Nayu's Reading Corner

Anyway, the winner of Competition 2 is....

Jo!!!!

My random way of picking this week was 'eeeny meeeny miny mo'. A very sophisticated method of random selection. (Me? Laughing? No. Come on how else was I going to pick a winner from 3? I don't have a friend on hand to pick a number).

Jo those 3 Kate Elliott books will be winging their way to you...soon.

Winner of the two books by B R Collins in Competition 3 is....

Raelena! (throuthehaze)

I will be in touch with you shortly :)

Competition 4 to win Merlin books is still going. New competitions will be posted in the next week or two.

Anyone still waiting for a prize - well most of you live in America and sea mail takes time :)

This could be the only time I drive one and I love it. It's quiet, very responsive...I love my little Ford Fusion but oh wow this car is awesome!

Maybe if I get published and earn enough I can get one...

Pencils: 5
Smiles: 5
Tissues: 0.5 (it has a happy ending)
Yunaleska's recommended rating: ♥♥♥♥♥

No, it isn't a typo. I really did request a book from 2004. Ok perhaps I didn't realise it was quite that old, but it looked a nice story. And it is :)

The title says it all, but the story follows an adventurous snail who wants to travel the world. Naturally the other snails don't understand her. Yes, I was very pleased that the snail is a girl. For some reason, a lot of picture book I've read either don't say if the animal is male/female or it ends up as a male. We need more female characters.

Anyway, back to the story. This snail has an ingenious way of attracting attention of someone who can help fulfil her dream. Along comes a whale, and together they travel the world. I can quite easily spend a long time looking at the illustrations through their travels: they are rich in colour and every animal has its own personality. The personality isn't written in words, but it was easy to imagine whether the animals were cheeky, a little slow, jokers etc just by the way they are drawn.

Unfortunately for the travelling duo not all goes as planned. The whale gets beached. Now, logically a little snail won't be able to help a huge whale get back into the water when there is no water nearby. If the snail had carried water herself, the whale would have expired by the time the beach was full of enough water for it to return to the sea. Thankfully, the clever snail is still getting clever ideas. In the same way that she caught the snail's attention, she ventures off and gets help for the whale.

The funny part was at the end when the other snails decide that they too would like to see the world. I think that the whale will have a job for life!

The text is written in rhyming verse, which would make it ideal for children to learn, and follow on their own after the story has been told a few times. The pictures inspire the imagination and might make the reader laugh (I laughed quite a bit - I think the snail is plucky).

The author Julia Donaldson has her own website here, where you can check out her latest books.

608 pages, Paperback

Review Copy (chained to my bookcase)

Fantasy

Cushions: 5+

Daggers: 1

Paperclips: 3 (adult content but not that often)

Tissues: 3

Yunaleska's recommended rating: ♥♥♥♥♥

As I sit here typing with a sore head (head + shelf = ouch in a way that's not quite a headache, but still painful) I'm smiling at this book. I want to read it again right now!

Note: I wrote this review before reading the cover details of the second book, Wings of Wrath. I came up with the price of magic information without seeing any other review of this and the second book. I just don't want anyone to think I stole their ideas.

This is a page-turning new fantasy trilogy from Celia Friedman. I haven't read any of her other work, but I plan to. Before I get into the story, I'd like to say that this book is about the price of magic. At least that's how I view it. Magic has to cost something, even if it's just the caster getting tired or needing to eat more. Feast of Souls has a clever concept about what the price of magic is - I won't spoil it for you, but it is something which initially didn't affect me as a reader, but as the story progressed with more emotional attachment to the characters, I needed a lot of tissues at the end.

The world within Feast of Souls has magic. People called witches can use magic, but not on a grand scale. Oh and witches are both male and female. Magisters, an elite male group (no females allowed) have a lot of power. They don't even really pay directly for the price of magic. I think the only mini-spoiler I can give is one word: 'consort'. The consort pays the price.

Feast of Souls follows several characters. The first is Prince Andovan, who is technically dead. He embarks on a quest to find out the identity of who he believes is a witch involved with the disease he is afflicted with. Now, for almost no real apparent reason I imagined that Andovan was a spoilt brat with airs and graces. His actions really prove otherwise, and unlike his father who is going mad, he cares about people. He wants to help them, when he knows that he himself can't be helped.

