Category Archives: Book review

Book Review: Libby and the Highland Heist

Title: Libby and the Highland Heist

Written by: Jo Clarke

Illustrated by: Becka Moor

Published by: Firefly Press

I enjoyed Jo Clarke’s first book in her debut middle grade series, Libby and the Parisian Puzzle, so much I just had to buy the second book in the series, Libby and the Highland Heist.

Jo Clarke did not disappoint with the second of her travelling school mysteries and neither did Becka Moor with her glorious illustrations. This time Libby and Connie are in Scotland and discover some of Connie’s family’s priceless paintings have gone missing. Libby sets about trying to solve the mystery and discovers secret passageways and another devious villain. We also get to meet some of the characters from the first book and learn more about Libby’s school friends. I particularly like how Libby starts to warm to Noah the boy whom she originally found irritating and the mysterious meeting with her mum, which hints at a deeper mystery to be solved over the series.

Libby and her friends work together drawing on each others strengths to help solve the mystery and catch the thieves. Another well plotted novel with fully-formed characters. I highly recommend this book and look forward to the third in the series. Will they ever get to New York?

You can read my review of Libby and Parisian Puzzle on my blog here: Book Review: Libby and the Parisian Puzzle

Book Review: Captain Looroll

Title: Captain Looroll

Written and Illustrated by: Matt Carr

Published by: Farshore Books (an imprint of Harper Collins)

To celebrate the launch of Captain Looroll by Matt Carr, I am posting an impromptu book review. When this book came though the post and I read the title I could not help smiling. What a brilliant concept for a picture book. I’ve not seen a picture book so disgustingly funny since Fungus the Bogeyman. Meet Captain Looroll and her arch nemesis Toilet-Troll.

In this brand-new, high octane adventure series, captain Looroll is super strong, endlessly long and brimming with courage. However, stuck in the deadly dull surrounds of the downstairs toilet, heroic adventures could not be further away. All that changes though, when along comes a very stinky villain named Toilet-troll. Together with her band of trusty sidekicks, Captain Looroll must use her 3-play powers to save the world from imminent – and extremely messy – destruction one toilet at a time.

Best-selling author-illustrator takes toilet humour to the limits in this wild rollercoaster of a picture book. Toilet-troll is one dastardly super villain who uses one stinky exploit after the other to implement his devious plan and Captain Looroll have to work together to stop him, proving team work can save the day.

The text is fast moving and the bold comic book style illustrations portray the fantastically disgusting antics perfectly. A great supervillain and loveable hero. I’m sure young children everywhere will love this book.

I would like to thank Sarah Sleath, publicist at Farshore, for sending me a review copy.

You can buy copies of Captain Looroll by Matt Carr from your local bookshop, or online at uk.bookshop.org, an organisation with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops.

Book Review: The Dark and Dangerous Gifts of Delores Mackenzie

Title: The Dark and Dangerous Gifts of Delores Mackenzie

Written by: Yvonne Banham

Published by: Firefly Press

The Dark and Dangerous Gifts of Delores Mackenzie is a tale of identity and one girl’s quest to discover where she fits in. The story opens with a chase and then after the initial adrenaline rush calms right down. Delores is sent to live with her Uncles in the Tolbooth Book Store in Edinburgh, which overlooks a graveyard because her sister, Delilah, is afraid her powers are getting stronger and she needs the Uncles training to control them. The setting is effectively dark and gloomy creating a truly gothic experience for the reader.

We learn about Delores new home and its occupants. We get to know Delores, her hopes, fears and dreams. The plot is laced with ghostly phenomenon, spooky locations and a whole host of entertaining characters each with their own unique paranormal gift.

Delores herself is a necromancy, which means she can speak to dead people. Her friend Gabriel is a diviner. Her has the ability to read people’s emotions and uses tarot cards to foretell their fate. Prudence is Delores nemesis. She is an illusionist, able to plant suggestions and visions in people’s minds. She takes great pleasure in teasing Delores by making all her food look and taste disgusting. The Bocan are restless spirits that are drawn to Delores power. Maud is a ghost who Delores believes used to be a past student of the Uncles. Delores realises Maud is in danger from the Angel Barguest, who wants to reclaim her life, and vows to help her. In order to succeed all the characters must put aside their feelings and learn to cooperate.

This is an incredibly dark story in places with some excellent tension-filled descriptions, which certainly get your heart pumping. Delores and her companions race to escape Angel Barguest and decipher what exactly is happening. The paranormal elements have been well thought out and utilised throughout the book. We get the impression there is a larger paranormal world out there and the organisation that monitor it are not always successful. We never discover what happened to Delores parents and I believe the book is open to a sequel to delve deeper into these questions.

