Books for Roisin and Yorkiegirl to read!

[Turkiegirl]

I think we need a whole new thread.....
Half way through Wolf Brother, then need to read Curous Dog, then Eragon, then my new set of Michael Morpurgo!

hee hee hee ... Love the thread title!

We are heavily into Horowitz (Alex Rider stories - MI6 = junior James Bond?) at the moment. I've read Stormbreaker and Point Blanc; ds1 has the next one waiting for him at the library (it's free for him to reserve them) but he hasn't finished PB yet, so I'll get first dibs on the sequel! (Then there are two more after that.)

He's currently reading the sequel to LionBoy, so I'll have to read that next as well.

I have got two adult books upstairs awaiting my attention: they're at the bottom of my pile

LionBoy? Who is that by? Any good?
Looked at the Alex Rider stories in WHSmith's last week, thought they looked quite good. Need to renew my library card so may well get them from there to try. Worth a read?

AlexRider are definitely worth a read. Red House have got an offer on at the moment with all 5 for about £13. (Who's in charge of the library at school? Can you get them for the school library?) They are excellent.

LionBoy and the sequel LionBoy:the Chase are by "Zizou Corder" who is actually a 14 yr-old girl and her mum! I enjoyed it, but wouldn't rate it very highly. But ds1 loves it. He read 220 (out of 320) pp last night/this morning! And I was "the best mummy in the world" for buying it for him. I'm not sure why he finds it so thrilling; it does combine some of his main interests, and also has been covered heavily by Blue Peter. We also visited some of the sites from the first book when we were in Paris in the summer.

I finished Wolf Brother: I'm glad I read it, but am glad I got it from the library rather than buying it iyswim!

Which Michael Morpurgo set did you get? Have you read any of his before? Have you read "Private Peaceful"? By far and away the best book about war written for children that I have ever read. Stunning, shocking stuff. (And a gorgeous, sexy matt black cover!)

Our school library is absolutely rubbish. No decent books at all. We really need to do something about it TBH. And pronto.
I got a set from the Book People, £13 for 12 books:
Cool!, War Horse, Dear Olly, Kensuke's Kingdom, Toro! Toro!, Why the Whales Came, The Butterfly Lion, My Friend Walter, Billy the Kid, The Sleeping Sword, Farm Boy and The Wreck of the Zanzibar.
Pretty good value, isn't it!
Are you on msn?

Nope - not on msn - spend too much time on the PC as it is!

Have you read any MM? They are stunningly, beautifully written. DS1 wrote to him a couple of years ago, and had a lovely card back.

Haven't tried him before, but loads of the kids at school really like him. When I saw that offer I couldn't resist!
Has William Nicholson written any other half decent ones?

Oh, I have a new project.... I want to have a go at writing a christmas musical thing for kids, think I can do it. I just need to come up with a starting point that's original... along the lines of the story of Christmas told from a different perspective. The Golden Apple ones are so cheesy I could do better!

Have you tried Shadowmancer by GP Taylor? Or any Garth Nix?

Christmas plays have to be cheesy though! I don't know who "Golden Apple" are ...? At our school Christmas is 'done' by KS1, so they aim fairly low. This year they're doing "The Grumpy Shepherd" last year it was the "Bossy King" (missed out the bit about the slaughter of the innocents though!)

Have you come across Doug Horley's song "The angry hotel man"? It's hysterical, and I'm sure you could base an entire nativity around that.

I've just remembered I was supposed to pick your brains about music theory workbooks on Friday ...?!

Read Shadowmancer and loved it! Not tried Garth Nix yet.

Golden Apple are the publishers who print loads of different musical type things for primary schools. Perhaps one from the point of view of the overworked innkeeper could be good.....
I need to think about the theory workbooks. Let me get back to you on that one! Keep reminding me. Boots ok?

Hi Marslady - I love Garth Nix; It's one of the few children's books that I won't allow ds1 to read yet. (He's only 7, but extremely good reader). I enjoyed Lirael and Sabriel immensely, but they are definitely teenage books, and I think would be potentially disturbing for him.

We have got both the GP Taylor books on the shelf, but none of us have read them. I was put off a bit by the blurb actually - I can't remember why now. Do you rate them highly? (Is the author a vicar or have I misremembered that too?)

