58. Lorna Hill Rosanna joins the WellsOnce again, I find myself being lured into reading kiddie books. Helen my friend has slowly been bringing these to orchestra for me to borrow. I loved the start of this book, set in Italy in a lovely village- I could just sense the heat and beauty of the old place- Ms Hill writes wonderfully evocative setting descriptions that warm the very reaches of your heart. There was an interesting sort of Cinderella perspective to this book as Rosanna, Italian girl who has just begun to learn to dance and discovers she is good, gets sent to live in the North of England due to the death of the priest who was her guardian. We meet old favourite characters from Hill's previous 8 Wells books, including the now-exiled King of Slavonia who unexpectedly met Ella Rosetti- heroine of the previous book and now is following her to pursue her in love. Again, you can kind of guess how this book is going to end, but I am a creature of habit and I like formulas!
Aha, the younger sister of the King of Slavonia begins this book, in exile staying in Switzerland whilst there are threats against her life from republican elements who fear a return of the royal family to Slavonia. It transpires she is good at dance and because of her Brother's love for Ella Rosetti (unrequited), she is sent to the Wells school to study. So basically, a Princess at the Wells. There is certainly a sad ending to this book but one that is refreshingly surprising, except that if anyone knows my views on Phantom of the Opera, this is an ending that does ultimately make me cross!
Aha, this book is brilliant! It's the book I've been reading with my top-group for Guided reading at School. I've managed to get across to them, and helped them to recognise, be able to explain and identify examples of the following: Suspense, (through the use of grammar- short sentences, paragraphing and the holding back of information, Cliffhangers, Idiosyncrasies, and be able to analyse how exactly the writer achieves the effect of writing excitingly. This story is a sort of modern-day David and Goliath type idea- where Ruskin, a red-haired, scrawny with dreams of being an actor, faces the trials of Elvis, a bullying, violent thug. However, in order to become a hero and defeat Elvis, it is only through his conquering of a fearsome giant lizard that lurks in the sewer called Krindlekrax with his friend Corky, the caretaker, that he can achieve this. It deals with the issues of friendship, bullying, anti-social behaviour, consequences of actions and trying to be popular, not judging a book by its cover It deals with death of characters in a sensitive way also. As a teacher, (or parent also, if you're keen), it is a wonderful book for drawing out the assessment focuses in reading. I might actually put up my questions for guided reading up here sometime if anyone might want to use them? Parent or teacher? Let me know in the comments)
This book regards beast of the more friendlier variety. The named character is in fact an inherited dragon belonging to a family. Marcus, the main character, is a bit of a wuss, dominated by a bossy girl who lives near by who wants him to be her friend. He lives with his Mum in a nasty old flat with a mean landlord and bully son. When Marcus inherits Timothy from his enigmatic Uncle who runs a circus, it appears his uncle is dead- but all is not as it seems and Marcus, reluctant hero, goes off with a strange young lady who is supposedly the Uncle's fiance to find him. Bit of a cliched story considering, but a harmless enough book for kids to read!
When I went to Hay-on-Wye during August, CBC and I were most excited to find a 1920's first edition of this book. It's totally Jolly Hockey sticks and of the Malory towers ilk but I adored this public boarding school book and can't wait to read more of Angela Brazil's books! Trouble is, they're rather expensive!!!! It tells the story of 2 sisters who end up at a rather lovely boarding school. If you've read any Enid Blyton school book, you know what to expect! This book is special to CBC and I!
(It's at CBC's house, so I hope http://www.stellabooks.com/ doesn't mind using their image- they seem to have loads of Angela Brazil books so go there if you want to buy one!)
Like Gemma, I wanted to read some Christmas books and with the exception of a Christmas Carol, I've never read any Dickens and this edition had been on my shelf for years (like since Penguin did their £1 classics- bought in my 2nd year at Uni!) So I persevered with these. I've not met anyone else who has read the latter two stories, everyone looks bemused when I mention them. Have you read them? All of them have a moral tale at the Christmas time and show the plight of poor people . The Chimes, follows the tale of a Porter called Trotty who lives with his daughter Meg. The Church bells ring every day of his life and after being drawn by their ringing to the church cellar soon after Christmas, fairies take him to discover the fate of his family in the future! The cricket on the hearth was hard going at first. I had no idea what the point of the story was and found it rather dull until somewhere near the end, it suddenly clicked and a lovely message came from the book. Again, it involves fairies and showing people how things really are and I confess to shedding a tear at the end (in Durham cathedral!). I don't want to say more otherwise I ruin it, but they are worth a read as they're not too long although don't be despondent at the start, they get more interesting towards the end!
64. Carola Dunn Death at Wentwater courtI bought CBC's mother these for Christmas last year as they seemed like fun looking books she might enjoy. I didn't think any more of it until I read Dino-Princess Char's review of one of the Daisy Dalyrimple books a while back and suddenly realised I would LOVE to read that type of book and I knew someone who had 7 of them!!!! So, rather inwardly sheepishly, I asked to borrow them this Christmas whilst we were up there! Oh and what a GREAT range of books they are! I adore both Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie and these are like a combination of the two. There's a mystery to solve, lovely 1920's references, rather cracking Blyton-esque exclamations and a touch of romance! This first in the series tells of a murder that seems to involve an early morning ice-skating accident to a rather nasty piece of work! Of course, it doesn't pan out like that and the Honourable Miss Daisy Dalyrimple, newspaper reporter and photographer is on the chase, much to the reluctant yet admiring attempts by a Scotland yard inspector!
65. Carola Dunn The winter garden mystery.I demolished this one on the train journey home- Daisy is off to write another article but visits a real battleaxe who is the mother of an old school friend. Death soons shows its face as Daisy discovers a boy in the flower beds and has to track back to find out who the murderer is! Wonderful again, all I could think is, "WHY oh why haven't you interrogated that person!!!!"
Another wonderful Daisy Dalyrimple book- we see the relationship developing between her and Chief-inspector Alec Fletcher. I liked the musical setting of this one at the Royal Albert Hall and Verdi's requiem! I quite like poisonings in murder books- they are always very exciting working out who could have done what and I guessed right!!!!! Hurrah!!!
67. Keri Smith How to be an Explorer of the WorldI actually finished this after midnight on New year's eve (A party animal me-ya?) but since I'd read the majority before Big Ben chimed, I counted it as a 2011 book! CBC received this for Christmas from his sister and it is a book that TOTALLY could have been written by me (in the sense that I've done lots of the tasks involved - not that I am clever like Ms Smith). It is a book full of tasks to get you to look at the world in a different way- to scrutinize, ponder, organise, appreciate, draw, write, classify. It involves thinking skills and awe and wonder. Each task offers you the chance to be an artist in some way- to look at things you have never noticed before- to slow down and regard the mundane as something enchanting! Adults who are young at heart and kids will appreciate this. The tasks include something like finding 30 found objects on your way to work/school/somewhere- classify them- describe them, describe differences; draw a sound map of all the sounds in relation to you as you sit on a park bench; collect pebbles and lay them out in formations; make a sculpture from materials you find; draw character profiles of people around you and much more! This is the type of thing that I love to spend time doing. A lovely book!
Have you read any of these? Have I tempted you in any way?!!!
