What's going on? #4

To start with, it's the summer school holidays. Yay! And here's our roundup:

Firstly, a big thanks to Hot Key Books who provided copies of Angel Dust by Sarah Mussi (which is out in August) for We Sat Down's first impromptu reading group. We'll be reporting back on how that went. Hot Key Books' first books will be published on 2 August 2012.

Latest additions to our bookshelves:

For review:

Katya's World by Jonathan L Howard. This is a science fiction title coming from Angry Robot's new YA imprint, Strange Chemsitry in November 2012. It's set in Russalka, a colony that has sea but no land, where the people live beneath the waves. Katya is heading off on a submarine journey but of course, it's not going to go quite to plan.

The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket by Johne Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Barnabay is normal - except that he defies one baisc rule: gravity. (I've read this already, and it's a delight; review coming soon). It will be published in the UK on 2 August 2012 by Doubleday.

Pippi Longstocking, Pippi Goes Abroad, and Pippi In the South Seas by Astrid Lindgren (Oxford University Press). We have something wonderfully Scandinavian planned for these!

Gift

Flip by Martyn Bedford  - given to us from Martyn at a interview we did with him. We've both read Flip from the library before and loved it.  So we're very pleased to have a  signed copy all of our own now. Watch out for our review and interview with him coming up in September.

Codename Quicksilver giveaway winner

The winner of our Codename Quicksilver books giveaway is:  jb116094. Please contact us with your details. Thank you to Orion Children's Books for providing these books.

Competitions from Bloomsbury

A fabulous competition  - both for what you have to do and also for what you could win - is Elen's Awesome Adventures Award. Basically, you have to put together a collage of your own adventure. And you stand to win a set of all her books, Topshop vouchers, and an iPod touch. UK resident children aged 7+ may enter by 31st October 2012.

And of course, there's the big Harry Potter one which if you don't know about by now!......

Take a look at the books we got #14

Here we join in with blogger memes like In My Mailbox (IMM) at The Story Siren  and the new British-based Letterbox Love to share the books that we recently bought, borrowed or received through the post.

From the library:

The Midnight Zoo by Sonya Hartnett.  This was on the Carnegie shortlist and recommended to us. I don't know much about the plot other than it's wartime and about two brothers.

For review (lots of historical and quite a few from Bloomsbury this week):

The Horse Road by Troon Harrison. Combining history and the horse; could tick lots of boxes for both of us.  It's set in 102BC in Central Asia during the Chinese invasion.  And it's intended to be an equestrain adventure with a 13 year old girl as the main character.  Looking forward to this. From Bloomsbury, this one's already been in store for months.

The Broken Road by BR Collins.  Yes, two books with 'road' in the title. Another historical teen novel from Bloomsbury, this one's about the Children's Crusades in 1212.

Scarlet by AC Gaughen. Will scarlet is a she and retells the story (romantically) of Robin Hood. You know me, always like a bit of gender mix-ups. It was published this month by Bloomsbury.

Velvet by Mary Hooper. A 16 year old laundress gets mixed up with a medium who speaks with the spirits. Something caught my eye on this one but I'm not sure what it is....This is being published by Bloomsbury in July.

And speaking of 'seeing', next up is The Seeing by Diana Hendry.  It's about a teen who has 'second sight' and can see 'leftover Nazis' and he and some friends decide to root them out.  It starts out as a game but ends up as something else. It is said to be thrilling and disturbing.  Little M says the cover makes her think of ghosts.  For me, it looks like Harry Potter. This is being published by Bodley Head in July.

Then we have thieves. Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter is the second in the Heist Society series from Orchard.  We haven't read the first book but the central character is Kat, a high class art thief. This one involves a Cleopatra gem and curses.  Reminds me a bit of Nancy Drew and the BBC's Hustle.

And coming out in October from Hodder, we have a proof copy of Obsidian Mirror by Catherine Fisher, author of Incarceron. This one includes finding a killer, stange truths and visiting and changing the past.  Looking forward to this one.

