January books

I was mortified to find that I had failed to write my January book reviews and it is almost time for February! I read 11 books in January, but two of those are picture books.  We are having a massive push on reading at the moment in school and I think that as a teacher, yes, even a music teacher, it is critical, that I know and have read a large variety of books for children, so I can recommend books to children who are struggling to choose, enthuse about those I have read, and be able to advise etc.  Thus, I made the aim to read a few new ones as well as an old favourite.  There were a few adult books in there too!

Let me know if you've read any of these or you'd read it based on my reviews- always good to know!

Image borrowed from www.Foyles.com where you can buy this book

1.  Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone -  J K Rowling

Having recently read 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child', I decided it would be fun to reread all the Harry Potter books over 2017.  I reread this with much alacrity, enjoying the young trio.   I loved seeing Diagon Alley and Hogwarts from the start and enjoying all the challenges at the end when they try to protect the Philsopher's stone.  However, on rereading, I find the fact that the Philosopher's stone faced an attempt to steal it JUST as Harry came to Hogwarts and thus it coming to Hogwarts rather too convenient.  Quirrel supposedly went to Albania 3 years ago so why did it take him this long to find out about the Philsopher's Stone and steal it?  All too convenient, even though most books are like that! It was also interest to reread Dumbledore's refusing to tell Harry why Voldemort wanted to kill Harry interesting now knowing the reason why!  I look forward to the next in the series!

2.  Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Militant Midwives - Michael Bond
I've read two of these books featuring culinary detective for Le Guide, Monsieur Pamplemousse aleady and was rather pleased to find a third one in a charity shop.  In this book, Monsieur Pampelmousse is rather confusingly goes to the funeral of a friend who was on his way to see him when he was killed.  At the funeral, a bomb explodes and everyone only narrowly escapes by his dog Pomme Frites rushes into the ceremony barking. He is then called to see the see the Director of Le Guide, who talks or rather doesn't talk, everything must be inferred, about something going on in Paris and sends him to see a CIA agent who is staying in a hotel to find out more.  It then transpires that someone is going to do something drastic to do with food to poison the population of Paris! What will it be and how?

This book is rather silly, full of nice food descriptions, witty moments and a lot of confusion! I was rather confused at times as to what was going on but it all sort of became clear by the end.

Definitely a funny book though- I particularly enjoyed the description of the aftermath of Pomme Frites being accidently fed a Viagra or something of that sort which landed M. Pamplemousse in trouble! I won't go out my way to buy this series brand new, but if I see it in a charity-shop or Barter Books etc, where I originally found the other two books I read, I'll definitely grab it.

3. Behold, here's poison -  Georgette Heyer.

It has only been a month since I read this but already the plot and details have grown hazy in my head! It's shocking what reading about 15 books more can do to your memory, eh?

This is one of Heyer's murder mystery books rather than a Regency Romance and features the marvellous Superintendent Hannasyde. The Randall family are gathered after the death of Uncle Matthew, who was a veritable tyrant and troublemaker. Of course, he has opposed a marriage of his niece, upset his spinster-sister and refuses to give money to his rather useless young-nephew and there's a whole host of those who could be responsible! It's run of the mill 1920's crime but that doesn't stop it being wonderfully enjoyable. When I read the final denouement, the murderer did not turn out to be the one I mainly suspected and was rather a clever and very far-fetched plot!
The characters are interesting.  Randall Matthew, I think, is a quintessential Georgette Heyer male- brilliant but awkward and deliberately obtuse.   I felt like Hannasyde did very little and not enough of the plot involved him but whilst I prefer her romances, this doesn't stop this from being a Good Read.

4.  Death at the seaside-Frances Brodie

A delightful Christmas present from Char, this book features Kate Shackleton, a young detective who is the daughter of a Yorkshire police officer. She has decided to travel to Whitby to stay with an old friend from her boarding school, a Bohemian young lady, Alma, and her daughter, Felicity.  But when  Kate arrives in Whitby, she goes to a jeweller to buy Felicity a necklace to go with the dress she has bought as a gift, but finds the Jeweller knocked out cold in the back of his shop.
Due to her discovering the body and being discovered out on the cliffs late at night, plus being associated with Alma, who had dinner with the dead man, Kate is suspected of being the Murderer herself. To make matters worse, Alma's daughter, Felicity, has gone missing, gone on a journey in a boat to search for her Father, and then Alma is chief suspect.  The locals in Whitby are not being helpful so it all looks rather ominous for Alma and Felicity.

