Book Reviews From The Bookbag
The Bookbag
Hello from The Bookbag, a 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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Stephen Biesty's Trains by Ian Graham and Stephen Biesty
Trains look imposing, but true fans (little boys, usually from about three years old and upwards) want to know what lies beneath the skin which you can see. They want to know how it works. Getting to grips with one in real life is quite a big ask, but the next best thing is Stephen Biesty's Trains which features trains from all over the world and spanning the early steam train (complete with cow catcher) right through to the trains of the future which can reach a speed of 430 kph and don't even run on rails. Once the train reaches a speed of 150 kph the wheels are raised and the train is held up by magnetic forces alone. Full review...
Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World by Rachel Ignotofsky
Women in Science takes fifty prominent women in STEM fields and celebrates their achievements. There are women from the ancient world and women working today. Each of them is given a double page spread including a stylised portrait and infoboxes with factoids on one side and a page of text with a brief biography and outline of her achievements. These intrepid women are inspirational for their work and their discoveries but also for the barriers they overcame - barred from classes or employment because they were women or even barred from employment because they were black in racially segregated America. Full review...
Dress (with) sense: The Practical Guide to a Conscious Closet by Redress
Not too long ago I didn't have any problems with clothes. They were just about all black and I wore them until they dropped off my back - and then I used what I could of the material for other purposes. I had this lovely little clothes shop in Ilkley (it says 'Oxfam' over the door) when I needed to restock. Clothes were simple. Then I encountered the lovely Numba Pinkerton and suddenly I had colour in my life: not all of it could be had from Oxfam. Sometimes I might even be buying new clothes. I needed help and more advice, because it really isn't as simple as just walking into the nearest department store. Full review...
Granny with Benefits by Marilyn Bennett
Thirty nine is a difficult age for a woman, particularly if she's not married. Has she given up on the idea of having a family? Does her career mean everything to her? On the other hand is she desperately looking for a man? Grace found herself in a difficult situation when she first met Dale (or Heaven on Legs - HoL - as she thought of him). She'd volunteered to sort out her late grandmother's home, but she couldn't resist the opportunity to do a little dressing up. So, wearing her grandmother's clothes, wig resting just above her eyebrows and heavy-rimmed glasses perched on the end of her nose she met the man of her dreams. Only, rather than laughing and explaining what she'd been doing, Grace carried on the pantomime - and called herself Louise. Full review...
Forest Life and Woodland Creatures by DK
This book knows that if you're going to learn about forest life and the animals, plants and trees in it, then you're only going to be itching to go and explore the woods for yourself. It's for a very young audience, so always expects an adult hand to guide you – but provides a warm companion itself through several quick and easy tasks, and a few lessons. The balance between carrot and stick, or duty and reward, is great – but what exactly is the edutainment going to provide, and what will it demand of us? Full review...
Sharks and Other Sea Creatures by DK
Never before have I found much cause to point out the sort of lower-case, almost-a-subtitle wording on the front of a book. I say that because very little of this is about sharks – so if you have a youngster intending to come here and learn all their bloodthirsty imagination can hold, then they may well be disappointed. If you take it on board that the 'other sea creatures' make up the bulk of the book, then all well and good. And even better, if you expect yourself to make the bulk of said creatures… Full review...
Labyrinth by Theo Guignard
Of all the books published for people's paper-based hobbies when I was a youngster, it's remarkable that all of them have been revisited and revamped. I say this because they certainly weren't exactly brilliant fun back then. No, we didn't have quite the modern style of colouring-in books, but they were available, if you'd gone beyond 'join the dots'. I read only recently that origami is allegedly coming back – and I remember how every church book sale for years had Origami, Origami 2 or Origami 3 paperbacks somewhere for ten pence. But the ultimate in paper-based fun back then was the use-once format of the maze book. This is the modern equivalent – but boy, hasn't the idea grown up since then… Full review...
