Monthly Recap - November 2012

I reviewed 13 books during the November month of 2012. Links to those reviews are below:

• Monstrous Maud: Big Fright by A. B. Saddlewick
• Belle & Boo and the Birthday Surprise by Mandy Sutcliffe
• Humphrey's Farm Adventure by Sally Hunter
• The World in Infographics: Planet Earth by Jon Richards and Ed Simkins
• Grimm Tales for Young and Old by Philip Pullman
• Monstrous Maud: Freaky Sleepover by A. B. Saddlewick
• This is Life by Dan Rhodes
• The Improbable Party on Purple Plum Lane by Margaret J. McMaster
• The Little Mermaid, Book and CD by Disney
• Struck by Jennifer Bosworth
• Kate Winslet reads You're a Bad Man Mr Gum!
• Secret Kingdom: Christmas Castle by Rosie Banks
• Pull Yourself Together by Thomas Glavinic

And here is what I have on my "to-read" list:

Pull Yourself Together by Thomas Glavinic

This book pretty much takes you inside lead character Charlie's head, as he meanders through his life as an overweight, newly-bespectacled, music-humming Austrian student-cum-taxi-driver, who is 87% wimp.

The humour is here. Charlie reminded me of Adrian Mole in parts with some of his wry observations about life as he muses about things. However Charlie's thoughts are more adult as he spends a lot of his time fantasising about the (normally unattainable) women around him (you can see him on the cover chasing a woman). That is until he starts inadvertently killing people which does make his thoughts change to other, more important things.

The narrative is split up a bit with little "note to self" reminders that Charlie puts there if he thinks he has discovered an important tip picked up from his latest deed or thought process or lifestyle magazine. These don't get in the way of the story though. Rather they are there to add another bit of humour.

Then at the very end he has a bit of good fortune to end the book.

Overall then, if you want a book providing an amusing, introverted look at life from a young man's point-of-view then get this.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

Secret Kingdom: Christmas Castle by Rosie Banks

If you are familiar with the Secret Kingdom books then you'll know what to expect here. As usual all the things that little girls love are shoe-horned into here - friends, fairies, cute talking animals and plenty of magic. My daughter particularly liked Trixie the Pixie's magic ring. And also included this time on top of that are all the things that girls love about Christmas - food, presents, sparkly tinsel...

Unlike the other books this one is split into two. The first half concerns Christmas Eve and the three girls (Jasmine, Summer and Ellie) go to a new place in Secret Kingdom called Christmas Castle that they've never seen before. The reason they've never seen it before is because it is only there at Christmas time, but at Christmas time all the Secret Kingdom residents celebrate there. However Queen Malice seals up the Castle so that they won't be celebrating after all. It is up to the three girls to save the day again.

Then the second half is a story about Christmas day itself. The girls return to Secret Kingdom but disaster has struck because Queen Malice has interfered again and now Santa has gone missing.

Overall I didn't think this book was as good as the other Secret Kingdom book we read, Enchanted Palace, particularly the first of the two stories, but little girls will still love it.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

Kate Winslet reads You're a Bad Man Mr Gum!

This is a review for the audio CD of "You're a Bad Man, Mr Gum." The story is split over two CDs with running time of 1hr15.

My nearly-6-year-old daughter has been listening to this and she loves it. She says it is very funny, and indeed the parts I have listened to of it back this up, and Kate Winslet does a good job of bringing this out (haven't heard the ones by the author himself so can't compare, and again have only heard parts of this CD).

My daughter likes the bits featuring Mrs Lovely, a character who is always lovely even to bad people like Mr Gum. The fact that the characters stick with her means the author must be doing something right. Have a couple of other audio books in the series which hopefully go down as well as this one.

(I got this audio book through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

The end of the world is coming and Mia Price is involved. She knows not how though.

This book picks up Mia's life from after a devastating earthquake that has hit LA. Another devastating event (the end of the world?) is also on the horizon. And everyone wants a bit of Mia. She has great power coming from being struck by lightning several times. The seekers are after her, as are the followers of a prophet, as is a handsome young devil called Jeremy to provide the love interest. She is oblivious to her power and role to play.

Bit by bit the picture unfolds as Mia discovers what is going on and how she can stop the end of the world. The novel builds and the storm comes to end the novel. But will the world be saved?

A striking novel (if you forgive the pun) with a plot that builds and builds. Well worth reading.

(I go this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

The Little Mermaid, Book and CD by Disney

My daughter said this book and CD was great. I asked why and she said it was because she loves the story.

