What are YOU reading? #136

What are you reading on Monday? is a weekly meme hosted by Rachel at Home Girl's Book Blog where you post books completed last week and plans for upcoming books. Jump over to her blog and see who else is participating.



Books I've Read

With family having been on holiday, I've had extra chores to do, which ate up my reading energy. I did watch lots of shows though :) 

What I've Watched

Waterloo Road

...lots of drama as always. I think it's sad the lengths some teens go to just to get attention. 

The Great British Bakeoff 

...it really wasn't Catherine's week this week. Everything went wrong. It's such a compliment for her to be called a home baker by Mary Berry. 

Winx Season 1

...I'm hoping to finish this over the weekend. I can't watch it all in one go as the last episodes in season 1 are pretty tough going. 

Neo Angelique: Abyss

...*squeals* this series keeps on getting better! LOVE IT! 

Elemental Gelade

....along as similar vein to NEA. *happy sigh* I love how Cou and Ren's power grows as they mature along their journey. 

Tari Tari

...this one is a real mixture of emotions, which I like. There's usually something major that the characters have to deal with, but it's heart warming too. I love how in the end credits finally one of the girls sits with the rest of the group - she's opened up to them a bit more, and letting them help her through the tough times after her mother's death. Yes I cried a bit. 

Shugo Chara Doki!

...Amu now has the super speedy skates! And I have the theme tunes permanently stuck in my head at the moment. I want Temari back! Although I'm excited because soon Naghiko should have his egg hatch.

H2O: Just Add Water

...I've watched another episode, and I'm really noticing how much the characters grow by the end of season 3. I'm on season 1, and they seem so young. Chloe in particular grows up an awful lot, to become confident and less fearful.  

Guess How Much I Love You: Here, There and Everywhere by Sam McBratney (Children's, Picture book, 10/10)

September 2012, Walker Books

68 pages, Hardback

Review copy

Themes: having fun with family, playing outside, hide and seek, perils of a mountain, safe and sound at home, love, friendship

Summary from Walker Books

Four new Guess How Much I Love You stories in one volume – The Hiding Tree, On Cloudy Mountain, The Far Field, Coming Home – featuring adventurous Little Nutbrown Hare and wise Big Nutbrown Hare. In the stories we see Little Nutbrown Hare beginning to explore the world with the help and guidance of Big Nutbrown Hare. He climbs the Hiding Tree, escapes from the mists on Cloudy Mountain and ventures to the Far Field on his own. But after all his adventures Little Nutbrown Hare finds that Coming Home is best of all, because Big Nutbrown Hare is there.

Nayuleska's thoughts

Aww! I love this series ever so much - hares (ok it's actually bunnies) are popular in my family. There's such gentleness in the way Big Nutbrown Hare protects, guides and watches over Little Nutbrown Hare. They play together, discover scary elements of the weather together, all before going to their favourite place in the world. I thought the way the final tale linked in the previous 3 stories was clever. I like the soft fresh illustrations which add to the warm fuzzy feeling I get from reading this 10/10 read.

Suggested read

A similarly sweet bunny read is When the World Was Waiting For You by Gillian Shields & Anna Currey

Book trailer: The Sacrifice by Charlie Higson

This is a little belated - I'm slowly working through my inbox - but I'd like to show you the trailer for this zombie book. I don't like Zombies, but I know some of you do, so this is for you! For obvious reasons I haven't and will not be watching it.



Please can someone let me know if this works - my laptop refuses to play videos so all I see is a blank screen!

Spy for the Queen of Scots by Theresa Breslin (Children's, 11 years +, 8/10)

August 2012, Double Day
404 pages, Hardback
Review copy

Themes: life as a princess's companion, fine jewels and robes, sneaking about, facing formidable threats, helping a friend as much as possible, risking a life for another, finding happiness, lots of suspense, some moderate violence, a little romance, a tissue is needed

Summary from Random House Children's Publishers
As lady-in-waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots, the beautiful Ginette - known as Jenny - is the young queen's closest childhood friend. Growing up in the elegant but ruthless French court, surrounded by enemies and traitors - not least the jealous, manipulative Catherine de Medici, and Mary's own scheming half-brother, James - Jenny has always been fiercely loyal to her mistress. But when she overhears a mysterious whispered plot, closely followed by several unexplained deaths at court, she puts her own life in danger and turns spy for Mary.

Jenny quickly realises not a soul at court can be trusted, and when she and Mary return to their Scottish homeland for Mary to claim her throne, they face even greater peril. Desperate to protect her friend from those who would slit her throat to steal her crown, while battling her feelings for the charismatic nobleman Duncan Alexander, Jenny becomes embroiled in a dangerous web of secrets, betrayals and lies.
 

Nayuleska's thoughts
I'm not one for remembering the history I learned at school, but thanks to Theresa's books I don't have to. Jenny's story brings to life what it was like to be one of Queen Mary's inner circle. Jenny helped her have fun and find peace. Even when times got tough Jenny stayed by the queen's side, unless she was forcibly removed from it. Jenny is intelligent in realising the best way to help her queen is to keep an ear out for court intrigue. This costs her peace of mind, yet the end result makes it worth while. 

