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We were rather depressed to read this: children's books currently get just 3% of all book review space, despite accounting for over 30% of the market. It's [http://middlegradestrikesback.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/coverkidsbooks-facts.html true]. Thank heavens for the internet, where there is a lively community writing and talking about books for young people, don't you think?
But here's a cool thing. Reading can improve your mental health. [[http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/stephen-fry-ian-mckellen-and-melvyn-bragg-share-stories-of-how-literature-can-help-with-mental-a6830516.html Stephen Fry, Sir Ian McKellen and Melvyn Bragg]] have each given deeply personal interviews to academics as part of a free online course which considers how poems, plays and novels can help us to understand and cope with deep emotional distress. The course is called ''Literature and mental health: Reading for wellbeing'' and we think it sounds like a truly positive initiative.
'''Golden Hour'''
And on to to the new...
.
In fiction, Louise thinks you should look at [[When the Floods Came by Clare Morrall ]]. In a post-apocalyptic world, a close-knit family live isolated from the rest of the country. One day a mysterious young man arrives, changing everything forever. But who is Aashay Kent and why is he so interested in the Polanskis? Morral's world is alien, yet somehow recognisable. It is not so different from our own; which in itself is terrifying. This book is thoroughly absorbing.
In non-fiction, John recommends [[The Lost Tudor Princess: A Life of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox by Alison Weir ]]. Weir never lets us down and here we find a very full life and times of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, one of the more shadowy, lesser known Tudor royal figures. Like so many others who were closely related to King Henry VIII and his children, she led an often quite a precarious life saddened by personal tragedy and marked by suspicion of treasonable activities. Hers is a fascinating story.
For the younger ones, this month we are recommending the fabulous [[Dreaming the Bear by Mimi Thebo ]]. Darcy's a typical teenager whose natural habitat is the shopping mall and the multiplex. It's therefore not surprising that she's finding it almost impossible to adjust to living in a snowy wilderness without television, a phone signal or wifi. So what will happen when she stumbles into the shelter of a cave and finds herself embraced by a hibernating grizzly bear? Hauntingly beautiful, almost dreamlike in places, ''Dreaming the Bear'' is likely to become a children's classic comparable to David Almond's ''Skellig''.
'''''All at Bookbag Towers'''''
See what we were reading [[February 2015 Newsletter|last year]].
(PS – if you don't want to receive further copies of our newsletter please [mailto:unsubscribe@thebookbag.co.uk email us] and we'll see that you're deleted from the mailing list.)
[[Category:Newsletters|* 2016 02]]