Take a look at the books we got #13

Our thirteenth week of joining in with blogger memes like In My Mailbox (IMM) at The Story Siren  and the new British-based Letterbox Love to share the books that we recently bought, borrowed or received through the post. And what a lot we got got this week (but no still no Smarties)!  But there's a lot that'll take you to the seventies!

 

 

Bought & Gifted to Little M:
We've  gone all retro here - 1970s but with updated covers. From the horsey series read long ago and by an author whose tales we both love - Follyfoot by Monica Dickens. And Iggie's House by Judy Blume - another one from the past with a story about new black neighbours in a white 1960s street. 


Not quite the '70s anymore, we've made it to the 21st century with Raspberries on the Yangtze by Karen Wallace - a coming-of-age novel set not in China but in Canada; Morpurgo calls it Swallons and Amazons for the 21st century!


And another Sophie McKenzie - The Medusa Project: The Set-Up: a story about four teenagers who were implanted with the Medusa gene at birth.


Finds!
Talking of updated covers, we found a proof (seriously!) of Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl with the 2011 cover. Have heard so many good, good things about this but neither of us have read anything by Colfer yet.


For Review:


Three titles for tweens:
A Stallion Called Midnight by Victoria Eveleigh - a story about a wild stallion called Midnight who won't be trained.  What caught our eye most on this one (apart from the horse of course) was that it is inspired by a real horse called Midnight who lived on the island of Lundy.  And watch out, we have an interview with the author and a book giveaway from Orion coming up soon. Being published by Orion next week on 21 June.


Tiger Wars by Steve Backshall - What happens when the predator becomes the prey? This is an action adventure story about two teenagers who become eco-warriors. Steve Backshall is a wildlife and children's presenter. This was recently published by Orion in May.


Black Tide by Caroline Clough. This is a sequel to Red Fever which we have not read but the publisher thinks that Black Tide is also suitable to read on its own. This is another action-adventure story set in Scotland about a boy who needs to do quite a bit of rescuing. Published in June by Kelpies.


And for the olderYA set:
Pushing the Limits by Kate McGarry, another gritty US contemporary being published in the UK by Mira Ink in August. It's about a good girl and a bad boy who have issues and social workers - and they set out to confront their pasts. She was attacked and left scarred. He's a foster child. I suspect this one will be really gritty.


And then from Random House Childrens Publishers:

Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick: The Killing Fields. For those of you who've watched the film, you've got goosebumps right now, haven't you!? My gut feeling is this is going to be a tearjerker the whole way through. It's a fictional account based on the true story of Arn-Chorn-Pond, a boy who survived the atrocities of the Khymer Rouge's Killing Fields in Cambodia in the 1970s. I'm dropping everything else to read this next.  It publishes in August.


Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone.  Described as The Time Traveler's Wife for teens.  A big, bold claim but I don't need to know anything more to give this one a go.  It publishes in October.


Now is Good by Jenny Downham. No, it's not a new Jenny Downham.  It's Before I Die being published under the same title as the film which is coming out (starring Dakota Fanning). Tessa is 16 and this is her 'before-I-die' list.  Number one on the list, is the s-e-x word. It publishes in August.


Thanks for these, Random House, but please can I have a box of tissues now? No, instead they've sent me a whole box of fun.  Look:


Muddle and Win: The Battle for Sally Jones by John Dickinson - Time for a light read and a laugh now. This is a funny story about having lifetime deedcounters. You get points added and deducted based on the deeds you do and your final score decides whether you go to heaven or hell.  But there's a real weird battle going on in Sally Jones' head. It publishes in August.


And from Vintage, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Needs no introduction but this is one of the titles from Vintages new Children's Classics series which launches in August.

Take a look at the books we got #12

Welcome to our twelfth week of joining in with blogger memes like In My Mailbox (IMM) at The Story Siren  and the new British-based Letterbox Love. Here we all share the books that we recently bought, borrowed or received through the post.

