Difference between revisions of "Costa Prize 2012"

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|summary=  
 
|summary=  
 
Thomas Cromwell is now very far from his humble beginnings. He is Henry VIII's chief minister. Katherine of Aragorn is no longer Queen. The Princess Mary has been disinherited. Anne Boleyn wears the crown and has produced a daughter, Elizabeth. But there is no sign of a son and Henry is beginning to regret his secession from Rome. We pick up from [[Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel|Wolf Hall]] during the royal progress of 1535 and from there, we chart the destruction of the new Queen.  
 
Thomas Cromwell is now very far from his humble beginnings. He is Henry VIII's chief minister. Katherine of Aragorn is no longer Queen. The Princess Mary has been disinherited. Anne Boleyn wears the crown and has produced a daughter, Elizabeth. But there is no sign of a son and Henry is beginning to regret his secession from Rome. We pick up from [[Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel|Wolf Hall]] during the royal progress of 1535 and from there, we chart the destruction of the new Queen.  
−
|isbn`=0007315090
+
|isbn=0007315090
 
}}
 
}}
  
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|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
−
|summary=  
+
|summary= Thomas Cromwell is now very far from his humble beginnings. He is Henry VIII's chief minister. Katherine of Aragorn is no longer Queen. The Princess Mary has been disinherited. Anne Boleyn wears the crown and has produced a daughter, Elizabeth. But there is no sign of a son and Henry is beginning to regret his secession from Rome. We pick up from [[Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel|Wolf Hall]] during the royal progress of 1535 and from there, we chart the destruction of the new Queen.  
−
Thomas Cromwell is now very far from his humble beginnings. He is Henry VIII's chief minister. Katherine of Aragorn is no longer Queen. The Princess Mary has been disinherited. Anne Boleyn wears the crown and has produced a daughter, Elizabeth. But there is no sign of a son and Henry is beginning to regret his secession from Rome. We pick up from [[Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel|Wolf Hall]] during the royal progress of 1535 and from there, we chart the destruction of the new Queen.  
+
|isbn=0007315090
−
|isbn`=0007315090
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
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|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=Billy's mum is dead.  Billy is 19 years old when his mum resists a mugger; this is the last thing she ever does, leaving Billy with 6 year old Oscar to face life together.  They'll be fine.  For a start, their life isn't as bad as the 'Life! Death! Prizes!' type magazines at supermarket check-outs.  Billy has a job at the local history museum, Oscar's doing ok at school, so, despite their Aunt Toni, despite Oscar's recently reappearing father, despite the PTA mothers at the school gates... and social services... and the fact that the mugger is a local lad that Billy sees around... yep, they'll be fine.   
 
|summary=Billy's mum is dead.  Billy is 19 years old when his mum resists a mugger; this is the last thing she ever does, leaving Billy with 6 year old Oscar to face life together.  They'll be fine.  For a start, their life isn't as bad as the 'Life! Death! Prizes!' type magazines at supermarket check-outs.  Billy has a job at the local history museum, Oscar's doing ok at school, so, despite their Aunt Toni, despite Oscar's recently reappearing father, despite the PTA mothers at the school gates... and social services... and the fact that the mugger is a local lad that Billy sees around... yep, they'll be fine.   
−
|isbn`=1408819139
+
|isbn=1408819139
 
}}
 
}}
  
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|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary= In ''The Heart Broke In'', James Meek manages to combine some big and serious issues into a compellingly readable and entertaining moral thriller. At the centre of the book are two siblings who are very different. Ritchie is a former rock star, now working in the world of reality television producing a game show about teenage pop bands while his younger sister, Bec, is a devoted scientist working on a cure for malaria. On the one hand it's a story of family dynamics, but it's also a thoughtful and well constructed tale of morality and judgement. Setting science against religion it asks very modern day questions about who is the guardian of morality in today's world and who, if anyone, has the right to judge others' behaviour.   
 
