (aka The Wedgie or The Weevil Bun), but there are also hilarious new characters, like Timmy’s Great-Aunt Colander (inventor of the Boom-Boom Shoe Wheel). Stephan’s cartoons are hilarious and add extra humour to the text. I love the way that they capture Timmy’s somewhat strange outlook on the world.
The thing I love the most about the Timmy Failure books is the language that Timmy uses. He sounds like a hard-boiled detective, even when he’s talking to his mum. Kids who read these books will certainly increase their vocabulary.
Timmy Failure: Now Look What You’ve Done is perfect for fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Big Nate. It has been kid-tested and passed with flying colours. I read both of the Timmy Failure books to my 10 year old boys and they absolutely love them. I often hear them quoting things from the books.
Grab a copy from your library or bookshop now.
Think up your best insult, and be in to win a copy of Juliet Jacka’s award-winning Night of the Perigee Moon.
Do you like magical talents, talking cats, dogs and bats? Or how about fantastical feasts, yo-yo masters and entomologists in the making?
Then my book’s for you. Here’s the blurb.
All Tilly Angelica wants for her thirteenth birthday is to be normal! But with her changeover party looming and her mad, magical family gathering from near and far, Tilly is set to inherit a terrifying or tantalising talent of her own. But what if she inherits Hortense’s talent of super-smelling, with an oversize nose to match?
As the enchanted Angelicas gather and Arial Manor becomes a madhouse, Tilly’s troubles are tripled by her creepy cousin Prosper, and his sinister plot to bewitch the family by harnessing the powers of the Perigee Moon.
Halfway through the book, my heroine Tilly has to come up with a hit list of inventive insults. Here are three of her favourite ones.
“You’re an ox, an ass, a slubberdegullion!”
“You belligerent fleck of llama spit.”
“Earth vexing hedge pig.”
Can you come up with something similar? Send me your best one-liners (no rude words, thanks!), and the winner gets a free, signed copy of my book.
Have fun! Get inventive. Then email me at nightofperigeemoon@gmail.com
Juliet
Night of the Perigee Moon, winner of the 2013 Tom Fitzgibbon Award.
“Now – there’s no point in pretending here – I was, and still am deep down, a puppet. Everyone knows Pinocchio is a puppet. I reckon I must be just about the most famous puppet the world has ever known. But the truth is I’m not just a puppet, I’m more than just bits of wood and string. I’m me. So I thought it was about time that I, Pinocchio, told you my story…”
So begins this stunningly beautiful interpretation of the classic story. Michael Morpurgo channels Pinocchio’s words to tell the famous puppet’s story in his own inimitable, cheeky and always funny way.
To celebrate Michael Morpurgo Month I’m giving away 2 copies of Michael Morpurgo’s latest book, his retelling of the classic story, Pinocchio. It’s a beautiful little book, with colour illustrations by Emma Chichester Clark. Even if you’ve read the story of Pinocchio before, you won’t have heard Pinocchio’s story quite like this. Michael Morpurgo has a great way of bringing classic stories alive and retelling them in a way that is unique and entertaining.
Thanks to everyone who entered. The winners are Stephanie and Vicki.
Wearable Wonders is Fifi Colston’s fantastic new book that’s bursting with creativity, tips, tricks and ideas to help you make your own wearable wonder. Fifi has been in Christchurch this week, running workshops for children as part of the TV2 KidsFest, and I got the chance to have a chat with her. I’m a huge fan of Fifi’s books and I grew up watching her on What Now.
Thanks to the wonderful publisher of Wearable Wonders, Scholastic NZ, I have a special signed copy of the book to give away. All you have to do to get in the draw is enter your name and email address in the form below. Competition closes Wednesday 31 July (NZ only).
Thanks to everyone who entered. The winner is Sandra Worthington.
My Best Friends Are Books 