Love That Book - Books for the Young

Colin Meloy’s UNDER WILDWOOD

Jon Page — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 00:26:37 +0000

Reblogged from Bite The Book - Book Reviews and Industry Views:

Colin Meloy returns to the Impassable Wilderness in the second instalment of the brilliant Wildwood Chronicles.

All seemed well in Wildwood after Prue and Curtis rescued her baby brother from the clutches of the Dowager Governess. Prue returned home while Curtis stayed behind to learn how to be a bandit. But the peace Prue and Curtis won for Wildwood is on shaky ground.

The Abominables by Eva Ibbotson

Chris — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 02:47:18 +0000

Eva Ibbotson died in 2010 amd among her papers was this last manuscript. I have loved all of Eva’s novels as she has a sense of adventure and comedy in all her books.

In this novel a young aristocratic girl. Agatha, is stolen from a Himalayan campsite by a yeti. She is taken away to become a mother to lots of baby yetis. She teaches them English and good manners and tells them lots of stories. Who could not love these babies?

‘They are so small, and could just as well be an old glove or a tea cosy…’

As you can see Ibbotson has a great sense of the ridiculous which children love. Everyone is very happy until tourists come very close to discovering the mystery of the yeti and where they live. Agatha decides it is time to move to a place where they will be safe. What better place than her ancestral home, Farley Towers in Hampshire. With the help of a trans continental truck driver and two children they make their escape. The journey is perilious and full of adventure, they even stop a bull fight in Spain. But no happy ending yet because when the get to Farley Towers it is occopied by the Hunters Club. They have lots of ideas re the yetis such as game hunting in the Antartic. Just to finish it all off nicely Prince Charles comes to the rescue.
They are many levels on which this story could be read when you know of Eva’s escape from Europe with her family but children will enjoy a good rollicking tale.

My Ghostly Beginnings By Deborah Abela

Jon Page — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 22:30:32 +0000

My Nanna wasn’t your regular nanna. There were no cakes baking in the oven, no large rounded figure that swept down at you for hugs when you visited and no soft purple hair that was very much the rage when I was a kid. My nanna was wiry, short and loved to tell me stories.

Ghost stories.

‘Do you want to hear a story?’ she would ask.

‘Yes,’ I would always answer.

‘Well sit down I’ll tell you a story.’

I would spend part of my holidays with my nanna in Warragamba, NSW, a town with identical fibro houses built especially for the men who were working on the famous dam. I used to sleep in a feather bed that was so tall, I had to step on a suitcase to climb into it and it was from there that my nanna used to tell me stories about ghosts.

My nanna could see ghosts, like many of the women in her family over generations. She would tell me about cousins who had passed away that she could see down the street, long-dead sisters sipping tea and men fishing in boats late at night whose hair turned stark white at meeting ghosts in the middle of lakes in the early hours while fishing.

I would sit frozen solid in fascination at her stories and never want her to stop. These nights with nanna, fired in me a life-long love of ghost stories.

I was fascinated by people who could see ghosts and weren’t in the last fazed by it. I’d also been playing with the idea of fear, what causes it and wondered whether the things we were afraid of were worthy of our terror. For this I needed a young girl who was initially afraid of something but in getting to know this thing better, found it wasn’t nearly as frightening as she thought it was. I then had to search for that other great ingredient of all stories….location. Where would I like to live if I were a 12 year-old-girl? I had it! An amusement park. The one I invented was very much inspired by Brighton Pier in England. These were the beginnings of The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen, a story about a girl whose family ran an amusement park and who, on her twelfth birthday, spies something very unusual and after a few more curious sightings, is told that her family has a one-hundred-year-old secret….and it has something to do with ghosts.

But there was someone else who furthered my love of ghost stories.

