Bullies, Wonder & A Giveaway

Today is the start of Anti-Bullying Week which runs in the UK from 19-23 November 2012. We Sat Down will be supporting the week with reviews of books where bullying is a central theme in the stories.

First up, is Wonder by RJ Palacio, our contribution to the new anti-bullying book club launched by the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA) and Random House Children’s Publishers.  Plus, there's a chance to win a copy of Wonder by RJ Palacio (see end of post). Wonder has been nominated for the Carnegie medal 2013.

 

Our reviews of Wonder:

Alice (12) was our nominated reader to review Wonder for the Anti-Bullying Alliance book club. Here are her overall thoughts:

About:
The book is about a boy named August who has a deformed face, and what it feels like to be him. The book is told by different people in his life at different points in the story.

Favourite character

Summer because she made friends with August and was one of the first to do it.

Rating

10/10- an excellent read but it can get emotional in places.

Age rating

All ages!


Little M's thoughts:

About:
Wonder is about a boy named August who has a mis-shaped face and is partly deaf. He starts high school without his astronaut helmet and without his mum. August got home-schooled after he was bullied in primary school.

Thoughts:
I would recommend this book to everybody because it shows bullying in school and out of school but there are some kind people too. I think it is an easy read. I found that one of the chapters was different to all the others and I still wonder (wonder - ha!) why. This book is in We Sat Down's Top 20.


Here is a link to M's review of Wonder which was posted earlier this year.

Wonder - UK Giveaway

 

To win a copy of Wonder by RJ Palacio:

 

Leave a comment on this post

 

OR

 

E-mail us: wesatdown2  @  gmail  .  com

with the subject line WONDER

Rules:
1. This giveaway will close at 5pm on Friday 23 November 2012.
2. If you are younger than 13, please get your parent's/guardian's permission to enter.
3. A winner will be selected at random.
4. Winners will be contacted by e-mail for their UK postal address. Please make sure that your entry enables us to contact you.
5. This giveaway is sponsored by ABA and Random House Children's Publishers.

 

What's going on? #9

We haven't done one of these in ages. Not since the start of the 2012-13 school year! So, here's a bit of what's been going on:

Anti-Bullying Week 19 - 23 November 2012
Next week is Anti-Bullying Week in the UK and We Sat Down will be running reviews of books where bullying is central to the stories. Plus, from Monday, there's a chance to win a copy of Wonder by RJ Palacio.

Novels that we'll be posting reviews on during Anti-Bullying week:

Wonder - RJ Palacio

Pigeon English - Stephen Kelman

Hold On - Alan Gibbons

For schools and educators, the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA) has launched a new 'anti-bullying' themed book club withRandom House Children’s Publishers. The book club is open to schools and colleges from the ABA School and College Network. Book club members will be invited to nominate students to review the books. The ABA book club has selected Wonder by RJ Palacio as its launch book for the UK’s autumn term.

Those of you who have read our blog before will know that we are huge fans of this book. So we are delighted to have been invited to take part in this new book club!

Books In

Here are some books that we've received for review. recently. Many of them are proofs for books that'll be out in spring 2013. See if you can spot a big We Sat Down change in there too!

 

 

Where's Dogmatix? from Orion. "Aaaaah, it's like Where's Wally!" yelled Little M. Yep, Where's Wally Asterix style but this time you've got to find the dog. Cool. And you can play a game with it. There are all sorts of scoring options and we were both being very grabby-handy with it trying to spot the most first. But, our close observational skills are severely lacking and we didn't even get close to finishing the first page. Good luck to those with better eyesight and maybe a good one for parents who want to occupy their kids. But, spotting the characters is really hard.

 

Deadly Diaries by Steve Backshall (Orion): This is a heavy, glossy hardback with loads of photos. Basically, it takes you on location with the team from the BBC's Deadly 60 series. It's about animals that are deadly to other animals, not humans. Flicking through it, I've already learned a few things myself. This book is on sale now and you can expect a really wild review from some really wild tweens in a really wild location in December.

 

Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher (Indigo): From the award- winning Annabel Pitcher, Ketchup Clouds is very different but just as good (we both read it and will be jointly reviewing it in the new year). It's an epistolic thriller and is bound to strike all sorts of chords with teen readers - especially older ones. It is out just after Christmas.

 

A Month With April-May by Edyth Bulbring (Hot Key Books): originally published in South Africa as Melly, Mrs Ho and Me, April-May is a light-hearted contemporary schoolgirl comedy set in Johannesburg (with a lot of underlying social commentary too). Out February 2013, expect another joint review from us.

