Monthly Recap - September 2012

I reviewed 10 books this month: 

• Ship of Souls by Zetta Ellott 
• Albert of Adelaide by Howard L. Anderson
• The Illicit Happiness of Other People by Manu Joseph
• Disney Princess Storybook Collection
• The Terrible Thing that Happened to Barnaby Brocket by John Boyne
• The Colour of Milk by Nell Leyshon
• Disney Christmas Storybook Collection
• Room on the Broom Sound Book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
• Life! Death! Prizes! by Stephen May
• Power Rangers Storybook Collection

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

Power Rangers Storybook Collection

This book contains storybook versions of 8 of the episodes from the TV series, so there is no new content. The stories are:

• The team unites
• Deal with a Nighlok
• Day off
• I've got a spell on blue
• Jayden's challenge
• Unexpected arrival
• The blue and the gold
• Team spirit

They are laid out in nice glossy pages with big pictures and text. Each story is maybe 10-minutes in length. It is a good supplementary to the TV series. Each tale is basically the same - the Rangers fight a Nighlok, the Nighlok then comes back as a MegaMonster so the Rangers have to go into MegaMode to finish him off. Reading the descriptions of the battles and stuff is not as good as actually seeing them visually on the TV, and is harder to picture too - unless you remember seeing them, but the text does help inform certain elements of the show that may have previously been confusing.

Obviously the main episodes are here, e.g. the gold Ranger arriving. Also I think this book is aimed at boys because the 2 female Rangers don't make the cover whereas all the male Rangers do. But my daughter enjoyed the book nonetheless.

So more Power Rangers than Flower Arrangers overall.

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

Life! Death! Prizes! by Stephen May

"Life! Death! Prizes!" is a reference to those magazines like Take-a-Break that have competitions in them alongside sensationalist stories of life and death, e.g. a normally quiet father killing family with rifles, or in a huge fire or something, because of some debts he'd built up. 

And these are the magazines that the lead character, 19-year-old Billy Smith, enjoys.

The book starts with death, a funeral, and almost ends in death too, which would have been an ultra sad ending to the novel - luckily though the author adds a late twist and there is a happy ending.

The book follows Billy after he has lost his mum who was killed by Aidan Jebb. It is now just him and his 6-year-old brother in a house, on their own and he doesn't cope all that well with the situation all the time. It doesn't help that Aidan Jebb, his mum's killer, seems to be following him about. 

The book also takes satirical looks at the way society is in England, and wider in the world through Billy playing the computer game Empire, but mainly I think this book is about how those "Life! Death! Prizes!" can pollute your mind a little. At least that's what I got out of it.

The novel is a bit quirky, quite interesting and may be worth a look especially if you like society issues.

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

Room on the Broom Sound Book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler previously brought us The Gruffalo amongst other books. If you liked any of those then you'll like this one too.

The story follows a witch as she flies on her broom, but every once in a while she'll drop something and an animal will find it and want to ride on her broom (which has room). Eventually it breaks and she is confronted by a dragon but thanks to her chums she gets out of that sticky situation.

The story of course is told in the trademark rhyme that Donaldson is famous for. And this time there are accompanying sounds to go with the words. The sounds are activated using the large buttons which have been designed so that little fingers can easily press them. So you have a great witch's laugh for the witch sound, and a not so great plop for when they fall into a bog (sounds like something small getting dropped into water when it should have been a much bigger sound of the witch and her passengers falling from a great height into the sticky bog), but most of the sounds are ok, although some are only used once in the story. Of course you can also use the sounds when not reading the story so it adds something extra there I suppose.

With the buttons it does mean the book is a little wide but I think that is fine as it is still relatively light.

I think this is just as good as the other books Julia Donaldson and Alex Sheffler have done together.