 

"Wow!" said Little M when she saw the cover of this book.  She even stopped what she was doing to have a good look at it.  Praise indeed for Ruth Eastham's The Messenger Bird, a book that we were delighted to win. The Messenger Bird is a story about a boy who is given a clue that was written during Word War II. This clue could lead to a trail that will help him to resuce his father. For any of you didn't have a look, The Messenger Bird blog tour was excellent, lots of interesting information all the way through it. Thanks to Scholastic for this copy.

And for review, Changeling. There's been a lot of hype around this as it's best-selling Philippa Gregory's YA debut. It’s 1453 and Isolde is being accused of witchcraft. Thank to Simon & Schuster for a review copy. I'm very curious about the plot and hope that Changeling lives up to the high expectations set by the hype.

Letterbox Love logo designed by Casey from Dark Readers.

Take a look at the books we got #11

Welcome to our eleventh week of joining in with blogger memes like In My Mailbox (IMM) at The Story Siren  and the new British-based Letterbox Love. Here we all share the books that we recently bought, borrowed or received through the post.

This week it's been really sunny and a lot reading has been done outside.  so, we've taken the books to the grass!

Letterbox Love books on the grass!

We bought:

The One Dollar Horse by Lauren St John – what can we say.  The title just gives it away.  And of course, Little M is a die-hard Lauren St John fan too.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins – we’ve both read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire and seen the movie – all this month. So, this one was inevitable….How great to be able to read the whole trilogy pretty much in one go!

We borrowed from our local public library:

Flip by Martyn Bedford - it's received lots of book award nominations and is about a boy who wakes up in somebody else's body.

Out of Shadows by Jason Wallace was a 2010 Costa winner. It's about schoolboys dealing with Zimbabwe's newly created independence in the 1980s.

We won:

Secrets of the Henna Girl by Sufiya Ahmed which takes on the heavy issue of forced marriages among teen girls. Thanks to Federation of Children's Book Groups and Puffin.

We received for review:

A Little, Aloud for Children edited by Angela Macmillan (from David Fickling Books - thanks!).  This is an anthology of extracts, poems and short pieces that are intended to be shared by reading aloud. It includes Neil Gaiman, Benjamin Zephaniah and Shakespeare. The idea is that all age groups can enjoy this book so in one sense, you could call it a real crossover title! Reading aloud is exactly what we’re planning on doing. It is being published in the UK on 7 June 2012 and all royalties will go to The Reader Organisation, a charity that works to connect both people and literature.

Hollow Pike by James Dawson (from Indigo/Fierce Fiction especially for Little M to review- thanks). It's about a teenage girl, witchcraft and the woods after dark.  Sounds scary to me. James Dawson has been nominated for the 2012 Queen of Teen award.

(the Letterbox Love logo was designed by Casey from Dark Readers)

Take a look at the books we've got #10

Weekly memes are a great way to share the books you're reading and to find out what books other people are reading too. We love taking part in them and there are two on Sundays that we particularly like: In My Mailbox and a 4 week old UK based Letterbox Love.

We have a first this week! 2 copies of Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins in the house this week and they're already both being read at the same time (1 copy was bought for Little M as a gift and 1 copy was borrowed from a friend).  For those who don't know, it's the second title in The Hunger Games trilogy.

And we won a copy of All Fall Down by Sally Nicholls  (thanks to History Girls blog and Marion Lloyd Books); it came with a postcard too.It's a real-life dystopian of sorts as it is based in the historical setting of 1349 and The Black Death in England.  This was on our wishlist so we're delighted.

For review we received two titles that have been published by Oxford University Press this month (thanks OUP Children's!):

1) White Dolphin by Gill Lewis (author of the acclaimed Sky Hawk which Little M really enjoyed).  Lewis' stories have animals at their heart but are all about people, friendships and adventure too. 

2) Under the Cherry Blossom by Maya Healy which is set in Kai Province, Japan in 1216 and tells a story of two sisters whose family has been murdered and they have to disguise themselves as servants. This is the first book in a quartet. Book 2 in this quartet looks like it has been published simultaneously.

