'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Melanie Watt
|title=Scaredy Squirrel at Night
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Scaredy Squirrel is scared to go to sleep at night. He has all sorts of tricks to keep himself awake so that he doesn't have to face his night-time fears. But his sleeplessness is having a toll on his health. Can he find a solution to his problem?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846471109</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Denise Mina and Antonio Fuso
|summary=Meet the Nautical Laundry. A boat, crewed by piratical rats who weren't wicked enough to bring themselves to actual piracy, it's wedged under a bridge in the town of Ratbridge. They're trying to lead a humble life, doing the town's laundry - but when someone sees the scanties displayed for all around to see, they're whisked to court - and fined a pirate's treasure. Luckily, there might be help at hand - the local miracle medicine man, who's just started curing everyone of everything with the same gloop, called Black Jollop, is willing to pay a king's ransom for a boat to take him for new supplies. Or, is there something else, secret and evil behind these weird happenings?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192719653</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewplain
|title=Amazon Kindle
|rating=4
|summary=Are ebooks the future of books? Is it the right time to get an ebook reader? We thought about it long and hard. Yes we did. We don't often think about things this long or this hard, because it hurts. But sometimes, cogitations are necessary. We wouldn't be here at Bookbag if we didn't love books but we knew that more and more people were enjoying ebooks. It was time to find out what it was really like to have up to 3,500 books in your pocket or your bag. 3,500! Yikes!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B002LVUWFE</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Christopher Winn
|title=I Never Knew That About the River Thames
|rating=4.5
|genre=Trivia
|summary=Here are the remains of the building that could be said to have sired two important British royal dynasties. Here is the place of ill-repute, where 'Rule Britannia' was premiered, and which also bizarrely saw a death by cricket ball that inspired the most famous gardens in the world. Here too is the largest lion in the world. To where am I referring? Well the answer is either the Thames valley, or this very book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091933579</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=P L Travers
|title=Mary Poppins: The Complete Collection
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It is coming up for eighty years since ''Mary Poppins'' was first published in Great Britain, but it is still one of those children's books you will find in every library and bookshop. Almost everyone in the country, young and old, can tell you the story and describe all the main characters, and the Poppins name, along with the carpet bag and the parrot-headed umbrella, has become a cultural reference. But to be honest, what most people actually know is the 1960s Disney film: the original nanny who blew into the life of the Banks children is a much darker, more mysterious being altogether.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007398557</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Steve Martin
|title=An Object of Beauty
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Leave aside the title of the book for a minute, the book itself is also 'an object of beauty' with its striking front cover and primary colours artfully arranged. And then I turned the book over and said to myself, oh, it's ''that'' Steve Martin. I knew he was - and is - a very funny actor but I didn't know that he was also a writer. So, before I'd even opened the book I was thinking - will he be as good a writer as he is an actor. I was about to find out ...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297863290</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewplain
|title=Amazon Kindle
|rating=4
|summary=Are ebooks the future of books? Is it the right time to get an ebook reader? We thought about it long and hard. Yes we did. We don't often think about things this long or this hard, because it hurts. But sometimes, cogitations are necessary. We wouldn't be here at Bookbag if we didn't love books but we knew that more and more people were enjoying ebooks. It was time to find out what it was really like to have up to 3,500 books in your pocket or your bag. 3,500! Yikes!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B002LVUWFE</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Martin Millar
|title=The Good Fairies of New York
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=In this fairytale of New York, the Cornish fairy King's children are living in exile, hiding in Central Park from a nasty industrial revolution back home. They have friends from Ireland with them, and all have the ability to startle the local squirrels. Elsewhere two innocent scallywag fairies fleeing Scotland have arrived, and adopted a human each. Heather has joined up with Dinnie, the city's worst busker, a fat, alcoholic and lonely fan of TV ads for phone sex, while Morag befriends Kerry, a dying kleptomaniac beauty, just as alone for different reasons.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749954205</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Matthew McElligott
|title=Even Monsters Need Haircuts
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=The title of this picture book is really intriguing. I admit I had not previously thought much about the needs of the customers in a story before.
It's written in the first person, so we never learn the name of the boy who is the main character. This seems unusual for children's picture books, and the only other one I can think of offhand is [[The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss]].
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408813939</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jill Barklem
|title=A Year in Brambly Hedge
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=It makes me feel old to see a 30 years anniversary edition of the Brambly Hedge stories...I remember loving them as a little girl, and 30 years on reading them with my daughter I find that they've lost none of their charm. This beautiful collection takes us through a year in the lives of the mice of Brambly Hedge. There are four books, one for each season, and they are all delightful.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007371667</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Waguih Ghali
|title=Beer in the Snooker Hall
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Waguih Ghali's only novel, first published in 1964, is set in 1950s Egypt where the English have just left and the country is in great social and political change, and is under Army rule. Ram is an English educated, Copt Egyptian of aristocratic background, but his side of the family are penniless and dependent on the good will of manipulative, rich aunts. Ram and his best friend Font (who works in the eponymous snooker club) struggle to come to terms with this emerging Egypt. These are the facts of the plot, such as it is, but in reality this book is as ambiguous as the situation in which Ram finds himself. The book is like a delicate soufflé; it appears light on the surface but is deeply measured and brings out a myriad of conflicting views.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668756X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rachel Aaron
|title=The Spirit Thief: The Legend of Eli Monpress
|rating=3.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=I'm relatively new to the fantasy genre and it really is true - you should never judge the book by its genre (my quote). Having read a previous fantasy trilogy (more of that later) I was looking forward to reading this book which has a similar lay-out and publishing format.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356500101</amazonuk>
}}
