Making It Up

as we go along

Puffin books

Twelve nights by Andrew Zurcher – cover reveal and giveaway!

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Note, post contains affiliate links.

book cover for Twelve Nights - dark blue night sky with stars, old fashioned hot air balloon, figures in the basket are silhouetted against the full moonPre order at Amazon

Kay and her little sister, Eloise, never imagined that their standard icy Christmas Eve in Cambridge would be the start of a twelve-night odyssey . . .

Kay’s father is working late – as usual. Fed up, her mother bundles her daughters into the car and drives to her husband’s Cambridge college to collect him herself. But when they arrive, the staff claim that nobody by his name has ever worked there . . .

Kay is puzzled by her mother’s reaction – silent tears, not anger and confusion. And what is even more puzzling is the card on her pillow when they return home:

Will O. de Wisp, Gent. F.H.S.P. and Phillip R. T. Gibbet, Gent. F.H.S.P. K.Bith. REMOVALS.

That night, Kay is woken by voices at her window: the voices of Will and Phillip, the Removers. But they are not human. And Kay shouldn’t be able to see them. Except she can . . .

I love getting my reading year off to a magical start, and Twelve Nights by Andrew Zurcher has all the right ingredients to do this. (I confess I haven’t read beyond the first chapter yet, but that was intriguing…) I was very happy to be involved in the cover reveal on twitter (although I’m embarrassed to admit that I forgot to ask who the cover illustrator is when I was dealing with the emails on my phone, so I can’t share that. Will add in when I track them down!) The book is available for pre order on Amazon (and I’m sure other bookshops) and is due out April 5th 2018.

I’m also very happy to be giving away what was described to me as a ‘lovely bespoke, wrapped copy’ of the book – entry through the rafflecopter widget below. The very best of luck to you all. (Full terms and conditions in the widget, but be aware that giveaway is limited to to 18+ with UK addresses, and prize will be sent direct from the publisher.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A good picture book day

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Yesterday I took the three youngest over to a home ed fencing session near Cambridge. A long way to go for a couple of hours, but we made the most of it with a visit to a nearby library for the little ones while Small was fencing, and then we spent the afternoon in a nearby park with a couple of other home ed families.

Small enjoyed the fencing, we’ll be looking for a more local club. (Yes, I know. I was kind of surprised too. Goes to show your children can always surprise you 😉 ) 

And the little ones loved our library visit. We read quite a few books.

picture book haul

There’s Winnie the Witch at the seaside. Oh no George in board book form. A rather dubious Thomas the tank engine spin off, something about a Lemur in the Laundry, Bob and Rob, and the rather wonderful Can you see a little bear?

That last was definitely the find of the day. As a result I followed Jackie Morris on twitter and instagram, and discovered she’s also done the cover art for the new Robin Hobb, which I really must catch up with. (I’ve liked Robin Hobb since she was Megan Lindholm 😉 )

I did ponder somewhat on the bear book. The words are sparse, rhyming and lyrical yes, but few and far between. And they could have been illustrated in so many different ways – cartoon anthropomorphic bears perhaps, or cuddly toys. But in this version they are glorious and somewhat wild, though they travel with a circus. Very definitely not tame animals though.

It’s difficult to explain, and definitely a case of a picture thousand word thing. All I can do is recommend that you seek out any and all Jackie Morris books, as I’m planning on doing, and find out for yourself what it’s all about. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Afternoon, as I mentioned, was spent in the park, catching up with a couple of families that we see all too infrequently nowadays. Smallest in particular was thrilled to spend time Afish, while Tigerboy discovered a new playmate in Jfish, who really is very good with little children.

And I got a shot of a squirrel.

squirrel

On the way there and back we listened to the audio book of the Worst Witch from Puffin books. Suffice it to say Smallest is now a huge audio book fan, and wants to listen to any and every worst witch book I can find. Which was the result I might have hoped for, but certainly didn’t expect. We’ve not done that much long reading – we do do chapters here and there, but so far she’s listened to it straight through three times – she may be working on memorising it. A definite hit, which is all you can ever hope for really.