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<metadesc>Book review site, with books from most walks of literary life; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and children's books plus author interviews and top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library , the charity shop and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of author [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[Featuresfeatures]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Loose WomenMark Lingane|title=Here Come the GirlsDegrade (Tesla Expansion)
|rating=4
|genre=Home and FamilyTeens|summary=This is the second volume by the panelists from that nice ITV series, ''Loose WomenDegrade''. Just opens as promised it means to go on - with inyerface, banging action. Poor Arid, alone in the coverdesert since his parents were killed, this book has a narrow escape as two mega-rigs fight it out and his is an entertaining night with pretty much destroyed. He finds himself rescued by the mysterious-but-fascinating Ella and onboard the ''Moonlight'' under the girlssuspicious eyes of its leader, Queen Bea. It turns Bea's eyes flash with recognition when he tells her his name - Arid Geiger - but before he can find out why that theyis, there're just like uss an assassination attempt and Arid is under suspicion and imprisoned. The faces are already familiar An escape facilitated by Ella - Queen Bea's daughter - sees Arid and even if you don't know them yether other daughter, with nine contributorsFrey, you'll soon find a like-minded woman behind one of stranded in the celebrity facesdesert.. The women are universally warm-hearted and supportive: there will be many a lonely woman who reads this book and feels as if she sat down with a group of friends for the evening.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444700154</amazonuk>099461649X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean UreB07XLM3SM6|title=Fortune CookieMurder at the Dolphin Hotel|author=Helena Dixon|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime (Historical)|summary=Fudge Cassidy and Elowed Underhay was just twenty-seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916, leaving her daughter, Kitty, in the Cupcake kid are best friendscare of her grandmother. If A great deal of money had been spent to find out what happened to her and the names remind you of a certain film then you'd be spot on as conclusion was that's where Fudge's father got the idea fromshe was dead, mainly because there was no evidence to suggest otherwise. They're actually chalk and cheese – Fudge is loud mouthed and opinionated and Cupcake is quiet Kitty has come to terms with this and thoughtful – but in 1933 she was running the combination works. They've just started at secondary school and Cupcake has rather a lot on Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her grandmother when her grandmother had to leave to look after her platesister who was ill. Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy She was reluctant to leave Kitty in charge - and his problems are becoming more obviousKitty could not understand why. Add to this that her father couldnShe't cope s always coped with the problems mix of holidaymakers, boating people and the naval college on the edge of town before - and he now has another familyshe's done every job in the hotel. ItAnd she particularly cannot understand why her grandmother's just Cupcake, Joey friends have been roped in to keep an eye on things ''and her mother – and not a lot '' why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to take charge of moneysecurity at the hotel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jenifer RobertsSeishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)|title=The Madness of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of PortugalHonjin Murders|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=Born To many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery' is enough to make the book one to read; preferably quantified by the words 'clever' or 'good'. For those who need more, here is the extra background – we're in 1734 rural Japan in Lisbonthe 1930s. The oldest son of an esteemed family is belatedly getting married, at that time although the richest and most opulent city in Europewhole affair is really not as ostentatious as it might be – hardly anybody has turned up, Maria was destined to become the first female monarch in Portuguese historywhat with it being arranged at great haste. Married to her She only has an uncle Infante Pedro, seventeen years representing her seniorfamily, she had six children (outliving all but for one of them), and became Queen in 1777thing. A conscientious womanEither way, she had the misfortune celebrations have gone ahead as planned, only for the wedded couple to be born slashed to death in during their private annex before the 'age sun rises on their marriage. What with a man missing parts of reason'his fingers being in the neighbourhood, when church and state were vying for supremacy. Instinctively some mysterious use of a supporter traditional musical instrument at the time of the old religioncrime, with this case has a humanitarian approach to state affairs, she was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine lot of the Great, and wore her crown rather reluctantlypeculiar about it.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>1782275002
