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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=Toby LesterMark Lingane|title=The Fourth Part of the World: The Epic Story of History's Greatest MapDegrade (Tesla Expansion)|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryTeens|summary=In 2003 a map was bought for $10 million''Degrade'' opens as it means to go on - with inyerface, banging action. Poor Arid, alone in the highest price ever paid publicly for desert since his parents were killed, has a historical document, narrow escape as two mega-rigs fight it out and his is pretty much destroyed. He finds himself rescued by the Library mysterious-but-fascinating Ella and onboard the ''Moonlight'' under the suspicious eyes of Congressits leader, where it Queen Bea. Bea's eyes flash with recognition when he tells her his name - Arid Geiger - but before he can find out why that is now on permanent public display. No ordinary map, this is sometimes described as Americathere's birth certificate. It an assassination attempt and Arid is the sole survivor of a thousand copies printed early in the 16th century, under suspicion and was discovered imprisoned. An escape facilitated by accident in some archives in a German castle in 1901. The sale Ella - Queen Bea's daughter - sees Arid and story behind it intrigued Toby Lester so much that he was inspired to discover moreher other daughter, Frey, and this book is stranded in the resultdesert...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1861978030</amazonuk>099461649X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Steven Lowe and Alan McArthur B07XLM3SM6|title=Is it Just Me or Has Murder at the Shit Hit the Fan?: Your Hilarious New Guide to Unremitting Global MiseryDolphin Hotel|author=Helena Dixon|rating=34|genre=HumourCrime (Historical)|summary=''The banks fell over like fat Labradors running over a wet kitchen floorElowed Underhay was just twenty-seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916, leaving her daughter, Kitty, in the care of her grandmother.'' Surely A great deal of money had been spent to find out what happened to her and the conclusion was that is the wackiestshe was dead, most inappropriate simile for mainly because there was no evidence to suggest otherwise. Kitty has come to terms with this and in 1933 she was running the credit crunch Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her grandmother when her grandmother had to leave to look after her sister who was ill. She was reluctant to leave Kitty in charge - and all it has done for the worldKitty could not understand why. You wonShe't get any such namby-pamby animal likenesses from these authors, instead s always coped with quite a potty mouth on them they will lambast the modern worldmix of holidaymakers, boating people and the entire banking system, all those who failed to see it coming, naval college on the edge of town before - and those millions just seemingly waiting for us all she's done every job in the hotel. And she particularly cannot understand why her grandmother's friends have been roped in to revert to high-interest, high-risk, high-lending capitalism, so they can get back keep an eye on the expenses train, things ''and back up '' why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to take charge of security at the rich listshotel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443656</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andy Stanton|title=What's For Dinner, Mr Gum?|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=As soon as heroine Polly turns her back, Seishi Yokomizo and leaves the town of Lamonic Bibber for a day at the seaside, Mr Gum falls out with his best friend, causing carnivorous carnage all over the place. Meat is getting thrown around like it's going out of fashion, and we have to doubt whether Polly and her companions can ever utilise the power of love and put things to rights. Especially as this book does not contain a magic unicorn called Elizabeth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405248246</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Loose WomenLouise Heal Kawai (translator)|title=Here Come the GirlsThe Honjin Murders
|rating=4
|genre=Home and FamilyCrime|summary=This To many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery' is enough to make the second volume book one to read; preferably quantified by the panelists from that nice ITV series, words 'clever'Loose Womenor 'good'. Just as promised on the cover For those who need more, this book here is an entertaining night with the girls. It turns out that theyextra background – we're just like usin rural Japan in the 1930s. The faces are already familiar and even if you don't know them yetoldest son of an esteemed family is belatedly getting married, although the whole affair is really not as ostentatious as it might be – hardly anybody has turned up, what with nine contributorsit being arranged at great haste. She only has an uncle representing her family, you'll soon find a like-minded woman behind for one of thing. Either way, the celebrations have gone ahead as planned, only for the wedded couple to be slashed to death in their private annex before the celebrity facessun rises on their marriage. The women are universally warm-hearted What with a man missing parts of his fingers being in the neighbourhood, and supportive: there will be many some mysterious use of a lonely woman who reads traditional musical instrument at the time of the crime, this book and feels as if she sat down with case has a group lot of friends for the eveningpeculiar about it.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444700154</amazonuk>1782275002
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean UreCixin Liu|title=Fortune CookieDeath's End|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=Fudge Cassidy and the Cupcake kid are best friends. If the names remind you of a certain film then youI'd be spot been paying more attention when I picked this book up, I would have put it back on as that's where Fudge's father got the idea fromshelf. TheyNot because I didn're actually chalk and cheese – Fudge is loud mouthed and opinionated and Cupcake is quiet and thoughtful – t want to read it, but because I'd have figured out that it was the combination worksfinal part of a trilogy. They've just started at secondary school and Cupcake has rather Coming in partway through a lot on her plate. Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy saga is never the easiest thing to do and his problems it's particularly true in science fiction because without knowing the back-story there are becoming more obvious. Add not just people whose names mean nothing to this you (when it's assumed they will) but there are whole concepts that her father couldnyou won't cope with the problems and he now has another familyunderstand. ItThis latter is particularly true of Cixin Liu's just Cupcakework – his range is phenomenal. George R R Martin, who knows a thing or two about world-creation, Joey described it as ''a unique blend of scientific and her mother – philosophical speculation, conspiracy theory and not a lot cosmology''. All of moneythat and more.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>1784971650