A dynamic adventure, full of twists and turns with plenty of mysteries to solve. Ideal for readers in Years 5 to 8 who enjoy stories about the supernatural and solving puzzles.

I would like to thank NetGalley for giving me an opportunity to review this book.

You can buy copies of The Dark and Dangerous Gifts of Delores Mackenzie by Yvonne Banham, which was released on April 6th 2023, from your local bookshop, or online at uk.bookshop.org, an organisation with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops.

Book Review: Fairy Tale Ninjas – The Glass Slipper Academy

Title: Fairy Tale Ninjas – The Glass Slipper Academy

Written by: Paula Harrison

Illustrated by: Monica de Rivas

Published by: Harper Collins

To celebrate the release tomorrow, 30th March 2023, I am going to review a fantastic new adventure series form the pen of Paula Harrison. Fairytale Ninjas – the Glass Slipper Academy is a fast romp full of all our favourite fairy tale characters with a few mermaids and unicorns thrown in for good measure. Red Riding reluctantly joins her friends, Snow White and Goldie Locks in attending the local ballet academy. She is bored of dance lessons she would rather be fighting trolls and giants and flying on dragons with fairies. But she should be careful what she wishes for especially when throwing a penny into the broken old wishing well that hasn’t worked for years.

Red makes an incredible discovery – hidden behind a secret door in the ballet studio is a storeroom full of costumes, swords armour and a magic carpet. Her secret discovered, their dance instructor Madam Hart agrees to give them sword-fighting lessons, explaining they are very similar to dance moves. During one of the lessons Madam Hart is arrested for the disappearance of the young Prince Inigo. Join Red, Snow, Goldie and their adorable rescue dog, Tufty as they search for the real villain behind the abduction of Prince Inigo. The intrepid gang travel to Diamond Palace to look for clues with ninja outfits from the storeroom in their backpacks.

I enjoyed this early reader chapter book. It moved at a good pace and the characters were easy to like. It was well plotted with a satisfying story arc. Young children will be excited to find out more about familiar fairy tale characters in new unique circumstances. I feel it is suitable for Key Stage One and lower Key Stage Two readers. The black and white illustrations add more depth to the characters, giving a visual impression of the characters and their actions at a glance, which is perfect for this age range. This is great for emergent readers to read alone, or for the teacher to read to the class and show the pictures, or indeed parents to read at bedtime.

A work of pure genius.

You can buy copies of Fairy Tale Ninjas – The Glass Slipper Academy by Paula Harrison from your local bookshop, or online at uk.bookshop.org, an organisation with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops.

I would like to thank Isabel Coonjah from Harper Collins for sending me a review copy of the book.

Blog Tour – The Starlight Stables Gang by Esme Higgs, Jo Cotterill and Hannah George

Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Starlight Stables Gang written by Esme Higgs and Jo Cotterill and illustrated by Hannah George.

This is Esme Higgs debut children’s book. She is one of the biggest influencers in the equestrian world – with more than one million followers. She’s a writer, presenter, video producer – and a horse-mad ordinary girl. Her online videos are a mix of tutorials, horse care videos and vlogs about her horses (Mickey, Joey, Casper and Duke) and her life.

She is also a proud ambassador for the charity Brooke, and works closely with other charities such as World Horse Welfare, and the Riding for the Disabled Association.

In contrast this is Jo Cotterill’s fiftieth published book. She has two daughters who make her laugh every day and give the best hugs. She loves the Great British Bake Off and Strictly Come Dancing. When she was younger she studied ballet, jazz and tap dance and would love to have a go at ballroom one day. When she was a teenager, she wrote a lot of music, played flute, piccolo, alto saxophone, piano and violin.

Jo is a multi-award winning writer. She has won: The Hampshire Book Award, the North East Book Award, the Coventry Inspiration Book Award, the Oxfordshire Book Award, the Stockport Children’s Book Award, the Tower Hamlets Book Award and the Fantastic Book Awards.

The illustrator, Hannah George, works regularly with a variety of publishers and has illustrated several children’s picture books. She loves of drawing and storytelling began at a young age. As a child she carried her sketchbook everywhere capturing all her adventures and mischievous exploits.

After graduating from Falmouth University in 2005 Hannah set about turning her favourite past time into a career. Her spontaneous use of line makes her style perfect for bringing characters to life. Hannah has worked with a huge range of clients illustrating everything from Alligators to Zebras.

And now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the review.

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Title: The Starlight Stables Gang

Written by: Esme Higgs and Jo Cotterill

Illustrated by: Hannah George

Published by: Penguin

Summer has always loved horses but she never thought she’d be able to learn how to ride them – not with money being so tight at home. Then she discovers the Starlight Stables where she meets a new gang of friends and learns how to ride in return for helping out with the horses. It’s a dream come true.