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David HughesCixin Liu|title=Thomas Wogan is DeadDeath's End|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic NovelsScience Fiction|summary=WellIf I'd been paying more attention when I picked this book up, with a title like thatI would have put it back on the shelf. Not because I didn't want to read it, need but because I bother with 'd have figured out that it was the final part of a plot summary? A man has trilogy. Coming in partway through a day out in Morecambe, then saga is never the next easiest thing he knows heto do and it's particularly true in science fiction because without knowing the ultimate waiting room, with a strange array of animals back-story there are not just people whose names mean nothing to you (a bat, a toad, a sea urchin...when it's assumed they will), all waiting forbut there are whole concepts that you won't understand. This latter is particularly true of Cixin Liu's work – his range is phenomenal.. well George R R Martin, something. Yupwho knows a thing or two about world-creation, described it as you didn't need telling'a unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, heconspiracy theory and cosmology's dead'. All of that and more.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095580888X</amazonuk>1784971650
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dave Eggers1780894511|title=The Wild ThingsDie Alone|author=Simon Kernick
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionThrillers|summary=Meet Max. When I say Ray Mason is in prison awaiting trial for murder and he sometimes gets 's in the wrong end of the stick about adultsvulnerable prisoner unit: as a cop, or dislikes his motherhe's new boyfriendsomething of a target, or gets but the unit is not as secure as the inmates would have hoped and Mason is injured in a bit feisty when riot. On his way to hospital he feels the need for revenge, I am certainly understating the facts's broken free by armed men and an offer is made to him. He 's to assassinate the man who is a bit of a rascal likely to say become the leastcountry's next prime minister and he'll then be given a new identity so that he can start afresh abroad. But all His captors say that might change when they're MI6, but Mason has his doubts. His choices are limited though and he finds himself travelling has personal reasons to a strange land of roisterous animals, and ends up installed as their kingbelieve that it would be better if Alastair Sheridan was dead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144221</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeremy StrongAkwaeke Emezi|title=Christmas Chaos for the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog Pet|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Trevor's troublesome dog, Streaker, has had three puppies. They were fathered, according to local bully Charlie Smugg, by one of his Alsatians. Trevor would ideally like to keep them, at least until Christmas, but his parents have other ideas and put them up for sale. Charlie Smugg declares that he's entitled to half of the money from the sale of the puppies, but before they can be sold the three puppies go missing in the park and it's up to Trevor and his best friend Tina to try and track them down before Charlie demands his cash!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327243</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sarah Beth Durst|title=Ice|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Cassie lives on an Arctic research station in AlaskaThe people of the town Lucille believe that all the monsters are gone. She loves Their children are raised to understand that they were saved by the ice and angels, those who rid the wilderness town of her remote home evil, and she'd definitely prefer to spend her time on tracking polar bears there are no monsters anymore. But one day, Jam accidentally cuts herself and fending off frostbite rather than on mixing with bleeds a little onto one of her peers and enjoying college and home comforts back in Fairbanks. However, things arenmother't all rosys paintings. Cassie's mother died when she was just The blood awakens a baby bizarre, terrifying-looking creature named Pet, who somehow comes to life and she can't help feeling a huge hole in her heartdeclares that it is here to hunt the monster. Her scientist father Though Jam tries to convince it that all the monsters are gone, Pet is remote and unloving certain that there is one, still, and that the monster is hiding in the home of her grandmother left the station after an argument with him when Cassie was still very youngbest friend, Redemption. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847386571</amazonuk>0571355110
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Iain Smyth and Michael Terry1686751680|title=The Wide-Mouthed FrogMy Mummy does weird things / Maman fait des choses bizarres|author=Amelie Julien and Gustyawan|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Do you know the joke about the wide-mouthed frogWhich child doesn't think that their mother is, well, ''weird''? You must have heard it. It's a classic. It's one might be that you really need to tell in person, with your fingers pulling your mouth wide open, but to hopefully spark your memory, the widemorning their mother doesn't like speaking much when every self-mouthed frog introduces himself to a number of animals until he finally comes across a crocodile who eats wide-mouthed frogs, and the frog does his best to disguise who he respecting child knows that that is whilst saying when you're at your brightest with lots to say? 'Ooh, you don't see many of those round here, do you?Why'' Ithen does Mummy stick her fingers in her ears? Then there'm hardly s doing it justiceyoga in front of the television, but which could be worrying if itwasn's very cheesy and t so funny. AnywayWe won't go into too much detail about what goes on in the bathroom and the colour changes which have occurred when Mummy emerges and frankly, this is a book of that jokethe less said the better about her reactions to your artistic efforts on the wall.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk> I mean, what else would you use paint for?
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Justine Avery and Liuba Syrotiuk
|title=What Wonders Do You See... When You Dream?
