Princess Evie's Ponies: Diamond the Magic Unicorn by Sarah KilBride & Sophie Tilley (Children's, Picture book, 10/10)

September 2012, Simon and Schuster
32 Pages, Paperback
Review copy

Themes: life for a princess, very special ponies, pony sports, doing your best, winning isn't everything, some pleasant surprises, lots of fun, so many cute outfits and magical moments, a tissue is needed (I cry when I get really happy)

Summary from Simon & Schuster
Princess Evie is crazy about her ponies. But Princess Evie's ponies aren't like any other ponies - oh no! Her ponies are magic ponies and, whenever Princess Evie rides them, she is whisked away on a magical adventure in a faraway land . . .
 

In this seventh book in the series, Princess Evie and Sparkles, the kitten, find themselves in a magical world of cloud sprites and unicorns! Evie is invited to take part in the Unicorn Games, will Diamond be good enough to win a prize?

Nayuleska's thoughts
I was so excited to read this book as it's the first full book of Evie that I've read. (See suggested read at the bottom of this review to see which book of hers I've read). You can feel the magic in the super cute pastel clothes Evie and the sprites wear. I loved the different styles of clothes which were well matched with the unicorns manes that are exactly how I imagined horses when I was little, long and bright coloured. 

The pull out pony at the back of the book will make it even easier for readers relive Evie's adventure. It's all about Evie taking part in events, regardless of whether she wins or not. Sparkles is my favourite character. He's in almost every scene with expressions that made me smile. I wanted to pick him up and tickle his beautiful creamish tummy. This delightful book gets 10/10 from me.

You can find out more on the dedicated website.

Suggested read
You can choose your own pony colours in the Princess Evie's Ponies: Sticker Colouring book 

 

The Cupcake Diaries: Katie, Batter Up! By Coco Simon (Children's, 7 years +, 10/10)

September 2012, Simon and Schuster

160 pages, Ebook (also in paperback)

Personal copy

Themes: cupcakes, support of friends, figuring out your talent, bullying at school, feeling down and not special, different types of sport at school, team work, turning to family for support, lota of laughs, tissues most definitely needed

Summary from Simon and Schuster

Katie's Cupcake Club friends all have other activities besides making cupcakes. Mia and Alexis are on the football team and Emma plays the flute. Katie sets out to find her extracurricular niche and soon she's dribbling, passing and catching in an effort to find the right sport for her. Sure Katie can whip up a great cupcake but can she cook on the field too? When Katie tries out and makes the softball team it's batter up…but instead of swinging away she gets nervous during games. What if she makes a mistake? What if they lose? Is this the kind of batter Katie really wants to be dealing with? Katie starts to figure out that doing what you love always makes the batter sweeter.

Nayuleska's thoughts

As ever the cover is rather funky (Not that I see it in all its glory on my ebook reader), which is an accurate depiction of Katie's story. I hated how Sydney taunted her and made her feel useless. It's dispiriting enough when you aren't good at something that most other people can do. Having someone constantly highlight the issue is rough. I liked the positiv family vibes in the book, how close Katie was with her family, the pet names they used and particularlt how they sensed something was wrong. I cried at several points in the book because those parts were rather heartwarming. This entire 10/10 read is inspiring - and will probably make your wish to eat cupcakes grow!

Suggested read

Be sure to read all the books in the series which start with The Cupcake Diaries: Katy and the Cupcake Cure

Rosie's Magic Horse by Russell Hoban & Quentin Blake (Children's, Picture book, 8/10)

4th October 2012, Walker Books

40 pages, Hardback

Review copy

Themes: Ice lollies, imagination, lots of humour, travelling the world, helping family, financial issues

Summary from Walker Books

This story begins with an ice-lolly stick. Its sweetness gone, it lies discarded and lonely … until a little girl called Rosie comes along. She places it carefully in her cigar box, full of other sticks. “Without our ice-lollies we are nothing,” says an old stick. But new stick wants to BE something and into the minds of all the old sticks, he plants dreams … maybe they can be something, too. What about Rosie and her dreams that night? She dreams of helping her parents pay the bills. And so, at the stroke of midnight, magic and dreams collide and a HORSE gallops out of the cigar box! His name is Stickerino. “Where to?” he asks Rosie. “Anywhere with treasure!” she answers and hops on its back. Then begins an adventure like no other … ice-lolly mountains by the sea, caskets of gold, and pirates foiled by a stickling ice-cream van…

Nayuleska's thoughts

The colours used in this story match the concept of a child's imagination. All the faces on the lolly sticks made me laugh a lot. When they are defending Rosie against an enemy, I could almost hear them saying 'take that!' 'you will lose against us!'