|summary= In ''The Heart Broke In'', James Meek manages to combine some big and serious issues into a compellingly readable and entertaining moral thriller. At the centre of the book are two siblings who are very different. Ritchie is a former rock star, now working in the world of reality television producing a game show about teenage pop bands while his younger sister, Bec, is a devoted scientist working on a cure for malaria. On the one hand it's a story of family dynamics, but it's also a thoughtful and well constructed tale of morality and judgement. Setting science against religion it asks very modern day questions about who is the guardian of morality in today's world and who, if anyone, has the right to judge others' behaviour.   
−
|isbn`=0857862901
+
|isbn=0857862901
 
}}
 
}}
  
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|genre=Graphic Novel
 
|genre=Graphic Novel
 
|summary= Meet Daniel Bagnold.  He is a surly, sullen, modern teenager, permanently in a black hoodie, with long, lanky hair and almost a monobrow, who one would call very quiet were it not for the metal music that forms almost his only interest.  He has been forced to spend the summer, not in Florida with his absent father's new family, but with his librarian mother Sue, his best friend and his shyness.  He doesn't want much, and neither it would appear does his mother – although she knows she has to get him some posh shoes for her cousin's wedding.  This book is about their relationship – the two of them and the dog that completes the household – in telling, devastating and humorous manner.  
 
|summary= Meet Daniel Bagnold.  He is a surly, sullen, modern teenager, permanently in a black hoodie, with long, lanky hair and almost a monobrow, who one would call very quiet were it not for the metal music that forms almost his only interest.  He has been forced to spend the summer, not in Florida with his absent father's new family, but with his librarian mother Sue, his best friend and his shyness.  He doesn't want much, and neither it would appear does his mother – although she knows she has to get him some posh shoes for her cousin's wedding.  This book is about their relationship – the two of them and the dog that completes the household – in telling, devastating and humorous manner.  
−
|isbn`=0224090844
+
|isbn=0224090844
 
}}
 
}}
  
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|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=Francesca Segal's debut novel, ''The Innocents'' is set in upper class, Jewish, North London. Adam is about to marry his childhood sweetheart, Rachel, and is working as a lawyer in her father's business. Into this romantic idyl though comes Ellie, Rachel's wayward cousin who has been forced to flee the US following an appearance in an 'art house' movie of dubious repute and, it turns out, further scandal. Ellie is everything that Rachel is not; a model, worldly, sexy and tempting. As Adam gets drawn into wanting to 'rescue' her and look after her, his whole future with Rachel is thrown into doubt and the story becomes a will they, won't they get together narrative.  
 
|summary=Francesca Segal's debut novel, ''The Innocents'' is set in upper class, Jewish, North London. Adam is about to marry his childhood sweetheart, Rachel, and is working as a lawyer in her father's business. Into this romantic idyl though comes Ellie, Rachel's wayward cousin who has been forced to flee the US following an appearance in an 'art house' movie of dubious repute and, it turns out, further scandal. Ellie is everything that Rachel is not; a model, worldly, sexy and tempting. As Adam gets drawn into wanting to 'rescue' her and look after her, his whole future with Rachel is thrown into doubt and the story becomes a will they, won't they get together narrative.  
−
|isbn`=0701186992
+
|isbn=0701186992
 
}}
 
}}
  
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|summary=  
 
|summary=  
 
It's the time for the tall mainland men to come to the island to trade, so 16 year old Mary prepares.  She brings out her handmade 'broideries' and hides Barney, her little brother, in a cupboard.  This is a necessary preparation born of fear, for the island boys have been vanishing, taken by the traders.  On this particular day Mary's broideries go, but so does Barney.  
 
It's the time for the tall mainland men to come to the island to trade, so 16 year old Mary prepares.  She brings out her handmade 'broideries' and hides Barney, her little brother, in a cupboard.  This is a necessary preparation born of fear, for the island boys have been vanishing, taken by the traders.  On this particular day Mary's broideries go, but so does Barney.  
−
|isbn`=144473783X
+
|isbn=144473783X
 
