Book giveaway: apply for a free copy of The River Singers by Tom Moorhouse (CLOSED)

[RebeccaSMumsnet]

We have 50 copies of The River Singers by Tom Moorhouse up for grabs this week.

Written by ecologist and Oxford academic Tom Moorhouse, this stunning wildlife adventure story is filled with wonderful illustrations and will be loved by children who are interested in the natural world.

Apply for a free copy here and please come back and review the book on the thread.

How do you know when all the 50 books have been claimed I don't want to hand my details over and just get advertising back?

We never give out your details to third parties if you enter our giveaways and our contract with publishers specifies that all details that are passed on will not be used for any other purpose than to send out the books.

If you are one of the 50 who has been allocated a free book, we will be in touch via email as soon as we hear from the publishers that the books have been sent out. We email all recipients again a couple of weeks later to remind them to post up feedback.

Hope this helps!

I'm very much looking forward to reading this book book to my DD#2.

Mine has arrived. Haven't started it yet bit the illustrations look gorgeous. Looking forwardto it.

Was very excited about receiving this lovely book and was not disappointed.

Book suitable for older children and even adults who will enjoy this book about the life of a water vole family living on the river made even more poignant by the fact it is written by a Zoologist who would have first hand knowledge of their lives.

The book is very descriptive and full of delightful illustrations throughout showing the difficulties faced on a daily basis by these delightful creatures. Their enemies include foxes, mink and rats but interestingly their greatest ally is also an elderly rat and it was nice to see that they aren't all portrayed as bad for a change. It was interesting reading about how territorial the water voles are and I loved the name "Mistress Valera" given to one of the water voles who was an enemy of the water vole family.

All in all an excellent read and I look forward to the sequel!

Many thanks.

What a lovely surprise, a beautifully illustrated book, designed for older children, but really captures your imagination (even the 48 yr old that's writing this) .

It's done through the eyes of a litter of voles and their lives', struggling to survive.
Sylvan, Fern, Aven and Orris have just lost their mother and are in great danger. Urgently needed is a safe new home. The great river will guide them, on their long perilous journey. Herons, rats, foxes, otters, to name a few, pose a real threat - especially those able to venture into burrows, refuges converted into killing grounds.

Difficulties abound, each new day a challenge - the challenge of finding food to eat and not to be eaten. How many, if any, of the four will find a safe haven .....

All in all an amazing book, full of peril and adventure.

Tank you, book has arrived, I've started reading. Its a very pretty book. nice dustjacket and lots of illustrations throughout the text.

Lovely book with beautiful cover - looking forward to dd reading it to me

After having been initially surprised at the thickness of the book, I did find it a very easy read & finished it in a couple of days.

The text is reasonably large & the illustrations do help break up the text & give more meaning to the story. So on that basis I wouldn't actually confine it to being a book just for older readers (10/11+ by my definition), if anything maybe 7+ depending on how likely your child is to have nightmares over death.

The themes of familial loss & having to grow up & learn from mistakes were compellingly illustrated by the water vole's family. I liked how each of the Singers grew up a little although from the story these changes occurred only within an unbelievably short couple of weeks.

Overall, a pleasant read. Animal fans will probably enjoy this book the most & will look forward to a sequel.

Really surprised by how gorgeous the book looked.

DS was initially put off by how thick it was, and felt it was too much for him to read [Yr 3] but quickly settled into having it read to him and then reading it over my shoulder and is now taking turns reading it out loud.

Having been a huge fan of the Wind in the Willows when he was younger he slipped easily into the animal characters and now the evenings are darker this is a real snuggle down treat for us.

That said, DS does have a high tolerance for 'emotional' storylines, and if he was a more sensitive sort I would probably have kept this on the shelf for a while as there are some stressful bits.

Makes a lovely change from some of the awful homework books we get and I found myself looking forward to 'reading time' rather than dreading it.

Thanks Mumsnet!

What a gorgeous book! Lovely illustrations. A few sad parts but I feel that kids need to learn about death and realise what a constant struggle life is for the wildlife around us. I thought it was a brilliant "old-fashioned" type of book and I agree with the previous poster that it made a lovely change from some of the dreadful reading books sent home from school.

Thank you for our copy of the book :) agreed it has lots of lovely drawings in. I am reading this to my son, as he's in year 1. We haven't read loads yet but he is really in to it, and looking forward to reading each next bit! Not sure he understands all the words as they are quite grown up but he definitely gets the gist of it. I want to know what happens too, ha ha!

Book read. The River Singers.

I think this book is aimed at a readership of age 9+ my 7 year old would currently baulk at the size of it and the complexity of the language. I found it a quick read once I got going, tho I did read it in two bits with a long break in between when I was more interested in reading some other books. River singers didn't grab my attention so much I HAD to finish it. Maybe I'm a cynic but it felt like a rehash of Tarka the Otter.

It is undoubtedly a very pretty book. I think it would appeal more to girls than boys despite the lead character being male. Mainly this opinion is based on the "nice" drawings, the river bank looks much gentler than it is in these pictures. I expect I will pass my copy on, either to school to go in the library or to my 10 year old niece.

My son loved this book even though he is only 16 months old. I read him a chapter every night at bedtime and we were both engrossed in the story and the different emotions dealt with within the book.

I started reading this to my daughter (7yrs) but it didn't really grab her although she did like the pictures. I only got through the first couple of chapters and she wanted to read something else unfortunately. I was really enjoying it though and will pass it on to my son who is 11. I think he will like it.

Oh I thought I had written my review for this book so I do apologise. My DD read it first and loved it, she loves nature and animals and with the added adventure/peril side to this story it really grabbed her. I read it too and as the quote on the cover says, this is a book I would have loved as a child, and I loved as an adult. As you follow the journey of the watervoles you almost forget that they are animals and can transfer their story to human life as they moved along the river looking for a new place to live, while dealing with the loss of their family members.

As mentioned above it is similar to Tarka the Otter, which maybe why I enjoyed it so much as Tarka was one of my favourite stories as a child that I read over and over. But it certainly didn't spoil my enjoyment of this story and the illustrations where beautiful, they too were reminiscient of stories of my childhood.

Thank you we loved it :)

my Dd had a massive break from read but was in hospital recently and picked up this book. I encouraged her to read it at the time but we hit a stalemate!.It was wonderful, really engaging and she hasn't put it down. She has also attempted to copy the beautiful illustrations and found this very therapeutic and has aided her recovery. I am starting to read it now....will post again with my own thoughts!