Tuesday Tidings: Fab Competition from Elen Caldecott

Have you got bored 7+ children this summer? The author Elen Caldecott and her publisher, Bloomsbury, are running this brilliant competition to win a full signed set of her books, £100 of Top Shop vouchers and an iPod touch. All they need to do is produce a collage which shows an 'awesome adventure' and send it in before 31st October. For full details, the image above will take you to the site.

Here's Elen herself with a bit more info:

To find out more about Elen and her wonderful books, visit:

Website: www.elencaldecott.com
Facebook: ElenCaldecottChildren'sAuthor

Twitter: @ElenCaldecott

Story Lab: Summer Reading Challenge

The Story Lab site

My youngest and I went to the local library yesterday to sign up for this summer's reading challenge: the Story Lab. She's been excited for these for the last few years, not least because a nice lady (from the libraries service perhaps?) visits her school to tell the kids all about it. I think, though, that this is the first year she's been able to also join in online. There's a moderated site where kids can talk about books with others, as well as learn more about the Story Lab characters and their quests. She knows that I talk about books online all the time (here, Goodreads, Twitter...), so she feels like she's able to do the same as me - which she's still young enough to see as a Good Thing, bless her. She's also majorly excited about the writing competition to finish a story started by one of the participating authors. You could win a laptop, you know!

The challenge runs through the summer and asks kids to read six books - of any length or type - and record their titles on the special card provided. They are expected to visit the library three times over the period. On the first visit, they get a cardboard lab to assemble at home and some scratch 'n' sniff stickers. Next time, there'll be a wristband and on the final visit, they get a medal and certificate. There's a whole storyline going on around the cute characters you see above, as they search for special items of bronze, silver and gold (do you detect an additional timely theme...?).

It's a great way to kickstart (or revive) a library habit, and libraries are fab for taking a risk on new authors or genres. And visiting the local library feels like a political act these days (assuming of course you still have one ...)

Tuesday Tidings: Amazing Harry Potter Anniversary Competition

Are you Harry Potter's biggest fan?

If you are, you could win an amazing Potter-themed family trip and a gorgeous, leather-bound anniversary edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, exclusively available to the winner and fourteen runners-up in this competition.

Celebrating 15 years of Harry Potter magic

The search for UK and Ireland’s biggest HARRY POTTER fan

From an idea born on a train journey, to its creation in a small cafe in Edinburgh Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the book that started a global phenomenon.  Rejected by many publishers and with an initial hardback print run of 500 copies, it has now sold over 90 million copies worldwide. It is the book that put Harry’s destiny in motion and created a whole new generation of readers. It is hard to think now that before 1997 none of us knew about Hogwarts, Quidditch or Voldemort (who was voted as the favourite literary villain in a recent Bloomsbury poll).

To celebrate the 15^th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Bloomsbury is launching a nationwide competition to find the UK’s biggest HARRY POTTER fan.

Bloomsbury is inviting fans to write a letter of no more than 50 words explaining why they love HARRY POTTER. We are looking for the most creative, clever and entertaining reasons and, while the word limit is set to a strict 50 words, entrants are encouraged to draw, doodle and make their letters as elaborate as possible.

HARRY POTTER fans can only enter by visiting a local bookshop or library and posting their letter in the specially designed postboxes. Over 1800 bookshops and libraries have already signed up to take part. The competition will run from Tuesday 26^th June to Tuesday 31^st July 2012 after which we will name the UK and Ireland’s biggest HARRY POTTER fan. The winner and runners up will be announced on Saturday 1^st September.*

The competition is an ideal opportunity for fans to show how much they love HARRY POTTER as well as supporting their local bookshop or library. Details of how to enter and a list of participating bookshops and libraries can be found on the website: www.bloomsbury.com/harrypottercompetition

*The winner will receive a family holiday to experience the magic and excitement of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™ only at Universal Orlando^® Resort and a leather-bound, signed, dedicated and numbered 15^th Anniversary Edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The limited number 15^th Anniversary Editions are exclusive to the competition and cannot be purchased elsewhere. Fourteen runners-up will also each receive a leather-bound, signed, dedicated and numbered 15^th Anniversary Edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Tuesday Tidings: Letterbox Love 3

This British-themed meme came out of a Twitter conversation, is hosted by Lynsey at Narratively Speaking and allows us to discuss books arriving through our letterboxes (or Kindle whispernet of course ...) every week or so. All links will take you to Goodreads or the publisher's info page.

