Making It Up

as we go along

100BookChallenge

Bumped by Megan McCafferty #100books

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This book was sent to review as part of a bundle of holiday reading for teens/ pre-teens. Big started it, but found it a bit above her head – she is only 11 though. So I read it instead, and found it to be a perfectly enjoyable way to spend an afternoon.

The style of writing *is* a little confusing. It’s written in the first person, but the first person keeps changing as the narrators are identical twins, brought up separately and having lead very different lives. The whole novel is set in a future after a virus has caused ppl over the age of around 18 to become infertile, so the plot is that older couples are now paying teenagers to have babies for them. Echoes of the Handmaid’s Tale, though not nearly as depressing as that. (Please tell me I’m not the only one who finds Handmaid’s Tale utterly depressing? Tbh, I absolutely hate it. And I’m fond of dystopian tales generally speaking.) So there are lots of issues up for consideration – teenage sex and pregnancy, surrogacy, religion, privacy, childhood. It’s a challenging array, although the story romps along well enough that the issues don’t crash around your ears. Some of the futuristic language grated on me a little – perhaps I’m out of practice with scifi, I don’t seem to have read that much in the genre recently. Another oversight, it used to be my favourite. Along with fantasy.

Anyway, I think I’d suggest this for a teen of 13-14, and preferably a reasonably mature one at that. It may well be something that you feel you’d like to pre-read so that you’re ready for discussion of the issues – there isn’t much graphic stuff in it though to worry anyone. Very much depends on you/ your daughter’s sensibilities. (I say daughter as I don’t see this appealing to teenage boys particularly, it’s written from a very clear female viewpoint.

This is certainly an author I will be keeping an eye on though – a thought provoking book all around.

This is book 84. [Read more…] about Bumped by Megan McCafferty #100books

The Dancing Bear by Michael Morpurgo #100books

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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

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

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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

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Hurry up and Wait by Isabel Ashdown #review

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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

Alexander's Athenian Adventure – review and giveaway

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Alongside the history day, I also want to squeeze in a quick review of a book I was sent that fitted in with today’s theme. Alexander’s Athenian Adventure, as you might imagine is set mainly in historic Athens. There’s a wealth of historic information about the society of the time, set it a quick moving adventure about political intrigue, though aimed at children probably around 10. Big didn’t find it a desperately satisfying read, though I did wonder if that was in part as there are no girls allowed to do anything much in the main body of the book (as was the case in Ancient Greek). I’ve sent off a copy with a friend’s son, so hopefully he’ll report back as to what he thinks soon 🙂

Along with the copy we were sent for review, I’ve *three* copies to give away. Entry by comment below, and you can get an extra entry for sharing the post by twitter or fb or blog. (Please leave an extra comment for each of those things you do, I really can’t track them otherwise!)

UK only, runs til 13th April at midnight, and I’ll use a random number generator to pick the winners. If you don’t respond to me within a week, I’ll pick someone else!

This is book 75 of my hundred book challenge. [Read more…] about Alexander's Athenian Adventure – review and giveaway