Top Ten Tuesday: Seven series I need to finish

There is something to be said for a good standalone. Or a trilogy. I am likely to finish a trilogy unless I don’t enjoy the first book, but it takes a compelling world and premise to keep me through seven or eight books. 

My unfinished series seem to fall into roughly two categories – 

• Dystopian books popularised after The Hunger Games (which, tbh, seem to be languishing on my shelves)
• Middle-Grade detective books (which I can’t wait to read, but haven’t got through yet) 

Do you notice any trends in your unfinished fiction? Do you plan to finish any of the unread series on your shelves? Let me know in the comments below. Leave your TTT links and I will get back to you ASAP. 

Tomorrow When The War Began by John Marsden

Of all the dystopian books on my shelves, these are the ones I am most likely to finish. This is an Australian YA series written in the 1990s. It was republished and turned into a film in the wake of The Hunger Games. War breaks out. A group of teenagers who were camping when their town was rounded up form a rebellion. 

I am sorry I didn’t finish this back in 2010. It was a good series to read at 21, when I was closer in age to the 18-year-old protagonists. Read these outdoors on a hot summer’s afternoon. 

 

Divergent by Veronica Roth

We all know our factions, we have strong feelings about Tris and Four, but how many of us finished the Divergent trilogy? I read Divergent before it was published in the UK, ran to the bookshop the day Insurgent was released … then never finished it.

 

Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens 

I am working my way through this series at the moment. It is a middle-grade mystery series which is particularly addictive. The clues are spelled out by the fictional detectives in a way which enables the reader to work through the puzzle. 

 

Blood Red Road by Moira Young

I remember this dystopia being well-written. It was set in an unusual world and there were some interesting sibling relationships. 

 

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

This was another US hit which I heard about ahead of the UK release. I liked the concept of building a story around vintage photographs. The story itself didn’t hook me. I’ve read better timeslip novels. I would love to see the Tim Burton adaptation, however, because I can’t think of a better director-novel pairing. 

 

Ruby Redfort by Lauren Child

Ruby Redfort is recruited by top-secret agency SPECTRUM to help them break a secret code. The first book turned into an amazing action-adventure. I would love to return to this series. 

 

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Uglies is centered around a brilliant premise. It is set in a world where everyone is operated on to become beautiful at the age of 16. The world is divided between uglies and pretties. A young girl realises there is more to this set-up than meets the eye, and the further she investigates, the more lies and corruption she finds. I enjoyed Uglies and Pretties, but by Specials, I found the plot a bit melodramatic and difficult to believe. I should return and finish the series because I would like to know how the story ends. 

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Top Ten Tuesday: Five Books to read by the pool

June 21st marks the longest day of summer. We’re in the lightest weeks of the year. What is is about long summer days and contemporary fiction? Suddenly I want something lighter, brighter and totally relatable. 

I like to read outdoors on a lounger, or in the summer house. The swallows are here at the moment and I love looking up from my page to see them diving around like ariel acrobats. Storm Hector aside, we’ve had some lovely weather. Being outside makes me appreciate life and be in the moment. There is something about being in a place with no WiFi. 

Whether you are heading somewhere hot or plan to spend some lazy afternoons outdoors, you need good TBR pile. These five books would make excellent summer reading. 

How To Write A Love Story by Katy Canon 

Tilly has always wanted to be an author like her gran, the bestselling romance novelist Bea Frost. When Gran asks Tilly to write her next romance novel, Tilly is forced to confront the fact she has never been kissed. She sets out with an action plan but finds that real life isn’t like a novel.

Read my review of How To Write A Love Story here. 

 

Floored (Collaborative) 

Six teenagers from different backgrounds are thrown together when they watch a man die in a lift. They meet on the anniversary over the next five years, falling out, falling in love and supporting each other through their different problems. 

Seven of the biggest names in UKYA have joined together to produce an epic novel. It hasn’t been revealed which author wrote which part (the six characters and the narrator.) This is causing huge conversation in the online YA community. 