Life on Earth: Farm: With 100 Questions and 70 Lift-flaps! by Heather Alexander and Andres Lozano
I'm sure I was full of questions when I was a nipper – which means I was too full of questions. Parents just don't need to be deflecting questions all the time, do they? Living on the edge of a village in the middle of nowhere as I did, I knew quite a lot about farms and farming – that different animals gave different results, that different vehicles meant different things and that the crops behind our house changed. But for the inner city child, there is a chance they have never met a cow or seen a silo. This colourful book, bright in both senses of the word, will allow the very young reader the opportunity of their own fantasy trip to the working countryside. Full review...
Life on Earth: Human Body: With 100 Questions and 70 Lift-flaps! by Heather Alexander and Andres Lozano
I wonder how much time I've saved in not being a parent – and therefore not having had to answer such pesky questions as why is the sky blue, where did I come from, where does my wee come from, what is earwax, and why do I have a spleen? Still, apart from the first two, those questions and the answers to them and more are in this book, which is a lovely primer for biology, and a great source of quick facts for the very young, all presented with an addictive lift-the-flap approach. Full review...
King's Cage by Victoria Aveyard
He caught me in a prince's trap. And now I'm in a King's cage. But I'm not leaving this place unless I leave behind his corpse – or mine.
The third instalment in the Red Queen series, picks up right after the final events of Glass Sword. Mare has been taken prisoner; shackled in Silent Stone and powerless without her lightning. At the mercy of the boy who wears the crown, Mare is haunted by the consequences of her past decisions. Tortured and weak, Mare has a front seat to watch Maven's clever tactics unfold and destroy all that she believes in. Being broken and beaten, Mare will never be the same again after her captivity but can she escape the Palace with her life to fight another day? Full review...
The Pavee and the Buffer Girl by Siobhan Dowd and Emma Shoard
When Jim's family halt at Dundray, his heart grows heavy. A new Buffer school for this Pavee boy to attend. Jim doesn't like school. He doesn't like Buffers. And you know, you couldn't really blame him because the distrust and suspicion is mutual. Prejudice against the Traveller community is strong and when Jim and his cousins turn up on their first day, it's to stares and muttered insults from the pupils and condescension from the teachers. Within days, Moss Cunningham and his gang have accused Jim of stealing a CD - he did no such thing - and have begun a campaign of threats, bullying and worse. Full review...
Pirates: Truth and Tale by Helen Hollick
The eighteenth century lived in terror of the tramps of the seas – pirates. Pirates have fascinated people ever since. It was a harsh life for those who went 'on the account', constantly overshadowed by the threat of death – through violence, illness, shipwreck, or the hangman's noose. The lure of gold, the excitement of the chase and the freedom that life aboard a pirate ship offered were judged by some to be worth the risk. Helen Hollick explores both the fiction and fact of the Golden Age of piracy, and there are some surprises in store for those who think they know their Barbary Corsair from their boucanier. Everyone has heard of Captain Morgan, but who recognises the name of the aristocratic Frenchman Daniel Montbars? He killed so many Spaniards he was known as 'The Exterminator'. The fictional world of pirates, represented in novels and movies, is different from reality. What draws readers and viewers to these notorious hyenas of the high seas? What are the facts behind the fantasy? Full review...
Moments in History that Changed the World by Clare Hibbert
One of the problems with presenting humankind's history as a timeline is that not a lot happened at perfectly identified times. Of course we can pinpoint when the US Declaration of Independence was signed, or when Poland was invaded in September 1939, but when (and even why) the Maya cities died out? We don't know. How do you pin a date to the Renaissance, or the invention of the modern city? This book may aim to be a portrayal of key moments in time, but even it admits you have to be vague in itemising the specific days and dates. Get over that, and the pages are packed with information. Full review...