The book was cleverly told from the perspective of both Kate AND Felicity in different chapters so there was a real sense of finding a little out at a time which worked well.   The clues as to who the murderer is are subtle, but obvious enough for me to have worked out whodunnit and for it to be a satisfying conclusion.  I liked the character descriptions of most of the characters except Alma who was rather irritating. What was particularly wonderful was the descriptions of Whitby and the places around. I really enjoyed that and such was the impact, that when CBC said he wanted to get away at half-term, I suggested Whitby!

I've subsequently found two more of this series in the charity shops so I am eager to read more.

Image from www.foyle.com where you can buy this book.

5. Clover Moon -  Jacqueline Wilson

It has been such a long time since I read a JW book, that when I saw one of our year 5 pupils reading this, I asked her if it was good, and if I could borrow it.  I find kids love it when a teacher asks if they can borrow their book and I think is very important to prove you are a reader and that you love it.
In this book, Clover is part of a poor large family in Victorian London. Her own mother is dead and she really dislikes her mean Stepmother who picks on her.  She's very street-savvy and enjoys a friendship with the kind but hunchback dollmaker nearby but even he is very poor and unable to help much.  When her sister becomes ill, and her stepmother's treatment of her becomes intolerable, Clover decides to run away to a home for destitute girls that she hears about.  But the journey is far away, and the streets of London are no place for a young girl alone.

I enjoyed another book that JW wrote set in the Victoria era and this one is another classic.  Her main characters, mainly girls, are brave, streetwise, cheeky and plucky and are rather likeable.  I read this in no time at all.  I'd recommend this to any children of the same age.

6. Journey to the River Sea- Eva Ibbotson
This book, or rather, 3 copies of it, have been on my bookshelves for a few years now, but I've been saving my Eva Ibbotson books since she is an author I adore, and now she is no longer alive, there will be no more of her books to read once I've read them all. However, year 6 are reading this as their study book this term and I rather like to be able to talk to all my classes about books they are reading, even though I am a music teacher mainly!

The book is set in 1910 and a delightful little girl called Maia, is orphaned, so she must leave her lovely school and travel to the Amazon to live with some distant relatives who have offerered to have her, in exchange for a rather large amount of money.
As Maia and her new governess, the enigmatic Miss Minton travel on the ship, they fantasize about the wonderful exotic environment they will come to and picture a wonderful family and a happy life.

But the reality is somewhat different- her relatives are mean and grasping and fearful of all wildlife, so they exist on tins shipped from England and all wildlife is kept at bay.  Maia's twin cousins are awful- a real pair of ugly stepsisters to Maia's sort of Cinderella.

Maia gains access to the freedom she seeks eventually, but only in secret and slowly makes friends from the boy actor she met aboard ship, to the fugitive son of a recently deceased explorer and seeker of animals.

The description is so magical and the characters are really well written.  Maia is good, but not saintly; the twins are utterly vile; Miss Minton is intriguing; the Aunt and Uncle- awful and wicked but sad; the twins- downright nasty!

The conclusion is really exciting and the journey that Maia and her new friends make is full of discovery.

I thoroughly recommend this one.

7.  The 65 storey tree house- Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton

Another Hexham charity-shop purchase, this book is told in cartoon, comicbook form with accompanying text is the 5th book in this series. The tree-house is a wonderful place with totally bonkers,crazy floors and contents and tells the story of Andy and Terry- the authors who live there in a chaotic world which one writes and the other draws.
Andy and Terry realise they haven't had planning permission for their extra extension of storeys and so, in a bid to appease the planning inspector who has turned up, they go back in time to try and submit the form for a license.  unfortunately, the time machine doesn't seem to be ending up in the right time and they end up in all sorts of hot water! The book is totally silly and full of groanworthy puns that a 9 year old would love, but left me a little bit, irritated!  I can see why children like these, there is a lot of imagination involved, but they are really silly, in a Chuckle Brothers kind of way.

8.  Sleeping Murder- Agatha Christie
I do believe this was one of the first Miss Marples I ever read and it is her final book! My Mum bought me a copy of it for Christmas as she wasn't sure if I had it, or had read it but since I've not read it for about 15 years, I was glad to encounter it again.
The book is set when Gwenda and her new husband decide to move home to England from New Zealand. Gwenda finds a house called Hillside, which seems right to her, to buy, and so the couple set about rennovating it. Gwenda has some weird predictions about the place- like the type of wallpaper that should go in the nursery, and a door that should be there in the dining room and suddenly thinks she must have lived there before when it transpires that that very wallpaper WAS in the room (it is revealed underneath.  She goes up to London to stay with Raymond West and his aunt, Miss Marple, and during the play, when a character talks about the murdered character dying young, she screams and remembers someone called Helen being strangled in the hallway of her new home.