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=''The day has ended''<br>
''Hasn't it been splendid?'' <br>
''But now, it's time, to be sure'' <br>
''For an entirely different adventure'' <br>
I hope you haven't forgotten how it feels to be much too excited for bed. If you're a parent at least, you'll know how it is to persuade an excited small person that yes, it is in fact time for bed. ''What Wonders DoYou See...'' sets out to cater to these children. Instead of trying to persuade them that night time is a calm time, it takes a slightly different tack. It tells them that sleep is actually an exciting time: a time of dreams in which imagination takes over and has no limit. But the trick in accessing this wonderful and exciting world is to get calm and relaxed first so that you can easily fall asleep and open the door to it. |isbn=194812422X }}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel VreemanMichael Harris|title=Don't Swallow Your GumSolitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=This is not the book I was expecting it to be. For some reason I expected it to be another self-help manual on how to find calm, how to step outside the mainstream, but it is not that at all. Instead of telling us how it is more about the '''BANG'why''. ThatHarries examines how we's re eroding solitude, which used to be a natural part of our human life, and why that matters. Of course, he talks about how some people have found solitude and what has come of that, and eventually in the sound final chapter he talks about his own experience of copious urban myths being shot having deliberately sought it out, but mostly he wanders downthe alleys and by-ways that his thinking about this lost art led him. '''BANG|isbn=1847947662}}{{Frontpage|author=Andy Briggs|title=Ctrl+S|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= Life in the near future's not all bad. We've reversed global warming and fixed the collapsing bee population. We even created SPACE, a virtual-sensory universe where average guys like Theo Wilson can do almost anything they desire. But almost anything isn't enough for some. That's the sound of the old wives slamming the doorEvery day, normal people are being taken, as their tales get revealed as baselessemotions harvested - and lives traded - to create death-defying thrills for the rich and twisted. '''CLICK'''Now Theo’s mother has disappeared. ThatAnd as he follows her breadcrumb trail of clues, he's ll come up against the noise lots of illmost dangerous SPACE has to offer: police, AI Bots and anarchists -informed websites make as they get closed downwell as a criminal empire that will kill to stop him finding her . . All noises come due to this brilliant book.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>1409184641
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Annie Taylor1609809378|title=VioletThe Rabbits' Rebellion|author=Ariel Dorfman and Chris Riddell
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Violet is a very special hippoWe're in the realm of the rabbits, only the foxes and wolves have taken over. She is extremely small King Wolf, His Wolfiness, has declared the rabbits don't exist, but the pesky birds have spread rumours from awing that does not make her adoptive parents Albert and Mavis love her any the lessbunnies are in fact still around. However Demanding a propaganda spree, King Wolf orders a humble monkey to be his official portrait photographer, they are slightly worried that Violet has but whatever the poor innocent monkey prints out in his darkroom there is a very unusual habit distinct leporine hint. Can King Wolf succeed in proving himself victorious, can the rabbits show their continued existence to all who need to know of turning pink without warning it – and for no explicable reason.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906847371</amazonuk>what can the poor monkey caught in between do?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hilary DixonInnosanto Nagara|title=When Rooks Speak of LoveM is for Movement
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionEmerging Readers|summary=Arthur Transcombe Set in Indonesia, in the not too distant past, this is a middle-agedstory about social change. Dealing with some difficult issues, grey-hairedsuch as political corruption and nepotism, self-effacing poet. Unremarkable really - on the outsidebook is neither boring nor preachy. He hasIt educates gently, howeverwith vibrant, managed to achieve some success with his poemschallenging illustrations, and it portrays how social movements need people who will try, even when it seems that they will fail. (Being The message is a guest speaker at positive one; that in an increasingly uncertain world, we do still have the Cheltenham Literary Festival is no mean feat)power to instigate change. He is also a babe magnet!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904529429</amazonuk>1609809351
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=A J Healy1780724047|title=Tommy Storm A Dictionary of Interesting and the Galactic KnightsImportant Dogs|author=Peter J Conradi|rating=3.54|genre=Confident ReadersPets|summary=Meet Tommy StormI struggle to resist a book about dogs, but I did wonder why this one was so ''thin'': given that I've never encountered a dog who wasn't interesting or important - and probably both, I was expecting a massive tome. HeBut 's one 'A Dictionary of five teenagers snapped up from around the universe to be Interesting and Important Dogs'' is actually ''a gang rich compendium of heroic detectives charged with rescuing EVERYTHING from destruction. Not just the planet, or the solar system, or even the galaxy, but EVERYTHINGworld's most significant and beloved dogs'' and it's certainly a rich treasure trove. Nobody seems to know whatWe begin with Peter J Conradi's going to cause this destructionfour collies: Cloudy, or when, but he Sky. Bradley and his friends and their ship seem to be the only people proactively going about saving the dayMax. So itThey's a pity that they start this book strung up by a nasty loony whore consecutive rather than simultaneous dogs, but what comes over is Conradi's about to kill love for each and every one of them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847247555</amazonuk> I knew that I was in safe hands.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Graham McCann1785769294|title=Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-ThomasMan at the Window (Detective Cardellini)|author=Robert Jeffreys
