books and covers

Do you judge a book by it's cover? I do, this is definitely true when it comes to children's books. I'm always attracted to the illustrations first. I'm rarely disappointed.

I'm newly in love with the wonderful children's books by Oliver Jeffers.  We have had How To Catch a Star for a while. But we were all totally blown away with The Incredible Book Eating Boy, we've had this out from the library, and we keep going back and finding it again, and again. 

The story is of a boy who is distracted one day and accidently licks a book, then eats a word, then a page, and before long he's eating whole books. 

The more he eats, the cleverer he gets, he wants to be the smartest boy on earth. He loves it, even though everyone tells him it's no good for him.

Until one day, everything starts going wrong - everything gets jumbled up in his head and it's embarassing to speak. He stops eating books, but doesn't know what to do. Then he picks up a book and reads, and learns and  eats broccoli.

I love it, we love it, Little Missy can't put it down. And the illustrations are charming, the characters are uncomplicated and the scenes incorporate old pages from books and words float around, it's quite enchanting. I think a copy will have to come and live here forever. 

We're also loving The Great Paper Caper, I could get a little obsessive here, but again the illustrations had me. 

Branches mysteriously start to go missing in the woods, the animals turn detective to find out who's taking them. They follow the clues and track down the culprit and then hold a hearing. 

When bear tells his story, they feel sad that he had no-one to turn to for help. They then set about helping him make the best paper plane so he can win the competition that his ancestors had previously held the title for. Bear plants new trees to make up for his crime. Charming and you really feel bears loneliness in the book, magical.

I know I'm showing pictures of books here, despite my rant over copyright and images on the internet. 

I'm sucking up my hypocrisy.

If you fancy joining in and sharing a book you're into right now, send me a link to a post you write and I'll add it to this one so we can all see what you're reading. Novel, cookbook, children's book, you choose. 

Link back to here and share some book love. 

Flaming Nora is loving Splash, a children's book

take a look!

x

 

book review - My Sister's Keeper

I know, it's been a little book bonkers over here lately - I will calm down soon, I promise. 
So here's my first book review, I hope you'll join in and add your review to the Link too, spread the word - it'll be more fun if lots of us play along.

This is the first book I've read this year, (I don't find much time to read so I'm feeling chuffed I've managed a whole book by March!)

'My Sister's Keeper' by Jodi Picoult. 

This is the story of a family and how their lives are centered around the middle daughter, Kate, who has leukemia. 
To save her life a younger daughter is conceived to be a bone marrow donor. But it doesn't end there. 
By the age of 13 the younger sister, Anna, has had countless procedures to save Kate's life. She is then expected to donate a kidney, this is when she proceeds with a lawsuit to sue her parents for rights over her own body.

This is a heartbreaking book, as a mother of two I kept trying to put myself in the parents shoes and wonder what I would do. I couldn't. 
Most mothers would donate any body part to save their own childs life - but is it fair, is it right, is it immoral to expect a young sibling to do so? 
It had me in tears many times and wondering just what is the right answer. The book is written from all the characters points of view, so you really feel their turmoil. They are all making difficult choices with the best of intentions. Who could chose one child over another, who's doing the right thing?
 
As the book progressed I found it hard not to side with Anna a little. Her whole life was defined by being a donor, having a sick sister, spending their lives at the hospital and a childhood overshadowed by sorrow. But as the court case unfolds it becomes clear where her heart really lies. 

The ending is not what I expected, it's bittersweet and it's a shock. I don't want to give it away but it came back to me day after day and made me appreciate how lucky we all are to be healthy.


This is a sad story, but it gripped me, I just had to get to the end. If you're up for an emotional journey, this is a good one.

Now it's your turn, you can review any book - a cookbook your family would starve without, a pattern book you've made things from (share some pictures please!), a novel you hated,  a children's book your little ones love... anything goes!

I'll leave the link open for a couple of weeks so you have plenty of time. 
Can't wait to read what you're reading...

World Book Night

I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of World Book Night this year.  On Saturday night 1 million books began a new journey with a new owner. 20,000 'givers' each gave away 48 copies of the book they chose. I chose Alan Bennett's A Life Like Other People's. When I signed up I hadn't realised that every copy would be given a code number, you can register the book and then track it's journey on the website as you pass it on to another person and share the experience. This is so amazing. One of the people I gave a book to said she will post it on to her sister in New York, Maria at Me and Ma who won one on my giveaway is passing her copy on through her blog. The journeys  these books will go on is fascinating.
Were you a part of it, were you a book giver? Did you receive one, are you inspired to read again?    

 

from David Bamattre on etsy

When I signed up for this I said that I would be giving away books to other parents, who like me used to read before having children and haven't really found the time to do so again. I have handed them out in the school playground, at toddler group and the Children's Centre. I have just five copies left to pass on, everyone has been so enthusiastic about it and I look forward to hearing what they thought of the book as the weeks go on.

I watched some of the coverage on TV on Saturday night and was so inspired to read, read, read. I used to read books recommended by friends and work colleagues, there doesn't seem to be time to chat about books though any more. 

So I started to think about you lovelies out there, we read each others blogs, have similar interests maybe we would like similar books. What books do you like, crime fiction, the classics, cookery, gardening, crafty, travel, history, knitting books? I'm thinking of starting a book review linky thing. Would you join in - write a post on your blog and link it back here so others can read it? Leave a comment and let me know. 

I'm so inspired right now, I guess this event really got me hooked at least.

do you love books? - a giveaway

I do.  Any kind... 

...novels to lose myself in and go on someone else's journey. 

  
...books to learn from and go on my own adventures.

...coffee table books, to drool over beautiful images and be inspired.

  
...children's books, so we can learn to read together and laugh and share fears and experiences and fall in love with the characters.

  
...so we can share the love of a good book and discover new worlds.

I've always loved books, the feel of the paper, the smell of an old book, wondering who else read this very copy. A stack of books waiting to be read, books to refer to, share and enjoy.


But since having children I haven't really read for myself, up until recently I was too tired - I would go to bed with a book and be asleep by the second chapter. I'm a little less exhausted these days and I'm trying to make the time to read more. 
I'm currently reading Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper. This is emotionally quite a hard book to read, some days I just can't face the sadness, but I am enjoying it.


When I heard about World Book Night which is on 5th March, and how they wanted 20,000 people to volunteer to give books to others, I signed up. I love the idea of thousands of people all curled up with a novel at the same time. By themselves but somehow sharing the experience.
This is the book I chose, Alan Bennett's A Life Like Other People's.  I would like to share some of these with you. I will be giving away 3 copies on this blog. This is just open to UK resident's - sorry, I don't get the books until the week before WBN so I want to make sure they get to you on time.

If you'd like a copy leave a comment and tell me 3 things you love to do and what you're reading at the moment. 
If you win, you have to promise to read a bit of the book on 5th March, World Book Night.
I will drawn names out of a teapot next Monday afternoon, the 21st February. Good luck!




If you are overseas and sadly can't enter the giveaway I'd still love to know what you're reading. I'll be doing another giveaway soonish that you can join in.