G P Taylor is a vicar, well remembered! Shadowmancer is very dark, quite scarey in places. Read it yourself, but maybe not DS1 just yet. I found the imagery to be very strong and thought provoking. It plays well with the concepts of faith versus balck magic and so on. Well worth reading (as if you haven't got enough to read!) Need to get the second book of his too.

I've got two copies - I'll send you one ... the boots are fab and in fantastic condition - I paid you far too little for them. Thank you!

I was hoping ds1 would finish LionBoy: The Chase tonight, but he isn't going to (lights out at 8); so I was looking for something else to read. I will try Shadowmancer and let you know how I get on!

Garth Nix has also got some slightly younger books. Mr Monday and Grim Tuesday. It's the beginning of a set of 7 (obviously). It takes a while to get your head around the weirdness of it, but rather good.

Another thought, what about Kevin Crossley Holland. His trilogy is Arthur - The Seeing Stone, At the Crossing Place and King of the Middle March

What age are they aimed at Mars? I have enjoyed books about Arthur in the past, namely Mary Stewart's series, so could be worth reading!
Roisin, believe it or not those boots have been worn many times, just managed to keep them in very good condition! They have been to Ingleborough and along the N Yorks Coast with school, a fair few miles, plus other walking with me and DH BC!

Probably 9 or 10. Sorry, just looked at my son's bookshelf. He's always been a good reader and was always ahead of his age. Just spoken to him and he said to wait. Will look again on his shelf and see what he was reading at 7 apart from Alex Rider and everything by Anthony Horowitz.

The books we are on about here are for us to read too, Mars! Roisin and I share an enjoyment of reading fiction aimed at anyone over 8! We have decided that quite often there's no need to even look at adult fiction as the children's selection is so great lately!

LOL! I've got two 'adult' tomes under my bed ... Hmmm... Think I'll start Shadowmancer

A great book I'd like to recommend is "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein. My bf came accross it when he was working in the states about 15 yrs ago and it had stuck with him for many years until he found it during my pregnancy and bought a copy.

He read it several times to me & Bob (the bump) and I can see why it stuck with him all those years. He used to read it to the kids at night over in the states and it was the only time they'd all be quiet and behave themselves (whether it was the book or his english/cockney accent or a mixture of both he don't know).

The book begins, "Once there was a tree.....and she loved a little boy."
"Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches,
or slide down her trunk......and the tree was happy".
"....but as the boy grew older he begun want to want more from the tree, and the tree gave and gave and gave"

It's a beautiful story and I think kids of all ages would enjoy it. My boyfriend worked in a summer camp for disadvantaged kids from very poor and deprived backgrounds and they aged from 11 - 16 and he said this would alwayd make them listen intently and usually some of them would be teary at the end cause it's a real thinker of a story.

Hope you can find a copy.

That sounds lovely. Does anybody like David Almond? He writes beautiful, quite spiritual books, with "The Fire Eaters" being my favourite, although Skellig is perhaps the most critically rated. Also - "Coraline" by Neil Gaimnan for anyone who likes quite creepy stories although the ending is a bit weak imho. There's a trilogy beginning with the "Wind Singer" which is superb - William somebody? Cornelia Funke "Dragon Rider" is pretty good. I also enjoyed "Private Peaceful" - it made me cry. And if anybody likes teenage girl humour the Georgia Nicholson diaries by Louise somebody or other are an absolute scream - but def. not for the under 13s!

Did you start Shadowmancer then Roisin??

No! I watched "North and South" - it was fantastic - sobbed for at least 40 minutes (much to dh's disgust), and I decided I wasn't in a 'Shadowmancer' mood. So went straight to sleep instead to dream of Richard Armitage

Have never watched it so couldn't comment!
Wanted to read last nigth but was too tired. Should have done thos as it took me ages to get to sleep!

Did anybody else NOT like shadowmancer-I really hated it-much too dark and horrible details like the severed hand candlestick. Gave up after chapter four.
"a Gathering light" jennifer Donnelly is very good (i think this is aimed at children as in the childrens section at waterstones) More for girls than boys though probably.
Northern lights trilogy-fab-but you have probably read those already.