Once upon a time, a girl named Sophie rode into the forest with the queen’s huntsman. Her lips were the color of ripe cherries, her skin as soft as new-fallen snow, her hair as dark as midnight. When they stopped to rest, the huntsman took out his knife … and took Sophie’s heart. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Sophie had heard the rumors, the whispers. They said she was too kind and foolish to rule — a waste of a princess. A disaster of a future queen. And Sophie believed them. She believed everything she’d heard about herself, the poisonous words people use to keep girls like Sophie…
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The Box and The Dragonfly – Ted Sanders
From the moment Horace F. Andrews sees the sign from the bus – literally a sign with his name on it – everything in his normal little life changes. An encounter with the House of Answers, a magically hidden warehouse full of mysterious objects and even stranger people, only leads to more questions. These people think he’s special – a Keeper of an incredible gift – although scientifically-minded Horace isn’t so sure he really believes in that kind of thing. But then a confrontation with an impossibly tall, thin, creepy and undoubtedly menacing man makes him think twice… Horace must now quickly begin to unravel the mysteries of this hidden…
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“I will not be erased” by gal-dem
Fourteen funny, insightful and inspirational essays from gal-dem, the award-winning magazine and creative collective of young women of colour. gal-dem are an award-winning creative collective of young women of colour, described by the Guardian as “bubbling with energy, ideas and talent”. In this thought-provoking collection of fourteen essays, their writers take raw material from their teenage years – diaries, poems and chat histories – and explore growing up. Straight-talking, funny and insightful, the essays tackle important subjects including race, gender, mental health and activism, making this essential reading for any young person. I would like to start this review by pointing out that I’m not the intended audience of this…
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How Hard Can Love Be? – Holly Bourne
All Amber wants is a little bit of love. Her mum has never been the caring type, even before she moved to California, got remarried and had a personality transplant. But Amber’s hoping that spending the summer with her can change all that. And then there’s prom king Kyle, the guy all the girls want. Can he really be interested in anti-cheerleader Amber? Even with best friends Evie and Lottie’s advice, there’s no escaping the fact: love is hard. After reading The Places I’ve Cried in Public I knew that I needed to get more Holly Bourne books in my life. I’ve had this one sat on my bookshelf for…
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Our favourite places to be – bookshops we love across the UK
As a book lover, I definitely have my favourite bookshops. This is something that I’m passing on to Spike too. She definitely has her favourites too. This blog post though is a little bit of a love letter to one of our favourites which we have recently discovered will be closing. Its a Waterstones so wouldn’t usually appear on many favourite bookshop lists as they are normally indies. But it appears on ours. 1. Storyteller’s Inc, Lytham St Anne’s Our favourite North West indie is definitely Storyteller’s in Lytham St Annes. This bookshop has the best children’s section, complete with its own little den. There are also great adult books,…
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The Polar Bear Explorers’ Club – Alex Bell
It sounded like a respectable and worthy enough death for an explorer – tumbling from an ice bridge to be impaled upon a mammoth tusk – but Stella really, really didn’t want that to happen, just the same. Join Stella Starflake Pearl and her three fellow explorers as they trek across the snowy Icelands and come face-to-face with frost fairies, snow queens, outlaw hideouts, unicorns, pygmy dinosaurs and carnivorous cabbages . . . When Stella and three other junior explorers get separated from their expedition can they cross the frozen wilderness and live to tell the tale? *** What can I say about The Polar Bear Explorers’ Club? Other than…
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My September reading pile
I was doing regular lockdown to be read pile posts but as the end of Lockdown came about, I stopped. This was because I started getting less time to read again. I realised that I missed doing them though so I think I will try and do a regular monthly post about the books on my list. My last To Be Read pile So in June I shared this pile of books with you. I have managed most of them, and extras. I read Carry On because I started Wayward Son and realised I hadn’t finished it… I also read This is Not a Drill by the Extinction Rebellion and…
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Wayward Son – Rainbow Rowell
Simon Snow did everything he was supposed to do. He beat the villain. He won the war. He even fell in love. Now comes the good part, right? Now comes the happily ever after…So why can’t Simon Snow get off the couch?What he needs, according to his best friend, is a change of scenery. He just needs to see himself in a new light…That’s how Simon and Penny and Baz end up in a vintage convertible, tearing across the American West.They find trouble, of course. (Dragons, vampires, skunk-headed things with shotguns.) And they get lost. They get so lost, they start to wonder whether they ever knew where they were…
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F.O.X.E.S by M.A. Bennett Blog Tour
Today on the blog I have a guest post by M.A. Bennett, author of new book F.O.X.E.S! Answering this awesome question: What you enjoy most about writing a book set in a boarding school I’ve always loved boarding school books. As a kid I read Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers obsessively, then graduated to the more mature Kingscote series by Antonia Forest, possibly the best boarding school books out there. I think I secretly wanted to go to one, because I was at a comprehensive school in rural Yorkshire. My school was very good, but boarding school just seemed so fun and glamorous, and it was easy to dream about escaping…
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The Rules – Tracy Darnton
Amber’s an expert when it comes to staying hidden – she’s been trained her whole life for it. But what happens when the person you’re hiding from taught you everything you know? When a letter from her dad arrives, Amber knows she’s got to move – and fast. He’s managed to find her and she knows he’ll stop at nothing to draw her back into the extreme survivalist way of life he believes in. All of a sudden the Rules she’s spent so long trying to escape are the ones keeping her safe. But for how long? I really need to stop picking up books that make me angry but…