There were a few elements in this 8/10 read which didn't work for me. I was intrigued why Rosie collected lolly sticks but that never got explained. Also the end seemed too sudden & perfect: previous stories I've read that are similar have something else happen making the end more believable and final, rather than being up in the air. The rest of the book is ace.

You can find out more on Quentin's website. Russell died in 2011.

Suggested read

If it's more travelling you're after try Otto the Book Bear by Katie Cleminson

Leaving Poppy by Kate Cann (Young Adult, 10/10)

New edition 4th October 2012, Scholastic

364 pages, Paperback

Review copy

Themes: emotional abuse, disturbed minds, family ties, fear, what gives people power over others, mild teen romance, inner strength, finding yourself, finding a perfect job that uses your talents, extremely and supremely scary moments

Summary from Scholastic

A haunting psychological thriller from one of Britain ’s finest writers for teenage girls. Sometimes leaving home is scarier than you think. .

Nayuleska's thoughts

I'm so proud that I finished this book, as I'm easily spooked and have issues with spirits and stuff. However, I kept going because I love Amber. She has to deal with so much emotional abuse, which is horrid to read because I know worse happens in real life. I wanted to take her away, give her some cake with hot chocolate and keep her safe. She does that on her own by being herself.

She makes great friends, discovers her own talent and uses it for her job which is enjoyable. She positively sparkled with confidence at the end (yes it reminds me of Dia from the anime Shugo Chara who is Amu's inner radiance, helping others believe in themselves. Thinking of Dia made the book a little less scary.).

 Freaky is an understatement for what goes on in the book, but I got through it as there was a logical explanation and it all got dealt with, no plot ends untied in this 10/10 read!

You can find out more on Kate's website.

Suggested read

For another neck-chilling read check out Devilish by Maureen Johnson 

Nayu's News #39: A Whirlwind Weekend

(Akari from the anime Aria The Animation)

It feels like I haven't done one of these for ages! Notice how I've decided to include a title so it's a little bit more interesting? I hope you are all well. Some of you may have seen me on Twitter quite a bit this week - I'm currently on 2 weeks holiday, which gives me more time to be online.

 So what have I been doing? 

 I've been busy at work.

 I've read lots of books for review. I'm at a bizarre stage where I sorted out my review shelf, realised that most of the books are YA which has produced a shortage of lighter, children's books. All is not lost as I do have a few coming. I had the best discovery when family sorted the loft today - I have most of the Sadler's Wells ballet books! I only thought I had the first 3, so to have 11 of them is good going. They look pretty rare, but it'll be a little while before I finish them as I have other books from my childhood that I'm planning to read. 

 I've been busy editing my fairy wip. I'm 1/3 through! Scriviner is amazing. I haven't got far in the tutorial, but I'm far enough I can do/access all I need to. It's so much easier than having to switch between Word documents all the time. I'm glad I had the trouble just so that I'd purchase Scriviner. I managed to do all bar 1 morning of editing this week, as I wasn't feeling well. 

It's been a mixture of the cold weather, which is affecting my circulation more this year, 

 (I feel like this most of the time, even indoors unless I have my heated blanket)

 combined with the ketamine wearing off completely from the dose on 27th July. 

However...I'm having my next ketamine dose tomorrow! *dances* 

 What makes you think I'm excited? 

It wore off totally from last week, so the higher dose has done well. I'm having it under my tongue this time round - kind of dreading how awful it tastes, but I've got to try and avoid swallowing it (I wonder if I can practice with water first?) I'm pretty sure it's in liquid form, which is easier to get the right dose each time. 

It's the usual 'don't eat from 6 hours before your ketamine dose'. Mine is at 9am. They say be there 15 mins earlier, which takes us to 8.45am. Usually I get shown in straight away, so want to be sure I've kept the eating rules. Which is why I'm going to bed in two and a bit hours. 8am bed - I can't even go to bed that early when I'm ill because of my meds (today I have managed to switch the times I take them so I can go to sleep early. I'll try and remember that when I'm ill although often it's usually only the afternoon I get worse so can't change med times as easily). I'll be up at 2am for an egg sandwich (yummy!). I'm not going back to sleep after as I have to leave the house at 6.15am, and once I wake up (& move about) I'm awake for good. 

