Difference between revisions of "Book Reviews From The Bookbag"
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| + | |title=Scribbles and Ink, the Contest | ||
| + | |author=Ethan Long | ||
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| + | |summary=Scribbles the Cat and Ink the Mouse are nowhere near the average cartoon cat and mouse – for one thing they are good buddies, who like nothing more than lounging around, or being creative with art supplies. When Ink finds a contest to win an adventure holiday by drawing dinosaurs, they both have a go – with unexpected results… | ||
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|summary=Enormouse isn’t quite like the other mice. He’s big. Really big. And while his great size can be a useful thing (he can reach into high cupboards when they’re foraging, he can carry more cheese), that doesn’t stop the others laughing at him. | |summary=Enormouse isn’t quite like the other mice. He’s big. Really big. And while his great size can be a useful thing (he can reach into high cupboards when they’re foraging, he can carry more cheese), that doesn’t stop the others laughing at him. | ||
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Revision as of 11:08, 23 October 2013
The Bookbag
Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - fiction, biography, crime, 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 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 interviews, and all sorts of top tens - all of which you can find on our features page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the recommendations page.
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Scribbles and Ink, the Contest by Ethan Long
Scribbles the Cat and Ink the Mouse are nowhere near the average cartoon cat and mouse – for one thing they are good buddies, who like nothing more than lounging around, or being creative with art supplies. When Ink finds a contest to win an adventure holiday by drawing dinosaurs, they both have a go – with unexpected results… Full review...
The Complete Short Stories: Volume Two by Roald Dahl
Having only recently read the first volume of this collection of all of Roald Dahl’s short stories I couldn’t help but think of the phrase too much of a good thing although I have never really agreed with the phrase (I could happily gorge on chocolate or whisky for days without the slightest regret) I am still pleased that this book provides yet more evidence of the inaccuracy of the expression. With stories as diverse as a butler getting revenge on his employer and a baby being brought up on royal jelly by a fanatical bee lover, these are tales of horror, humour, adventure, love and all out weirdness. Full review...
The King in the North: The Life and Times of Oswald of Northumbria by Max Adams
Born in 604 and around for only 38 years, Oswald didn't live that long but he packed a lot in. Born into Bernician royalty, Oswald the teenager had to flee with his mother and siblings when his father Aelfrith was killed at the Battle of the River Idle. Any noble wanting to beat his way to the top would naturally kill Oswald's family and so an obscure upbringing in Ireland seemed the answer. However, Oswald grows strong and bides his time until he comes home and clears his own path, ruling Northumbria for 8 years until his own untimely demise. During those 8 years he united kingdoms, helped establish Christianity and became the inspiration of writers as disparate as St Bede and Tolkien. As Oswald became St Oswald he left behind as many legends as historical events and this book seeks to separate the man from the myth while explaining the time we call the Dark Ages in the brutally separated lands that we now call Great Britain and Ireland. Full review...
You Make Me Smile by Layn Marlow
Snow, at least for us in the UK, isn’t an everyday occurrence, and for children, unbothered by traffic chaos and school closures and boilers on the brink of a breakdown, it can be rather magical. This book is about that magic. Full review...
What Should We Tell Our Daughters?: The Pleasures and Pressures of Growing Up Female by Melissa Benn
'I am shocked when I read young feminists today blithely admitting that they don't know what second-wave feminists wrote.'
As a twenty-something year old feminist, it pains me to admit how much this quote applied to me. Having grown up knowing that college and university were paths I could definitely take, never being told that settling down and finding a husband was an important goal to have, and always getting the same opportunities as my male peers in the workplace, I'd never seen – or, at least, thought I'd seen – the inequalities, misogyny and chauvinism that were still apparently abundant in today's society. The feminist movement had always seemed like an amazing wave of new ideas that had happened forty or fifty years ago. It was the reason my mother and I were now able to work and find a role outside of the home. Full review...