It's been a little while since I've done one of these, so there are a few books to tell you about (and sorry it's not on a Sunday, as everybody else seems to manage:)). Here's what I've received recently:

Review copies

From Bloomsbury

Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas
Velvet by Mary Hooper
A daredevil assassin in an epic fantasy and a Victorian laundress who takes a new job assisting a spirit medium. Two quite different heroines, two YA August releases that I'm keen to read.

From Indigo

Soul Fire by Kate Harrison
Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin
Part two of the trilogy that started with Soul Beach where the young and recently dead hang out on a virtual beach, and the first in a new series that sounds amazing: gothic and suspenseful, riffing off the Edgar Allan Poe story. How cool do these sound?

From Strange Chemistry

Blackwood by Gwenda Bond
Poltergeeks by Sean Cummings
Contemporary fantasy constructed around the very real mystery of Roanoke Island's Lost Colony, Blackwood was amazing. I had a sneak peek and ended up reading the whole thing... I'll post a proper review nearer to the release in September.  And Poltergeeks, out in October, promises so much: poltergeists, witchcraft and mystery.

Purchased

A Witch in Winter by Ruth Warburton
More witchcraft! Again, it's a contemporary setting with witches. I'm a bit of a sucker for witches and could ignore all the great reviews I've been seeing for this no longer. The second in the series (I think it's going to be a trilogy) is out soon too, so I just might catch up in time to jump in - although sometimes I think it's better to wait until a whole series is out to start reading it. Resisting bookish temptation was never really my strength, though...

Gifts

Teeth: Vampire Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
Moondance at Stonewylde by Kit Berry
The vampire tales are so enticing, offering a variety of approaches to the mythology: Neil Gaiman, Melissa Marr and Holly Black are among the contributors, and I was thrilled to get the second Stonewylde book. I read the first three of this excellent series several years ago when they were self-published, and I'm going to treat myself to a read of the newly edited Gollancz versions all together sometime soon. Thanks go to my lovely sister for these (and don't they look cool together!)

Won

Horribly Famous: Mary, Queen of Scots
I won this in a game of Book Battleships on Twitter. If you don't follow ScholasticUK on Twitter, this is a game they regularly play, with words for the x and y axes of a small battleships grid. I won on this occasion with 'unnecessary comma', which I chose because I see them so often in students' writing and they bug me. It's nice to get something positive from one :)

Tuesday Tidings: Three Exciting Bookish Things

An amazing competition for 9-12 readers, and a lot of love for two of this summer's big YA US fantasy releases.

The competition: Operation Diamond

Helen Moss's Adventure Island books are often likened to the Famous Five series, and with good reason. Although there are only four main characters, one is still a dog and they solve mysteries on an idyllic island off the Cornish shore. They're completely contemporary though, so they have the internet and mobile phones to help them in their quests, and there's none of that 'jolly old ginger beer' stuff that modern kids sadly now struggle to relate to. My 8 yr old loves them, and I really enjoy reading them with her.

The tenth Adventure Island book is out next month, and to celebrate this (and of course the Jubilee), Helen Moss and Orion have put together an amazing competition. There is a special Jubilee short story, featuring a Jubilee Diamond (and with a guest spot from the Olympic Flame). Naturally, the Jubilee Diamond is stolen and our child entrants have to figure out who the culprit is. They're given the profiles of six suspects and those correctly identifying the culprit have the chance to win a fantastic prize. The winner will be personally featured in a future Adventure Island book and will get a full set of signed books, as well as a set for their school. To help kids identity the thief, there is a blog trail that started on 21st May: each day, Helen Moss is posting a blog piece about one of the books and there is a question to answer at the end. These questions are multiple choice, and the letters of all the correct answers will be an anagram of the crook's name. The whole thing is ingeniously well done. The names are all very similar, so kids clearly will have to find every letter in order to select the right one. My 8 yr old is having a blast with it! She's got several notebook pages full of notes about the suspects and a careful note of the letters so far. Obviously, she wants to win the prize, but she really is having a great time just solving the mystery.

Want to join in the fun? Here's where you need to start, to read the story and find the links to all the blog pieces. And don't worry about coming to the party late - the competition doesn't close until 23rd July.

US YA Fantasy News: Cover of Throne of Glass

This is a big summer YA release for Bloomsbury, coming out simultaneously in the US and the UK in August. This week, the UK cover was revealed on the Hooked on Books Facebook page. Just how lovely is this?