I'll be able to rest up when I get back - hopefully around lunch time, depending how long they keep me in after. I'm not sure how much difference there is since I'm not taking it via an infusion. I'll be on strict rest on Saturday - dvds only. No reading as that is work for me (fun work, but still work). Sunday I have family coming over (planned before my appointments otherwise I'd have kept it free for more rest). 

Monday I'm having some tests that will last most of the day. One is a 24 hour monitor thingy that I have to take home, so my hospital weekend won't be over until about 6pm on Tuesday. Not looking forward to Monday as it'll be an early-ish start (after 7am train), and the 24 hour monitor thingy fitting is at 3pm. Tired might be an understatement. I've never had two indepth sort-of-invasive-&-sort-of-not-invasive treatments this close together (that I can remember). Hopefully the test results will be positive/negative/whichever the best one is.

So from Weds to Saturday I'm strictly resting up. 

 (Again taken from Aria the Animation)

Saturday I have breakfast with a friend! It'll possibly be the first time I'm out the house all week, so it'll be fun. Back to work on 29th. 

At the moment I don't know when I'll be back to reading/editing. I'm hoping before the weekend, although realistically I have a feeling I'll have to be good and not do it. But it's only for a week, which is livable. Muse will just have to wait! 

Eeep - 1 hour until I need to go to bed. Hope you all have a good week, I promise to let you know how tomorrow goes and Monday, even if it's one line and one picture (come on, you know how much I like my pictures!)

Alien in My Bellybutton by Jimmy Mars (Children's, 6 years +, 10/10

July 2012, Jelly Pie
138 pages, Paperback
Review copy

Themes: tiny alien invasion, males who run from soap, little brothers, enemy evasion and invading enemy territory, lots of cheese (bad stinky cheese, inedible), a bath (both clean & dirty), a bellybutton, lots of laughs

Summary from Egmont

A giggle-tastic tale of cheese, chums and chimples! If you like Captain Underpants, you’ll LOVE this...

Flampering pufflefarts! You're huge!

Binko the alien is in for a shock when he crash lands in Pete Perkins’ belly button. Pete’s a bit surprised too.

Together, they encounter: a cheese-powered jet pack, a disgusting grandpa, a whole load of trouble

And that's not the half of it . .

Nayuleska's thoughts
I think I held back on reading this book sooner because I usually find these types of books a bit too gross for my liking. It was the total opposite! The gross parts were really funny - not too disgusting for me. The alien terms felt totally normal, and Binko is cute (he probably wouldn't like being called that). This is definitely a book for both girls and boys, with illustrations adding more humour to the stories. I look forward to reading more books in this series, if this 10/10 read is anything to go by.

Suggested read

For more alien entertainment try Spike and Alienson by Malaika Rose Stanley (5th book down the page) 

Spell Sisters: Evie the Swan Sister by Amber Castle (Children's, 7 years +, 10/10)

August 2012, Simon & Schuster

160 pages, Paperback

Review copy

Themes: legend of Arthur, magical girls, adventure, out of control horses, major peril, variety of birds, being brave, facing fears, pretty outfits, friendship, fun, a few stickers

Summary from Simon and Schuster

When eleven-year-old Gwen ventures into the forest beyond her castle home she comes across the magical island of Avalon and her life changes forever. The lady of the lake, Nineve, asks Gwen to embark on a quest to protect the enchanted island of Avalon from the evil sorceress Morgana Le Fay.

Morgana has imprisoned the eight Spell Sisters of Avalon throughout the kingdom and stolen their magical powers. It's up to Gwen, her best friend Flora and a very special horse named Moonlight to find the sisters and return them to Avalon before its magic is lost forever.
 

The sixth adventure of the series, sees Gwen and her cousin Flora attempt to rescue Evie the sister who holds the magical control of birds.

Nayuleska's thoughts

This is the best book in the series! I cried at the end because it's very wonderful. Birds are my favourite type of animal. I was in awe at Evie's power, wishing I could do the same. Her dress is exquisite. Gwen and Flora have to stand up and face their fear, as well as learning not to dismiss an idea without thinking it over. The tips on how the reader can help birds are detailed and easy to follow in this 10/10 read.

You can find out more on the dedicated website.

Suggested read

Definitely check out the rest of the Spell Sisters series which includes Grace the Sea Sister