 

The Bookshop Girl by Chloe Coles

Bennet’s bookshop has always been a refuge for sixteen year old Paige. It is where she can earn some money and escape from her sleepy hometown. When Bennet’s is threatened with closure, Paige is determined to save it. How can she get people interested in their local bookshop. 

I spent 18 happy months working part-time in an independent bookshop. I can’t begin to tell you what that shop meant to me, or what I would have done to save it. Bookselling is different from other branches of retail. The conversations between staff and customers make it about so much more than shifting units. A bookshop can be a community. 

 

The Polka Dot Shop by Laurel Remington 

Everyone is happy about the new non-uniform policy at school except Andy. How is she supposed to compete with the kids who have money for new clothes? Then Andy finds a bag of designer clothes in her mum’s vintage shop. Can she embrace vintage and help to transform the shop into something special? 

Laurel Remington is the author of the hugely readable The Secret Cooking Club books. I am on the blog tour for The Polka Dot Shop and look forward to telling you more ASAP. 

 

Theatrical by Maggie Harcourt 

Hope lands an internship working backstage on a major production. Her plans to work hard and make a name for herself are sidetracked when she meets an insanely talented understudy. What should take centre stage – romance or ambition?

I love stories set in theatres and performing communities. The old-fashioned theatre setting won me over before I had even finished reading the blurb. I have high hopes for this and look forward to telling you more. 

 

What are you reading this summer? Do you read any particular genres over the summer months? Let me know in the comments below.

 

Ten Reasons We Might Fail To Get On With A Book.

Sometimes we don’t want to finish a book. It’s the dirty secret bookworms believe is theirs and theirs alone. If you organised a confessional, people would come. I swear. We get into such a tizz about our DNFs. Can you imagine people behaving the same way over films or computer games? 

My big secrets:

It is OK to dislike a book

It does not mean you are inferior. It does not mean the book is too literary or political or intelligent for you. 

You are not a snob for disliking a writer’s prose. You are not a snob for disliking certain themes. 

You might like it in the future. You might not. Remember – we bring ourselves to fiction. As we change and grow we need different things from our reading. A character who bored you to tears the first time around might be the one you relate to in ten years. They might not. 

Here are reasons I might fail to finish a book. Do you relate to any of these? Let me know in the comments below. 

• A newer book is on our shelves, casting its latest-purchase magic. Even worse? There is a book I do not own but somebody else does. Why is the book I have acquired most recently always the one I want to read? 
• Dull prose sends me to sleep. The end. 
• I bought it for the cover. The shiny, shiny cover which the publisher invested heavily in. Other than that it isn’t my thing. 
• Netgalley made me click-happy and now I am cowering in the face of digital files. 
• Somebody told me I would love this book. It’s a curse. Speak not the fatal words if you want your friends to enjoy the same book as you. 
• It appropriates someone else’s experience. I don’t believe you must live an experience to write about it but you must research and be sensitive to the real thing. 
• I’ve read a-bazillion-and-one books this month. I will never read again. I do not know what reading is. 
• It’s due back at the library so my reading pace has slowed to snailish. Deadlines. Also a curse. 
• Entire GCSES and A-Levels and Degree modules count on me knowing this plot. OK, not relevant right now, but if my understanding of a book is going to be graded my interest in it is nada. Expectations? Curse. 
• My book group chose it. Hence I don’t join book groups. That’s deadlines and expectations and I’m-supposed-to-love-it rolled into one. Albeit with tea and biscuits on the side. 

Five YA Friendships

Here is it again. Valentines, Galentines or Singles Awareness Day – and no I ain’t, now you ask. Whatever name you call it, it is quite probable that by this point you have had enough. Perhaps you need a shoulder to cry on.