This year was the 200^th birthday of Charles Dickens and whilst idly ambling through research about this remarkable author and social reformer, I discovered he shared a love of ghost stories too. It was started by his nanny, Mary Weller, who used to frighten the six-year-old Charlie with penny-dreadful-style gore-fests like those in “Captain Murderer and the Devil’s Bargain”. Of his nanny he would say, “…Her name was Mercy, though she had none on me.”

I also discovered he not only claimed to see ghosts like my nanna but he was the founding member of a club called Ghost Club. One hundred and fifty years later, the club still meets today to talk about and investigate ghostly happenings in the UK. This would be the inspiration for my next book where I would create my own ghost club and have as its most successful ghost catchers, two 11-year-old twins called Angeline and Edgar Usher. Like the real clubsters, they would go to haunted sites, track down ghosts and convince them to stop their haunting ways. So in this way it would be more Scooby Doo than Ghostbusters and my Ghost Club was born.

As much as I loved my feisty, no-nonsense nanna and her lack of fear around ghosts, I always thought if I ever saw one, I’d go running scared.

But I didn’t.

I’ve only ever seen one ghost and it was late at night when I’d climbed onto another high bed that I had when I lived in an old warehouse. I’d knelt at the top of the bed, grabbed the curtains on either side of my window and was about to pull them closed when I saw the face of my nanna. She never said anything, simply stared straight at me. I didn’t run, I didn’t scream and I wasn’t the least bit scared. After a few minutes, she faded away. I calmly drew the curtains shut, feeling as if Nanna was still looking out for me and had a deep and restful sleep. Which was probably one more peaceful sleep than Dickens had after Mary Wellar paid him a visit and began his love of ghost stories almost two hundred years ago.

Visit the next stop on Deborah’s blog tour: http://bugreviews.wordpress.com/

Did you miss the previous stop? See http://westwords.com.au/

To see all the stops on the tour see http://www.DeborahAbela.com

Wolfie by Emma Barnes

Chris — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 05:48:24 +0000

I was attracted to this book because it is also illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark which really does add to this marvellous novel for 8 year olds. It would also make a wonderful book to read aloud as there is plenty of tension and some very funny parts. One day Lucie’s uncle comes to visit with an unusual birthday gift, a wolf! Actually a talking wolf but that is a secret. Everyone thinks it is a dog with some wolfish characterstics. Like sharp teeth and a hungry look and loves to eat raw meat. There is quite a tense scene with the rabbit next door but all ends well. So Lucie continues pretending the wolf is a dog until one day the wolf saves a child from crossing the road and a picture of the wolf gets into the local newspapers. So although the wolf has done a good thing everyone is frightened as it is obviously not a dog. When you think about it wolves have quite a bad name in lots of children’s books so it is nice to balance that out a bit with this extremely imaginative and wild tale.

Liar and Spy Rebecca Stead

Chris — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 00:58:01 +0000

Lets start with names and you might get a sense of this amazing novel. The main character is called Georges, yes an ‘s’ but it is silent. He is named after a famous painter Georges Seurat. This is important to the story as one of his paintings is about small things becoming part of a larger world. Georges meets Safer who starts the spy club. He has a sister Candy and a brother Pigeon. All these names are important to the story. But you have to read it to find out.
Now lets look at the title. There are lies but there is a good reason for them, sort of. The spying part is hilarious as Safer introduces Georges to the finer art of observation and picking locks. But why doesn’t Safer ever go out? What does his name mean?
One other thing, at school Georges is studying taste in his science class, another way into this wise and throughly enjoyable book. Sweet, sour, bitter, salty, bittersweet and umami… umami!

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier

Chris — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:59:44 +0000

Peter Nimbles is an orphan which is a good beginning for a children’s book, kids seem to love books about orphans. However he is also blind which seems to help make him the best thief, and picker of locks in the business but unfortunately because he is blind and nobody to care for him he falls into bad company. Upto this point the story could be another take on Oliver Twist but this is just the beginning. He meets a mysterious traveller who gives him a box that contains three pairs of magical eyes. You can imagine when he first opened the box and felt three eggs and then broke them. Remember he cannot see!
These eyes take him on the most wonderful and magical adventures.