I Want a Pet by Lauren Child
What do you do if you really, really want a pet? You ask your parents, of course. They’re bound to have some criteria. Like something with not too much fur, something that can live outside, neatly out of the way, or something that doesn’t buzz (it’s not good for Granny’s hearing aid, y’see). So you take all this into consideration and come up with a shortlist of critters that might work. One by one you suggest them, and one by one your ideas are shouted down. Full review...
Montalbano's First Case by Andrea Camilleri
Montalbano was just thirty five and he was a deputy Inspector up in the mountains, which he hated to the extent that they could put him off his food. But in the way that such things are known, he knew that he would be promoted before long. What was not known was where he would be promoted to and this worried him. If it was another posting in the mountains he would resign. His girlfriend's uncle told the couple that it was Vigata, which delighted Montalbano and he went to visit, unfortunately witnessing an assault. The wiser traffic cop in the area was otherwise engaged (chatting to a couple of dogs, as it happened...) but Montalbano was quick to correct the car registration which he'd noted down wrongly. Full review...
The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt
It's midsummer night, and Tiuri is one of five young men locked up in a chapel with one more night of silent penance between them and the ceremony that makes them knights of the realm, when a stranger lures him outside. The elderly man gives Tiuri the task of delivering a secret letter, and the chivalry and espionage is too much for the sixteen year old to ignore. The bad news begins, however, when he finds the very experienced knight he was to deliver the letter to dying alone on a forest floor, meaning Tiuri must accept the mantle unofficially, and deliver the missive to its ultimate audience – the king of the neighbouring country. The journey will bring the young man right to the cusp of danger, international intrigue and more. Full review...
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Mr Perfect by Joanna Davies
This book made me feel old. Old, and a bit boring. From the blurb I'd expected a light-hearted chick-lit style story of finding the perfect man, or perhaps realising that the perfect man doesn't exist and finding, instead, the man you love has been living right under your nose all along! It is, in part, that sort of story. But it's also the story of two people who spend an awful lot of their lives having sex with entirely the wrong people and occasionally running into each other (literally at one point!) but missing the fact that they like each other for many, many years. Full review...
A Dance of Cloaks by David Dalglish
Thren Felhorn is the leader of the Spider Guild and is a name feared by everyone in Veldaren. For good reason, for Thren has united the Guilds, those groups populated by the thieves and murderers of the city. Thren’s long term aim is to lead the Guilds in a war against the Trifect – the three richest families who control the majority of the city’s legal activities. Full review...
Professor Astro Cat's Frontiers of Space by Dominic Walliman and Ben Newman
The first thing I noticed about this book was the illustrations. There is a strong nostalgic feel to this that makes me think of space race era film clips and early Flash Gordon comics. Perhaps it was the wonderfully fun illustrations that made me assume (incorrectly) that this would be less academic than most of the books in our space collection. I was expecting this to be a fun light read. It was certainly fun, the whole family loved this book, but it was anything but a light read. We spent three days reading this book, researching topics online after reading about them, engaging the entire family in debates on space, conducting experiments inspired by our research etc... We had to rearrange our entire school week - and we still haven't finished - we have a number of new projects inspired by this book planned for next week as well. This book is, without any doubt one of the most educational books we have ever read, all the while not only holding the children's interest, but completely captivating them. Full review...
Taking the Fall by A P McCoy
Back in the nineteen seventies Duncan Claymore was a promising conditional jockey - a talented rider who should never have been short of a ride, but he was struggling, probably because he could neither take instructions nor keep his mouth shut. He'd been taught everything he knew by his father, Charlie, a trainer whose reputation was ruined when personal rivalries got out of hand. He hasn't been able to set foot on a racecourse since. His son's determined to beat the top jockeys and to bring down the men responsible for what happened to his father, but can he do both or will he have to make some hard choices? Full review...
My Life by David Jason
Born in North London in February 1940 during the early years of the Second World War, David John White once had a brief career as an electrician. Fortunately for the world of entertainment and the public, he soon forsook the world of fuses and wires for that of the stage and small screen. When he joined Equity, they already had a David White on their records, and after a little quick thinking on the phone, he became David Jason. Full review...