}}
 
}}
  
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|genre=Biography
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary= If there's one person able to produce a worthwhile potted history of James Joyce's daughter, it should be Mary M Talbot.  She's an eminent academic, and her father was a major Joycean scholar.  Both females had parents with the same names too - James and Nora, both took to the stage when younger after going to dance school, but it's the contrasts between them this volume subtly picks out rather than any similarities, in a dual biography painted by one person we know by now as more than able to produce a delightful graphic novel - [[:Category:Bryan Talbot|Bryan Talbot]].  
 
|summary= If there's one person able to produce a worthwhile potted history of James Joyce's daughter, it should be Mary M Talbot.  She's an eminent academic, and her father was a major Joycean scholar.  Both females had parents with the same names too - James and Nora, both took to the stage when younger after going to dance school, but it's the contrasts between them this volume subtly picks out rather than any similarities, in a dual biography painted by one person we know by now as more than able to produce a delightful graphic novel - [[:Category:Bryan Talbot|Bryan Talbot]].  
−
|isbn`=0224096087
+
|isbn=0224096087
 
}}
 
}}
  
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|genre=Biography
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=The sub-title of this biography is highly appropriate, for the ninety-six years of Patrick Leigh Fermor were packed with adventure.  Born in 1915, he was something of a maverick at school, intellectually gifted but perpetually naughty, and his punishments for various refractions included suspensions and even expulsions.
 
|summary=The sub-title of this biography is highly appropriate, for the ninety-six years of Patrick Leigh Fermor were packed with adventure.  Born in 1915, he was something of a maverick at school, intellectually gifted but perpetually naughty, and his punishments for various refractions included suspensions and even expulsions.
−
|isbn`=0719554497
+
|isbn=0719554497
 
}}
 
}}
  
Line 115: Line 114:
 
|genre=Biography
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=Selina Guinness lived at Tibradden as a child and in 2002 she and her husband-to-be, Colin Graham, moved back to the house when her elderly uncle Charles became frail.  The surname might lead you to suspect that there were brewery millions in the background but this wasn't the case.  The couple were young academics and doing what needed to be done at Tibradden would need to be done in addition to full-time jobs.  The house was on the outskirts of Dublin - 'derelict fields' if you were a property developer or the last defence against the encroaching city if you were not.   
 
|summary=Selina Guinness lived at Tibradden as a child and in 2002 she and her husband-to-be, Colin Graham, moved back to the house when her elderly uncle Charles became frail.  The surname might lead you to suspect that there were brewery millions in the background but this wasn't the case.  The couple were young academics and doing what needed to be done at Tibradden would need to be done in addition to full-time jobs.  The house was on the outskirts of Dublin - 'derelict fields' if you were a property developer or the last defence against the encroaching city if you were not.   
−
|isbn`=1844881571
+
|isbn=1844881571
 
}}
 
}}
  
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|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Biography
 
|genre=Biography
−
|summary=
+
|summary=Biographies old and new of Queen Victoria, her husband and her children are plentiful enough. The vast majority of them are based to some extent on the diaries, memoirs and biographies of some of the most important figures who served her, and Kate Hubbard has put these as well as supplementary archive papers to good use in presenting a thoroughly engrossing account of the royal household throughout the Queen’s lengthy reign. I might almost say ‘lively’, though that could be an exaggeration. The court of Victoria may have been homely after a fashion, but for the most part it was hardly lively.  
−
Biographies old and new of Queen Victoria, her husband and her children are plentiful enough. The vast majority of them are based to some extent on the diaries, memoirs and biographies of some of the most important figures who served her, and Kate Hubbard has put these as well as supplementary archive papers to good use in presenting a thoroughly engrossing account of the royal household throughout the Queen’s lengthy reign. I might almost say ‘lively’, though that could be an exaggeration. The court of Victoria may have been homely after a fashion, but for the most part it was hardly lively.  
+
|isbn=0701183683
−
|isbn`=0701183683
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
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|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=There are certain books that you know, right from the first pages, are destined to be classics. There is something about the phrasing, about the concept and about the main character which chime so perfectly together that they cannot fail to move you, to open a window in your world and show you another, deeper truth. Such a book is ''Maggot Moon''.   
 