 

Darcy Burdock by Laura Dockrill (Red Fox): I met Laura Dockrill earlier this year when she did a reading from this. She was hilarious. This is a funny tween novel about people who notice. and then notice that they notice. Out March 2013, Little M's reviewing this one.

 

Quantum Drop by Sacci Lloyd (Hodder Children's): I've only read a few chapters of Lloyd's Carbon Diaries 2015 and her writing style in Quantum Drop seems to be slightly different. Still very, very contemporary though. Again, this one is futuristic and looks like a sci-fi type thriller. Out Feb 2013.

 

Spotted the difference yet? It's adult. And it's all because of Tinder Press (Well almost. It might also have to do with some YA stepping over hazy boundaries into what I definitely call adult fiction. It might also have to do with M reading a lot of adult fiction too.). Tinder Press is a new imprint from Headline, who aim to publish diverse fiction that provokes an impassioned response from readers. I couldn't resist. So that's where Snapper (Brian Kimberling) and Amity & Sorrow (Peggy Riley) fit in. What I can say now is, yes, empassioned response to both has been elicited. Not in a teary way. Neither novel is sentimental. Probably a publishing imprint that I'll look out for. Reviews up early next year - from M. Definitely from M. And tagged with Adult Fiction (just in case anyone's being picky with their shelving).

Here are some books that we've won:

How exciting, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Rebecca Stead's Liar & Spy are both signed copies!!!

Pig Heart Boy was the first book that Little M read by Malorie Blackman. This came home from a new school book club which I think has been supported by one of Booktrust's bookgifting schemes. Little M read it in a single afternoon and loved it. "Sad end," she said.

On the Day I Died by Candace Fleming was a Halloween win for Little M - thanks Random House. Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick (now longlisted for the Carnegie 2013) from Orion was won on the wonderful History Girls blog, and The Magic Pony by Patricia Leitch is from Catnip Books.

War & Conflicts - Book List

Sunday was Remembrance Day so  we thought now was a good time to share a list of children's/YA novels about war and conflicts. This is one of Little M's favourite genres too.

Some of these novels are probably best suited to older readers because of the.....uh, violence. Some of these novels are historical fiction, others use the topic of war more loosely to create a different kind of novel. A couple of these books are memoirs.

We have read some of these books and if we've read them recently, there is a link to our review. We've also included a list of books that we haven't read but that have been recommended to us. 

 

Please feel free to include any other books that have war or conflict as a theme in the comments section.

 

 

 

Books we have read:

 

World War I

War Horse – Michael Morpurgo

World War II

Between Shades of Gray – Ruta Sepetys (review 1 & review 2)

Code Name Verity – Elizabeth Wein (review)

The Silver Sword – Ian Serraillier (review)

The Book Thief – Markus Zusak

Hitler’s Angel – William Osborne (review)

Once – Morris Gleitzman

Carrie’s War – Nina Bawden

Goodnight Mister Tom – Michelle Magorian

The Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank (non-fiction/only part read)

The Seeing – Diana Hendry (post-WWII) (review)

Hitlers Canary – Sandi Toksvig

 

Civil Wars & Conflicts

Never Fall Down – Patricia McCormick (review)

Now Is the Time For Running – Michael Williams (review)

A World Between Us – Lydia Syson (review)

A Soldier’s Secret – Marissa Moss (review)

 

Afghanistan

This Is Not Forgiveness – Celia Rees (review)

Billie Templar’s War – Ellie Irving (review)

Shadow – Michael Morpurgo

 

Futuristic/Speculative Wars

Insignia – SJ Kincaid (review)

Katya’s World - Jonathan L. Howard (review)

 

 

Other Recommendations 

We have not read these books. They have been recommended by various people.

 

World War I

Private Peaceful – Michael Morpurgo

Also, see Booktrust's list

 

World War II

Far From My Home, Never to Return - Nadia Seluga (Polish child’s WWII Memoir)

The Endless Steppe - Esther Hauzig’s (memoir)

The Upstairs Room – Joanna Reiss (autobiography, Dutch occupation)

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit – Judith Kerr (Jewish girl in Germany)

At the Firefly Gate – Linda Newbury (romantic ghost story)

The Machine Gunners – Robert Westall

Blitzcat – Robert Westall (about a cat)

Tamar – Mal Peet (Dutch resistance)

Once, Then , Now, After – Morris Gleitzmann quartet (We’ve read Once. It's brilliant!)