Take a look.....at the books we've got #9

Weekly memes are a great way to share the books you're reading and to find out what books other people are reading too. We love taking part in them and there are two on Sundays that we particularly like: In My Mailbox and a 3 week old UK based Letterbox Love.

This week, we're heading into new reading territory. And both books take us westward ho to California!  A coincidence or what?!

Both books received for review:

Emma Hearts LA by Keris Stainton (Orchard): Emma's mum is moving them to LA.  Emma's not too keen but her aspiring-actress sister Bex is all up for it. A love story, not our usual sort of read, but Keris Stainton's honest humour have made me curious about reading this.

 Saving June by Hannah Harrington (Mira Ink): teenagers, a dead sister, an urn of ashes, mysterious boys, a road trip, political protests, and a soundtrack too. The kind of book I've not read for years, this'll be interesting!

Thanks Orchard and Mira Ink.

Take a look....at the books we've got #8

Weekly memes are a great way to share the books you're reading and to find out what books other people are reading too. We love taking part in them. In My Mailbox (IMM) is hosted over at The Story Siren every Sunday and a new Letterbox Love has started up in the UK too.

We have a real mix of books this week - and as you can see, we've already got stuck in!

Wonder by RJ Palacio.  The reviews on this have been so compelling, we were just waiting for the paperback to come out (hardbacks are usually so much more expensive) but The Book People were doing a good deal on it - so I bought it as a treat for Little M.  As you can see, I only have the cover here.  Little M's already so absorbed in it that she's taken Wonder off with her! She's pegging it for awards.

Then we won a competition and received three picture books from Piccadilly Press - Fergus Goes Crackers and Fergus's Scary Night ( both by Tony Maddox) and Dog Did It (by Lynne Garner & Mike Brownlow). We have some plans for sharing these with some much younger readers than ourselves, probably as part of our Bookstart 20 pledge.  These books came with a slab of Green & Black's Organic Dark Chocolate with orange and spice.  You can see that some of that is missing (heehee). Thanks Picadilly!

We also won a copy of Phil Earle's Saving Daisy from Tesco. This books tackles the issue of self harming in young teenagers and has received very complimentary reviews. So I'm delighted to have a copy of this one.

And then for review, The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross from Mira Ink. I'm very intrigued by this one.  As the cover for Wonder says, "Don't judge a book by it's cover," I'm hoping this will be the case here. It is the first book in Kady Cross' The Steampunk Chronicles.  What caught my eye on this one was that we'd been discussing steampunk as a genre on Twitter (and none of us really knew what it was). So I am very curious about exploring a new genre. 

Take a look at the books we've got #7

How exciting!  We're taking part in the first ever UK based Letterbox Love, a weekly meme where book bloggers share news on the books they've received or are reading.  We're spreading the book love.

Letterbox Love #1

In our Letterbox Love this week:

After the Snow by S.D. Crockett - received from Macmillan for review. "Willo is a straggler kid living in the dangerous and barren landscape of a new ice age...(...)...he discovers that his entire family is gone.(...)...The dog spirit inside his head is his guide and his only companion." So reads the dust jacket - and yes, it is a beautiful dust jacket!  The story sounds fascinating and we're really looking forward to this one.

Artichoke Hearts and Jasmine Skies by Sita Brahmachari.  These were bought to be shared between us on World Book Night last Monday. Little M had heard about Artichoke Hearts a few months back. It was also the winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Award 2011 And then I heard about Jasmine Skies, which is the sequel. Artichoke Hearts is about 13 year old Mira Levenson and how she learns about the different kinds of love that you can hold in your heart. The story for Jasmine Skies is utterly compelling as Mira flies off to India on her own for the first time to discover the secrets of her family's past. Everything about the world of Brahmachari's writing is richly and lovingly textured.  It just makes you feel so warm.

You can read what Sita had to say to us about her writing for teens and adults in her novels here.

And because it's so beautiful and full of wanderlust, here's her trailer for Jasmine Skies: