Released at the beginning of the month, The Secret Starling is the debut Middle Grade (age 8-12) book by Judith Eagle. There’s been lots of excitement about it on Twitter, so I was keen to read it as soon as it was released. Clara lives with her mean uncle in a crumbling, old manor house,…
This is a very quick review as I’m a tad short on time at the moment; however, I wanted to make sure that I recorded my thoughts on this new book by Fleur Hitchcock, an established and accomplished writer whom some of you will know due to her dark thrillers for older children. Clifftoppers: The…
I’ve been quite envious seeing proofs of Louie Stowell’s debut book being reviewed on Twitter, so I was completely thrilled to win a signed copy of The Dragon in the Library in a Nosy Crow competition recently. After a bit of a tussle with my daughter to determine who was going to read it first,…
I first found out about Little Bird Flies while reading an interview with Karen McCombie in the latest edition of Carousel magazine. I’m a big fan of historical fiction and the idea of a 2-part series detailing the life of Bridie – aka Little Bird – intrigued me. Little Bird Flies – the first book…
Some of you will know that I am a huge advocate of reading for pleasure, so even though my daughter has been a ‘free reader’ for nearly a year now, I still love to find her books that she will enjoy, as opposed to her reading primarily for academic purposes. Anna loves stories with lots…
I have been a member of Twitter’s #PrimarySchoolBookClub since its inception last year and Ghost is its current read. I actually hadn’t heard of the book until I found out it had been crowned ‘March’s pick’ in the vote at the end of February. However, I was aware of the publisher – Knights Of –…
We are HUGE Dave Pigeon fans in our house and so World Book Day came around with much excitement. Not because the children could go to school in fancy dress (albeit my daughter did indeed go as DP himself!), but because it meant that the fourth book in the Dave Pigeon series – Royal Coo!…
Myths, legends, stories. They are all words for facts that people have forgotten. A stormhound from Odin’s Wild Hunt falling out of the sky and landing in Abergavenny made me smile every time I heard about it. Despite my towering TBR pile, therefore, I picked this up as soon as it was released and it…
My daughter is a ‘free reader’ at school. However, as she is still quite young, she doesn’t have a long attention span and still loves illustrations, so I am always on the lookout for books that are not too lengthy, and that will encourage reading for pleasure. I only came across these books recently: I…
‘In the deepest dark, you must be the light’ As some of you will know, Cerrie Burnell has been an author of picture books and young fiction for some time and is a real advocate for inclusion. We were thus expecting good things about her first foray into middle grade fiction – The Girl With…