Summer falls in love with life at the stables and especially with Luna, a beautiful dapple-grey pony. But one day, Summer arrives at the stables to find that Luna has been stolen in the night. It’s up to the Starlight Stables Gang to follow the clues and rescue Luna before it’s too late.

Suitable for readers ages 7 -11, The Starlight Stables Gang, is the ideal book for all horse enthusiasts. The descriptions of the horses and the feelings of the characters are realistic and their love of horses and the equestrian life jumps off the page. It is a great plot with the ideal mystery to solve. The book opened with Summer’s relationship with Luna and you really felt for Summer when Luna went missing and could not stop turning the pages as they hunted for her and the culprits. The black and white illustrations complimented the text perfectly.

I thought the way Summer’s dyslexia was handled was sympathetic and relatable. There are a whole host of eclectic characters. My favourite is Ellie who is in a wheelchair and loves riding. She does not let her disability hold her back and is always so positive. I found the use of texts between friends great as it breaks up the page and helps even the most reluctant reader to stay engaged with the text. It is also brilliant making technology integral to the plot, as so many children’s books shy away from it but it is a huge part of a child’s life and should not be excluded.

This is a great story about friendship and team work. Perfect for all KS2 classrooms.

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You can buy a copy of The Starlight Stables Gang by Esme Higgs, Jo Cotterill and Hannah George from your local bookshop, or online at uk.bookshop.org.

To find out more about Esme including links to her channels check out her website at: www.thisesme.co.uk You can discover more about Jo and her books at: www.jocotterill.com and view some of Hannah’s other illustrations at: www.hannahgeorge.co.uk

I would like to thank Blue Rogers at Kaleidoscopic Tours for inviting me to join the blog tour.

Book review: The Blue Umbrella

Title: The Blue Umbrella

Written by: Emily Ann Davison

Illustrated by: Momoko Abe

Published by: Anderson Press

The Blue Umbrella by Emily Ann Davison and Momoko Abe is a beautiful picture book with a theme of sharing. The pastel colours give the illustrations a satisfying sense of calm. Written in the first person it is unclear whether the main character is male or female and it could easily have been either. I liked this but for the for ease of writing this review I decided to identify them as a girl.

A blue umbrella turns up on the doorstep and all that is on it is a note saying, ‘For you’.

So our young protagonist takes the umbrella for on a walk to the park with her mother even though it is not raining. Lucky she did as it starts to rain. She realises that if she suggests her mum shelters under the umbrella with her it would mean she would get wet as there would not be enough room for both of them but she suggests it anyway. This is a truly selfless act and sets the tone of this elegant picture book.

To her surprise they both fit and she believes the blue umbrella has grown bigger to accommodate them both. Soon they are both inviting more and more people to shelter under the blue umbrella. The umbrella grows bigger and bigger to keep everyone dry.

The people have fun sharing stories and their picnics under the blue umbrella. They do not even notice when the rain stops. Being sociable, chatting to each other and making new friends opens up the world to new possibilities. From this date they come together as a community. The park becomes a gathering place to meet up and escape isolation. This is such an important message and will hopefully encourage people to be more caring and climb out of their bubbles the recent pandemic left us with.

The message is one of hope for the future.

To read my review of another of Emily’s picture books please take a look here: Book Review: Every Bunny is a Yoga Bunny

You can also read my author interview with Emily on my blog here: An interview with… Emily Ann Davison.

You can buy copies of The Blue Umbrella by Emily Ann Davison and Momoko Abe and Every Bunny is a Yoga Bunny by Emily Ann Davison and Deborah Allwright from your local bookshop, or online at uk.bookshop.org, an organisation with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops.

Book Review: Glow Up Lara Bloom

Title: Glow Up Lara Bloom

Written by: Dee Benson

Published by: Hot Key Books

Glow Up Lara Bloom is a great concept middle grade book, written in the style of an online diary and reminds me of the Angus, thongs and full-frontal snogging series by Louise Rennison.

When 14-year-old Olmara Bloom falls for the hot new boy, Caiden, she initially thinks the best way to get him to notice her is to give herself a glow up. She keeps a journal on a private online app, to keep it away from the prying eyes of her blackmailing brother, outlining her feelings, expectations and the often devastating consequences. The diary format really draws you in making this book a fun, quick and easy read.

With themes of self-confidence and identity in the light of peer pressure, Glow Up Lara Bloom realistically portrays the life of a teenager and the doubts and fears they face. I found myself laughing and crying with Lara and the devastating chaos that plagues her. I particularly liked the way, she comes to the empowering realisation she is better off being herself no matter how clumsy she is.