Waiting for Anya – Michael Morpurgo

A Medal For Leroy – Michael Morpurgo (inspired by first black officer in British army)

The Chalet School in Exile – Elinor Brent-Dyer

The Great Escape - Megan Rix (pets left by evacuees)

I Am David – Anne Holm (escapee from a communist camp)

The Rabbit Girl – Mary Arrigan (evacuees)

 

Afghanistan

The Breadwinner – Deborah Ellis (11 year old who becomes a breadwinner in Afghanistan)

A Million Angels – Kate Maryon

 

Zimbabwe

Out of Shadows – Jason Wallace

 

India

The Wheel of Surya – Jamila Gavin

 

Futuristic/Speculative

How I Live Now – Meg Rosoff


Non-Fiction: Britain & World War I
Here's a list of non-fiction titles on The Guardian website.


There are more suggestions from Alex Baugh (The Children's War blogger) on her Remembrance Day guest post for us.

Have you read any of these books?
Can you recommend any other books with war and conflict as a theme?

 

 

 

A Soldier's Secret - Little M's review

A Soldier's Secret by Marissa Moss

A Soldier's Secret - Marissa Moss

A Soldier's Secret is one of my favourites because it was based on a true story about Sarah Edmonds, a civil war hero in America in 1861. I don't know if this happened in the true story but this is what happened in the novel. Frank Thompson is a Union Army soldier in America. He is actually a she. Sarah Edmonds is actually Frank Thompson. Sarah hated being a woman because she just got bossed around and treated like a woman, instead of a person/man. So, she runs away and disguises herself as a man. She signs up for the army to help fight the American Civil War. She becomes Private Frank Thompson who is a mail carrier, spy and nurse for the army.

From drills to boggy marches, to blood, guts and gore (like amputations and maggots in wounds - ergh!), this story made me think about what it would have been like to be a part of the American Civil War.

I read this book quite slowly (for me - 2 weeks) because I had homework. But, I found that I enjoyed it more because the story stayed with me for longer.

I would recommend this book to people who are fans of war novels set in the nineteenth or twentieth century. If you are interested in books where women want to fight in a war, you might be interested in this novel. This book reminded me of a book called Scarlet because of the fact that a girl dresses up as a boy when they're not meant to do so.

I am happy to say that A Soldier's Secret by Marissa Moss has been nominated for the Amelia Bloomer award for young people's books that are about women striving  for equality.


Publication details:
Amulet, September 2012, New York, paperback, hardcover

This copy: uncorrected proof received for review from Abrams & Chronicle Books.

Remembrance Day - Alex Baugh from The Children’s War

Alex Baugh runs The Children's War blog which holds an extensive collection of books about children and teenagers and Word War II. We're delighted that Alex has joined us (all the way from New York) for a special Remembrance Day guest post.

 

******

 

“Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure”

- Abraham Lincoln

 

In 1918, on the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour, the Armistice ending World War I, the war to end all wars, was signed between the Allies and Germany. The date became a nation holiday called Armistice Day, set aside so that nations to remember and honor those who lost their lives on the battlefields and in the trenches.

Sadly, World War I wasn’t the war to end all wars and twenty-one years later, the world was at it again. Six years later, World War II finally ended. In the United States, Armistice Day was changed to Veterans Day, a day to honor all veterans of the armed services, the fallen as well as those who are still living, and those who are still serving. In the British Commonwealth nations, Armistice Day was changed to Remembrance Day, a day honor those who fell in battle in all wars.

Here are some of my favorite books for helping young people understand the meaning and importance of Veterans’ Day and Remembrance Day:

 

The Unknown Soldier by Linda Granfield

The Poppy Lady: Moina Belle Michael and Her Tribute to Veterans by Barbara Elizabeth Walsh, illustrated by Layne Johnson

Veterans Day by Marlene Targ Brill, illustrated by Qi Z Wang

Remembrance Day by Molly Aloian

Remembrance Day by Jane Bingham

 

And here are some of my favorite stories about the men, women and even animal soldiers:

World War I Stories:

 

 

War Game: Village Green to No-Man’s Land by Michael Foreman

Truce: the Day the Soldiers Stopped Fighting by Jim Murphy

Christmas in the Trenches by John McCutcheon

And the Soldiers Sang by J. Patrick Lewis

The Christmas Truce by Carol Ann Duffy

War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

Soldier’s Game by James Kilgore

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

 

World II Stories:

 

 

A Medal for Leroy by Michael Morpurgo

The Diary of a World War II Pilot by Dennis Hamley

The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins, a World War II Soldier by Walter Dean Myers