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Chris — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 08:55:22 +0000

The cover of this book is dotted with awards, one in each corner. When you read this book you will understand why. This historical novel is set in 1968, Oakland, California at the time of the civil rights movement and the Black Panthers. It tells the story of three young girls who have been living with their grandparents and are now seeing their mother for almost the first time. She is a poet and involved with the Black Panthers and children were not part of that scene.
What makes this such a good novel? What makes a really good historical novel?
Empathy.
I learnt a lot. I laughed and cried a lot. But most of all I wanted those girls to be alright.
That is the way to bring history alive.

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Chris — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:22:35 +0000

When I first heard of this novel I thought it might be too sad to read or very sentimental. However the cynical, honest and very humourous voices of the characters make sure that does not happen. This is what the story is about so you can’t blame me for feeling concerned. A boy and girl meet at a Cancer Support Group. He has bone cancer, she has lung cancer and they are both on borrowed time. They like each other very much and continue their friendship as they are learning to die. Do you see what I mean? As you read your emotions are on a rollercoaster (used in the book!) tears to laughter to sheer amazement at the honesty and wise cracking. A very special book.

Pure by Julianna Baggott

Chris — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:21:16 +0000

When I read this book I knew it would make a fantastic movie and Fox have bought the rights. It is an amazing novel and I still have pictures in my mind about some of the characters. When the detonations happened body parts were fused to other body parts,in fact any debris flying around were joined, just use your imagination! The Pures escaped this event as they live safely in the Dome. Those outside live in hunger, disease, ash and fear of gangs roaming around let alone fear of their damaged bodies. Partridge, a boy inside the Dome wants to escape and search for his brother. He meets Pressia, damaged but surviving outside the Dome. Unsettling and a bit creepy and totally original. I have never read anything like it.

Cressida Cowell’s HOW TO STEAL A DRAGONS SWORD

Jon Page — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 04:25:19 +0000

Originally published at BiteTheBook

I have been reading the HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON series to my six-year-old daughter all year since we watched the Dreamworks’ DVD. Apart from character names the books bear little resemblance to the movie but that hasn’t stopped us reading all nine books in the series and we are both already eagerly awaiting book ten which I presume (and hope) will be released late next year.

The series follows the adventures of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third who we meet as an 11-year-old (and who turns 13 in book 9). Hiccup is learning how to be a Viking, which he is not very god at. His training involves having a dragon as your obedient companion which he must train for hunting and other essential Viking activities such as being a pirate. Hiccup also has to deal with the fact that he is the heir to the Hooligan Tribe as his father, Stoick the Vast, is the chief which puts considerably pressure on Hiccup to be the best possible Viking.

The adventures Hiccup has are truly fantastic and a deeper, larger mystery slowly emerges over the course of the books as bits and pieces Hiccup picks up along the way slowly come together. Cowell combines well-balanced humour (silly and clever) with truly great original stories that even I am addicted to. Hiccup must overcome the odds in a number of different ways usually with the help of his two best friends; Fishlegs, an even more unlikely Viking and Camicazi, a girl from a neighbouring tribe who is the best burglar in the archipelago in which the Vikings inhabit. The best way I can think of to describe the series is that it is like Asterix goes to Hogwarts.

The books are great for reading aloud for a 5-7 year old and suitable for an 8-12 year old reader. And despite the movie baring no resemblance to the books it is pretty good too!

The series in order:

How to Train Your Dragon
How to Be a Pirate
How to Speak Dragonese
How to Cheat a Dragon’s Curse
How to Twist a Dragon’s Tale
A Hero’s Guide to Deadly Dragons
How to Ride a Dragon’s Storm
How to Break a Dragon’s Heart
How to Steal a Dragon’s Sword