This is certainly the case for a lot of YA characters. Without conflict there would be no story.  The poor things endure so much for our entertainment. Thank-goodness for BFF characters. The ones who have been there since childhood and come back no matter what stupid things the main character says in Act 2. This list features some of my favourite YA BFFs, but I would love to know yours. Which friendships did you enjoy reading the most? Who do you secrectly wish was your BFF? Let me know in the comments below.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver – Sam should have died in that car-crash, but she keeps returning to the morning of the accident. Every time she relives her day something changes. Gradually she learns why she has returned, and is forced to challenge the Mean Girl behaviour of her friendship group. Despite their behaviour to other people, I **love** the friendship between Sam and Lindsay. Yes, they are horrible, but they are friends. They love each other and have each other’s backs, and it felt realistic. Popularity is a big issue in schools, and this book told it like it was. Too often fiction tries to turn the reader against popular kids, but Lauren Oliver understood that their friendship could survive without the bullying.

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli – She’s elusive, she is strange and she captures Leo’s attention. Star Girl may not strictly be YA, but it is certainly teen interest. I read it over and over throughout my teens, enchanted by Stargirl. The girl who didn’t want to fit in. The girl who wore handmade clothes and played Ukellele in school. Stargirl is not Leo’s friend at the start of the narrative, but their friendship is the most memorable.

Flying Tips For Flightless Birds by Kelly McCaughrean- Since an incident of bullying in his first year, Finch has insisted he and his twin sister Birdie dress differently, act differently. He thinks this makes their unpopularity ironic. Then Birdie has an accident and Hector Hazzard comes into Finch’s life. I love the relationship between Finch and Hector, and how much Finch learns when he opens himself to other people.

Justin Case by Meg Rosoff – David Case reckons he will die if he doesn’t get to date Agnes. He reckons he will probably die anyway. After saving his little brother from an accident, David becomes convinced Fate has it in for him. With Agnes’s help, he styles himself as a new person in a bid to outwit fate. The friendship I love is between David/Justin and Peter. Peter is the ‘B Story’ friend. Ingeniously, they meet on a running track. No matter how fast Justin tries to outrun Peter, eventually he is forced to face the truth only an honest friend can deliver.

Geek Girl – When Harriet Manners is given an opportunity to model, it is too much for her best friend Nat. All Nat has ever wanted since she was tiny is to work in the fashion industry, and now the opportunity has presented itself to Harriet. Her awkward, totally-geeky best-friend. Nat is fantastic. She admits her feelings and helps Harriet confront arch-bully Alexa. Their friendship reminds us that nothing is more important than our BFF.

Louise Nettleton

TTT – Bookish Resolutions

It’s a quick one today because I’ve written resolutions, anti-resolutions, goals and reflections, but I love to join in with Top Ten Tuesday. It is one of the best-loved memes of the bookish community and I meet so many different bloggers by taking part. I have reflected on the past year, and written a couple of goals for 2018. It is by no means ten, but these were my top thoughts. Do share your links and tell me how your reading changed across the past year. 

2017

Start a blog – BookMurmuration was born in February 2017 (it moved to WordPress in May). Writing about books taught me to read in more depth, and it gave me a network of bookish people to talk to about my reading. 

 

Read different genres – the genre which widened my perceptions was contemporary YA. Before I stared blogging, I thought it would only be relevant to teenagers. I thought it would be about love-triangles and giggly girls and lipstick. How wrong I was. Everybody was reading Wing Jones. I picked it up in a ‘3 for 2’ and read with my mouth open. I have learned more about writing by reading across a huge range of genres. 2018

Picture Books – At long last, YA readers are discovering Middle Grade thanks to some brilliant promotion and community events on Twitter. There still seems to be an assumption that picture books are only read by children, and adults who pick them on behalf of children. Picture books are one of the greatest pleasures on this planet. They are quick-reads with hidden depth, and some outstanding artists work in this format. Lets see picture books loved by a wider audience! 

 

Literary Fiction – As a teenager, my staple diet was literary fiction. I rediscovered children’s literature when I sorted books in a charity shop aged 19/20, and it became my passion during the children’s literature module of my degree. I love literary fiction too, and the depth of understanding I have has increased ten-fold between my degree and blogging experience. It would be lovely to feature some on my blog, and I very much enjoyed The Devil’s Highway, which I read over Christmas. Check back for my review on Thursday. 