The end is not all doom and gloom, which is a relief. It's poignant, and one which makes this 8/10 read memorable. I personally prefer a bit more action and tended to lose concentration when various events were explained.

You can find out more on Theresa's website.

Suggested read

Try looking at life from the view of a modern girl travelling back in time in The Queen Must Die by K A S Quinn 

Operation Bunny by Sally Gardner (Children's, 7 years +, 10/10)

4th October 2012, Orion
192 pages, Paperback

Review copy

Themes: evil adopted parents, a child servant, evil enemy who can turn people into things, a magical shop, lots of bunnies, moments of hope and happiness, escape, trains, keys with feet, the truth about fairies, lots of humour and drama, a few aww moments

Summary from Orion

Emily Vole makes headline news in the first weeks of her life, when she is found in an abandoned hatbox in Stansted Airport. 

Then, only a few years later, her neighbour Mrs String dies leaving Emily a mysterious inheritance: an old shop, a small bunch of golden keys and a cat called Fidget. It's the beginning of an adventure of a lifetime as the old Fairy Detective Agency comes back to life.
 

It is up to Emily to reopen the shop, and recall the fairies to duty. Together they must embark on their first mystery and do battle with their great fairy-snatching enemy, Harpella.

Nayuleska's thoughts

I love tales of a child who is worked hard by their parents/guardian, manages to escape the slavery and in the end gets the life they deserve. Emily never complains. She gets on with things and was a little more amazed than I was when people helped her out. She knows she is in a bad situation so does all she can to escape. Life has a funny knack in providing opportunities when we need them. Emily gets to leave home - but the person she faces is more formiddable than her so-called parents.

There is a lot of magic in this story - and bunnies. Fidget made a superb guardian for Emily. It made a change to have the police and other professionals on Emily's side - often those types of characters are as mean as the evil parents.

Emily's unusual upbringing trained her for the events in the book. She learns life isn't fair, but it usually ends up ok or more than ok in the end. The drawings aren't quite my favourite style but they fit the feel of this 10/10 read.

You can find out more on Sally's website.

Suggested read

For a similarly mysterious tale try Madame Pamplemousse and Her Incredible Edibles by Rupert Kingfisher

Winners of Sophie McKenzie's Missing, Me competition!

 What better way to start the weekend then to announce the two winners of the rather awesome Sophie McKenzie's latest book - Missing, Me. (big thank you to Simon and Schuster for providing this prize)

The lovely random number generator came up with #8 and #10. Who might they be? Ok, ok I won't draw it out (I'm sure there's a bad pun in there somewhere) The winners are... 

Sophsam!

@EJPigeon! 

Many congratulations for winning this thrilling book. I think it's a fitting ending to the trilogy, and having the story from Madison's view sheds a different light on previous events. 

There aren't any at the moment, but there will be more competitions here on NRC soon, so please do come back and enter them!

Dork Diaries: Dear Dork by Rachel Renee Russell (Children's, 9 years +, 10/10)

11th October 2012, Simon and Schuster

336 pages, Paperback

Review copy

Themes: life at school, being a scholarship girl, crushes on boys, rich mean girls, annoying siblings who every now and then do something amazing, school newspaper, not so friendly competition, keeping secrets, heaps of drama, constantly hilarious

Summary from Simon and Schuster

When Nikki Maxwell discovers that her arch-nemesis, Mackenzie, has started writing a gossip column for the school newspaper she's worried that Mackenzie might be about to reveal some secret info about Nikki's crush, Brandon, that she knows he won't want the whole school to find out about. To keep an eye on what Mackenzie's up to, Nikki decides to join the newspaper too, and somehow ends up working as the advice columnist, Miss Know-It-All. At first it's fun to answer all the letters from the kids at school, but when Miss Know-It-All's inbox is suddenly overflowing with pleas for guidance, Nikki feels in need of some help herself. Fortunately she has BFFs Chloe and Zoey on her side … and at her keyboard!

Nayuleska's thoughts

I was smiling before I started reading this latest installment in the series, and I'm still smiling after I finished it. Nikki's life is non-stop drama, but that's how life is at school. Mackenzie is an uber-mean girl, she uses her dad's status to get what she wants. She's clever in an evil way but rest assured it is always the quiet ones who need watching, which Nikki finds out. Although Brianna is a little older she reminded me of Amu's little sister Ami in the anime & manga Shugo Chara. Brianna wants her own way all the time and frequently embarasses Nikki. The funniest moments was when one of Nikki's friends reacted like Brianna!

I love the illustrations which make me laugh even more than the stoey does on its own. I like the fashion of some of the girls' outfits including Chloe's pjs and Marcy's newspaper outfit. Nikki's friends are extremely loyal and supportive, a positive quality unlike the underhanded Mackenzie. This 10/10 read does remind me of slice of like genre anime, with random ideas popping up all over the place, friendship being the key to life and lots of humour

You can find out more on the Dork Diaries website.

Suggested read

Check out the rest of the books in the series which include Skating Sensation, the first book that I read (still haven't read the others yet).