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UKMG

The Secret of the Night Train by Sylvia Bishop

21st May 2018 by Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

We’re very happy today to be kicking off the blog tour for a wonderful MG book by Sylvia Bishop, the Secret of the Night Train. Smallest has read it, and will be contributing her thoughts after we’ve heard from Sylvia.

Book cover - The secret of the night train by Sylvia Bishop

Train no. 1: TGV Duplex (Paris – Munich)

In my new book, The Secret of the Night Train, Max Morel takes a journey from Paris to Istanbul on four trains. She is accompanied by a nun called Sister Marguerite, and must solve the mystery of a smuggled diamond. I was lucky enough to do this journey myself, and wrote a lot of the book on board. In this series of blog posts, I talk about my real journey, and how it informed the book.

So here we are on the first stop with Liveotherwise blog (AKA Paris – Munich)

Max begins her journey from Paris on the TGV Duplex train, a swanky blue double decker with comfy seats and soothing lighting and syrupy announcements in French and German. It leaves Paris at 3:55 – a nice, reasonable hour.

Lucky Max! For me, the TGV Duplex was train number 2. I had already crossed London on a deserted bus to get on the Eurostar horrendously early. And right before I went to sleep the night before, I managed to snap my glasses. So now I was wearing my contacts, but in case I needed anything in the night, I had my dodgily-sellotaped-together glasses perched on my head.

So I was tired, and surprised how homesick I felt. I have travelled by myself plenty of times, and I was not expecting this. I felt like a young child leaving home for the first time.

Dear reader, don’t let your kind heart break over my plight. The silver lining is so enormous it obliterates the meagre cloud. To avoid thinking about my homesickness, I did what I was there to do: I had seven hours on this train to start writing my story. And from my homesickness, Max was born. I didn’t know, until then, that she would battle homesickness on her journey. Now this drives her whole character.

There were so many useful little gems on that train. The weary-and-officious tut-pffff noises of the automatic doors seemed to announce the whole character of the policeman who would enter through them. Almost all the passengers left at Stuttgart, which really helped to narrow down Max’s investigations. Even the snapped glasses made an appearance, as our first suspect arrives on the scene with his glasses snapped – a bumbling British fool. An awful lot like yours truly.

Then from Munich, I started to really enjoy myself. But that’s another story.

Join us for the next stage of the journey tomorrow on Book Lover Jo’s blog

The Secret of the Night Train by Sylvia Bishop is out now, published by Scholastic (RRP £6.99) Buy at Amazon(affiliate link).

The drawback (from my point of view) of Smallest now loving to read is that I don’t get to share her reading experience in quite the same way as I used to. But we started the Secret of the Night Train in the time honoured way – I read the first two chapters aloud. It’s an excellent book for that, and rocks along nicely setting up the family and other characters in that first section. I really like Max, the protagonist, she’s lots of fun.

Then Smallest continued the journey by herself, so I’ll let her add her opinion of it all in her own words.

I enjoyed this book very much and I recommend it. The characters are two sided and the book is very adventurous. The train setting is genius and I think that many people my age would really enjoy it as it’s very exciting.

Basically, we like this book, and highly recommend it. Feel free to look it up 🙂

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Filed Under: Book club, It's where it is Tagged With: Scholastic, Sylvia Bishop, The Secret of the Night Train, UKMG

Twelve nights by Andrew Zurcher – cover reveal and giveaway!

6th January 2018 by Jax Blunt 29 Comments

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

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Filed Under: Book club, current, giveaway Tagged With: Andrew zurcher, giveaway, Puffin books, UKMG

The Inventory 3: Black Knight by Andy Briggs.

22nd April 2017 by Jax Blunt 6 Comments

Buy at Amazon (affiliate link)

Dev and his friends are back with more mind-bending tech in this third instalment of the Inventory series. This time they are tasked with training new recruits to defend the Inventory’s incredible inventions. But will they be ready for action before Shadow Helix’s next strike?

First of all, why not catch up on Small’s thoughts on book one and book two of Andy Brigg’s The Inventory series? Now that you’re all set, you’re ready to hear what he thought of book three, Black Knight, aren’t you?