 

Get to more events – Introverts find it difficult to come out of their book pages, but I gained so much last year from an Arvon course, and a couple of events hosted by Seven Stories. I’ve already booked for the Northern YA Fest at Lancaster Uni, and a talk with Brian Connaghan and Sarah Crossan hosted by Seven Stories. Both of these events are *free* – if you’re in travelling distance, make sure you don’t miss out!

 

 

 

Ten Books I Hope Santa Brings

 

All I want for Christmas is … well. The answer is pretty obvious. Over the last couple of weeks I have had such lovely book post, I feel Christmas has come already. All I want now is a new pair of PJs and some bath bombs, and I’m set for a good time. 

There are always books I want. I noticed how many picture books made my list. Why is it I feel guilty about stocking up on picture books but not on MG? Picture books not only give us access to beautiful art and visual literacy, they contain some of the most concise and beautifully written stories available. 

Here are ten books I want Santa to bring. In the meantime, I wish all TTTers who celebrate a Merry Christmas. Have a good one guys. The Snow Lion by Jim Helmore – lonely Caro befriends The Snow Lion. They explore together, but Caro must step out on her own. A story about self-belief. I wanted this book before I knew what it was about. The colour pallete is beautiful and I love the art work. The effect of the story and illustrations together reminds me of Raymond Briggs, and I am a HUGE Briggs fan.

 

Daemon Voices by Phillip Pullman – Theory of story always interests me. It is lovely to see a well-known author publishing a book of essays. Authors, especially those as well-established as Pullman, are the people who have spent the most time writing. We need to preserve their knowledge. It’s a safe bet that if I receive this, I will disappear and not be seen until New Year.

 

Tell Me A Dragon by Jackie Morris – I collect books illustrated by Jackie Morris. This is a new collection. I have three so far. I have always loved her Christmas card illustrations, and liked her art on Pinterest. Tell Me A Dragon is a great example of how one thing can be imagined infinite different ways.

 

The Lost Words by Rob Macfarlane and Jackie Morris – One of the most successful and reprinted books this Christmas. Since we moved back to Cumbria I have had a chance to see so much more of the natural world – starlings queuing for migration and great murmurations. I hope this book will reconnect people with these things, and get them outdoors.

 

Witch Born by Nicholas Bowling – I’ve written about this a number of times this year, but not got round to buying it yet. This is one to catch up on.

 

Beetle Boy by M.G. Leonard – Amy from GoldenBooksGirl has told me to read Beetle Boy 120 times. We are going to choose books for each other at the start of the New Year, but you know what? She’s talked about this one so many times she won’t have to choose it for me. Amy, you’ve given me the bug. 😉

 

Petra – ‘I never thought I’d find a rock cute.’ I had this conversation with another book blogger, but it is true. Petra steals your heart from the front cover. This is one I should have bought in the Tate. All the arty-types around me were reading up on tone, and texture and things I won’t even pretend to properly understand. Me? I was squealing over Petra.

 

Leaf – A polar bear is carried to the woods. He makes wings of leaves and tries to fly home. Another book which has been on my wishlist all year. Occasionally a video comes up on Twitter which shows just how divine the artwork is. It captures how many shapes and textures there are in the forest.

 

The Atlas of Monsters – Fiction? Non-fiction? This is a reference book of all the fatastic beasts known to man-kind. As a fan of folklore, of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and of fantasy in general, I have fallen in love with this book. 

 

Moon by Britta Teckentrup – This book captures woodland animals and the atmosphere of a walk in the forest. It is beautiful. This is another book which comes up regularly on my Twitter timeline, and I would love a finished copy. As it is not out until 2018, Santa would have to break-the-law or bribe a publicist with gingerbread to obtain a copy. 

 

 

Ten[ish] Books I loved in 2017

2017 has been a stellar year for children’s literature. Picking 10 books was a challenge I was not worthy of, so I have divided my choices into MG and YA. Even then a sneaky extra worked its way onto the YA list. I left one or two off the MG list, but *deleting* an extra impossible.

