100 book challenge

Signs of life by Natalie Taylor.

28th May 2011 by Jax Blunt 4 Comments

Signs of life by Natalie Taylor

is, first and foremost, a fabulous book. It’s not fictional, instead being a journal style account of just over a life in the year of a young woman, widowed unexpectedly while pregnant with her first child. You’d be right to expect this will be a book full of emotion – there’s plenty of that to go around, but there are also insights into life with and without a loved one, as well as the adjustment to single parent hood that was so terribly unexpected.

Natalie is also a teacher, of English literature. Some of the books she teaches take on a new dimension as she comes to them after her husband’s death, and she is eloquent in discussing this. I was surprised to be touched and also educated as I read, and although I was determined not to get caught up in the tears, she got me at the end. If you make it to the end of this without needing a tissue, you’re a stronger person than me, but at least it was the happy bit that caught me out.

Because there is happiness. There is triumph over the adversity of the abnormal situation – that must, not so very long ago, have actually been disturbingly normal if you think of the experience of women at war. Thankfully now this kind of early loss is few and far between, but Natalie faces up to her situation with a wry humour that shines through even her lowest times.

If you are getting the impression I really enjoyed this, you’d be right. It’s fabulous, and I highly recommend it. Out in July, and available for pre-order now.

Disclosure. I was sent this free for the purpose of review. If I could remember where I’m up to on 100 books, I’d add it.

Went back and looked it up. This is book 79.

Little Grey Donkey from Top That publishers.

23rd May 2011 by Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

This is a lovely picture book about friendship and courage, as Little Grey Donkey has to dig deep to overcome the fear he experiences on the difficult journey to find his friend and owner Serafina.

The pictures are interesting and have different levels of detail, with white line drawings in a cartoon style highlighting details in the more normal picture book drawings. The little highlights are popular here as they feature birds and cats, which are two of Smallest’s favourite things. The story is a little complex for her just yet, but the drawings hold her attention, so I get to enjoy the reading.

With an actual storyline and plot, this is probably aimed at 3 or 4 year olds as a read aloud, and I can see it suiting that age range well.

This book was sent to us free of charge for the purpose of review by Top That publishing house.

Adding this to the 100books list, comes in at book 80. [Read more…] about Little Grey Donkey from Top That publishers.

The Dancing Bear by Michael Morpurgo #100books

3rd May 2011 by Jax Blunt 1 Comment

We got this free with our NGKids subscription – it’s a thin paperback, beautifully illustrated with faded black and white drawings. As it’s a quick and easy read, both Big and I have read it, and Smallest likes looking at the pictures.

The story is not complex. A tale of a girl and her pet bear, the village she lives in and the visiting singer. All narrated by the schoolmaster, who looks on, slightly removed from the action. Obligatory unhappy childhood is provided by the girl not having a mother, and by her father being a grasping greedy unpleasant character.

It’s beautifully written as well as beautifully illustrated. And yet, I’m almost sorry I read it. Michael Morpurgo is indeed an excellent author, but he doesn’t really do happy. Even if there’s a bit of a happy ever after, there’s usually some sting in the tail. I’d forgotten that tbh, so this one caught me completely by surprise. It’s sudden and abrupt, but understated, and many children probably won’t have a problem with it at all. But Big and I both found it very sad. So you have been warned (but without spoilers. I don’t do spoilers.)

This was book 78

The bad-tempered ladybird by Eric Carle #100books #FridayReadAlouds

29th April 2011 by Jax Blunt 1 Comment

This copy of The Bad Tempered Ladybird by Eric Carle was a charity shop bargain, think it came in a bundle for a pound with some other books. I’d have paid a pound for this, especially as it’s the hardback edition. Eric Carle’s illustrations are hugely distinctive – if you’ve read the hungry caterpillar, you’d recognise this as being by the same author. (And if you haven’t read it, how precisely? Some books are classic because they really are classics, not just because they’ve been hyped.)

Not wishing to disclose any spoilers on this one, but it’s about a bad tempered ladybird, looking for someone to pick a fight with. He starts with a good tempered ladybird, but he’s too small, so then we work our way through the day and up the animal sizes until we eventually get to a whale…

The pages start off small, with small writing, and there’s a little clock with the time on it at the top of the page too. So lots to engage the mind as the pages get larger, with steadily increased size of writing and larger and larger animals. The clocks stay the same size though the time changes. Smallest recognises them as clocks, and goes through the book naming the animals. Cat, cat, cat, bird, cat, cat, dog….I’m not quite sure how her naming convention works yet. I think there are cats, and there are furry animals who are not cats and therefore must be dogs, and then there are things which aren’t furry so are neither. Oh, and there are birds. She likes birds.

A bad tempered ladybird isn’t in the same league as A Hungry Caterpillar. I think if anything there’s too much to it. But it’s still a book that’s very easy to read over and over again – your toddler will love it, and you won’t hate it, which makes it about as good as it gets for a read aloud.

This was book 77

Hurry up and Wait by Isabel Ashdown #review

24th April 2011 by Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

One of the many authors, publishers and book PRs I follow on twitter is Isabel Ashdown, and I was lucky enough a week or so ago to win copies of both her debut novel, the award winning Glasshopper, and her forthcoming book, Hurry Up and Wait

Synopsis: It’s more than twenty years since Sarah Ribbons last set foot inside her old high school, a crumbling Victorian-built comprehensive on the south coast of England. Now, as she prepares for her school reunion, 39-year-old Sarah has to face up to the truth of what really happened back in the summer of 1986.

My review: I was quite excited to pick this up to read – I’ve seen a lot of buzz about Glasshopper on twitter, and had it recommended to me by lots of friends, and I hadn’t realised when I won the two books that Hurry up and Wait isn’t actually released til June. It was only when Isabel mentioned on twitter that I would be one of the early readers that I clicked as to what I had in my hands, and I was determined to get stuck in quickly.

So when I picked it up and realised first of all that it’s written in the present tense, and secondly that it slips between times, I was slightly disappointed. These are two signs that usually to me indicate books I’m not going to enjoy. Nevertheless, I read on, wanting to give it a good go.

It turned out to be no effort at all. Despite, or perhaps because of, the present tense writing, it became so easy to slip into the story, and be immersed in a time that should be utterly familiar to me. I too was a teenager in the mid 80s – I’m just a year younger than the main protaganist, Sarah Ribbon. But the life she is leading is very far removed from mine – I had a terribly sheltered life attending a private girls’ school miles from home and barely noticed the existence of boys given I had a horse instead. Despite this, the book is utterly authentic, with references to fashion and music that took me instantly back to my own teenage days, staring at the in-crowd from the outskirts.

As I read, I identified with Sarah, who becomes a real girl going through some very real things. She hasn’t only got school and boys to cope with – her mother died when she was little and her father is not well. As the story built to a climax, I was a little afraid that I’d spotted what was going to happen before I got there, but Isabel stays away from any obvious or cliched endings and wraps her story up beautifully without any incongruities or contrivances. For an afternoon I was transported to the 1980s – and I don’t regret missing the grittier side of it first time around one little bit. Once you pick this up, you aren’t going to want to put it down – I can completely see why she is an award winning author, and I’m looking forward to reading Glasshopper very soon as well.

Hurry Up and Wait is published on 16 June 2011 and available for pre-order on Amazon in paperback or for Kindle now.

I’m counting this as one of my 100 books, mainly because I’m desperate to finish this challenge now. This was book 76 [Read more…] about Hurry up and Wait by Isabel Ashdown #review

100 book challenge

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