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. We can even direct you to help for custom book reviews! Visit www.everychildareader.org to get free writing tips and www.genecaresearchreports.com will help you get your paper written for free.
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The Tigerboy (Faber Children's Classics) by Ted Hughes
This is a small, but beautifully formed book. Containing just one short story it is perhaps over a little quickly, considering the price of the book, but it is a really lovely object to own. It is the story of a perfectly normal little boy, with the very ordinary name of Fred. Fred, however, knows that there is something different about him, and that he is special. Everything about his life is unremarkable until one night his foot starts to itch and he finds himself turning into a tiger! Full review...
The Midnight Gang by David Walliams and Tony Ross
Meet Tom. The experience is easier and more pleasant after a few pages of this book, for it begins without him remembering his own name. But eventually he pieces his day and his life together – he is a student at a stereotypically bad posh boarding school, with his new-money parents working abroad (somewhere with a desert). He was struck on the head by a cricket ball, and has now been admitted to a hospital for a few days – and nights. With four very diverse residents already in the children's ward, added to the horrid matron, the inept young doctor and the incredibly ugly and evil-looking porter, he settles down, finding it not quite the holiday from school he expects, but worthwhile all the same. He also finds that some of the other kids have a Midnight Gang. What and where is this, can Tom go – and what might he get out of it – immediately become the salient points of this latest huge-seller by David Walliams. Full review...
The Evenings: A Winter's Tale by Gerard Reve
The Evenings was voted the best Dutch novel of all time by the Society of Dutch Literature, and its author, Gerard Reve (1923–2006), was the first openly gay writer in the Netherlands. It's a historic book for its native country, but will it have the same impact in English translation? Contemporary Dutch novelist Herman Koch compares The Evenings to the works of Kerouac and Salinger, and I can see how it could have achieved cult status for a certain generation, but plot-wise I found it more tedious than revelatory. Full review...
Winnie and Wilbur Meet Santa by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul
Winnie and Wilbur are writing their letters to Santa. Wilbur wants lots of things including a wind up mouse, tins of sardines, and a cuddly blanket. Winnie, however, just wants a lovely surprise. When Christmas Eve arrives that is what she gets – but it's not exactly the surprise that Santa had in mind. He gets stuck in their chimney for so long that he might not have time to deliver all the presents. Luckily Winnie and Wilbur find him in time and, for once, Winnie's magic seems to be working. Full review...
Nineveh by Henrietta Rose-Innes
Henritetta Rose-Inne's Nineveh instantly reassures you that you are in the presence of a confident and talented writer. The story of Katya Grubbs, a second generation pest exterminator who specialises in relocating the bugs and rodents that ruin middle-class garden parties, Rose-Inne writes with the enviable ability of describing both the intricacies of Katya's job and the feeling of it simultaneously. Full review...
Night School by Lee Child
The 21st Jack Reacher novel takes us back in time. Reacher is still an US Army MP. In the morning they gave Reacher a medal, and in the afternoon they sent him back to school. The medal was a Legion of Merit. Not his first, probably not his last, just another bauble to recognise what he'd done for his country and a plea for him not to talk about it. The 'it' in this case was some police work, in the Balkans, and a couple of shootings. Two weeks of his life. Four rounds expended. No big deal. Full review...
The Virgin Mary's Got Nits by Gervase Phinn
Christmas in our house is the time we tend to get on a plane and head to either sun or snow, anywhere that is far, far away from the madness at home, last minute dashes to the shops on Christmas Eve, and food cupboard stockpiles that would imply supermarkets are shutting for a month, nor a mere 36 hours. But I do remember the feeling of Christmas when I was younger, back when it was magical, and back when you knew exactly what the season would bring with carol concerts and school nativities and Christmas parties. This book is an anthology of those moments, and it took me right back to the wonder of Christmas as a child. Full review...
Rather be the Devil by Ian Rankin
It's forty years since Maria Turquand was murdered. She was beautiful, a bright light and promiscuous - and she was strangled in Edinburgh's Caledonian Hotel on the night that a famous rock star and his entourage were staying there. Her killer was never found: it's been preying on John Rebus' mind and it comes into conversation on the night that Rebus and his lady friend are dining at the Galvin Brasserie at the Cally. It's better than thinking about his health: he's got COPD and there's something on his lung which he calls Hank Marvin. Think about it. Full review...