To narrow the choice further, I decided only to include:

• novels – there have been some great short story anthologies, but I will give these a seperate post
• Books with a 2017 publication date

 

Picking favourites is so subjective, and difficult – are you judging the most literary? Those you enjoyed most? Those which best suit their target audience?  I have called this ‘books I loved in 2017’ rather than ‘favourite books’.  There are still books I could include, but I am pleased with the range of books I settled on, and hope no offence is caused. 

I would like to highlight the number of debut authors on this list. Every book on this list is fantastic, but it is especially encouraging to see that children’s literature is producing new talent.

Thank-you to every author on this list for writing me a wonderland. 

 

Middle Grade

The Midnight Peacock by Katherine Woodfine

Kick by Mitch Johnson

Michael’s Spear by Hilton Pashley

Nevermoor – The Trials Of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

The Elephant Thief by Jane Kerr *

A Girl Called Owl by Amy Wilson *

The Amber Pendant [The Rose Muddle Mysteries]  by Imogen White

Letters To The Lighthouse by Emma Carroll 

Evie’s Ghost by Helen Peters

Where The World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean

 

Young Adult 

A Pocketful Of Crows by Joanne Harris

The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed

The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli

A Semi-Definitive List Of Worst Nightmares by Krystal Sutherland

One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M McManus

S.T.A.G.S by MA Bennett

Piglettes by Clemantine Beauvais

The Stars At Oktober Bend by Glenda Millard

Spellslinger by Sebastien De Castell

Ink by Alice Broadway *

The Jungle by Pooja Puri*

 

• On old blog – link will take you off this site.

 

What is your top read of 2017? Let me know in the comments below.

10 Wintery Reads

 

The Polar Bear Explorer’s Club by Alex Bell: frost faires, Snow Queens and pygmy dinosaurs. A group of explorers trek across the snowy Icelands. Will Stella Starflake Pearl survive when she is separated from her group? This year’s tale of wintery magic. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time, and plan to read it in one sitting with generous helpings of hot chocolate. 

 

Father Christmas and Me by Matt Haig *whispers* I’ve already read this, and it is fantastic. I love Matt Haig’s take on Father Christmas’s home, and the topical themes of fake news and divisive reporting. Sounds serious? Don’t be fooled? There’s plenty of Drimwickery – that’s elvish magic – and Spickle Dancing to keep things light-hearted. 

 

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black I read the first chapters on ReadersFirst and am now seriously excited to read this book. The twins always knew their sister Vivi was different. They didn’t know she was heir to the elfish throne. Not until the elf king came and killed their mother. Wintery? Holly Black captures the darkness of fairytales perfectly, and I think that is never more atmospheric than in winter.

 

The Lost Boy by Christina Henry This has been on my shelf since late summer, and lots of my Twitter friends have read it recently. Peter Pan is the ultimate Panto. I think the original story is as good today as it was in the early 1900s, and look forward to reading this origin story for Captain Hook.

 

Confessions Of An Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire Gregory Maguire was one of my favourite authors in my actual teens. This was my favourite – it crosses the story of Cinderella with the history of the tulips in Amsterdam. 

 

Barefoot On The Wind by Zoe Marriott One of my favourite reads of 2017. Beauty And The Beast YA style. She’s a rebel who doesn’t want to marry. He lives in the middle of a cursed forest. Beautiful and bold, I love this book on so many levels.

 

Winter Magic (ed. Abi Elphinstone) A great collection of stories by some of the best children’s authors at work in the UK, this book dragged the seasonal story out of it’s slump (Am I the only one who found winter stories too predictable before Winter Magic?) There is something for everyone here – snow dragons and Victorian frost fairs, haunted kirks buried beneath the snow and magic colouring books. 

 

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens My GCSE teacher said something about Great Expectations which remains true. If you only remember one fictional character for the rest of your life, it will be Miss Havisham. Try me. Miss Havisham will haunt you. 