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Spam E-Mails can be incredibly annoying, but most of us will have had to deal with them. Fortunately, It's when we can hit the delete button and forget about them as quickly as they came. I certainly prefer not to torture my friends by sending such rubbish on, no matter how bad my luck read that a young boy is supposed creeping reluctantly to become if I dona teacher'ts bedroom one October night that we realise something is badly wrong. But I wonder how many of us Nowadays you ''might'' hope that something would react if a spam E-Mail actually be done about it fairly quickly but this was a matter of life 1965 and death, rather than just claiming to be?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007079</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jeanette Winterson|title=The Battle child abuse was generally regarded as malicious mischief on the part of the Sun|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=London 1601child. Elizabeth I is getting on The boy would be safe that night though - albeit in years. Her capital city is a busy, bustling place. Boats fill the river and people fill the streetsmost horrific fashion. Jack is happy because it When he reached Captain Edmund's bedroom he found the man dead on the floor, the top of his birthday and his present is his heartskull missing. The school's desireinitial reaction was that this was a dreadful accident: an excitable black puppy named Max, who's there had been a ''licking cull of kangaroos in some nearby fields and it was obviously a running and a leaping and a jumping and a tummy in stray bullet that had killed the air and a tail wagging and a barking, racing, braking, spinning energy dog of delight''Captain. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880042X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Ure1786695227|title=Love and KissesInvisible in a Bright Light|author=Sally Gardner
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Tamsin and Katie were just thirteen and worried that they were boring. They'd been best friends since forever and were The beginning of this excellent story will leave the reader more than a little confused: who is the man in the good girls. Neither missed school, skipped her homework nor had boyfriends. Wellgreen suit, that what isthe Reckoning, not so farand why are rows of people in a cave? But stick with it – Ms. Up until then Tamsin had been Gardner is very cleverly letting us experience the boffin head – consistently strong academically and looking forward to going on to universitysame disorientation as our heroine. All that seemed We watch in dismay as the strange man, who seems to change when she met Alex. Wellhave no eyes, when I say 'met' I should perhaps clarify and say that Alex pushed does his wheelbarrow into best to persuade herto answer his questions. But for some reason, from the building site where he worked. OhCeleste, and did I mention that he was seventeendespite her bewilderment, Polish remains wary and spoke very little English?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007281722</amazonuk>gives nothing away.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Henry Mintzberg1912374854|title=ManagingViolet|author=S J I Holliday|rating=3.5|genre=Business and FinanceThrillers|summary=I''Study after study has shown ve never been but understand that managers work at an unrelenting pace'' How truetravelling is all about meeting new people and forming instantaneous bonds with people in often chance situations. Well, though it always makes me wonder why, as a result, therethat's such exactly what happens when the two main/only characters meet in a travel agency in Beijing - Carrie is unsuccessfully trying to get a market refund on an extra ticket for bulky management the Trans-Siberian train and leadership and general business books like this oneViolet is trying to unsuccessfully buy a ticket for the same sold-out journey. How does anyone who needs or wants to read one ever find As the time to do so? This title actually has an answer to thistwo team up, by providing two books in onetravelling through Mongolia, Serbia and into Russia, it is such could've been the start of a simple yet effective solution that I have to start there. You can read beautiful friendship but this book in one a thriller after all so it quickly becomes a tale of two ways. Option one is to read every word, chapter by chapter, cover to cover. If you have the time I would recommend this approach because the book is very readableobsession, not too repetitivemanipulation, and quite thought-provokingtoxic friendships.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0273709305</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kathryn Fox1912374838|title=Blood BornNothing Important Happened Today|author=Will Carver