Gwenda is determined to solve the mystery, which must have occurred 18 years ago, and is obviously unknown, as there is no news or recollection of it. Miss Marple ends up finding a way to go down to that part of the country to keep an eye on Gwenda and her husband as they set about as amateur-sleuths and they try to solve the perfect murder. But should they have let the murder lie? Might it reveal some uncomfortable truths for Gwenda?

The solving of this seems fairly incomprehensible and I remember not realising whodunnit, the first time I ever read it but remembered who this time.  Luckily, a second murder occurs which makes things somewhat clearer.  This is more complicated than other Miss Marple stories, but ingenious as Christie always is! Not my favourite one, but nonetheless, enjoyable and very unnerving!

9.  Alone on the Wide, wide sea- Michael Morpurgo

This features with my first book from February.   I've had this on my bookshelf for around 7 years and I've never read it.  Like the Jacqueline Wilson, in my early days of being a teacher, I read oodles of Morpurgo books, particularly as we studied him as a significant children's author in Year 5.  

His books have a distinctive style- told in the first person, featuring a child as main character who often tells an 'untold till now' story, often involving some incredible relationship between them and an animal, often the sea, often involving a difficult journey or childhood and this one is no exception.

The main character tells the story of his childhood, how after WW2, children whose parents had been killed were shipped to Australia for the chance of a new life.  In his case, our main character, who was seperated from his sister Kitty who stayed back in England,  ended up working virtually like a slave on a ranch in the outback.  His minder is a terrible man who works the children living with him like dogs, they subsist on virtually no food and get beaten.  He and his friend who he met, eventually manage to escape and live with a wonderful lady who collects sick animals.  The story continues as it becomes his dogged aim in life to sail a ship back to England to find Kitty, who he has never forgotten and to find out what the tiny key,  which she gave him before he left, is for. He's not sure if she is still alive or how to find her, but it is wish... I won't say anymore than that, but it remains for you to decide if you think he makes it or not.

Morpurgo really makes you care about the characters in the book.  I am always drawn into his writing and you gain a real sense of the places he writes about from the description, which comes across simply, not through reams and reams of descriptive passages, but by a sort of narrative osmosis. There is a slightly unbelievable relationship between a character and an animal towards the end of the book that left me slightly incredulous, let longing for such a thing to be true! The characters are believable and very likeable and the plot always leads you forward.  A great one and a slightly longer than his average-length book.

10. Lost and found-Oliver Jeffers (picture book)
11.  Up and Down- Oliver Jeffers (picture book)

I cannot seem to get this picture to rotate! Ahrgh!

I bought both these books in Hexham's Oxfam and was very pleased with 2 hardback picture books. I've read these to Reception in the last few weeks and they really enjoyed the story.
In Lost and Found, a penguin turns up at the door of the little boy.  He tries to find out where it has come from and assumes it is lost so he sets out on a journey to help it get home. But is that what the penguin wants.
We had lots of discussion about friendship in Reception and it is a great book for talking about helping and being a good friend. There were some fun ideas like using an umbrellas as a boat too and the illustrations by Oliver Jeffers are really eye-catching and soulful.

The story continue in Up and Down. The boy and his penguin are still great friends and do everything together but the penguin really wants to be able to fly.  The boy can't seem to help, so when the penguin sees an advertisement asking for a new 'Human Cannonball' with the circus, he excitedly sets out to try his luck, forgetting to tell the boy where he is going. But is this a wise move?

Again, the theme of this book is friendship, trying to achieve your dreams but being realistic and knowing what is truly right for you and learning from your mistakes.  The children loved the idea of shooting out of a cannonball and were willing to talk about their predictions about what would happen next.

When I went to teach that class this week, they asked me if I had brought the next book to follow 'Up and down' which was lovely as I hadn't seem them for 2 weeks, so the fact they remembered showed they really enjoyed it! They are 4-5-years olds but I know 7 and 8 year olds who enjoyed doing work on this book too.

So...have I convinced you to read any of these and are any of these your favourites>

xx


P.S.  If you want to keep progress of what I've been reading over the past few years and what I've already read this month, then here's the link to my book page