|summary=There are certain books that you know, right from the first pages, are destined to be classics. There is something about the phrasing, about the concept and about the main character which chime so perfectly together that they cannot fail to move you, to open a window in your world and show you another, deeper truth. Such a book is ''Maggot Moon''.   
−
|isbn`=1471400042
+
|isbn=1471400042
 
}}
 
}}
  
Line 165: Line 163:
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=It's 1956 when Natalie comes storming into the quiet seaside town of Norton and slap-bang into Lizzie's life. Natalie is from the wrong side of the tracks and reserved, well-to-do Lizzie is immediately drawn to this unconventional girl who wears her poverty and neglect like a badge of courage. As the two girls grow closer over the summer, Natalie reveals a shocking secret - her odd younger brother Philip has the gift of second sight and can see "left over Nazis" lying in wait, ready to start another war when the time is right. Natalie says it's up to the three of them to rid Norton of these LONs.   
 
|summary=It's 1956 when Natalie comes storming into the quiet seaside town of Norton and slap-bang into Lizzie's life. Natalie is from the wrong side of the tracks and reserved, well-to-do Lizzie is immediately drawn to this unconventional girl who wears her poverty and neglect like a badge of courage. As the two girls grow closer over the summer, Natalie reveals a shocking secret - her odd younger brother Philip has the gift of second sight and can see "left over Nazis" lying in wait, ready to start another war when the time is right. Natalie says it's up to the three of them to rid Norton of these LONs.   
−
|isbn`=037033213X
+
|isbn=037033213X
 
}}
 
}}
  
Line 174: Line 172:
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Jody and Jolene are very alike. They have brown hair and dimples, they're both left-handed and they have feet which makes them look, according to Jody, like long-toed mutants. But in lots of ways they are very, very distinct. In fact, despite the fact that they're twins, they were born on different days and are different ages (because of the leap year thing. Read the book if you don't believe it). And as for their taste in music, school subjects and pretty well everything else . . . poles apart. Useful, though, as they divvy up their homework according to preference!   
 
|summary=Jody and Jolene are very alike. They have brown hair and dimples, they're both left-handed and they have feet which makes them look, according to Jody, like long-toed mutants. But in lots of ways they are very, very distinct. In fact, despite the fact that they're twins, they were born on different days and are different ages (because of the leap year thing. Read the book if you don't believe it). And as for their taste in music, school subjects and pretty well everything else . . . poles apart. Useful, though, as they divvy up their homework according to preference!   
−
|isbn`=0330523023
+
|isbn=0330523023
 
}}
 
}}
  
Line 183: Line 181:
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary= ''A boy and a bear go to sea, equipped with a suitcase, a comic book and ukulele. They are only travelling a short distance and it really shouldn't take too long. But then their boat encounters "unforeseeable anomalies"... Faced with turbulent stormy seas, a terrifying sea monster and the rank remains of The Very Last Sandwich, the odds soon become pitted against our unlikely heroes.''  
 
|summary= ''A boy and a bear go to sea, equipped with a suitcase, a comic book and ukulele. They are only travelling a short distance and it really shouldn't take too long. But then their boat encounters "unforeseeable anomalies"... Faced with turbulent stormy seas, a terrifying sea monster and the rank remains of The Very Last Sandwich, the odds soon become pitted against our unlikely heroes.''  
−
|isbn`=0385618964
+
|isbn=0385618964
 
}}
 
}}
  
 
[[category:Lists]]
 
[[category:Lists]]
 
[[category:Literary Fiction|*Costa Prize 2012]]
 
[[category:Literary Fiction|*Costa Prize 2012]]

Revision as of 11:17, 31 January 2024


Overall Winner

0007315090.jpg

Review of

Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

Thomas Cromwell is now very far from his humble beginnings. He is Henry VIII's chief minister. Katherine of Aragorn is no longer Queen. The Princess Mary has been disinherited. Anne Boleyn wears the crown and has produced a daughter, Elizabeth. But there is no sign of a son and Henry is beginning to regret his secession from Rome. We pick up from Wolf Hall during the royal progress of 1535 and from there, we chart the destruction of the new Queen. Full Review