Throne of Glass is an epic fantasy that was originally created on fictionpress.com. It grew out of Sarah Maas's musings on Cinderella - specifically, the Disney version.  She says:

I’m a huge Disney fan and movie soundtrack geek, and one night, I found myself listening to the Cinderella score. The music that accompanies Cinderella fleeing the ball is pretty dark and intense, and I wound up thinking that the music would be better suited if Cinderella had done something truly bad . . . like steal from the Prince. Or, worse: what if she was an assassin who had just tried to kill the Prince?

And from there, all the other questions arose—who was this Cinderella-assassin and where had she come from? Who sent her to kill the prince? Why did they send her? And what would happen to her now? Thus, Celaena Sardothien and Throne of Glass were born. Asking those questions made me realize there was a massive story to be told prior to that fateful ball—entire books, actually.

In the ten years that I’ve been working on the series, Throne of Glass has become more of an original epic fantasy than a Cinderella retelling, but you can still find a few nods to the legend here and there.

US YA Fantasy News: Trailer for The Gathering Dark by Leigh Bardugo

This sweeping, glorious fantasy is out now from Orion in the UK. (In the US it is titled Shadow and Bone). Did you see my review? If you're a fantasy fan (or possibly even if you're not, like Kirsty from The Overflowing Library) - I strongly recommend this one. And isn't the trailer lovely?

In My Mailbox 12

In My Mailbox is a meme run by The Story Siren, in which bloggers can share a peek at the lovely books they've acquired over the past week (or month, as the case may be ...)

In this instalment of IMM, the lovely ladies at Orion have sent me the following books for review:

Chomp by Carl Hiaasen, which sounds hilarious: reality TV, the Everglades and a TV star with an unrealistic self image.
The Queen by Richard Brassey - this was great fun and deceptively informative. The review is coming up on Friday.
Adventure Island 7: The Mystery of the Dinosaur Discovery by Helen Moss. I'm reading this with my 8 yr old at the moment, and we're loving it. Classic adventure-mystery for kids.
Adventure Island 8: The Mystery of the Drowning Man by Helen Moss
These all came from Orion Children's Books, are out now and are for under-12s. The Gathering Dark: The Grisha 1 by Leigh Bardugo is coming from Indigo at Orion in May and is a major US YA fantasy, published in the US as Shadow and Bone.

I've won:
Pendragon Legacy: Sword of Light by Katherine Roberts. This came from a contest at the fabulous Feeling Fictional blog and I was so excited to win it, as I've been watching the promo for this one for a while. It's an Arthurian fantasy, focused on the newly-invented Rhianna Pendragon (daughter of Arthur, who's been hidden away with the fairies). A grand fantasy adventure with a cool heroine - what's not to love?!

I've received (for Mother's Day)
The Retribution by Val McDermid (the latest Tony Hill novel)
The Calling of the Grave by Simon Beckett (the latest David Hunter)
Both of these are continuations of crime series that I enjoy (such well-trained children!) and I'm looking forward to curling up with these soon.

The Kindle Spring Sale was rather  helpful for enabling me to pick up some lovely YA novels that had come to my attention already. I was so excited to find these:
The Swan Kingdom by Zoe Marriott
The Girl in the Mask by Marie-Louise Jenson
Mortal Chaos by Matt Dickinson
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

I've purchased:

A Mystery for Megan (Buttercup Magic) by Abi Burlingham

and my daughter was thrilled to receive signed cover art from Abi (who is lovely. Follow her on Twitter: @AbiBurlingham)

I'll be reading and reviewing this too, once the little one's finished with it (which won't be long, I expect - she's loving it!)

Coming Up: A Week of Children's Books!

6-12 April 2012

From Good Friday, we're going to celebrate the wonders of children's books for a week here at Thoughts from the Hearthfire. I've got reviews of some great titles, some just releasing and some a little less recent, as well as a couple of broader posts featuring several titles.

Here's what's coming up:

Good Friday (6th April)

Kicking us off on our children's book adventure is the fabulous new release, Road to London, by Barbara Mitchelhil.

Easter Saturday (7th April)

A slightly older title for our second day of children's book fun is Julia Donaldson's standalone MG novel, The Giants and the Joneses.