Coming in to Land by Dennis Hamley

Code Talker: A Novel about the Navajo Marines of World War Two by Joseph Bruchas

Robert Moran, Private by Ken Catran

Mare’s War by Tanita Davis

Prisoner of Dieppe: World War II by Hugh Brewster

Behind Enemy Lines: World War II by Carol Matas

Fly Boy by Eric Walters

 

- by Alex Baugh, The Children's War

 

Ghost Knight - Little M's review

Ghost Knight by Cornelia Funke

Ghost Knight by Cornelia Funke

Ghost Knight is about a boy named John Whitecroft who is sent to boarding school. He says he saw three ghosts on horses. No one believes him, but one girl named Ella Littlejohn does believe him. Ella’s grandmother, Zelda takes tourists on ghost walks and tells them about the ghosts, like the gray lady and the young apprentice in the mansion who had died at a young age. The one thing though that neither the three know about is that ghosts can come back alive. John summons a courageous ghost knight to help him defend himself from the three ghosts on horses.

This novel was a little frightening. It scared me; only a bit though. It was a type of scare I have never felt. Not a scare-me-to-death like the  film Woman in Black (“shiver runs now down my spine”) but more like it-makes-you-think-could-they-actually-be-real type of scare. And what would it be like to see a ghost?

People who like ghosts or stories about ghosts, this will be right up your street. I think most kids around the age of 11/12 will really enjoy it because the main character is 11 and he goes off on an adventure on his own. Not just kids who are 11/12 or ghost fans will like this but people who like the supernatural or the Young Bond books (Silverfin by Charlie Higson) may like it too.

Warning! This book contains the supernatural, ghosts, toads, mystery, a little adventure (but not much) and history (Might be fake? But anyway).

 

Publication details: Orion, 4 October 2012, London, hardback

This copy: uncorrected proof received for review from the publisher

 

 

 

CILIP Carnegie 2013 longlist

 The CILIP Carnegie 2013 longlists were announced yesterday. It was a very long list indeed but, purely based on my own reading and a rushed glance of the judging criteria, I think there are quite a few books on it that will form an exciting and strong shortlist; one where judges will be splitting hairs for a winner.

The CILIP Carnegie medal recognises and awards outstanding books for children. They may not be the most popular books but so many of them are truly entertaining and absorbing reads; I've bought books from this list as gifts for both children and adults this year. 

From the 70 odd titles, we had/have copies of 13 books on this year's long list. We've completed reading 9 of them (Little M – 1; M – 8). Here's what we thought of them:

Titles 1-6: I'd be happy to see all of these on the shortlist and recommend them to adults as well as teen readers. All of these books were listed on our own Top 20 Books for Feb-Sept 2012 and each one is extraordinary in its own way. Titles 1-4 are probably more suited to older readers while 5 &6 are wonderful for readers of any age:

1. Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner (Hot Key Books)

2. After the Snow by S.D. Crockett (Macmillan Children's Books)

3. All Fall Down by Sally Nicholls (Marion Lloyd Books)

4.Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (Electric Monkey)

5. Wonder by R.J. Palacio (Bodley Head)

6. The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket by John Boyne (Doubleday Children's Books)

Titles 7-9: we have read these, enjoyed them and would recommend them:

7. The Seeing by Diana Hendry (Bodley Head)

8. Hitler's Angel by William Osborne (Chicken House)

9. This is NotForgiveness by Celia Rees (Bloomsbury)

 

Titles 10 -13: we haven’t finished reading these for all sorts of reasons:

10.Dying To Know You by Aidan Chambers (Bodley Head)

- really enjoyed the first couple of chapters but think Little M might like to read this at some point before me. I think it'll be very good.

 

11.The Broken Road by B.R. Collins (Bloomsbury)

- still reading this, but quite slowly.

12.Jasmine Skies by Sita Brahmachari (Macmillan Children's Books)

- haven't finished Artichoke Hearts first which is this novel's prequel

13.Saving Daisy by Phil Earle (Puffin Books)

 - not my thing

 You can see the rest of the 2013 longlist on the Carnegie website.

 

 

 

 

Knife Edge - M's Review

Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman

 

Knife Edge is the second novel in Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses sequence. If you haven’t read Noughts & Crosses, you can read my review here. Please note that there are spoilers for Noughts & Crosses from the third paragraph onwards in this review of Knife Edge.

Billed by some as a dystopian novel, Knife Edge doesn’t read like one for me. For me, it's much more like a gritty contemporary crime novel for teens. The only apparent aspect that is speculative in Knife Edge is that domination by race is reversed – so blacks (Crosses) over whites (noughts).  While this was interesting in the first book, Noughts & Crosses, it feels a bit repetitive in Knife Edge.