If you've seen the film then you know what to expect here. I let my nearly 6-year-old daughter listen to the CD whilst reading the book. The CD runs for just under 15-minutes. This is one track that contains all the story and has chimes ringing for when the page in the book needs to be turned.

And the voices of the characters are like the ones in the film. The only bit that didn't work well was that Prince Eric falls in love with Ariel's singing in the story, but the actual singing is missing from the CD.

The book is well laid out with nice full page pictures running throughout.

The CD itself fits into the front cover of the book with a plastic covering holding it in, and the book is hardcover too. This means it isn't as flimsy as some other books that come with CDs where the CD holder gets ripped out by little hands.

Most of all I think this book is ideal for girls who are familiar with the Little Mermaid film and are learning to read, so that they can give their parents some quiet time as they go off somewhere to listen to the CD and read the book.

Might have to get some of the other ones in the series too.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

The Improbable Party on Purple Plum Lane by Margaret J. McMaster

This is a short book that I won in a Goodreads First Reads contest. I read it with my nearly-6-year-old over a couple of bedtimes. 

The opening line is a bit corny: “On a dark and stormy night…". After that you are straight into the story though which gets going immediately, not even introducing the characters, so there is an assumption you've read the previous books in the series. However given it is a short book you’d expect it to get on with things quickly like that anyway and you can pick up pretty soon who is who, like that Petey is a parrot for example. This is also helped by the occasional full colour picture which shows the characters to which the text relates.

The story is about Stewart, the narrator, going to Mrs. Chairbottom’s house for a supposed Halloween party. And it is, in a certain sense.

The book is a little American with words like mom and cellphone, and is in the present tense, but my daughter enjoyed it. The way the book is written is good because it creates suspense with plenty of “dun, dun, dunnnnn” moments that my daughter could easily recognise, especially in the first-half. The book is short and is probably best for children just getting into reading a little bit longer books, but not too long.

This book is listed on Amazon UK HERE.

This is Life by Dan Rhodes

This novel is set in Paris and follows lead character Aurélie who is a student doing an art project. She decides to throw a stone in a public place to hit a random person to spend a week with for her art project - it hits a baby. After a bit of explaining herself remarkably she is given the baby to look after for a whole unsupervised week. And the book follows that week where her world changes, as does that of the characters around her.

Also at this time an artist is in town presenting his remarkable work of art "Life".

So that is the plot but what the book really is about the characters, and the romance. The characters are well-formed. Some traits may be there for comic affect but that is fine by me. The book is pretty light-hearted throughout bar one moment with a gun. And there is a fair amount of romance in the novel too.

Thoroughly recommended.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed HERE.)

Monstrous Maud: Freaky Sleepover by A. B. Saddlewick

This is another of the Monstrous Maud books. It starts with a recap of the situation so having not read any of the preceding books in the series will be fine. Only after this does the story begin – a romp about Maud and her twin sister Milly having a sleepover with their schoolmates over the same night. Only thing is Maud’s school is exclusively for monsters (well, apart from her of course). Add into the mix the fact that Maud is looking after her school janitor’s pet, a hamster – or a vampster as she is soon to find out once it starts to cause havoc before escaping leading Maud and her friends on a frantic rescue mission that takes up most of the book - and you get a freaky sleepover indeed.

I read this book to my nearly-6-year-old and she listened intently. She liked it, particularly the way the innocent looking hamster changed into a vampster with its eyes changing colour and its wings popping out.

Overall a fast-paced and enjoyable book.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

Grimm Tales: For Young and Old by Philip Pullman

Who'd have thought I'd be reading fairy tales as an adult.

Here Philip Pullman has re-written 50 Grimm Tales. He has written an interesting introduction detailing how the traditional fairy tale differs from novel telling. Also after he has told each tale he writes a little bit of analysis to accompany it. Some tales will be familiar (at least in part), e.g. Rapunzel and Cinderella, whilst others will be less so. There are recurring themes, e.g. evil women, whether they be stepmothers or witches; the main character being an ex-soldier, or a miller, or a poor person, or a guy called Hans; princesses and kings wanting to marry pretty young things, and so on.

Some of the tales are quite gruesome with gallows, deaths, incest all being present. Therefore I don't know if every tale in here is suitable for young as suggested in the "young and old" bit in the title.

