Patrick Ness

My Most Anticipated Book Adaptation of 2016

/ zackids / 1 Comment

Book adaptations can be pretty hit and miss, so when a movie is made of one of your favourite books it’s always a difficult decision whether or not to see it.  The movie of Patrick Ness’ A Monster Calls is being released later this year and the first full trailer for the movie has just been released.  It looks absolutely amazing!  It looks like it will be true to the book and have the same tone.  Patrick Ness actually wrote the screenplay so that should help with the authenticity of the movie.  If you haven’t read the book I highly recommend it, but then I’m a huge Patrick Ness fan so I may be biased.

A Monster Calls is my most anticipated book adaptation of 2016.  I got all choked up watching the trailer so I will probably need to take tissues.

Check out the full trailer below:

A Monster Calls Movie Trailer

/ zackids / Leave a comment

I am so excited to be able to share the teaser trailer for the movie of A Monster Calls.  The movie is based on the book written by Patrick Ness, which came from an idea by Siobhan Dowd.  I absolutely love this book and the trailer certainly looks amazing.  Liam Neeson seems to be perfect for the voice of the monster.

A Monster Calls is due for release next October.  It can’t come soon enough!

 

Win a copy of The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

/ zackids / 1 Comment

Patrick Ness’ latest book, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, is beautiful, funny and moving.  It’s definitely one of my favourite books of 2015 and one that will stick with me for a long time.  Patrick Ness just seems to be getting better and better.  You can read my review of The Rest of Us Just Liver Here on the blog.

Thanks to everyone who entered!  The winners are Helen, Lynley, Stephanie, Margaret and Aimee. Happy reading 🙂

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

/ zackids / Leave a comment

So many young adult novels are about ‘the chosen ones,’ those teens who are special and they’re going to change their world for the better.  What if you’re not ‘the chosen one’ though? What if you just have to live your life when everything around you is falling apart?  Patrick Ness asks this question in his latest book, The Rest of Us Just Live Here.  Patrick Ness is my favourite author and I know to expect something different (and amazing) every time he writes a new book.  He’s one of those authors who always tries something new.  As soon as I started reading The Rest of Us Just Live Here I knew I had a very special book in my hands.

What if you weren’t the Chosen One? The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death? What if you were like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again. Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life. Even if your best friend might just be the God of mountain lions.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here blew me away!  It is an incredibly beautiful, funny and moving novel.  The premise of this book, that not everyone is the chosen one, works so well.  There are two parallel stories happening – the story of the Indie kids and their battle with the Court of the Immortals (which plays out in the chapter headings), and the story of Mikey and his friends who aren’t the chosen ones.  Mikey, his sister Mel, and his friends just want to go to the prom and graduate without their school being blown up again.  All of the strange events that happen in their town seem to involve the Indie kids, who have names like Finn, Satchel and Kerouac. Their town has seen soul-sucking ghosts and vampires (amongst other ‘beings’) but the ordinary kids like Mikey and Jared are never part of that story.  They just want to live their lives the best way they can.  I love how we, as readers, know what is going on with the Indie kids and their battle with the Court of the Immortals, but Mikey and his friends and family don’t have a clue.  It’s very clever storytelling!

I love the characters in The Rest of Us Just Live Here.  They all have their own problems or are ‘messed-up’ in some way.  Mikey has anxiety issues that come and go.  When he gets especially anxious he gets himself stuck in loops, where he has to count things or wash his hands over and over again.  His friends are all going their separate ways after high school and he worries that he’ll get stuck in a loop and not be able to get out of it. Mikey’s sister, Mel, starved herself to death with anorexia and died for 3-4 minutes.  She’s on an eating plan but Mikey still worries about her.  Mikey’s friend, Jared, has problems of a different nature.  Jared is a god of cats so he has cats (both small and large) following him and a special gift that he uses to help his friends.  Even though they’re slightly messed-up they still count themselves lucky that they’re not one of the Indie kids.  This is a book that makes you feel that it’s OK just to be you, no matter how messed-up you are.  I love the way that the story ends and the decision that Mikey finally makes.

One of my favourite quotes in the book not only sums up the story perfectly, but also catpures teenage life:

‘Not everyone has to be the Chosen One.  Not everyone has to be the guy who saves the world.  Most people just have to live their lives the best they can, doing the things that are great for them, having great friends, trying to make their lives better, loving people properly.  All the while knowing that the world makes no sense but trying to find a way to be happy anyway.’

Patrick Ness is an author that can’t do anything wrong in my eyes.  I’m constantly amazed by his incredible writing and I can’t wait to read what he writes next.  Drop everything and read this amazing book!

My Most Anticipated September Kids & YA New Releases from Walker Books Australia

/ zackids / 1 Comment

Stray by Rachael Craw

It’s hard to remember hating anything as much as I hate Affinity; a bone-deep loathing for the faceless unknown and the concrete walls of my own DNA. Evie is a Shield: designed to kill in order to protect, and the Affinity Project have finally come for her. But Evie isn’t ready for the sinister organisation to take control of her life, her body, her mind. She isn’t ready to follow their rules about who may live and who must die – not when it condemns the innocent. She has one option: risk losing everything and everyone – including Jamie – and run.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

Award-winning writer Patrick Ness’s bold and irreverent novel powerfully asks what if you weren’t the Chosen One? The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death? What if you were like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again. Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life. Even if your best friend might just be the God of mountain lions…

A Great Big Cuddle: Poems for the Very Young by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Chris Riddell

The poems in A Great Big Cuddle fizz off the page with sound and rhythm, energy and laughter, as Rosen captures in the most remarkable way what it means to be very, very young. A child’s world with all its details and feelings – toys and games,
animals and made-up creatures, likes and dislikes – is vividly conjured up in the most memorable, playful language, and Chris Riddell has produced some his most extraordinary pictures ever to bring this world to life. It’s a book that will be enjoyed
by the oldest grown-up and the youngest child – and a future classic.