 

SPOILER ALERT!! SPOILER ALERT!!! DO NOT read on if you wish to avoid small spoilers for the first novel, Noughts & Crosses.

Knife Edge (Noughts & Crosses #2) by Malorie Blackman

 

Knife Edge is a story about loneliness, revenge, discrimination and motherhood. It continues Sephy’s story. In Noughts & Crosses, her story ran parallel to Callum’s story. In Knife Edge, her story runs parallel to Jude’s, Callum’s brother. Sephy is now a single teen mother estranged from her powerful Cross family, and she has to get on with her life.  Jude, is a terrorist in hiding, he wants revenge – and he’s desperately lonely.  

Like Noughts & Crosses, Knife Edge is written from the different characters' points of view. But in the last sections of the novel, the story is also told from Jasmine and Meggie’s perspective, Sephy and Callum’s mothers respectively. The novel is also divided up into sections which are titled by colours that make up a rainbow. Rainbows and mothers are interweaved themes that run through Knife Edge and these could make very interesting discussions for reading groups.

Malorie Blackman describes Noughts & Crosses as being her novel about love while Knife Edge is her novel about hate. I don’t see it this way. Yes, Noughts & Crosses might be about love but that is not what stood out for me most. And yes, there is definitely hate in Knife Edge. A lot of hate and some of the characters are truly hateful. But I would describe Knife Edge as being the book about mothers and how motherhood affects their lives and the choices they make: Jasmine, Meggie and now Sephy too (remember, she’s a teenage mum).

Aspects of Knife Edge's plot and particularly the storytelling from the mothers' perspectives reminded me of Sindiwe Magona's novel, Mother To Mother, which told the fictionalised account of a high-profile racial killing in Cape Town.

The ending to Noughts & Crosses shocked me, and if shock factor is what you’re after, Knife Edge will deliver. There are plenty of shockers in it. I didn’t like that but, of course, that might be the point of the Noughts & Crosses sequence – racial discrimination is not a happy life. Nor is any form of discrimination. More and more, I’ve started to notice that the treatment of women by men in the Noughts & Crosses sequence so far is vile. another dimension to explore in reading groups...

On a more positive note, the Noughts and Cross characters alike make some awful choices that impact badly on themselves and others around them. Blackman doesn’t impose her views on the story and it’s left up to the reader to deal with the moral issues that form the backbone of the sequence. But for me, Knife Edge is a bit too dark and gloomy.

Publication details:

Corgi, 2012 (new edition), London, paperback

 This copy: received for review from the publisher

A Monster Calls - M's Review

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

 

A Monster Calls is about thirteen year old Conor whose divorced mother has terminal cancer. He has to sort a lot of things out for himself, there are bullies at school, and he has a controlling grandmother. On top of all this, Conor has a recurring nightmare but one night this is replaced by a new (but slightly less awful) nightmare. In this nightmare, a huge monster comes to him in the guise of a walking tree. The ‘Monster’ says there are four stories to be told before he can go away. 



A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness

Despite all the rave reviews, A Monster Calls didn’t appeal to either of us. We didn’t like the cover and we didn’t like the premise. And then it won the 2012 Carnegie medal. It still didn’t appeal to us but then Walker republished it with a different cover (the one pictured) and I thought we should give it a go.

I’m glad I did. I bought it and read it in one go. It was beautifully and cleverly written. From pretty much the start right through to the finish, this is a poignant read with quite a few chokers in it (however, the premise  does lend itself to tears so perhaps there is some borderline sentimentalism and some readers may find it a bit cloying). For me, I think that one of the charms of good middle grade fiction is that there are multiple layers so that the stories usually offer an innocence that is almost light-hearted but offers older readers poignant depth.

While this novel is very much about a young teenager having to deal with the implicit issues of living with a single mother who is battling with terminal cancer, the little issues about making mistakes, true friends, living with family and facing up to fears also come into play. Conor is a wonderful character from the very first pages. The ‘Monster’ and the telling of Four Stories provide a fairytale structure for the novel which didn’t appeal to me at first but might appeal to young readers or fantasy fans. And it does work quite well (some people will say it works beautifully). My two favourite paragraphs in the book are: an early one about what a grandmother should look like and how she should behave, and a later one featuring a note that Conor’s friend Lily sends to him.

I can see why this novel won the Carnegie. Like RJ Palacio's Wonder, this novel will appeal to young and old alike.

 

Publication details:

2012 edition, Walker, London, paperback

 

This copy: our own