We’re going for a slightly different format this time around. Small is currently up to his neck working on a game for a competition submission so I’m trying a Q & A format on him.

Me: Tell me a positive about the book.

Him:

Me: OK, that was a bit too unspecific wasn’t it? Let’s try a different tack. Is there a sense of continuity from the previous books? Or do they stand alone?

Him: There’s no need to scan back – the required details are explained that you can just pick up and go without reading the previous books.

Me: Would you recommend this book to a friend?

Him: I would, but I would suggest reading the first two first to get the full story, it’s worth it.

Me:

.

. You have coding to do don’t you? Off you go then.

Hm. Not sure that worked an awful lot better than locking him in a room to write a review. Sorry Andy! if it’s any consolation, next child is nearly old enough to take over reading this series… (contemplates trying to get Smallest to write reviews. Cries.)

Anyway, to make it worth your while being here, a giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Filed Under: Book club, current, giveaway Tagged With: Andy Briggs, Black Knight, MG, Scholastic, the inventory, UKMG

Harper and the Night Forest – review and giveaway.

23rd March 2017 by Jax Blunt 53 Comments

There’s a book for everyone that they remember from when they start to read, I think. For Smallest it looks like it’s going to be Harper.

We’ve had the first Harper book on our shelves for a couple of years, and she’s been completely uninterested, despite the shiny silver cover and the lovely pictures. It wasn’t a picture book you see – illustrated yes, but not in colour, and that didn’t make the grade. But when we were invited to take part in the blog tour for book 3, I decided it was worth another go, and got Harper and the Scarlet Umbrella down and took it into the bedroom.

I was sneaky that night. I started off by reading just one chapter, and they are a little bit cliff hangery and when I stopped, Smallest couldn’t resist and kept reading for herself.

Which led to this wonderful moment, when she read him to sleep. (Apologies for the quality of the photo.)

You don’t get a whole lot better than that to be honest.

Since then, we’ve finished book 1 and we’re on to book two Harper and the Circus of Dreams. The books seem to be the perfect balance of excitement and thrill without any real scariness (Smallest can be a nervous child at times!) and the pacing is perfect for a couple, or three, chapters an evening. They are beautifully illustrated – I would love to see a full colour edition though, I think that would be just gorgeous.

And today I’m actually taking part in the Harper and the Night Forest blog tour, and as part of it I’ve three copies of that book, book 3 in the series to give away.

see at Amazon (affiliate link).

Smallest hasn’t got up to this book, so she can’t review it for you I’m afraid, but I snuck a peek ahead, and I can confirm that it’s just as beautifully written and illustrated, and full of magical, musical, adventure as the previous books. I do have to say that of all the books that Smallest could have fallen in love with, I can quite see what it is about Harper that’s done it. It’s got everything – friendship, a wonderful world, lyrically described and a lovely heroine with her sidekick, Midnight the cat. Excellent books for a 7(ish) year old to enjoy.

The books are written by Cerrie Burnell (twitter), she until recently of CBeebies fame, and illustrated by Laura Ellen Anderson (Website / Twitter)

Book info

Title: Harper and the Night Circus

Author: Cerrie Burnell

Illustrator: Laura Ellen Anderson

Release Date: 2 nd March 2017

Genre: MG Adventure

Publisher: Scholastic UK

Format: Paperback

Harper and her friends get to visit the City of Singing Clocks right by the mysterious Night Forest. It is rumoured that a magical Ice Raven whose song can melt hardened hearts lives amongst the ebony trees. With the children’s help The Wild Conductor plans to capture the mythical bird and create the greatest orchestra ever known. But Harper soon needs to decide who actually needs their help the most…

If you’d like to win your own copy of Harper and the Night Forest, enter via the rafflecopter widget below – don’t forget to comment on the blog as the mandatory entry. (Please don’t panic if you’re a first time commenter and your comment is moderated, it’s an anti spam measure, and I’ll be along to fish it out of moderation in a bit 🙂 Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Filed Under: 2017, Book club, current, giveaway, review Tagged With: Cerrie Burnell, Faye Rogers, Harper and the Night Forest, Laura Ellen Anderson, MG fiction, Scholastic UK, UKMG

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