Easter Sunday (8th April)

A bumper post of recommendations from my 8yr old will come next. She really enjoys offbeat funny stories and is not a particularly girly girl, so this post will focus on the series she enjoys reading solo.

Easter Monday (9th April)

For the central day of our week, I'm going to share mini reviews of a bundle of fabulous non-fiction books which I won in a Twitter competition from Scholastic for Non Fiction Day last year.

Holiday Tuesday (10th April)

A new title to review here: My Own Special Way, an early reader story retold by Vivian French.

Wednesday 11th April

For the Words on Wednesday series, a review of Linda Strachan's Writing for Children.

Thursday 12th April

To round the week off, another new title review: Comic Cafe, by Roger Stevens.

There will be other children's book-related posts this month. Tomorrow, I'll be back for Words on Wednesday thinking about gender representation in picture books, and later on in the month we'll be reviewing Richard Brassey's The Queen (sneak preview: my 8yr old loved it), and Francesca Simon's fabulous The Sleeping Army.

Tuesday Tidings: New Dog Joy

Actually, he's called Hunter :)

We think he's rather lovely. He's a young lurcher, aged around a year, (we assume a whippet lurcher since he's quite petite) and we got him from the Dogs Trust in Kenilworth on Sunday. They acquired him with five siblings as strays from Ireland. We saw two of the others being picked up at the same time as we were collecting Hunter, so good news there.

The pictures belie his true energy levels. I didn't want to post pictures of a crazy blur with amazing speed despite poor limb control, so I caught him in his quiet moments. As you can see, he's taken to his mat and soft bed quite well. :)

Although he may not have lived in a home before, he's been quite good so far. At the time of writing (Monday night), we've only had one puddle in the house and he was much more hopeful of being able to get our dinner off us than our existing dog who's lived with us for just over eighteen months on Sunday, but was less optimistic today. We also had a howl-free night (hurrah!). So he's doing really well for a new dog and he's been lovely with the girls and our existing dog. We can't wait until he comes to his name well enough to be able to run free in the parks and the woods with Jessie the terrier!

In My Mailbox 11

In My Mailbox is a meme run by The Story Siren, in which bloggers can share a peek at the lovely books they've acquired over the past week (or month, as the case may be ...)

In this instalment of IMM, I've received the following books for review from the lovely ladies at Orion:

My Own Special Way by Mithaa alKhayyat (retold by Vivian French), a sweet little tale, which my 8 yr old enjoyed and I'll be reviewing soon. The Hunting Ground by Cliff McNish, which promises tons of creepiness and Crossing Over by Anna Kendall - the first in a paranormal series about a boy who can visit the realm of the dead.



I've won:

The Storyteller by Antonia Michaelis (signed!) from the lovely Abrams & Chronicle. I started this on the train yesterday and it's beautiful and enthralling so far - a lovely mix of realism and fairy tale.

Undiscovered Voices 2012 through the fabulous Tall Tales and Short Stories blog - a showcase of as-yet-unpublished British talent in children's books.

Loose Connections by Rosemary Hayes, A Waste of Good Paper by Sean Hayes and The Comic Cafe by Roger Stevens.  These 3 proofs came via a Twitter competition from Frances Lincoln. Loose Connections comes out in June and seems to be a realistic family story for older kids with a ghostly twist, while A Waste of Good Paper is a piece of teen realism which comes out in May. The Comic Cafe is a kids' novel out in May from comic poet Roger Stevens.

Drive By by Jim Carrington, kindly provided by Bloomsbury as an early bird prize on the British Books Challenge. I was really pleased to see this as a prize, as I'd just heard about the book and popped it on my wishlist. It's a realist YA novel exploring the idea of consequences and responsibility.

So, which lovely books have come your way recently?

In My Mailbox 9

In My Mailbox is a meme run by The Story Siren, in which bloggers can share a peek at the lovely books they've acquired over the past week (or month, as the case may be ...)


In this instalment of IMM, I've received the following lovely books for review:

Don't they look great together?

Hollow Pike by James Dawson is coming out on 2 February and has already caused a lot of online excitement. This is the spookiest book I've received lately: a creepy combo of witches, woods and ominous birds. The trailer is gorgeously chilling (see the end of the post).  James Dawson's website says:

She thought she'd be safe in the country, but you can't escape your own nightmares, and Lis London dreams that someone is trying to kill her.

Lis thinks she's being paranoid - after all, who would want to murder her? She doesn't believe in the local legends of witchcraft. She doesn't believe that anything bad will really happen to her. You never do, do you?