Also I can't really judge how this compares to other collections of the Brothers Grimm stories, or fairy tales in general, but as a standalone it is perfectly good and I enjoyed reading it.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

The World in Infographics: Planet Earth by Jon Richards and Ed Simkins

This book is short. It contains a few pictures in it (or infographics if you want to spice up your product) covering the following:

• Inside the Earth
• On the move (about plates)
• Restless Earth (about earthquakes)
• The Rock Cycle (about rocks and not the Rolling Stones, or at least not the musical one)
• Violent Volcanoes
• Towering Peaks (about mountains)
• Habitats
• The Air we Breathe
• Water Cycle
• Water World
• The Oceans
• Raging Rivers
• Changing Earth (about climate change)

I went through it with my daughter in a couple of minutes. She was interested in talking about where countries are in the world which this book doesn’t cover at all so I just had to point to where they roughly were. 

We weren’t impressed by the fancy (computer-generated?) images in here. They look like the sort of stuff you might find on interactive websites (like the ones mentioned under websites near the end). There they’d hold the interest a bit more as you clicked through them going to where your interests took you, and seeing things happening as you do (e.g. tectonic plates coming together). Here, you flick through the book, if anything catches your eye you may read it in a second or two, but if not then it’s to the next page and suddenly you reach the end of the book.

If you want info with pictures in book-form then go for a pictorial encyclopedia. Alternatively use Wikipedia.

(I got this book to review through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

Humphrey's Farm Adventure by Sally Hunter

This book is not the best in my eyes. It is a picture book but the pictures are muted. Maybe if they had bold, black outlines they'd stand out a bit, but as they are they are a little wishy-washy. 

The story is not much either. Basically Humphrey goes to a farm with another elephant, Tilly, and feeds the animals. Then he washes his hands. And that is the story. All a bit babyish I think. If you want to hold a child's attention then you need to do more than that. So I think this book is aimed at kids who are just learning to speak, or get to know farm animals. But I don't see it being read multiple times before they get bored.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

Belle & Boo and the Birthday Surprise by Mandy Sutcliffe

This is a 32-page picture book yet across those 32 pages the author is able to express so much. She is able to bring across how the two title characters love each other very much.

The story is good too. Belle is preparing a birthday surprise for a surprise birthday recipient. She gets Boo to help and they help each other to make cards and cake and all that jazz, before Boo starts floating away thanks to a birthday balloon. Belle then reveals that the surprise was that it was Boo's birthday as she tries to rescue him as he floats up high.

The pictures are good too with nice clean lines and the girl and rabbit drawn to look realistic, and the pictures being set up nicely from an artistic point of view. 

So for a picture book it is worth checking out, and maybe some of the other books in the series too if they meet the same high standards of this one.

(I got this book for free to review through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

Monstrous Maud: Big Fright by A. B. Saddlewick

I read this book to my nearly-6-year-old daughter over several nights. The story starts with Maud Montague getting in trouble at school because of her pet rat Quentin. This leads to her being transferred to Rotwood, a school located deep in a forest. She arrives there and finds that it is a school for monsters, but rather than being scared she loves it. Unfortunately her teacher has worked out that she is a human (and not a monster as Maud has told everyone, a monster of the “tutu” variety she says when asked to reveal the type of monster she is) and he wants her to leave the strictly monster-only school. However he agrees she can stay if she gives him a fright before the end of the week.

This leads to Maud doing various things to try and scare him.

My daughter liked this book. There were funny bits, like Maud’s failed attempts to scare her teacher, and the way she called her monster-type a “tutu”. There were suspenseful bits too, like how the revered head of Rotwood was mentioned throughout the book, and then Maud was summoned and the head was finally revealed.

My own gripe with the book was that the first couple of introductory chapters at the old school were not as interesting as the rest of the book. Once Maud started attending the Rotwood the story took off. 

We’ll be reading another of the Monstrous Maud books shortly.

(I got this book for free to review through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

Monthly Recap - October 2012

I reviewed 16 books during October 2012. Reviews are below:

• The Prankster by James Polster
• Wanted: The Perfect Pet by Fiona Roberton
• The Stick Man Activity Book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
• A is for Angelica by Iain Broome
• 365 Stories for Girls by Disney
• Enchanted Palace (Secret Kingdom) by Rosie Banks
• Fool by Frederick G. Dillen
• Animal Counting by Petr Horacek
• Muddle and Win by John Dickinson
• Play Jokes with Cheeky Monkey
• My Big Photo Book by Pascale Estellon
• What in God's Name by Simon Rich
• Ellie's Magic Wish by Alice King and Kate Daubney
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Book and CD by Disney
• The Highway Rat by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
• Caroline: A Mystery by Cornelius Medvei

And here is what I have on my "to-read" list: