Difference between revisions of "Newest Confident Readers Reviews"
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| + | |author=Amy Ignatow | ||
| + | |title=The Popularity Papers | ||
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| + | |genre=Confident Readers | ||
| + | |summary=The RRP of this book is a whole £4 more than the average [[Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell|Dork Diary]]. What do you get for that extra outlay, and why do I even point this out? Well, both this series and that are designed as if they were created by a member of the target audience - an American tweenage girl with a lot to say about herself, her school life and how, once you've avoided your parents embarrassing you, the popular girls at school being condescending and rude at the best of times, everything in life will still work its damnedest to heap ignominy and embarrassment on you. | ||
| + | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1419700634</amazonuk> | ||
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|author=Antony Wootten | |author=Antony Wootten | ||
Revision as of 13:34, 4 November 2011
Confident readers
The Popularity Papers by Amy Ignatow
The RRP of this book is a whole £4 more than the average Dork Diary. What do you get for that extra outlay, and why do I even point this out? Well, both this series and that are designed as if they were created by a member of the target audience - an American tweenage girl with a lot to say about herself, her school life and how, once you've avoided your parents embarrassing you, the popular girls at school being condescending and rude at the best of times, everything in life will still work its damnedest to heap ignominy and embarrassment on you. Full review...
A Tiger Too Many by Antony Wootten
Jill's brother, Pete, was a keeper at London Zoo and when her mother was at work she would go to the zoo with him. She became very attached to an elderly tiger by the name of Ronny but with the outbreak of war tough decisions had to be made. What would happen if poisonous snakes escaped during a bombing raid? What about the elderly and dangerous animals? Jill is heart-broken when Ronny is shot but there's consolation in the form of a tiger cub, the runt of a litter rejected by his mother, who would need all Jill's care if he was to survive. Full review...
The Peppers and the International Magic Guys by Sian Pattenden
Esme and Monty are the Pepper twins, and whilst their hippie parents are away on holiday 'reconnecting with nature' the twins are left with Uncle Potty who is a member of the International Magic Guys club. Unfortunately the club is threatened with closure, and the more nervous Uncle Potty becomes about the club's future the more disastrous his tricks are! Will he ever be able to perform in the show that must save the club? Full review...
George and the Dragon and a World of Other Stories by Geraldine McCaughrean
Some people may wonder if we really need yet another collection of stories: after all, many of the tales in this book are already well-known. But that would be to miss the point. What is distinctive about this book is the fact that it is written by the multi-award-winning Geraldine McCaughrean, one of our most skilful, respected and prolific authors. Each of the stories here is like a gem made of words: beautifully told, using description which ranges from the lyrical to the comic, and both parents and children will derive a huge amount of pleasure from them. Full review...
Dark Lord: The Teenage Years by Jamie Thomson
What would you think, if you met a thirteen-year-old boy who turned up out of the blue and insisted, loudly and colourfully, that he was an evil demon and that he intended to smite you dead or submit you to a thousand terrible torments? Or both? Yup – the kid's nuttier than a fruit cake. Got a screw loose. Several sandwiches short of a picnic. And he's clearly played way too many computer games in his short life. So, despite his threats and protestations, he's got to go into foster care until his real family is found: after all, he can't be left sitting in a car park forever, can he? And once you realise there is no sign of a relative anywhere, well, there's his education to consider. Full review...
Fire World by Chris d'Lacey
David Rain is an impressionable, imaginative boy who can imagineer (that is, visualise objects and make them solid). He is a threat to the highly organised society of Co:pern:ica, particularly to the terrifying Aunts who control society on behalf of the Higher, and his parents are blamed for their own faulty emotions, thoughts and abilities, and punished. David is sent to the librarium, the repository for obsolete books, where he meets a mysterious girl called Rosa. She will play a part, along with the beautiful but threatening firebirds and unexpected members of David's own family, in discovering the secrets of the ancient tapestry of the librarium and confronting threatening forces from Co:pern:ica and beyond. Full review...
The Sleeping Army by Francesca Simon
When Francesca Simon was invited to write about anything she liked, she decided to put the Lewis chessmen at the centre of an adventure. They have long fascinated her, and she has always wondered why they look so glum and worried. Add to this the fact (which she admitted in a recent interview for the Guardian) that if she were left alone in the British Museum she would want to touch everything, pick up everything and generally run amok (rather like that naughty Loki the Trickster, not to mention an equally horrid young boy called Henry . . .) and the seeds of her story were sown. Full review...
The Misadventures of Winnie the Witch by Laura Owen and Korky Paul
Have you met Winnie the Witch yet? I do hope so. She's really quite bonkers, often rather disgusting, and she has a fat, long-suffering cat called Wilbur. She's a bit of a favourite in our house, so we were eager to sit down and read her newest stories together! Full review...
The Tales of Olga Da Polga by Michael Bond
Meet Olga, a proud, loveable and loving guinea pig. We see her first, as does a girl called Karen, living in a pet shop with some friends, and after a cycle of short stories she will end by living with friends of very different kinds. In between she has to experience life with humans (or sawdust people) and survive scrapes in the wilder world, but still has time to explain where guinea pigs' tails went and how they got their squeak. Full review...
May Contain Nuts (The World of Norm) by Jonathan Meres
Nothing, but nothing, is Norm's fault. If he virtually sleepwalks into weeing in his parent's wardrobe it's because they've downsized to a new, smaller home. If his best friend crashes Norm's own bike, it's his brother's fault. If his parents have had it up to there with him it's up to them to really state their mind and not be obtuse. When everything happens - lies, deceit, unhappiness and dog poo on the carpet - it's the world's fault for being so unfair. Full review...
And Rocky Too by Jayne Woodhouse
We first met Rocky when Anna's father, the feckless Pete, brought him home as the latest in his many money-making schemes which inevitably cost the family dear. This one was to have a longer-lasting effect than most though – through his affection for Rocky, the retired racing greyhound, Pete realised that he had to support his family and Anna's brother Darren made a friend of another boy. Even Wilf, the pensioner who lived next door found hidden talents and it looked as though the family was set fair, right? Full review...
The Bex Factor by Simon Packham
Reality TV, especially the kind of talent competition where the backstory of the contestants is as much a part of the programme as their performance on stage, is a part of most young people's lives. A whole culture has grown up which dangles big breaks, lucrative contracts and happiness-ever-after to those talented few who can sing or dance, or, better still, do both at once. Fourteen-year-old Bex dreams of singing her way to stardom via the latest TV show, called 'The Tingle Factor'. All she needs to do is persuade geeky Year Ten Matthew to accompany her on the guitar. Full review...
Mr Bliss by J R R Tolkien
If you wanted to produce a classic of children's literature, it would probably look a lot like this. It would be written by a famous name as a private exercise for their children, with the author's own illustrations. It would feature a title character, with a typical Edwardian headstrong attitude, yet with an ability to create slapstick. It may well have fairytale characters as you've never seen them before. And it would be presented in a deluxe, pristine heritage edition such as this. Full review...
WCS Ultimate Adventure: Mars! (Worst-Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure) by David Borgenicht
How many endings do you prefer your books to have? This claims 24, is the reason I ask. I can't be sure that the original Fighting Fantasy books of old didn't have a lot more, as well as the combat process, but in this style of choose-your-own-adventure franchise, two dozen isn't too bad at all. It's a younger-styled decision-making read, for the under-thirteens, and follows Borgenicht's seeming lifelong plan to get all sorts of survival info, either vital or trivial, into as many books as possible. Full review...
Best-loved Classics: Rapunzel by Sarah Gibb
Educators are, apparently, concerned at the moment at the number of children starting school who don't know any of the old traditional fairy tales, so it's nice to see a new version of Rapunzel that is based on the original story by The Brothers Grimm. This is a lovely book to share and stays closer to the original story than Disney's 'Tangled' film. Full review...
Penny Dreadful is a Complete Catastrophe by Joanna Nadin
Penny is not really Penny Dreadful. She is Penny Jones. But when her encounters with a rat called Rooney, a cat called Barry and her cousin Georgia May, and her testing of a patent burglar trap and digging for buried treasure all end in catastrophes, is it surprising that she is known as a Disaster Magnet? Full review...
Septimus Heap: Darke by Angie Sage
The seventh son of a seventh son has magical powers, as we all know. And Septimus is that son, although it took quite a time for him to find it out. Now he's apprenticed to Extraordinary Wizard Marcia Overstrand, she of the short temper and fabulous shoes, and he's about to embark on a horrendously dangerous part of his training, called Darke Week. For this exercise he has chosen to rescue Alther, a ghost who was accidentally Banished (a lot of words start with capital letters in these books) by Marcia, but once again the baddies have other ideas. Full review...
Ruby Rocksparkle: Her Wildly Incredible Adventure by Jean Clemens Loftus
Ruby Rocksparkle and her thirteen - yes! thirteen! - siblings are all named after gemstones. Ruby's father is a peasant farmer in the happy little kingdom of Felicitania. Felicitania is ruled by the kingly King Flavian and his beautiful second wife, Queen Morgana. His son, Prince Alano, is busily preparing for the day when he must rule, and the time for him to find a wife is fast approaching. Ruby, a vivid, read-headed beauty, dreams of marrying Prince Alano. If only he could ever marry a commoner - but even Ruby knows that could never be. Full review...
The Raven Mysteries: Diamonds and Doom by Marcus Sedgwick
Edgar is on holiday. Well, according to him, it's a conference where ravens meet to discuss all manner of important things, and where they occasionally have a bit too much to eat and drink. Whatever. The point is, he's not there when the last gold piece is taken from the treasury and spent, and Castle Otherhand is put up for sale. The adults don't seem to be doing anything constructive about the situation, so with Edgar away enjoying his birdly junketings, our favourite Goth Solstice and her ever-hungry brother Cudweed decide to sort things out by themselves. And if you've ever read a Raven Mysteries book before, you will know right away that that means by the time Edgar flutters home, chaos, mayhem and disaster will be the order of the day. Full review...
Lily by Holly Webb
Magic has been banned by the Queen since a magician called Marius Grange killed the King thirty years before. All the old magical families have been exiled, Lily's father has been sent to prison on the mainland for protesting against the decree, and their servants have to be paid extra wages to stay on the island where Lily, her sister Georgie and their mother now live. Full review...
The Snow Merchant by Sam Gayton
Imagine if you had never seen snow. What would you feel as it whirled and floated across the air, and landed on your outstretched hand for the very first time? Look out of the window and see how it has transformed the cold, muddy streets, how it has made the ordinary beautiful and the mundane astonishing. This is the delight which is presented to twelve-year-old Lettie at the beginning of this charming, whimsical tale. But just as snow can disrupt or even kill, danger and death seek Lettie. Full review...
The Windvale Sprites by Mackenzie Crook
The 'hurricane' of 1987, that Michael Fish famously dismissed while it was en route, brought a lot of destruction, that we know. But what hasn't been known before now is that it also brought a dead body to Asa Brown's attention - the dead body of a fairy. Looking into things at the local library the lad finds more and more clues that a local eccentric, two hundred years previously, had been the only other person to know of the sprites' existence. But what the clue trail leads to, Asa would never possibly suspect... Full review...
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Copenhagen, 1943, and everyone from schoolgirls like Annemarie up are suffering from shortages, fear and loathing - all caused by Nazi occupiers. But it's always been an open country, has Denmark, and no less than the King takes a daily horse ride, protected in plain view by every single loyal subject. But when, on the Jewish New Year, word gets out that Jews will have to be hidden more discretely, things kick into action. Annemarie and her family take her best friend, Ellen, to the country for safety. But it seems death will even follow them there... Full review...
Horrid Henry and the Zombie Vampire by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross
He's the leader of the Purple Hand gang, the eternal tormentor of his sickeningly goody two shoes brother, and the master of get-rick-quick schemes. He's met the queen, tricked the tooth fairy and fought off the bogey babysitter. He's eternally misunderstood and always in trouble. He's Horrid Henry and he is as charismatic and as hilarious as ever. Full review...
Sister, Missing by Sophie McKenzie
Lauren has spent a tumultuous couple of years, finding her birth mother and working out ways to stay in the lives of both of her families. To make things unbearably harder, her father Sam has died suddenly, nine months before the beginning of this story, and the constant hostility of her older sister shows no sign of abating. Shelby, understandably, resents the constant attention paid to this sister who turned up out of the blue one day, and feels she is being ignored in consequence. Full review...
Mistress Masham's Repose by T H White
Ten year old Maria is an orphan. With a venal Vicar as her Guardian and a horrible governess, Maria lives in a corner of her practically ruined stately home, with only the cook, Mrs Noakes, and an absent minded Professor as her friends. One summer's day she takes a leaking punt out on the ornamental lake in the grounds of the house, and on an artificial island, in a Folly (the Mistress Masham's Repose of the title), she discovers a community of Lilliputians, the People. At first she treats them like playthings, desperate to own them as she owns nothing else, but the Professor helps her to see them as people worthy of respect. Full review...
Dork Diaries: How to Dork Your Diary by Rachel Renee Russell
The clue is in the title. This is volume 3 and a half in the ongoing series of adventures for Nikki Maxwell. Here she gets her knickers into a right twist because her diary, which of course contains three books of adventures lusting after the school hunk, hating the school bitch and copious amounts of embarrassment, seems to have got lost at school. Her search for it takes her into places you wouldn't expect, closer to her BFFs, and into a major discussion about the merits and style of creating your own diary. Full review...
Muddle Earth Too by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
It takes courage, and a lot of skill, to write a book which parodies not one but dozens of popular stories, and it is fortunate that Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell are just the guys for the job. They take on wizards, handsome vampires, fairies, princesses, dragons and flying carpets, and jumble the whole lot up together. The result is one hilarious, silly and thoroughly satisfying story. Full review...
War: Stories of Conflict by Michael Morpurgo
Throughout history, war has blighted society and had long lasting impacts on not only those directly involved but the innocent bystanders too. This collection of stories, edited by the magnificent Michael Morpurgo himself, looks to explore the impacts of war on individual soldiers, families and especially children. Every story approaches conflicts from a different angle and this ensures that even though there are a good number of short stories in the book, you will never feel as if it is becoming repetitive or dull. The stories do a good job of conveying just how multi-faceted and complex the concept of war is. Full review...
You, Me and Thing: The Curse of the Jelly Babies by Karen McCombie
At the bottom of Ruby's garden there lives a Thing. He's a strange creature, a little like a squirrel (only don't suggest that to him because you'll make him very angry! But he has wings, and huge bush baby eyes. Ruby and Jackson discover him together and decide to keep his existence secret which is all well and good until the magic starts, and then there's the curse and a bit of a problem with jelly babies! Full review...
Velvet by Mary Hooper
The opening chapter of this book is a roller-coaster of a read. Velvet has fainted while doing back-breaking, gruelling work in a laundry, and risks being sent to the workhouse. Quick thinking saves her job, and the reader relaxes, only to learn a shocking and shameful secret about the heroine we have already begun to like. Her fortunes soon change, in true Dickensian style, but her troubles are not over: this same secret will come back to haunt her (please excuse the pun) and put her in the power of one of the other characters. Full review...
Darth Paper Strikes Back: An Origami Yoda Book by Tom Angleberger
In this follow up to The Strange Case of Origami Yoda there is a new paper finger puppet in school. Harvey has made himself a Darth Vader (Darth Paper) and it is, of course, turning him to the dark side! I hadn't read the original story to begin with, so I must admit that there were times when I wondered quite what was going on! It seems that one of the boys at school, Dwight, made an Origami Yoda finger puppet and this puppet gave his classmates amazing advice, advice that helped them in their school relationships and resolved various problems. Origami Yoda was, undoubtedly, using the force! Full review...
Maphead by Lesley Howarth
MapHead and his father Ran are of the Subtle World. Ran can travel through time, make things disappear and erase human memories. MapHead can flash the map of any place across his face and bald scalp. MapHead is a halfling and now he is almost 12, Ran has brought him to meet his human mother. As they need to pass for humans, they've taken new names - Boothe and Powers, from a random movie - practised their English, and enrolled MapHead at the same school as his half-brother. Full review...
The Alien in the Garage and Other Stories by Rob Keeley
Would aliens like custard creams? Can fake tan hide a big lie? Are TV remotes sinister objects? Do secrets make you popular?
Rob Keeley explores all these questions and more in a super collection of slightly spooky, blackly comic short stories. They're beautifully observed and you can see that Rob knows children well. He has the emotional landscape exactly right and is equally accurate when describing - and sometimes gently mocking - peer relationships. Full review...
Haunted by Susan Cooper, Joseph Delaney, Berlie Doherty, Jamila Gavin, Matt Haig, Robin Jarvis, Derek Landy, Sam Llewellyn, Mal Peet, Philip Reeve and Eleanor Updale
I've always enjoyed a good ghost story – whether at a sleepover when I was a teenager, or even now reading horror stories in bed in the middle of the night. As soon as I saw this book I knew I wanted to read it, and it did not disappoint; a group of excellent authors from all genres have come together and the result is a collection of brilliant stories not to be missed by any ghost hunters out there. Full review...
Milly-Molly-Mandy's Friends by Joyce Lankester Brisley
Milly-Molly-Mandy doesn't much mind being an only child when she has people like Little Friend Susan, Billy Blunt and Miss Muggins's Jilly to play with. And what fun they have! With overnight guests, trips in the pony-trap, dressing up as Proper Ladies, running races and even forming secret clubs, there's never a dull moment. Full review...
Milly-Molly-Mandy's Family by Joyce Lankester Brisley
Millicent Margaret Amanda (that's Milly-Molly-Mandy to you and me) lives with Father and Mother and Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle and Aunty (and Toby the dog) in a nice white cottage with a thatched roof. And do you know, she has all sorts of adventures. She goes out into town alone to fetch things for her extended family, she goes to a concert where she even knows one of the performers, she gets invited to parties in the village hall, and she does it all with the company of Little Friend Susan and Billy Blunt. Full review...
The Giant Book of Giants by Saviour Pirotta and Mark Robertson
There's a rather large giant's eye starting back at me from the cover of this book...I'm not scared though, because the book promises that the giant contained within is a gentle giant who will guard my room! And he really is contained within since this is a book set which includes a book of giant stories from around the world as well as a huge giant poster (over one metre high!) which is in 3D and contains moving parts! Full review...