 

Kit’s Wilderness by David Almond The book starts where it ends. Christmas eve, when the children who were believed dead ‘come back to life’ and walk through the town. The most interesting thing is what the text says about story structure, and the role of stories themselves.

 

The Tailor Of Gloucester My favourite Beatrix Potter. I’ve associated with Christmas since I was knee-high. We had the cartoon recorded (yes, on actual tape), and it ended with a rendition of The Sussex Carol. The story is set one Christmas eve, when a tailor fears he will be ruined because he is too ill to go out and buy silk twist to finish a wedding suit. The resident mice are aware of his plight … 

 

What are you reading this winter? Any old favourites? Let me know in the comments below.

Top Ten Tuesday: Autumnal Covers

Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s theme is autumnal covers. 

Autumn in all its colours. Orange and red and black and purple and blue. Not so obvious, the last three, until you think of crisp skies and crows feathers. Autumn is my favourite season, but it also my favourite publishing season. Summer relationships and sparkling seas? Over like a dropped ice-cream cone. It’s all about bonfires and sorcery and long dark nights indoors with a book. 

Here are some of my favourite autumnal covers of 2017. Regular readers have heard about some of the books so many times, that instead of a round-up as such, I will focus only on the covers. 

Images go top to bottom for each row. The Invincibles And The Beasts Of Bramble Wood by Caryl Hart. Illustrated by Sarah Warburton: autumn begins with blackberry picking, so I was sold on this one from the title. I love how the traditional Halloween black-and-orange is broken with splashes of bright green. It looks spooky in a really cosy way, just scary enough for a middle-grade audience. 

 

Hide And Seek by Anthony Browne: This is the most sophisticated, beautiful autumn you have seen, and the most beautifully observed. This book shows how quickly a child in the woods goes between joy at a game, and fear at being ‘alone’ in such a large outdoor space. At the strange noises, and things which look like they might be other than they are. Read my review here. 

 

Vlad The World’s Worst Vampire by Anna Wilson Another spooky-but-safe middle-grade read. Vlad’s cartoon style face is ridiculously cute, while the spindly trees hint and bats hint at some spooks and scares.

 

Curse Of The Werewolf Boy by Chris Priestly More Halloween, more orange. Literally more orange. This must be the most orange cover I have ever seen, but look how spooky those ghoulish faces are against it’s backdrop. 

 

The Wizards Of Once by Cressida Cowell. Exactly how beautiful is this, with its purple cover and the lettering like it was burnt in by a sparkler or a wand? The crow in the centre is intriguing. I know wizards and warriors feature in this story, but crows? What is the connection? 

 

A Pocketful of Crows by Joanne M Harris I love the gold border. It reminds me of a historical tapestry. The crows here look as if they are coming in to attack. 

 

Nevermoor: The Trials Of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend And did I mention, it is divine? I can’t stop raving about this book. Morrigan looks like Madeline in negative. It is almost, but not quite, cartoonish, and I love the burst of light around the lettering, as Morrigan has burst out of nowhere. Read my review here. 

 

The Rise Of Wolves by Kerr Thompson A touch autumnal, a touch wintery, I love the detail. The smoking chimney pot suggests a cosy retreat, while the gathering wolves hint at something deeper going on. 

 

Witch Born by Nicholas Bowling How divine is this cover? It hints at hedge magic, gypsy magic, with the dried flowers and the detail of the crow’s earring. I love the palette. It manages to be a bold colour with a subtle palete, and I think that is quite special. 

 

Leaf by Sandra Dieckmann This manages to be autumnal with very few splashes of orange, and I think it is a truer representation of the outdoors as we see it. For all the leaves that turn, there are plenty of evergreens and wheat, not to mention the fact the leaves don’t turn at once like someone turned on the Technicolour. Love the texture and brush-stokes, something which adds to the realistic effect.

 

Do you have any favourite covers this autumn? Any all time favourites? Let me know in the comments below.