The Gravity of Love by Sara Stridsberg and Deborah Bragan-Turner (translator)
Particularly literate cover… Setting of a real-life mental hospital – in Sweden… Mature themes… Opening with an emotion- and closure-laden death… Yes, this book has more than its share of things to put the potential reader off. Which, in this instance, is quite a large shame indeed. Full review...
The Colouring Book of Cards and Envelopes: A Year of Celebrations by Rebecca Jones
I enjoy colouring: I find it relaxing and satisfying, but most colouring books have one big snag for me. When you've finished, what use is what you've done? If I'm investing quite a bit of time in producing something, I like it to be useful. I'm a bit of a puritan about such matters! It was therefore something of a relief when I found The Colouring Book of Cards and Envelopes: A Year of Celebrations - and before anyone starts to be pedantic about the title, you do get to colour the envelope too; in fact you colour the inside and the outside and all four faces of the cards. There are even some stickers for you to seal the envelope. Full review...
Double Down (Diary of a Wimpy Kid book 11) by Jeff Kinney
There's one thing we learn from this book's October setting – Greg Heffley's best buddy Rowley is a complete scaredy-cat. Everything makes him quake in fright, but it should surely be Greg quivering in the corner with fear, considering what his life brings him. He's begun to think he's in a sequel to The Truman Show, due to the fact everything must all be scripted against him, and life like that doesn't occur naturally. His mum thinks a drive to get him registered as 'Talented and Gifted' at school will help with the family self-esteem, but there are all sorts of things going against everyone, ranging from a disembodied witch's laugh to killer geese marauding around town. Yes, this is certainly a Hallowe'en to be glad to see the other side of… Full review...
Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock, R&B and Pop by Marc Myers
This book developed from a series of columns of the same title which appeared in the Wall Street Journal over a period of five years, in which forty-five songs (what an appropriate number) from the years 1952 to 1991 were put under the microscope and examined through interviews with the artists, songwriters and others who created them. Full review...
Mistletoe on 34th Street by Lisa Dickenson
It's December, and Olivia is off to New York. Sadly it's not for the Christmas of a lifetime, or even a pre-holiday shopping weekend. She's going for work, in fact she's leading a team of colleagues, so it's far from a relaxing trip. Luckily she'll be home in time for the big day itself, and then she'll really be able to relax. Except, in a comedy of errors such as this, things don't exactly go to plan. Fierce weather grounds flights and shatters dreams, and new Christmas plans come into play. Full review...
There's a Snake in My School! by David Walliams and Tony Ross
Miranda loves to be different so no one is really surprised when she arrives at school on Bring-your-pet-to-school Day riding on the back of an enormous slithery python called Penelope. But they are a bit frightened. After all, pythons EAT people. Miranda, however, soon convinces her classmates that Penelope is both friendly and lots of fun to play with. It looks like it's going to be the best day of school EVER. But that's before Miss Bloat, the headmistress, intervenes and locks up all the pets. Luckily Penelope has a special talent that will save the day. Full review...
Shoot by Kieran Crowley
I make something of a habit of being late to discover good writers, in this case getting to Crowley after he is no longer with us. The result is that what is billed as an F.X. Shepherd mystery with all the optimism of there being more to come has the poignancy of being, if not the last of a short line, certainly one of a few. F.X. Shepherd – he doesn't like his first name and prefers just "Shepherd" is, technically, a columnist. He's been sacked by one New York newspaper and is writing a weekly column for another. I don't know much about journalism, but I'm guessing one column a week doesn't pay much as a rule…which explains why Shepherd's soap-washed-foul-mouthed editor (read the book, you'll see what I mean) expects him to turn in some genuine journalism as well: front page, seat of your pants stuff. Full review...
That's Not a Hippopotamus! by Juliette MacIver and Sarah Davis
With the onset of TV, the internet and colourful books we take for granted that we know what different animals look like. A giraffe has a long neck, a lion has big teeth and a Dodo does not look like much anymore. However, imagine a time before all this technology, the closest you would get to an exotic animal might be the assorted stuffed creatures in a local Natural History Museum. Perhaps the children of Juliette MacIver and Sarah Davis' That's Not a Hippopotamus! learned from some poor taxidermy, as they sure don't know what a Hippo looks like. Full review...