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=To give support to Nothing Important Happened Today is a vulnerable gang-rape victimdark, twisted, forensic pathologist Anya Crichton offers to drive Giverny Hart to the courthouse on the day she is due to testify against the notorious Harbourn brothers. But when Anya arrives at the house she finds Giverny close to death and faces a battle against time to save herdifficult read. In the panicStories about cults often are, Anya fails to take note of an important clue which might help tell whether but this is different; it really was suicide or a cleverly staged murder. Worse still, in trying to save the girl's life, Anya has interfered written with a crime scene and the case falls apartsense of style that is quite unlike anything I've read before. She blames herself for the Harbourn brothers being allowed to walk free and only hours later there is news of another attackI can't remember ever having read a novel with such an odd, distinctive narrative voice. A pair of sisters have been stabbed While a slim and raped resulting in relatively small book, the death slow-moving nature of one, while the other clings to lifeplot makes it feel far larger than its 276 pages.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340933097</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Leah Flemingwilliamabbey|title=Remembrance Day|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=In the year 2000 an old lady in a wheelchair watches the unveiling The Pursuit of the new war memorial in the village square. There's pride in what has been achieved, in the family who are gathered around her and there are memories too. Some are good but many are not.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561039</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewWilliam Abbey|author=Neal Layton|title=Surf's Up (Mammoth Academy)Claire North
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=Having successfully seen off When William Abbey fails to prevent the rather unpleasant humans lynching of a young boy in earlier volumes1880's South Africa, he finds himself cursed by the grieving mother. A naïve English Doctor, he slowly learns the weight of the curse upon him, our favourite junior mammoths Oscar as the shadow of the dead boy begins to follow him across the world. Never stopping, always growing – it crosses oceans and Arabella have nothing much else to do apart from return to Mammoth Academy for lots more double periods mountains in pursuit of Difficult SumsWilliam. They're supposed As he finds himself unable to be making presentations about what they did during resist speaking the holidays tootruths that he hears in others, but Oscar hasn't done any preparation he also learns that the dark shadow is deadly – and, frankly, seeks to kill the one he can't really remember what he actually did do with all that free time other than no Difficult Sums. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>034098967X</amazonuk>loves the most…
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ursula Jones and Sarah Gibb1643785036|title=The Princess Who Had No KingdomWondrous Apothecary|author=Mary E Martin
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Those who have known Alexander Wainwright, the landscape artist famous for his Turner prize-winning ''The princess who has no kingdom wanders around in a cart pulled by her horse PrettyHay Wagon'', and Rinaldo, the renowned conceptual artist would say that they're chalk and cheese, if not sworn enemies. She If you's very politeve watched the relationship, friendlyas has our narrator, and kind-heartedart dealer Jamie Helmsworth, but she feels like something is lacking because she doesnyou't d have a kingdom said that they were magnets, drawing and repulsing each other in equal measure. Wainwright was at the socially acceptable end of her own. The other royals she meets treat her nicely enoughthe artistic continuum, but with Rinaldo, it was all too obvious that there's always was but a feeling that shefine dividing line between conceptual art and public nuisance. As time has worn on, he's not quite as good as them because she isn't frequently been brought to the princess attention of anywherethe police. On this latest occasion, we see him charged with arson and theft of ''The Hay Wagon''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846160421</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mij Kelly and Louise NisbetMary H.K. Choi|title=The Happiest Man in the World or the Mouse Who Made ChristmasPermanent Record
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingTeens|summary=Mouse doesn't like anyone and keeps herself to herself. Her things are her things and she Pablo, a college drop-out, is too selfish to share them with anyone elseworking at a New York bodega. One day, an old man moves in to Mouse He's house. He used to be the happiest man massively in the worlddebt, but now he's sad. He's fed up of having givenavoiding his mother, given, given all and he finds his life and never got anything back. He just sits quietly and mopes. This makes Mouse miserable, so joy in creating unusual snacks with random ingredients! Whilst working one day she decides to cheer him up by giving him a clementine...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340931558</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nick Bland|title=The Very Cranky Bear|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Mooseevening, Lion, Zebra and Sheep head into a cave he's surprised to get out of discover that the rain, but little do they know that Bear girl he is fast asleep in there. When they wake him up, chatting with as he roars at themserves is a super-famous pop star and, chasing them outsideas unlikely as it may seem, so they decide to cheer him up somehow. Zebra paints stripes on him, Moose fashions antlers for him and Lion sticks start a mane of straw on himrelationship. Unsurprisingly, this makes Bear even crankier, so it's down With one character who is trying very hard not to Sheep to save be seen or noticed by anyone and the day...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340989424</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kes Gray other who is seen and Lee Wildish|title=Mum followed and Dad Glue|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=A young boyhounded by everyone all over the world, it's parents are splitting up. He's going through the usual emotions that children of divorce go through: worry, feeling unsure, blaming himself, anger, denial, and then trying to get them to stay an interesting clash as they come together. His method for this This isn't the usual response just a love story though: he looks for glue to stick his mum and dad together. Thankfully, he finds some wise and kindly advice in the process.