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

Disney Christmas (Storybook) Collection

This Disney Storybook Collection contains eight separate stories themed around Christmas. These are:

• Pinocchio: The Perfect Gift
• Lady and the Tramp: Lady's Christmas Surprise
• Bambi: The Wonderful Winter Tree
• Dumbo: The Best Christmas
• WALL-E: A Gift For WALL-E
• Monsters Inc.: Christmas Laughs
• Winnie the Pooh: The Sweetest Christmas
• 101 Dalmatians: The Puppies' First Christmas

Don't know if any of these have appeared in other collections (worth checking if you have any just in case). Here is a brief summary of each of the stories:

Pinocchio's story saw him trying to get the perfect gift for his father, Gepetto. Similarly the second story saw Tramp trying to get the perfect gift for Lady.

Bambi's adventure saw him face his first winter, which was hard, until a special Christmas tree appeared as if by magic.

Dumbo's tale saw him discovering what Chrismas is about when he helped deliver parcels to the New York children.

WALL-E's story was another involving finding the perfect Christmas gift, with EVE attempting to do just that for WALL-E.

The story at Monsters Inc. saw Mike and Sully racing against the clock to try and fill their electricity meters to light the Christmas tree lights in time for the big turning on ceremony.

Pooh's story was another about the giving of gifts and Pooh gets the sweetest gift of all (I wonder what that could have been?).

And the final story featured the 101 Dalmatians and was about how Christmas is about giving.

So overall there were eight stories of about 10 minutes each. The words to picture ratio was weighted a bit too much to the words-side I thought compared to other Disney books, and the stories were geared around giving, but did also cover a lot of other aspects about Christmas too, apart from the Christian part. They did feature a lot of characters so it would definitely be useful seeing all eight films prior to reading the book. But apart from all that it was OK for a few bedtime stories which are suitable to be read any time of year really, not just at Christmas time.

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

The Colour of Milk by Nell Leyshon

The colour of milk is a really good book. It’s narrated by Mary who is quite a character,  and for that reason the book is good. Mary has hair the colour of milk, hence the title of the book. Her voice is that of a working-class farm girl from 1830, and she is also a bit of a blabbermouth never afraid to voice her opinion. She is also new to learning how to read and write which makes the text primitive in style. All these aspects make her voice very endearing to the reader (or at least to this particular reader).

The story covers the four seasons from Spring to Winter of 1830. The year begins with her working from sun up to sun down on the family farm with her three sisters and parents. Then she is sent to work at the local vicarage as a maid/nurse. Her dad gets paid for this so really she has little choice as to her circumstances and she is keen to remind people that when the opportunity arises. And so life goes on until things start going wrong for Mary, and because she is so endearing you have your heart-strings strung by the end, especially the last two pages where she reveals the reason she had to write the book in such an urgency.

Lovely.

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

The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket

This quirky novel is about Barnaby Brocket, a floating boy. His parents are obsessed with being normal so they are most put out when their third child floats. For eight years they look after him until it gets too much and they let him float away once and for all (cruel parents that they are).

Except the story doesn’t end there, in fact it is a beginning of sorts as Barnaby has a round the world adventure where he meets lots of people who were rejected by the parents too. It is a journey of self-discovery, and a story about how being different is fine.

I enjoyed this book which would be ideal for children wanting something fun to read.

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

Disney Princess Storybook Collection

This edition of the Disney Princess Storybook Collection contains six separate Princess stories. These are:

* Belle and the Castle Puppy

* Cinderella and the Lost Mice

* Ariel's Dolphin Adventure

* Aurora and the Diamond Crown

* Rapunzel and the Crown Jewels

* Tiana and the Jewel of the Bayou

Some of these have appeared before in Disney offerings, for example Aurora and the Diamond Crown appears in Princess Bedtime Stories , so if you have some Disney collections already you may want to check that the stories from there haven't been recycled here. For me and my daughters though all the stories here were new. Now for each of the stories in turn:

Belle and the Castle Puppy sees Belle take in a lost puppy who then runs off into the woods. The story contains elements familiar from the Beauty and the Beast film, like the characters, the woods, the wolves that inhabit those woods, Beast being an angry sort of a fellow etc. so seeing the film beforehand may be an advantage. The story then ends with a ballroom dance.