Little Nothing by Marisa Silver
In an unnamed country at the beginning of the last century, a peasant couple longs for a child. In despair they turn to gypsy tonics and archaic prescriptions, and one cold wintery night, the couple's wish comes true. But the silence that follows the birth forewarns of darker days to come. Strangers look on askance and fall speechless in the child's presence, and villagers protectively hush their children as they pass on narrow market lanes. Pavla is no ordinary child, but then this is no ordinary tale. Full review...
Thunderstruck by Ali Sparkes
Alisha and new boy, Theo, are both struggling to fit in at Beechwood Junior. However, they soon become celebrities when they're struck by lightning on sports day. Now everyone wants to be their friend – including all the ghosts who haunt Easthampton. Having several thousands of volts skipped through their nervous systems has made both Alisha and Theo unusually sensitive to the spirit world. The pair are happy to make friends with two teenage ghosts from the 1970s (Doug and Lizzie) but Alisha and Theo are much less keen on the faceless grey entities that start following them around. It's almost like the ghosts are trying to tell them something – trying to warn them about something that's going to happen. Will Alisha and Theo be able to figure out what before it's too late? Full review...
Retribution Road by Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)
Sergeant Bowman wasn't just a hard man, he was something else: a dangerous man. If, indeed, there was someone who was ideal for a suicide mission, it was him. Working as a soldier for the East India Company in the rural, remote, outlaw hotbeds of Asia in the 1850s, he's tasked with taking a boat of unknown prospects up the Irrawaddy to try and combat local warlord Pagan Min. It doesn't go well – to start with, he's supposed to run the rule over ruffians saved from the gallows, but can't command them until he's forced his way to having the knowledge of the mission he needs first, only for all hell to break loose. But get back he does, only to find that while his nightmares about what really happened are met with equally dark goings-on, the official record suggests the mission never actually existed… Full review...
The Night Spinner by Abi Elphinstone
The final, and in my opinion the best, book in the Dream Snatcher trilogy opens with Moll and Gryff back in Tanglefern Forest about to embark on their quest to find the last Amulet of Truth and defeat the terrible Shadowmasks and their dark magic once and for all. Their adventure begins with a night time journey by train to the far north where Moll and her friends must brave the barren northern wilderness, scale mountainous peaks, defeat goblins, bog-monsters, witches and giants while the sinister and evil Shadowmasks lurk unseen but always present. All the time Moll clings to the faint hope that her friend Alfie is not lost to them for ever. Full review...
The Benn Diaries: The Definitive Collection by Tony Benn and Ruth Winstone (editor)
Tony Benn must be one of the most famous diarists of the modern age. He kept a diary from his schooldays in the nineteen forties until he made his last entry in 2009, five years before his death. Benn was also a particularly charismatic politician: since my teens I've found myself listening to him believing that I disagreed with what he was saying and then realising that perhaps we weren't so far apart after all. Whatever he spoke about always gave food for thought. Of course the ideal way to enjoy the diaries would be to read the individual volumes, beginning with Years Of Hope: Diaries,Letters and Papers 1940-1962, but that's a lengthy undertaking and The Benn Diaries: The Definitive Collection edited by Ruth Winstone gives you the opportunity to sample the best of the diaries in a mere seven hundred or so pages. Be warned though: there has been a previous composite volume, also called The Benn Diaries and published in 1996. The current volume goes to 2009. Full review...
David Astor by Jeremy Lewis
The name 'David Astor' is familiar to a lot of people: some will remember him as being the middle child of Nancy and Waldorf Astor. Others will know of his family home, Cliveden, either from its influence in the second world war or its notoriety during the Profumo affair in the sixties. I remember him best for his work as the editor of The Observer, but despite being a quietly understated man many will remember the causes he espoused, not all of which, such as his support for the release of moors murderer Myra Hindley, brought him admiration. Full review...
The Killing Bay by Chris Ould
Between the Scando-noir and the Highlands-and-Islands crime, it was only a matter of time until a series featuring a life-weary detective set in Greenland, Iceland, or thereabouts appeared. And here we are, with a series based in the Faroes. Full review...