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340957107</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Clara Vulliamy|title=The Bear With Sticky Paws Won't Go To Bed|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Itactually it's Pearlreally just Pab's bedtimestory, but she says she's really busy and isn't going to sleep. She just wants to play and play and play. When the bear with sticky paws rings about the doorbell, journey he whisks her away on an amazing adventure takes in his life via his meet- although as you might expect, the bear has a little more energy than Pearl and eventually she does get a little sleepy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408300648</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stephen Mackey|title=Miki|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=It's cold, dark and icy, and Miki and Penguin are trudging through the snow. But it's Midwinter Eve, when wishes come true. They wish for a tree, lights, someone strong to power the lights, and finally a star that will shine brightly forever. Miki is taken deep below the ice to find the star, whilst up top Penguin and new friend Polar Bear start to worry about herwith Leanna Smart.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>034095065X</amazonuk>0349003459
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kristin Cashore1609809319|title=FireLong-Haired Cat-Boy Cub|author=Etgar Keret, Aviel Basil and Sondra Silverston (translator)
|rating=5
|genre=FantasyConfident Readers|summary=Possessed of great beauty, One day a boy is in the zoo with his father when the kind that drives men mad, Fire is used to people trying to kill herman gets called away on urgent business. She The boy isn't used to them doing it by accident. When hustled into a poacher in the woods outside her cab and taken home accidentally shoots herfirst, though, no – he's given hot dog money, Fire is hard pressed and taxi money, and told to keep the temperamental Lord Archer from killing himjust stick around on his own and enjoy himself. But as sure as Fire is the man did not mean to cause her harm Well, she is made unsure by the strange fog that exists in the manit's mind.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905200129</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Justin Scroggie|title=Eye Spy: Uncovering no surprise that the Secrets of orphan-for-an-afternoon sensation the World Around You|rating=4|genre=Trivia|summary=Signs are everywhere. I wasnlad feels doesn't really one make him happy, and so he thinks of those who thought our roads were littered with too many traffic signs until the day I was driven past a pair of speed regulation signsspecies name for himself, positioned at the exit end of a one-way street but facing the illegal way and curls himself up it. Not all signs, of course, are quite into an empty cage as unnecessary, or indeed as blatantly visible, which is where this pictorial guide to countless coded messages, signifiers and other similar factoids comes inif he were a new exhibit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340994487</amazonuk> And it's then the drama begins…
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jose Saramago 1785785516|title=Small MemoriesFucking Good Manners|author=Simon Griffin
|rating=4
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=WonderfulManners maketh man, wonderful, wonderfulthey say. The only thing that could be conceivably better than reading ''Perfumes'' would be to read it while sampling the scents it reviews, but even without the olfactory component, ''Perfumes'' is a delight: Turin (a lyrical scientist) and Sanchez (an analytically enthusiastic collector) not only treat perfume creation as high art, but turn perfume criticism into an art form (or at least a sophisticated genre of writing) too. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681278</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Malouf |title=Ransom|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Taking his theme from It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by a small part set of Homer's Iliadconventions, Malouf tells the story of the king some of Troy, Priam's grief-stricken voyage into the Greek camp to ransom Troy's wealth for the body of his fallen son, Hector, killed by the equally grief-stricken Achilles whose great friend Hector had killed in battle before Achilles took his cruel revenge. Malouf tells the story in sparse, yet lyrical which are ages old and poetic fashion suggesting the personal stories behind the epic themes that Homer relatedothers which have evolved over time. It is Manners are not about how much to tip or how you should behave if you get an exquisitely written piece managing invitation to be both deeply moving as well as a great piece of story telling.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701184159</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Steven M Gillon|title=The Kennedy AssassinationBuckingham Palace, they have nothing to do with class or financial status: 24 Hours After|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=The assassination of President Kennedy came at a pivotal moment in my life and for more than forty years I they've read most of what has been written re about getting the eventbasics right before we try to deal with more difficult matters. ItOf course, we all have more relaxed manners when we's been of variable qualityre with family and friends, but the books fed the curiosity of people entranced by the charismatic young President who died so publiclyit's best if we learn to distinguish between our public and private lives and to act appropriately. I'd come to the point of wondering if there was anything new 'Fucking Good Manners'' aims to be said, but Stephen Gillom has looked at what happened from an unusual and largely overlooked angle – help us on the first twenty four hours of Lyndon Johnson's Presidencyway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>046501870X</amazonuk>
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