The king, traumatised by his son's death banishes the Magister who was close to him, and hires one who no one has heard of. This particular Magister needs watching in the story. Evil is a word which only begins to describe Magister Kostas's true motives. Poor Queen Gwynofar has to deal with Magister Kostas. Again, I had an image of her in my mind which got shattered when I read the chapters in her point of view. Her marriage was one of convenience. She belongs to a race who have powers as Protectors(some latent) that played a part in the previous war where horrendous creatures roamed the earth. After the birth of her children she was pretty much allowed to do her own thing - the king was happy with this arrangement. Unfortunately, with the arrival of Magister Kosta comes dark times for the Gwynofar. Her own family do what they can, but they can't openly protect her from the king and his new Magister. Can she live up to her duties as a Protector? Hers isn't the only sad tale in this story.

There are other characters, but the one main one I'm keen on is Kamala. A child coming from a horrific background, she knows she has powers. She sets off and forces herself on a hermit Magister, who trains her up as a student. This in itself is unusual, because women just aren't Magisters. The moment when a student becomes a Magister is particularly trying, and women (apparently - the Magisters have a dim view on this) aren't strong enough to face it. Let's just say that Kamala is different. She becomes a Magister, but has to keep her powers hidden from other Magisters because they probably won't accept her in the positive manner which the hermit Magister views her. The problem is, she ends up drawing attention to herself which she's the witness (and also the perpetrator) of an incident involving another Magister. This is not a good thing. Not only is she different in being female, but she wants to discover the identity of her consort.

What I love about Feast of Souls is the concept of the price of magic, how much the characters change and grow (and this is just the first book in the trilogy). It's interesting watching how people, with the wrong influence, can unleash their darker side. And equally, how with keeping the right type of company and gaining encouragement people can find an inner strength to face hardships straight on.

I can happily note that content wise, although there are a few instances of adult relationships (not all consenting adults) it isn't that often and is done tastefully. The title fits the story perfectly, especially once you've finished it and reflected on it. I'm delighted I have the second book which I'll start reading tonight. For magic, intrigue and danger, I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

Like this? Check out Wings of Wrath, the second book in this Magister trilogy.

Celia Friedman has her own website here.

128 pages, Paperback

Review copy

Non-fiction

Ease of reading: 5

Level of information: 5

Pencils: 5

Smiles: 4

Yunaleska's recommended rating: ♥♥♥♥♥

Why do I want to know about rocks and minerals? For that, you'll have to ask my Muse. This book has a key stage 3 & 4 rating (for those outside England that is the level of education for secondary school pupils (and sixth form), which tells me the intended target audience is school children. Keeping that in mind, I believe Rocks and Minerals is suitable for all readers.

This is a subject which could be quite dry, but one that had me laughing away. First of all there are the cool illustrations - as a manga/anime/video game fan, that's the type of style which came to my mind. Each rock and mineral has a picture generally on one page of the book. On the other page the details are as follow:

What makes the book even easier to use and cross reference is the colour coding system. Each of the eight sections have different colours. This are depicted in a row of small coloured squares at the top right of each page full of information. There is a small blob in one square on each page, relating to which section the page is in. Additionally this colour coding system is applied to the background of all the pictures, and on the edge, in the centre of both pages there is a large square, colour coordinated with a simple line drawing of the particular rock/mineral that is on the page.

This is great for ease of reference, and also if students need to learn about the rocks and minerals. They would instantly know which section they are in, which narrows down the type of rock or mineral they could be looking at.

For most people this small book probably holds all the information they would need on rocks and minerals. I like the pull out chart at the back which shows the hardness grading, with a rock or mineral for each level. It is also a good starting point for those interested in exploring the topic further. I wish more reference books could be written in this fun way.

There are other topics in the series including Astronomy, Biology, The Periodic Table and Physics by the same authors. I've got my eye on the Astronomy one, thanks to the fun I've had with this one.

Liked this? Try Children's Atlas of World History by Simon Adams