Not until you're alone in the woods, after dark - and a twig snaps...

Welcome to Hollow Pike.

See - spooky! I do love witches though, and James Dawson's countdown on his site has been whetting my appetite with hints of historical reference to witch trials and burnings contributing to a local legend.


Opal Moonbaby by Maudie Smith was launched on 5 January and is a fabulous debut novel for the 7+ age group. It features a crazy alien trying to understand Earth, with the help of Martha, who's decided she doesn't need friends anymore, and her brother Robbie. I reviewed this one last week and Maudie Smith stopped in on her blog tour to talk about the fantasy genre and her writing.

Talina in the Tower by Michelle Lovric is coming out on 2 February in gorgeous hardcover and is another supernatural mystery, but with a younger target audience than Hollow Pike. The dustjacket flap tells us:

Magic is attracted to Talina, and Talina is attracted to magic, with startling results. When, in the dead of night, terrifying creatures start to prowl the waterways of Venice snatching men and women, not to mention children, cats and rats, Talina knows desperate measures are needed. But before she can do anything, her parents disappear and she and her loyal cat, Drusilla, are forced to live with her sinister Guardian in his gaunt and lonely twittering tower on the northernmost edge of the city. It's here her adventure begins . . .

I haven't read any of Michelle Lovric's books before (I've got my eye on The Mourning Emporium too, though) but I have high hopes of this historical fantasy set in Venice.

Venus Rocks by Fiona Dunbar was launched on 5 January and is the third Kitty Slade book. The back cover blurb says:

Hey, Kitty Slade here. Just hanging out, doing ordinary things. You know, like seeing ghosts. It's been happening for a while now, but this time - this time is different...

When Kitty sees a ghost ship, she knows her spooky powers are growing stronger. Plunged into a dark mystery from long a go, she soon encounters Beth, a lost soul who drowned on board. Kitty must uncover the secrets buried at the bottom of the sea - before it's too late...

I'm reading this at the moment and loving its great voice. Although Kitty sees ghosts, the tone so far is sassy rather than spooky - a great fun read for younger teens and older kids.

In My Mailbox 6

In My Mailbox is a meme started by the Story Siren. It's available weekly, but you can also do it less often (as I do).  It's been about a month since my last one. A month in which I have:

• received two books I'm looking forward to reviewing
• won a bundle books on Twitter

First up, my review reads are as follows:

New Beginnings was sent to me for review by the lovely Rebecca Emin, who I met online via her blog during the Writers' Platform Challenge. She saw that I like to review children's books and sent me a charming email inviting me to review her debut novel for older children on the theme of bullying. The book is due to be published in late January. I'm looking forward to reading it and probably sharing it with one of my girls.

My other review read for this month's post came from the Transworld Book Group and is Liza Marklund's The Bomber. Publishing next week on the 24th November, this seems like an exciting winter read: a thriller with a smart female lead, set in December. Look out for my review in the next couple of months.

And finally, my exciting win this month comes from the generous team at Scholastic. I won via a Twitter promotion for National Non-Fiction Day and the prize was an amazing set of non-fiction books.  Just look at this:

The parcel contained the following titles:
Horrible History Annual 2012
Horrible Science Annual 2012
Both kids (aged 8 and 13) have been flicking through these and muttering 'cool!' and giggling. Job done, I think!
How to Draw Horrible Science
The 8 yr old dived straight into this and has been practising drawing people and all sorts of creatures. She's particularly impressed with this one, and we're all impressed with her results. Maybe when we review these, she'll let me scan in a picture.
How to Change the World with a Ball of String
This is a quirky volume, showing how coincidences and mistakes have made history. Again, both kids have dipped in and declared their findings 'cool'.
The Murderous Maths of Everything
This was less attractive to the girls to begin with (both are a little maths-shy), but the younger one recognised the author name, since Kjartan Poskitt also wrote Agatha Parrott (which we enjoyed in the summer).

Big thanks to Rebecca Emin, Transworld and Scholastic for enhancing our household with these lovely titles!

Tuesday Tidings: So, How's NaNo Going?