Novel Award

Category Winner

0007315090.jpg

Review of

Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

Thomas Cromwell is now very far from his humble beginnings. He is Henry VIII's chief minister. Katherine of Aragorn is no longer Queen. The Princess Mary has been disinherited. Anne Boleyn wears the crown and has produced a daughter, Elizabeth. But there is no sign of a son and Henry is beginning to regret his secession from Rome. We pick up from Wolf Hall during the royal progress of 1535 and from there, we chart the destruction of the new Queen. Full Review

Other Books on the Shortlist

1408819139.jpg

Review of

Life! Death! Prizes! by Stephen May

5star.jpg Literary Fiction

Billy's mum is dead. Billy is 19 years old when his mum resists a mugger; this is the last thing she ever does, leaving Billy with 6 year old Oscar to face life together. They'll be fine. For a start, their life isn't as bad as the 'Life! Death! Prizes!' type magazines at supermarket check-outs. Billy has a job at the local history museum, Oscar's doing ok at school, so, despite their Aunt Toni, despite Oscar's recently reappearing father, despite the PTA mothers at the school gates... and social services... and the fact that the mugger is a local lad that Billy sees around... yep, they'll be fine. Full Review

0857862901.jpg

Review of

The Heart Broke In by James Meek

4star.jpg General Fiction

In The Heart Broke In, James Meek manages to combine some big and serious issues into a compellingly readable and entertaining moral thriller. At the centre of the book are two siblings who are very different. Ritchie is a former rock star, now working in the world of reality television producing a game show about teenage pop bands while his younger sister, Bec, is a devoted scientist working on a cure for malaria. On the one hand it's a story of family dynamics, but it's also a thoughtful and well constructed tale of morality and judgement. Setting science against religion it asks very modern day questions about who is the guardian of morality in today's world and who, if anyone, has the right to judge others' behaviour. Full Review

0224090844.jpg

Review of

Days of the Bagnold Summer by Joff Winterhart

4star.jpg Graphic Novel

Meet Daniel Bagnold. He is a surly, sullen, modern teenager, permanently in a black hoodie, with long, lanky hair and almost a monobrow, who one would call very quiet were it not for the metal music that forms almost his only interest. He has been forced to spend the summer, not in Florida with his absent father's new family, but with his librarian mother Sue, his best friend and his shyness. He doesn't want much, and neither it would appear does his mother – although she knows she has to get him some posh shoes for her cousin's wedding. This book is about their relationship – the two of them and the dog that completes the household – in telling, devastating and humorous manner. Full Review

First Novel Award

Category Winner

0701186992.jpg

Review of

The Innocents by Francesca Segal

4star.jpg General Fiction

Francesca Segal's debut novel, The Innocents is set in upper class, Jewish, North London. Adam is about to marry his childhood sweetheart, Rachel, and is working as a lawyer in her father's business. Into this romantic idyl though comes Ellie, Rachel's wayward cousin who has been forced to flee the US following an appearance in an 'art house' movie of dubious repute and, it turns out, further scandal. Ellie is everything that Rachel is not; a model, worldly, sexy and tempting. As Adam gets drawn into wanting to 'rescue' her and look after her, his whole future with Rachel is thrown into doubt and the story becomes a will they, won't they get together narrative. Full Review

Other Books on the Shortlist

The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder by J W Ironmonger

144473783X.jpg

Review of

Snake Ropes by Jess Richards

4.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

It's the time for the tall mainland men to come to the island to trade, so 16 year old Mary prepares. She brings out her handmade 'broideries' and hides Barney, her little brother, in a cupboard. This is a necessary preparation born of fear, for the island boys have been vanishing, taken by the traders. On this particular day Mary's broideries go, but so does Barney. Full Review

The Bellwether Revivals by Benjamin Wood

Biography Award

Category Winner

0224096087.jpg

Review of

Dotter of Her Father's Eyes by Mary M Talbot and Bryan Talbot

4.5star.jpg Biography

If there's one person able to produce a worthwhile potted history of James Joyce's daughter, it should be Mary M Talbot. She's an eminent academic, and her father was a major Joycean scholar. Both females had parents with the same names too - James and Nora, both took to the stage when younger after going to dance school, but it's the contrasts between them this volume subtly picks out rather than any similarities, in a dual biography painted by one person we know by now as more than able to produce a delightful graphic novel - Bryan Talbot. Full Review