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jenifer Roberts1780894511|title=The Madness of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of PortugalDie Alone|author=Simon Kernick|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyThrillers|summary=Born Ray Mason is in 1734 prison awaiting trial for murder and he's in Lisbonthe vulnerable prisoner unit: as a cop, at that time he's something of a target, but the unit is not as secure as the richest inmates would have hoped and most opulent city Mason is injured in Europe, Maria was destined to become the first female monarch in Portuguese historya riot. Married On his way to her uncle Infante Pedro, seventeen years her senior, she had six children (outliving all but one of them), hospital he's broken free by armed men and became Queen in 1777an offer is made to him. A conscientious woman, she had He's to assassinate the misfortune man who is likely to be born in during become the country's next prime minister and he'age of reasonll then be given a new identity so that he can start afresh abroad. His captors say that they're MI6, when church and state were vying for supremacybut Mason has his doubts. Instinctively a supporter of the old religion, with a humanitarian approach His choices are limited though and he has personal reasons to state affairs, she believe that it would be better if Alastair Sheridan was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine the Great, and wore her crown rather reluctantlydead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David HughesAkwaeke Emezi|title=Thomas Wogan is DeadPet
|rating=4.5
|genre=Graphic NovelsTeens|summary=WellThe people of the town Lucille believe that all the monsters are gone. Their children are raised to understand that they were saved by the angels, with a title like thatthose who rid the town of evil, need I bother with a plot summary? and there are no monsters anymore. A man has a But one day out in Morecambe, then the next thing he knows heJam accidentally cuts herself and bleeds a little onto one of her mother's in the ultimate waiting room, with paintings. The blood awakens a strange array of animals (a batbizarre, a toadterrifying-looking creature named Pet, a sea urchinwho somehow comes to life and declares that it is here to hunt the monster...) Though Jam tries to convince it that all the monsters are gone, all waiting for... wellPet is certain that there is one, something. Yupstill, as you didn't need tellingand that the monster is hiding in the home of her best friend, he's deadRedemption.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095580888X</amazonuk>0571355110
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dave Eggers1686751680|title=The Wild ThingsMy Mummy does weird things / Maman fait des choses bizarres|author=Amelie Julien and Gustyawan
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionFor Sharing|summary=Meet Max. Which child doesn't think that their mother is, well, ''weird''? When I It might be that in the morning their mother doesn't like speaking much when every self-respecting child knows that that is when you're at your brightest with lots to say he sometimes gets the wrong end ? ''Why'' then does Mummy stick her fingers in her ears? Then there's doing yoga in front of the stick about adultstelevision, or dislikes his motherwhich could be worrying if it wasn't so funny. We won's new boyfriendt go into too much detail about what goes on in the bathroom and the colour changes which have occurred when Mummy emerges and frankly, or gets a bit feisty when he feels the need for revenge, I am certainly understating less said the facts. He is a bit of a rascal better about her reactions to say your artistic efforts on the leastwall. But all that might change when he finds himself travelling to a strange land of roisterous animalsI mean, and ends up installed as their king.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144221</amazonuk>what else would you use paint for?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeremy StrongJustine Avery and Liuba Syrotiuk|title=Christmas Chaos for the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog What Wonders Do You See... When You Dream?
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersFor Sharing|summary=Trevor's troublesome dog, Streaker, 'The day has had three puppies. They were fatheredended''<br>''Hasn't it been splendid?'' <br>''But now, 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 heit's entitled time, 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 itsure''s up to Trevor and his best friend Tina to try and track them down before Charlie demands his cash!|amazonuk=<amazonukbr>0141327243''For an entirely different adventure'' </amazonukbr>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Iain Smyth and Michael TerryHarris|title=The Wide-Mouthed FrogSolitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingLifestyle|summary=Do you know This is not the joke about 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 wide-mouthed frog? You must have heard mainstream, but itis not that at all. It Instead of telling us how it is more about the ''why''s a classic. It Harries examines how we's one that you really need to tell in person, with your fingers pulling your mouth wide open, but to hopefully spark your memoryre eroding solitude, the wide-mouthed frog introduces himself which used to be a number natural part of animals until our human life, and why that matters. Of course, he finally comes across a crocodile who eats wide-mouthed frogstalks about how some people have found solitude and what has come of that, and eventually in the frog does final chapter he talks about his best to disguise who he is whilst saying ''Ooh, you don't see many own experience of those round here, do you?'' I'm hardly doing having deliberately sought it justiceout, but it's very cheesy mostly he wanders down the alleys and funny. Anyway, by-ways that his thinking about this is a book of that jokelost art led him.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk>1847947662
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel VreemanAndy Briggs|title=Don't Swallow Your GumCtrl+S
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleScience Fiction|summary=Life in the near future'''BANG'''s not all bad. ThatWe's ve reversed global warming and fixed the sound of copious urban myths being shot downcollapsing bee population. We even created SPACE, a virtual-sensory universe where average guys like Theo Wilson can do almost anything they desire. '''BANG''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
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{{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
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{{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.