This is a phrase that fills me with dread at the moment. Dread and shame. I have been struggling away, adding shamefully few words every day to arrive at my current word count (7578 at the time of writing but see the widget on the right for an updated figure). I have been writing mostly on the bus and train on my daily commute (on my BlackBerry), with a few additional sessions at home at my desk. It has been going well while I'm writing: I'm happy with my idea and feel like it's going somewhere. The problem is, I am failing to give it enough time. There are excuses I could make, some of them are even legitimate, but I'm finding it way too difficult to put in the necessary time to get up to the word count. It probably didn't help that the first two days of November were both extended work days.

That said, the bottom line is clearly positive: I've written words that I wouldn't have done and I've established a new routine of writing on my commute. That will, of course, reduce my reading time but you can't do everything, can you? And there's still time. I will keep going and see how far I get, but the 50k is not looking very likely at this point (although today I did add more new words than the daily target to get me there on time, but I don't think that's repeatable on a daily basis). I do feel, though, that NaNo may have achieved for me what I needed it too.

I'm still going to grit my teeth when people ask me how it's going, though...

Tuesday Tidings: It's NaNoWriMo Day 1!

By the time you're reading this, I should have started writing my NaNo novel. I know, cool eh? I'm ready and raring to go - and a little bit nervous, since we're being honest.

In preparation I have:

• done a little writing (on separate non-fiction work) on my BlackBerry on the bus and train, so I know I can claw back that time for writing
• dug out, refreshed and reworked my notes for a YA novel I hadn't got round to working on yet
• made notes on characters, setting, theme and structure (there is an outline, but it no longer works since I changed some key aspects of the premise, but I think it'll be ok)

If you're doing nano as well, and you want to be buddies, I'm over there as BethKemp (for I am nothing if not imaginative...)

In My Mailbox 5

In My Mailbox is a meme started by the Story Siren. It's available weekly, but you can also do it less often (as I do).

Well, it's been a great couple of weeks for books around here. In the last two weeks, I have:

• picked up one pre-ordered title I was eagerly anticipating
• won a signed trilogy in a blog giveaway
• received a book for review that I've been keen to read for months

I know, I know, you want to know what they all are.

Snuff is the pre-order I picked up (I got the special gold edition from Waterstones). This is the 39th Discworld novel and is focused on the Watch, well on Sam Vimes really. I've been a Discworld fan for years and a new Pratchett is always an event. I finished reading this yesterday and it was great. Exactly what we've come to expect: social satire, gentle genre in-jokes and plenty of interesting characters, both familiar and new.

My exciting win came courtesy of Tall Tales and Short Stories, a fabulous blog for writing for children and teens. Thanks to a simple comment/tweet type draw, I won the cool Witchfinder trilogy by William Hussey - a signed and numbered set, no less! Just look at those beautiful jewel-like covers!

And finally, my book for review came from the lovely people at Orion's new teen imprint, Indigo. A gorgeous hardback copy of Sally Gardner's The Double Shadow. I've been wanting to read this since I first heard about it in the summer. The blurb and description remind me of Angela Carter, possibly because of the crazy use of machines, the theme of dream and memory and the novel's apparent genre-blending.

This lovely book comes out next week and the wonderful Sally Gardner will be visiting this very blog as part of her blog tour. How cool is that?

In My Mailbox 3

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme (but you can do them less often, as I am) which is run by The Story Siren. I've let this one accumulate over a month, as my summer book buying frenzy has slowed down.

My exciting win this month is Catwalk Queen (Million Dollar Mates) by Cathy Hopkins, which I won from the fabulous Girls Heart Books blog.  My resident very-nearly-thirteen-year-old (eek!) was the proud recipient. If you like books for girls from about age 8, this blog is fantastic, with contributions from loads of authors.


I also received two great books for review this month:

Linda Sargent sent me her lovely novel Paper Wings, which I found to be a brilliant nostalgic read (even though I can't be nostalgic for the post-war period since I wasn't there, but I'm sure you know what I mean!). My review for this one went up last week. 

Also for review, this time through the wonderful Transworld Book Group, I have John Boyne's Crippen, which I'm currently reading and finding dangerously absorbing on the train.  Watch out for the review soon, but so far so great.


And finally, just two purchases this month:

Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus is attracting all kinds of attention in the blogosphere at the moment and it is just a gorgeous book to behold.  For more images, visit this post on My Favourite Books but take care - it's this post that made me pre-order it. Don't say I didn't warn you!

My final choice for this month is Nicole Peeler's Tempest's Legacy, which I had pre-ordered for my Kindle and had the pleasure of seeing simply appear on release day.  Having loved the previous two Jane True books, I had to have this one.