Other Books on the Shortlist

0719554497.jpg

Review of

Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure by Artemis Cooper

4.5star.jpg Biography

The sub-title of this biography is highly appropriate, for the ninety-six years of Patrick Leigh Fermor were packed with adventure. Born in 1915, he was something of a maverick at school, intellectually gifted but perpetually naughty, and his punishments for various refractions included suspensions and even expulsions. Full Review

1844881571.jpg

Review of

The Crocodile by the Door: The Story of a House, a Farm and a Family by Selina Guinness

5star.jpg Biography

Selina Guinness lived at Tibradden as a child and in 2002 she and her husband-to-be, Colin Graham, moved back to the house when her elderly uncle Charles became frail. The surname might lead you to suspect that there were brewery millions in the background but this wasn't the case. The couple were young academics and doing what needed to be done at Tibradden would need to be done in addition to full-time jobs. The house was on the outskirts of Dublin - 'derelict fields' if you were a property developer or the last defence against the encroaching city if you were not. Full Review

File:0701183683.jpg

Review of

Serving Victoria: Life in the Royal Household by Kate Hubbard

4.5star.jpg Biography

Biographies old and new of Queen Victoria, her husband and her children are plentiful enough. The vast majority of them are based to some extent on the diaries, memoirs and biographies of some of the most important figures who served her, and Kate Hubbard has put these as well as supplementary archive papers to good use in presenting a thoroughly engrossing account of the royal household throughout the Queen’s lengthy reign. I might almost say ‘lively’, though that could be an exaggeration. The court of Victoria may have been homely after a fashion, but for the most part it was hardly lively. Full Review

Poetry Award

We don't review poetry, but here's a list of the runners and riders:

Category Winner

The Overhaul by Kathleen Jamie

Other Books on the Shortlist

Bee Journal by Sean Borrowdale

The World’s Two Smallest Humans by Julia Copus

People Who Like Meatballs by Selima Hill

Children's Book Award

Category Winner

1471400042.jpg

Review of

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner

5star.jpg Teens

There are certain books that you know, right from the first pages, are destined to be classics. There is something about the phrasing, about the concept and about the main character which chime so perfectly together that they cannot fail to move you, to open a window in your world and show you another, deeper truth. Such a book is Maggot Moon. Full Review

Other Books on the Shortlist

037033213X.jpg

Review of

The Seeing by Diana Hendry

5star.jpg Teens

It's 1956 when Natalie comes storming into the quiet seaside town of Norton and slap-bang into Lizzie's life. Natalie is from the wrong side of the tracks and reserved, well-to-do Lizzie is immediately drawn to this unconventional girl who wears her poverty and neglect like a badge of courage. As the two girls grow closer over the summer, Natalie reveals a shocking secret - her odd younger brother Philip has the gift of second sight and can see "left over Nazis" lying in wait, ready to start another war when the time is right. Natalie says it's up to the three of them to rid Norton of these LONs. Full Review

File:0330523023.jpg

Review of

What's Up With Jody Barton? by Hayley Long

4.5star.jpg Teens

Jody and Jolene are very alike. They have brown hair and dimples, they're both left-handed and they have feet which makes them look, according to Jody, like long-toed mutants. But in lots of ways they are very, very distinct. In fact, despite the fact that they're twins, they were born on different days and are different ages (because of the leap year thing. Read the book if you don't believe it). And as for their taste in music, school subjects and pretty well everything else . . . poles apart. Useful, though, as they divvy up their homework according to preference! Full Review

0385618964.jpg

Review of

A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

A boy and a bear go to sea, equipped with a suitcase, a comic book and ukulele. They are only travelling a short distance and it really shouldn't take too long. But then their boat encounters "unforeseeable anomalies"... Faced with turbulent stormy seas, a terrifying sea monster and the rank remains of The Very Last Sandwich, the odds soon become pitted against our unlikely heroes. Full Review

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