Murder on a Summer's Day: (Kate Shackleton Mysteries) by Frances Brody
It was Kate Shackleton's cousin in the India Office who sought her help to find Maharajah Narayan who had gone out hunting on the Bolton Abbey Estate and not returned, although his horse - a flighty Arab - returned riderless. The following morning a body was found - but this proved to be one of the grooms who had accompanied Narayan earlier in the day. Had he slipped jumping across the Strid and drowned? The jump across the river Wharfe looked tempting and people were warned of the dangers, but it was known that young men regularly crossed that way rather than walking to the wooden bridge or the stepping stones. Later in the day Narayan's body was found. He'd been shot through the heart and a clumsy attempt had been made to hide the body - but only Kate Shackleton believed that there was foul play. The authorities seemed determined that what had happened would be written off as 'a tragic accident'. Full review...
The End of Plagues: The Global Battle Against Infectious Disease by John Rhodes
In The End of Plagues, the remarkably clear voice of immunologist John Rhodes takes one through significant moments in man’s battle against infectious diseases. The artillery on which Rhodes focuses is that of the vaccine, which has taken us further away from the extreme grip infections once had on the course of history. The book starts with the example of smallpox, for which Edward Jenner first made a vaccine, having been in a world where variolation was on the rise. Between Jenner’s first serum transfer – from an immune milkmaid to a servant’s son – and the present day, several vaccines have been developed against ailments such as measles, various influenzas, and polio. Full review...
Close Your Eyes by Ewan Morrison
1981: Emma remembers driving through a blizzard. That is, her mother was driving, she was just a child. She remembers her mother singing. Throughout everything, what she remembers, what everyone remembers, is how her mother sang. Actually, she remembers lots of other things about her mother. Snippets mostly. Then she remembers losing her… being dropped in London at her Dad's, who didn't really seem like the dad she remembered… then the Social taking her away. Full review...
Empress Dowager Cixi by Jung Chang
It’s easy to see why Jung Chang selected Cixi as the focal point for her study of China’s tumultuous modern history. Cixi is a truly fascinating woman, one of few human beings whose existence can be honestly said to have shaped the course of history. Cixi’s biography is not only a fascinating read due to her own political machinations, but also because of the immense transformations that occurred in China during her lifetime. Jung Chang offers a detailed exploration of the period from Cixi’s entrance to court in 1852 to her death in 1908, during which time the ancient dynastic customs of China gave way to the advent of the industrial age. Full review...
The Book Of Space: All About Stars, Planets and Rockets! by Clive Gifford
There's always a danger in putting a definitive article in the name of a children's non-fiction book title. Luckily enough this volume does go almost as far as making itself definitive, with a lot of numbers and facts, yet a delivery that makes all of those and the theories and terminology it uses all palatable to the browser, and still manages to throw in the redundant unfunny cartoons at the side. In using an intelligent system of going through all the subjects under the broad subject of space, with none of the tables, box-outs and so on other editors choose, this proves one of the more sober, measured and successful books of its kind. Full review...
Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy by Helen Fielding
Bridget, as you might have heard, is back. Some things have changed (she’s now a mother! And in her, ahem, 50s) and some things haven’t (she still has dating disasters and drinks wine as if it were water) but the most important thing of all is that she’s still Bridget, and she’s still journaling her life for our amusement. Full review...
A Piece of Danish Happiness by Sharmi Albrechtsen
Sharmi Albrechtsen was a true Hindu-American princess. Obsessed with shoes and handbags and designer labels, she saw status and wealth as the only route to happiness. But she wasn't happy enough, no matter how much designer gear she owned. And it wasn't until 1997, when she married her second husband, a Dane, and relocated to Denmark, that she began to wonder if it was something lacking in herself, rather than her possessions, that was at the root of her problems. Full review...
The Tailypo: A Ghost Story by Joanna Galdone and Paul Galdone
The Tailypo is an old story from Appalachian folklore. It has not been tamed down at all like so many of the old stories but retains all its original spine-tingling terror for the very young. Although it is listed as ghost story, it really is not. Instead it the story of a strange beast which is best left well alone. Full review...