The Road To War: Duty & Drill, Courage & Capture by Steven Burgauer
After World War II Bill Frodsham led an everyday life, raising a family in an ordinary US suburb. He, his wife and children became friends with the Burgauer family, little Steven Burgauer knowing him as Mr F. Time rolls on and little Steven grows up, and then eventually retires from the American financial sector to write science fiction and lecture from time to time. He's therefore surprised when, out of the blue, Mr F's daughter tracks him down and presents him with a pile of handwritten notes asking Steven to make them into a book. These are Mr F's self-authored memoirs, stretching from his youth onwards and showing that this seemingly good, kind but unremarkable man was anything but unremarkable. During the war Mr F trained for the impossible and then lived it as he led men across Omaha Beach on D Day. He was then captured and spent the rest of the war as a POW in inhumane conditions. Steven accepted the request and The Road to War is the result: the life and war of Captain William C Frodsham Jr. Full review...
The Ultimate Book of Space by Anne-Sophie Baumann, Olivier Latyk and Robb Booker (translator)
Space. For all the huge, empty expanse of it, it's a full and very fiddly thing to experience. The National Space Centre, in the hotbed of cosmology and space science that is Leicester, is chock full of things to touch, grip, pull and move around – and so is this book. It's a right gallimaufry of things that pop up out of the page, with things to turn and pull, and even an astronaut on the end of a curtain wire. Within minutes of opening this book I had undressed an astronaut to find what was under his spacesuit, dropped the dome on an observatory to open up the telescope, and swung a Soyuz supply module around so it could dock at the International Space Station. Educational fun like that can only be a good thing for the budding young scientist. Full review...
The Dark Circle by Linda Grant
It's 1949, and with the Second World War over, a new decade of recovery is beginning. For East End teenagers Lenny and Miriam, life has been suspended. Diagnosed with tuberculosis, they are sent away to a sanatorium in Kent, to take the cure, submit to the way of the Doctors, and learn the deferential way of the patient. Through doors newly opened by the one year old NHS, come Lenny in his striped London drape suit, and Miriam in cherry felt red coat, and beret pinned gingerly onto her blue-black curls. Trapped in a sterile closed environment, the twins find themselves meeting air force officers, a car salesman, a university graduate, a mysterious German woman, a member of the Aristocracy, and, arriving to blast away their lethargic submission to authority - an American merchant seaman. Together they discover that a cure is tantalisingly just out of reach, and may only be gained through full scale rebellion... Full review...
The House of Birds by Morgan McCarthy
Oliver has spent years trying to convince himself that he's suited to a life of money making in the city, and that he doesn't miss a childhood spent in pursuit of mystery, when he cycled around the cobbled lanes of Oxford, exploring its most intriguing corners. When his girlfriend Kate inherits a derelict house - and a fierce family feud - she's determined to strip it, sell it and move on. For Oliver though, the house has an allure, and amongst the shelves of a discarded, leather bound and gilded volumes, he discovers one that conceals a hidden diary from the 1920s. So begins a quest to discover the identity of the author, Sophia Louis. It is a portrait of war and marriage, isolation and longing and a story that will shape the future of the abandoned house - and of Oliver - forever. Full review...
The Girl Who Saved Christmas by Matt Haig and Chris Mould
Meet Amelia. She is not the character that invented Christmas, but someone who certainly helped create it – it was her magic, her dreams and her concern that reached across the miles to Father Christmas and got his spirit (and reindeer) up enough for it all to work. But now, things are a lot worse for her – she is stuck in the nightmare job of chimney sweep in Victorian London to help feed and pay for medicine for her dying mother. Elsewhere things are taking a turn for the worse, too – Elfhelm is under threat from a nasty, underground source, and with it being Christmas Eve it looks like the glimmer of light that would normally be Christmas itself is a dim prospect. As it works both ways – Elfhelm helping lift the human world, which in turn inspires the elvish festivity and work – what could be the consequence when both sides begin to lose the most vital aspect of life, the one called hope? Full review...
The Sun is also a Star by Nicola Yoon
Natasha is a rationalist. She thinks life is all about observable facts: data and the effective analysis of it. In fact, she wants to become a data analyst and help make the world a better place through the evidence-based policies that will flow from it. But this ambition is looking less likely now. Because Natasha is an undocumented immigrant to New York, the authorities have found out about it thanks to her reckless father, and unless there's a miracle, Natasha will be deported back to Jamaica in just twelve hours. Full review...