The second story is about Cinderella and again contains characters from the film, and some ballroom dancing. The mice get thrown out of the palace and Cinderella begins to worry about them but all ends well.

Ariel's adventure begins this time with ballroom dancing before heading seaward where Ariel and Prince Eric help a baby dolphin stranded in a lagoon.

Aurora's story sees her turn 17-years-old and she gets a diamond crown as a gift, as long as she can answer three riddles correctly. Afterwards she celebrates with another ball.

Rapunzel's story sees her come to grips with life without her magic hair, and she comes to realise that she is special, even without it. And there is no ballroom dancing in sight.

Then Tiana's adventure ends the book with Naveen getting into trouble in the swamps of the Bayou before being rescued by Tiana before they dance the night away.

So overall six princesses appearing so no Snow White, Jasmine, Mulan or Pocahontas, lots of dancing, lots of beautiful artwork as you'd expect from Disney, but the stories are each no longer than 10-minutes in length so they may be a bit short and simplistic for older children. However for little girls there is everything here to keep them happy.

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

The Illicit Happiness of Other People by Manu Joseph

This book is about a father’s (Ousep’s) search for answers as to why his son, Unni, a keen cartoonist, committed suicide seemingly out of the blue. He questions Unni’s friends finding out bits and pieces but still he can’t decipher it. He continues and more is revealed as key characters reveal the gaps.

At the same time the book is also a story about finding the meaning of life as Unni convinced those around him that there was more to life than met the eye. So it is a very thinking novel. It paints a picture of a life in a busy Indian city in 1990 well, or at least I can imagine this is how Madras (now Chennai) was then. There is a bit halfway through where it seems to drag a little as Ousep’s search for answers doesn’t really go anywhere but then a catalyst comes along and everything comes together nicely at the end.

As for the meaning of life? This is just a work of fiction so don’t expect the answers, but do expect some interesting, and maybe unique, ideas.

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

Albert of Adelaide by Howard L. Anderson

Albert is a platypus who escapes from Adelaide zoo, catches a train and gets off in the mid-Australian desert searching for a land where platypuses roam free. Trouble is things don’t go to plan. Straight away he almost dies in the desert, then he accidently becomes a fugitive and gets into all sorts of trouble stemming from that.

At first the book was alright as it seemed to be a little bit like an Australian Wind in the Willows, except a darker version. But by the end it descended into a confusing plot involving lots of gun-fights, lots of animals being killed, lots of arsons, lots of back-and-forth across the desert from place to place, then back to a place they’d been too and lots more bloodshed than previous.

Also the writing style means that the action scenes aren’t as exciting as they could have been in my eyes.

So it was alright to begin with but got worse.

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

Ship of Souls by Zetta Elliott

This is a fantasy novel set in New York. D is a foster child having lost his mum to cancer, and never knowing his dad. One day he discovers a magic bird that needs him to help her save the lost souls of many dead people who have been prevented from making the final journey on the "ship of souls".

For me I was alright with the beginning of this book which introduced the back-story, D, his friends and his family circumstances, but then the fantasy elements came in and I was a little unconvinced by it all. Maybe that was because the magic bird was such a weak character (in my eyes at least) lacking a clear mission and a clear identity. Also D at the end of the book decides he has nothing to live for which was surprising given the promising life it looked like he had ahead of him, so I was unconvinced by that too.

Perhaps if the book was fleshed out it would have been better, so D's life would have looked worse and the danger parts could have been more suspenseful. As it was those parts were over in an instant. Reading the blurb suggests there is a lot going on but the full story is squashed into not far past 100 pages.

The book was still ok, but could have been better.

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