Where's the Zombie? by Paul Moran and Jen Wainright
Where's the Zombie is basically a hidden pictures game, but unlike most books of this type, there is some storyline to it as well albeit a very limited one. It all begins when scientist Joel Peters is accidentally exposed to a new virus he was helping to create ZX-5. He is then quarantined with his whole family, right down to the dog and cat. Naturally they are all infected, and isn't long before they escape. The future of mankind is in your hands as this family must be located to learn more about how this disease operates. Your job is to search every page, find each and every family member as well as the medical kit to treat the infected. Your task will get more difficult as the infection spreads and more and more of the bystanders have become zombies as well. Full review...
Amelia Grey's Fireside Dream by Abby Clements
Amelia and Jack live in a cramped flat in Hackney where they hardly have room to swing a cat. They can't afford to upgrade in London but maybe a small cottage away from the city could be affordable. When Amelia is overlooked for a promotion at the school she teaches in it feels that the time is right for a change. After their dream cottage is sold to another buyer, they discover Brambledown Cottage. It looks to be just what they are after; however, do they really know just how much work they are taking on? Full review...
Demon Dentist by David Walliams
He ought to have realised she was evil from the start. After all, how many dentists do you know who love — yes, really love — rotten teeth? Brown, yellow, cracked, full of cavities, diseased, covered in plaque . . . you get the picture. And for Alfie, a boy who loathes dentists from the bottom of his heart and whose teeth are so rotten they ought to be a tourist attraction, danger definitely looms. You can practically hear the background music when the two meet at a school assembly: dum-dum-DUUUUMMMMMM!!!! Full review...
Bertie: A Life of Edward VII by Jane Ridley
Several of the main facts about King Edward VII (1841-1910) are reasonably well-known. Considered oversexed by his parents, Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort, he was blamed by the former for breaking the latter's heart and causing his early death with the news that he (Edward) had enjoyed himself with a lady of the night. He was notoriously unfaithful to his charming but prematurely deaf and lame wife Alexandra, hated reading books and learning but became a first-class unofficial ambassador to courts and countries abroad, and despite low expectations of others and poor health he made an excellent King for the last nine years of his life. Full review...
Peas and Queues: The Minefield of Modern Manners by Sandi Toksvig
Dear Sandi
You are my all time favourite celebrity lesbadyke, and one of the reasons I’m so very excited to be heading to Denmark this coming weekend (are all people there like you? Please say yes). For this alone, I had to get my mitts on your latest offering. I wasn’t that fussed about obtaining a book on manners previously, having always thought mine were quite ok, but I knew your take on the matter would be suitably hilarious and well worth a read. I was not wrong. Full review...
The Explorer Gene by Tom Cheshire
The Explorer Gene relates the remarkable story of three generations of the Piccard family, each of whom managed to push the boundaries of travel and break new frontiers. The grandfather, Auguste Piccard was the first human to enter the stratosphere, using en experimental balloon of his own invention. His later work, designing submarines, enabled his son Jacques to become the first person to descend to the bottom of the infamous Mariana trench, setting a world record for the deepest dive. Grandson Bertrand became the first person to fly around the world in a balloon and now seeks to break new records by means of a solar-powered craft that he intends to pilot all the way around the earth. Full review...
The Lion of Sole Bay by Julia Jones
Luke wasn't going away with his mother and brother at half-term. He was planning on spending it with his father restoring an old fishing boat on Fynn Creek. His mother dropped him off on her way to the airport and he sped away to the boat to wait for his father. Angel needed excitement and that was how she ended up in the locked boatyard with some lads and it was their larking around which knocked the prop from under a boat which then toppled and trapped a workman. The lads dashed away with Angel's screams to ring for an ambulance ringing in their ears. Angel stayed with the man until she heard the sirens. The man was Luke's father. Full review...
Enormouse by Angie Morgan
Enormouse isn’t quite like the other mice. He’s big. Really big. And while his great size can be a useful thing (he can reach into high cupboards when they’re foraging, he can carry more cheese), that doesn’t stop the others laughing at him. Full review...