A truly hilarious coming of age story, suitable for upper key stage 2 and lower key stage 3 readers.

I would like to thank Antonia Wilkinson for organising a review copy of this book.

You can buy copies of Glow Up Lara Bloom by Dee Benson from your local bookshop, or online at uk.bookshop.org, an organisation with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops.

Book Review: Pick a Story A Dinosaur + Unicorn + Robot Adventure

Title: Pick a Story A Dinosaur + Unicorn + Robot Adventure

Written by: Sarah Coyle

Illustrated by: Adam Walker-Parker

Published by: Farshore Books

Pick a Story A Dinosaur + Unicorn + Robot Adventure is fabulous picture book which encourages children to read in a very different imaginative way. Children can learn to make decisions so they can influence the route the story takes to achieve its final conclusion.

This is the second book in the series of Pick A Story laugh-out-loud, interactive picture book adventures. This time instead of pirates, aliens and jungle animals searching for the lost dog, Sarah Coyle and Adam Walker-Parker have amalgamated dinosaurs, unicorns and robots into one fun-filled escapade to find the missing birthday cake. It is such a clever device to incorporate a wide range of characters. This way the book will appeal to a large readership.

The zany, eye-catching illustrations pop with colour and excitement. One of my favourite was the look on the dinosaurs face when it had to clean up the mess after the food fight. In fact, there are lots of food related shenanigans throughout the book.

It is great the way the book encourages the reader to interact and make their own choices. It is a brilliant way to keep the children entertained and engaged in reading with the possibility of a different story each time the book is read. There are four alternative endings with options to continue if you and your little one are determined to find the cake.

I would recommend this book for children aged 2 and upwards and it would be ideal in the classroom for children with short attention spans. In my opinion there should be more books like this for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

I would like to thank Antonia Wilkinson for organising a review copy for me.

You can buy your own copy of Pick a Story A Dinosaur + Unicorn + Robot Adventure by Sarah Coyle and Adam Walker-Parker from your local bookshop, or online at uk.bookshop.org, an organisation with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops.

Book Review: Wild Song

This week I am posting two book reviews. today the review is to celebrate the launch of Candy Gourlay’s latest novel, Wild Song.

Title: Wild Song

Written by: Candy Gourlay

Cover illustrated by: Leo Nickolls

Published by: David Fickling Books

The vivid descriptions in Wild Song by Candy Gourlay transport you to life in 1904 not only in the Bontok tribe but also life in America where the inequalities were abundant in this so called land of opportunities. There are a whole host of highly believable characters, in particular the main protagonist Luki, who has a clear, strong voice that carries the story well. I love the way she fights against male/female stereotypes and how she is an inspiration to others, not only in her tribe but also at the St Louis World Fair.

I was impressed with how tight and well-constructed the prose is, as every word of this novel serves a purpose. The dialogue is realistic and keeps the readers turning the pages. This emotional roller-coaster of a young adult novel is steeped in the Bantok history and culture. It is evident Wild Song has been well researched. The story left me thinking long after I’d finished the book.

A masterpiece of a novel.

You can buy copies of Wild Song by Candy Gourlay from your local bookshop, or online at uk.bookshop.org, an organisation with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops.

Book Review: The Swing

Title: The Swing

Written and Illustrated by: Britta Teckentrup

Published by: Prestel Publishing

The Swing by Britta Teckentrup is a gentle, meandering picture book of 160 pages, that guides you through snippets of a whole host of character’s lives all depicted by Britta Teckentrup’s distinctive collage paintings. The soft, calming colours escort the reader on an enchanting journey through time.

The Swing is a meeting place where many relationships and emotional journeys have bloomed. As the seasons change from year to year, we get a glimpse of the many people and animals who have enjoyed swinging, playing, thinking and planning their futures on the swing. Things change, people grow and the swing is the constant that is reassuringly always there. So when it is wrecked in a severe storm those that found solace at The Swing and have cherished memories of their time there, work together to restore the swing to its former glory.

This picture book is a joy for both children and adult readers alike. The message is timeless. A book to treasure

I believe The Swing by Britta Teckentrup would be an excellent discussion opener for people with all types of dementia to evoke memories of a specific place and time, as well as being an excellent resource in the classroom to talk about favourite places and change.

You can buy copies of The Swing by Britta Teckentrup from your local bookshop, or online at uk.bookshop.org, an organisation with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops.

I would like to thank Antonia Wilkinson PR for organising me a copy of The Swing by Britta Teckentrup to review on my blog.