Kingmakers: How Power in England Was Won and Lost on the Welsh Frontier by Timothy Venning
Between the Norman conquest and the Tudor period, Britain often seemed to be on the verge of civil war. The Anglo-Welsh borders were a perpetual source of trouble, kept at bay only by the Marcher lords appointed by the King of England to guard the Welsh Marches. Full review...
Our Magic Hour by Jennifer Down
There had always been Katy, Audrey and Adam. They've been friends since school and now, along with Audrey's partner Nick, they remain inseparable as young professionals. Then, one day, Katy kills herself. No warning, no reason just no Katy. The four are suddenly three trying to make sense of a moment that leaves so many questions in a world that refuses to pause while they figure it out. Full review...
Star Wars: Ahsoka by E K Johnston
The problem with having a past is the worry it causes in the present, and the risk of it turning into your future. Ahsoka has certainly had a past – she was with Obi-Wan Kenobi, and was Padawan to Anakin Skywalker. While able to experience the Force, she was not a full Jedi, but still suffers survivor's guilt after Order 66 wiped her kind out. She is forced to hide deep in the Outer Rim of the galaxy, under an assumed name, on a tiny farming moon. But lo and behold the Imperial nasties still seem to find her, even if by accident... Full review...
Dory Fantasmagory by Abby Hanlon
Dory – known as 'Rascal' – is the little one in her family. She'd love to play with her older sister, Violet, and her brother, Luke, but they both think Dory is too much of a baby. They find her very irritating, from the way she sees monsters everywhere to her constant stream of questions. That's why they decide they've got to think of something that will force Dory to grow up. Violet comes up with the perfect idea – they tell Dory about Mrs Gobble Cracker (a five hundred year old robber who steels baby girls.) They tell Dory that the only way to escape Mrs Gobble Cracker is to stop acting like such a baby. Their scheme, however, quickly backfires and they get much more than they bargained for. Full review...
The Pictures by Guy Bolton
It's the spring of 1939: in Hollywood The Wizard of Oz is in production at MGM and it's important that nothing interrupts shooting or causes bad publicity for the actors or the studio. The police department recognises that it's good for Hollywood that all goes smoothly and it's Detective Jonathan Crane's job to see that the crimes and misdemeanours of the stars are swept under the proverbial carpet. The studio rewards him handsomely for this and there's perhaps a little bit of antagonism within LAPD that Craine's got it easy and wouldn't know how to investigate a case if it came up and slapped him, but in Craine's mind all that's going to change. Full review...
A Mighty Dawn (The Wanderer Chronicles) by Theodore Brun
A story like this needs a strong central character; it needs a warrior who has conviction, heart and honour. Hakan has all these in abundance, but he didn't get them easily. In this coming of age tale, he goes on a quest to find himself after experiencing the most tremendous of betrayals. Full review...
Moondust by Gemma Fowler
Lunar Inc. is lying to us. It's been lying to us from the moment lumite power was discovered.
After the dark days of future Earth, where an energy crisis has led to chaos, lumite power has become the only solution for peace. Yet that peace is fragile. The memory of the reactor explosion at Andrianne, ten years ago, is still fresh in the public's mind. FALL, the First Anti-Lumite League, continues to campaign fiercely against the United Government and the company responsible for lumite power – Lunar Inc. Full review...
Fish Boy by Chloe Daykin
Billy is struggling at school. He's being picked on by the school bully and he's starting to feel very alone. His mum is sick, although nobody seems to know what's wrong with her. She has been sick for a long time meaning that she can't work, so Billy's dad is working extra hours to try to keep the family afloat and Billy is frequently left to fend for himself. His only escape is in watching his favourite, David Attenborough, or in swimming in the sea. One day, however, things take a magical turn as whilst swimming Billy meets a mackerel who speaks to him! This, combined with the entrance of a new boy at school, starts to change Billy's life in some rather unexpected ways. Full review...