I Can’t Wait For…The Rest of Us Just Live Here

/ zackids / Leave a comment

Patrick Ness is my favourite author.  Every time he publishes a new book I rush out and get it and try to find a quiet place to sit to enjoy it.  I fell in love with his writing when I first read The Knife of Never Letting Go and then devoured the rest of the series.  The thing I love the most about Patrick Ness’ writing is that he isn’t afraid to push boundaries and try something new.  His latest book, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, promises to be another highly original and memorable story.  I can’t wait to read it!  The only problem with reading it is that I then have to wait another year or so to read another new Patrick Ness book.  Oh the dilemma!

Check out the blurb and cover for The Rest of Us Just Live Here below:

Award-winning writer Patrick Ness’s bold and irreverent novel powerfully asks what if you weren’t the Chosen One? The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death? What if you were like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again. Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life. Even if your best friend might just be the God of mountain lions.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here is released on August 27 by Walker Books Australia.

More Than This by Patrick Ness

/ zackids / Leave a comment

If you’re a regular reader of my blog you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of Patrick Ness.  He’s one of my favourite authors and I love everything he writes, whether it’s for adults or teens.  It’s been a particularly good year for fans of Patrick this year, as he’s published two books, one for adults, called The Crane Wife and a Young Adult book called More Than This.  The thought of a new Patrick Ness book always gets me excited, because I never know quite what to expect.  When Patrick revealed the details about More Than This, he gave just enough to whet reader’s appetites but left you with a huge sense of mystery.  When I picked up my copy of the book, Patrick hooked me in straight away and it haunted me right until the end.

A boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America. But the neighborhood around his old house is overgrown, covered in dust, and completely abandoned. What s going on? And why is it that whenever he closes his eyes, he falls prey to vivid, agonising memories that seem more real than the world around him? Seth begins a search for answers, hoping that he might not be alone, that this might not be the hell he fears it to be, that there might be more than just this.

More Than This is a tense, suspense-filled read that haunts you, so that every waking minute you are thinking about the story and trying to figure out what’s happening.  It’s one of those stories that is very difficult to explain to people without ruining the story for everyone.  I haven’t felt so obsessed with a book in a long time, wanting to just loose myself in the story and help Seth reveal the mystery of the world in which he finds himself.  Just when you think you’ve figured out what’s happening, the story takes a completely different turn.

Patrick Ness is brilliant at creating suspense (fans of his Chaos Walking Trilogy are familiar with this) and there are plenty of cliff-hangar endings in More Than This. There were so many times that I finished a chapter and had to immediately go onto the next to find out what happened.  I’m sure there were times when my colleagues wondered where I had disappeared to.  There were a couple of times where I cursed Patrick Ness out loud.  He really knows how to keep you addicted to a story!

Like his other books, Patrick has created very real characters who you feel for and are rooting for.  You follow Seth’s journey to find out what has happened to him, while at the same time, putting together the pieces of his life and discovering what led him here in the first place.

One of my favourite things about More Than This is the ending, which leaves the story open, but left me totally satisfied.

I can’t recommend Patrick Ness’ books highly enough and More Than This is one of his best.  He just keeps getting better and better.  Grab a copy of More Than This now. You won’t regret it!

Patrick Ness talks about More Than This

/ zackids / Leave a comment

A boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America. But the neighborhood around his old house is overgrown, covered in dust, and completely abandoned. What s going on? And why is it that whenever he closes his eyes, he falls prey to vivid, agonising memories that seem more real than the world around him? Seth begins a search for answers, hoping that he might not be alone, that this might not be the hell he fears it to be, that there might be more than just this…

More Than This is one of my most anticipated books of the year.  Look all of Patrick Ness’s books it sounds amazing.  September can’t come soon enough!

More Than This is released in Australia and NZ in September, from Walker Books.

Patrick Ness takes us back to New World

/ zackids / 1 Comment

If you’re a huge fan of Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking Trilogy like me I’m sure you didn’t want to leave New World behind at the end of Monsters of Men.  Chaos Walking is one of those series that has really stuck with me and I often want to reread it right from the start.  A few years ago Patrick gave his readers a gift when he released his free short story, The New World, about Viola coming to New World.  I loved this story because it gave us a snapshot of Viola’s life before all hell broke loose in The Knife of Never Letting Go.

Walker Books have just re-issued the Chaos Walking Trilogy with very cool new jackets (and they look great beside the originals I have to say).  Not only do they have new covers, they also each contain a new short story, set in New World.  In the new edition of The Ask and the Answer you can read The Wide, Wide Sea, which takes place just before the first Spackle War and stars Mistress Coyle.  It focuses on the relationship between a human and a Spackle in the sea-side settlement of Horizon.  In the new edition of Monsters of Men you can read Snowscape (my favourite of the three), which takes place after the events of the trilogy.

I loved each of these stories!  They’re like the special features on a DVD – you get extra insights into the world of the stories and you get to return to your favourite (or most hated) characters.  Patrick says that he sees the stories as treats, ‘If  you  made  it  all  the  way  through  the  trilogy,  here’s  some  hopefully  fun  rewards.’ Well I certainly feel like Christmas has come early.  If you’re a fan of the series you have to read them.

The really awesome thing is that you don’t even have to buy copies of the new editions to read the stories.  You can read all of them for FREE at www.chaoswalkingstories.com.au, where you can also enter to win signed Chaos Walking goodies.

Don’t forget – enter my competition to win a signed copy of the new edition of The Knife of Never Letting Go or The Ask and the Answer.