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Characters In Touch With Worlds Within This World

I love stories which feature hidden worlds. Worlds within this world. Blame Hagrid. Since I first took a trip down Diagon Alley with Hagrid and Harry, I have loved the idea that more than one world can exist within the same physical space. The most magic moment for me is when Hagrid taps that brick wall. An everyday ordinary object, made extraordinary by the secret it conceals.

Every protagonist visits a new world, at least figuratively speaking. A new experience changes their flawed point of view. When that new world is magical, it  plays up the truth of new experiences around the corner. 

Here are ten stories I’ve really enjoyed. Ten worlds I have loved.  

 

A Girl Called Owl by Amy Wilson 

A favourite Middle Grade read of 2017. Owl has always made ice appear from her fingertips. When she learns who her father is, she sets out into a world where the seasons are controlled by a council of leaders, and brought into being by magic. 

 

In Darkling Wood by Emma Carroll 

Alice’s brother needs a heart transplant. Alice is packed off to stay with her Grandmother Nell. Alice meets a girl nobody has heard of. Flo shows her the secrets of Darkling Wood, the wood Nell wants to have chopped down. I am so due a reread. With Carroll’s next novel out in January, a cosy week in rereading her novels sounds like a very happy way to spend Christmas.

 

The Thirteen Treasures by Michelle Harrison

I love, love and triple love Harrison’s work. Tanya is always in trouble, but it’s not her fault the fairies stalk her. Sent to stay with her Grandmother, Tanya explores the woods, and starts to uncover the secrets hidden in her Grandmother’s past. Harrison’s faeries are descended straight from folklore. Divine.

 

Gabriel’s Clock by Hilton Pashley

Half-Angel, Half-Daemon Jonathan is in danger. Attacked in the middle of the night by strange monsters, Jonathan is sent to his Grandfather in the magical village of Hobbes End. The final part of the Hobbes End trilogy is out this autumn, and I can’t wait. This was a real favourite when I worked as a bookseller, and I can’t wait to tell people all about it. Look out for my spot on the blog tour in November. 

 

The Rose Muddle Mysteries by Imogen White 

Another favourite Middle Grade read this year. Rose has never had a family, so imagine her surprise when a wealthy lady gives her a locket to try on and says she is a long lost descendant. The only trouble is the dark shadows Rose saw when she tried the locket on, and the immediate murder of her benefactor. This is a great new series, set in a world reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes, with added folklore. Brill. 

 

Ink Heart by Cornelia Funke 

Meggie’s father can read characters out of books. The only trouble is, they don’t always want to be let back in. Every character has their own agenda. A well known series, which highlights that books really do take us into whole new worlds. 

 

Ned’s Circus Of Marvels by Justin Fisher 

Ned has always thought of himself as ordinary. Average. Pretty boring. Then he learns about the veil which divides our world from a magical one, the circus which acts a front to keep dangerous magical beings from attacking the human world, and the people who would destroy the veil. Totally action packed, totally pacy, I loved the unique world and the idea of engineering as a form of magic. 

 

The Dream Snatcher by Abi Elphinstone 

Earth magic has always existed. Moll Pecksniff lives with a tribe of gypsies, who are among the last people to be in touch with it. The Witch Doctor Skull would destory the old magic, and turn the world over to darkness. Moll has a special ability, one which she inherited from her parents. It might help her save the old magic. I love Moll. She’s headstrong, but her heart is in the right place and she is brave. Also love her wild cat Gryff. 

 

The Boy Who Went Magic by A. P. Winter 

There’s no such thing as magic … everyone says so, except Bert accidentally activates a

 

magical mirror, and learns the princes plans. I love this book. It has airships and pirates, magical mirrors and hidden lands. 

Read my Review for more info.

 

 

Bad Dreams by Anne Fine 

Mel likes to be left alone. She lives through the books she reads. Then her class teacher puts her in charge on new girl Imogen. That’s fine, Mel reasons. Imogen can sit with her in the library. The only problem is, Imogen can’t so much as touch a book without yelping in pain. I LOVE this book. I loved it as a child, and reread it often alongside Charm School. 

 

Are there any worlds within this world that you love? Do you have a TTT link? Post in the comments below.