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{{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 It's when we read that a young boy is creeping reluctantly to a teacher's bedroom one October night that we realise something is badly wrong. Nowadays you ''might'' hope that something would be incredibly annoying, done about it fairly quickly but most this was 1965 and child abuse was generally regarded as malicious mischief on the part of us will have had to deal with themthe child. Fortunately, we can hit The boy would be safe that night though - albeit in the delete button and forget about them as quickly as they camemost horrific fashion. I certainly prefer not to torture my friends by sending such rubbish When he reached Captain Edmund's bedroom he found the man dead onthe floor, no matter how bad my luck is supposed to become if I don'tthe top of his skull missing. But I wonder how many of us would react if The school's initial reaction was that this was a spam E-Mail actually was dreadful accident: there had been a matter cull of life kangaroos in some nearby fields and death, rather than just claiming to be?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007079</amazonuk>it was obviously a stray bullet that had killed the Captain.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeanette Winterson1786695227|title=The Battle of the Sun|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=London 1601. Elizabeth I is getting on in years. Her capital city is a busy, bustling place. Boats fill the river and people fill the streets. Jack is happy because it's his birthday and his present is his heart's desire: an excitable black puppy named Max, who's a ''licking and a running and a leaping and a jumping and a tummy Invisible in the air and a tail wagging and a barking, racing, braking, spinning energy dog of delight''. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880042X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewBright Light|author=Jean Ure|title=Love and KissesSally 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.
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{{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>
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{{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>
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{{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…
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{{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=The princess Those who has no kingdom wanders around in a cart pulled by her horse Pretty. She's very politehave known Alexander Wainwright, friendly, and kindthe landscape artist famous for his Turner prize-hearted, but she feels like something is lacking because she doesnwinning ''t have a kingdom of her own. The other royals she meets treat her nicely enoughHay Wagon'', and Rinaldo, but there's always a feeling the renowned conceptual artist would say that shethey's re chalk and cheese, if not quite sworn enemies. If you've watched the relationship, as good as them because she isnhas our narrator, art dealer Jamie Helmsworth, you't the princess of anywhere.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846160421</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mij Kelly d have said that they were magnets, drawing and Louise Nisbet|title=The Happiest Man repulsing each other in equal measure. Wainwright was at the World or socially acceptable end of the Mouse Who Made Christmas|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Mouse doesn't like anyone artistic continuum, but with Rinaldo, it was all too obvious that there was but a fine dividing line between conceptual art and keeps herself to herselfpublic nuisance. Her things are her things and she is too selfish to share them with anyone else. One day As time has worn on, an old man moves in to Mousehe's house. He used frequently been brought to be the happiest man in attention of the worldpolice. On this latest occasion, but now hewe see him charged with arson and theft of ''The Hay Wagon's sad. He's fed up of having given, given, given all his life and never got anything back. He just sits quietly and mopes. This makes Mouse miserable, so one day she decides to cheer him up by giving him a clementine...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340931558</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nick BlandMary H.K. Choi|title=The Very Cranky BearPermanent Record
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingTeens|summary=MoosePablo, Lion, Zebra and Sheep head into a cave to get college drop-out of the rain, but little do they know that Bear is fast asleep working at a New York bodega. He's massively in there. When they wake him updebt, he roars at them's avoiding his mother, chasing them outsideand he finds his joy in creating unusual snacks with random ingredients! Whilst working one evening, so they decide he's surprised to cheer him up somehow. Zebra paints stripes on himdiscover that the girl he is chatting with as he serves is a super-famous pop star and, as unlikely as it may seem, Moose fashions antlers for him and Lion sticks they start a mane of straw on himrelationship. Unsurprisingly With one character who is trying very hard not to be seen or noticed by anyone and the other who is seen and followed and hounded by everyone all over the world, this makes Bear even crankierit's an interesting clash as they come together. This isn't just a love story though, so and actually it's down to Sheep to save really just Pab's story, about the day..journey he takes in his life via his meet-up with Leanna Smart.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340989424</amazonuk>0349003459
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kes Gray and Lee Wildish1609809319|title=Mum and Dad Glue|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=A young boy'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 together. His method for this isn't the usual response 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=It's Pearl's bedtime, 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 the doorbell, he whisks her away on an amazing adventure Long-Haired Cat- 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>}} {{newreviewBoy Cub|author=Stephen Mackey|title=Miki|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=It's coldEtgar Keret, dark Aviel Basil 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 her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034095065X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kristin Cashore|title=FireSondra 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, and taxi money, Fire is hard pressed 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 it's no surprise that the strange fog that exists in orphan-for-an-afternoon sensation the manlad feels doesn't make him happy, and so he thinks of a species name for himself, and curls himself up into an empty cage as if he were a new exhibit. And it's mind.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905200129</amazonuk>then the drama begins…
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Justin Scroggie1785785516|title=Eye Spy: Uncovering the Secrets of the World Around YouFucking 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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