Tag: A Monster Calls

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Recommend to Others the Most

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I'm not the sort of person to recommend books to other people. Of course not. *Ahem! Ok, of course I do. It is part of my DNA! I have been known, when browsing Waterstones and overhearing shop assistants offering up a book recommendation, to feel obliged to butt in and offer a different one. My blog is broadly speaking just a list of book recommendations. I have had long conversations with colleagues that never go far beyond "Have you read...? And you haven't read...? You should read..." It is, to be fair, pretty much part and parcel of my job as an English teacher, though - and that's my excuse!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved So Much I Had to Get a Copy for My Personal Library

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics 5th July: Most Anticipated Books Releasing In… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved So Much I Had to Get a Copy for My Personal Library

Top Ten Tuesday: Freebie: YA Books I Think Will Become Classics

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics February 1: Books with Character Names In… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Freebie: YA Books I Think Will Become Classics

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I’d Love An Update On

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics September 21: Books on my Autumn /… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I’d Love An Update On

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics July 13: Book Titles That Are QuestionsJuly… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved that Made Me Want More Books Like Them

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics May 4: My Ten Most Recent ReadsMay… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved that Made Me Want More Books Like Them

Top Five Saturday: Books with Two Authors

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Top Five Saturday is a meme hosted by Devouring Books in which the bookish community discover and share books that all have a common theme. Previously, the meme has focused on a range of different characters (witches and werewolves), genres (thrillers, detectives and re-tellings) and thoughts about the industry and life as a bookworm, and many more. … Continue reading Top Five Saturday: Books with Two Authors

Top Five Saturday: Award Winners

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The Top 5 series is back! Top Five Saturday is a meme hosted by Devouring Books in which the bookish community discover and share books that all have a common theme. Previously, the meme has focused on a range of different characters (witches and werewolves), genres (thrillers, detectives and re-tellings) and thoughts about the industry and life… Continue reading Top Five Saturday: Award Winners

Top Five Saturday: Young Adult

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The Top 5 series is back! Top Five Saturday is a meme hosted by Devouring Books in which the bookish community discover and share books that all have a common theme. Previously, the meme has focused on a range of different characters (witches and werewolves), genres (thrillers, detectives and re-tellings) and thoughts about the industry and life… Continue reading Top Five Saturday: Young Adult

Top Ten Tuesday Turns Ten! Books I Wish I Had Read As A Child

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. PREVIOUS TOP TEN TUESDAY TOPICS: May 5: Things I’d Have at My Bookish… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday Turns Ten! Books I Wish I Had Read As A Child

Top Ten Tuesday: Opening Lines

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. PREVIOUS TOP TEN TUESDAY TOPICS: April 7: Books I Bought/Borrowed Because…April 14: Books I… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Opening Lines

Top Five Saturday: Books About Plants and Flowers

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The Top 5 series is back! Top Five Saturday is a meme hosted by Devouring Books to discover and share books that all have a common theme. Previously on the blog I have focused on witches, werewolves, thrillers, faeries, fairy tale re-tellings, high fantasy and many more. I am going to try and bring this series back for… Continue reading Top Five Saturday: Books About Plants and Flowers

Top Ten Tuesday: Signs You Might be a Book Lover

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. PREVIOUS TOP TEN TUESDAY TOPICS: February 4: Books On My TBR I Predict… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Signs You Might be a Book Lover

Top Five Saturday: Magical Realism

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The Top 5 series is back! Top Five Saturday is a meme hosted by Devouring Books to discover and share books that all have a common theme. Previously on the blog I have focused on witches, werewolves, thrillers, faeries, fairy tale re-tellings, high fantasy and many more. I am going to try and bring this series back for… Continue reading Top Five Saturday: Magical Realism

Top Five Saturday: Books over Five Years Old

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Top Five Saturday is a meme hosted by Devouring Books to discover and share books that all have a common theme. The list of themes currently runs at 1/4/20 — Funny Books1/11/20 — Books Over 5 years old1/18/20 — Unreliable Narrators1/25/10 — Books by Favorite Authors My top five books that have celebrated their fifth birthday... goodness,… Continue reading Top Five Saturday: Books over Five Years Old

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Book Releases of 2020

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Upcoming Top Ten Tuesday Topics: January 7: Most Anticipated Book Releases… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Book Releases of 2020

Top Ten Tuesday: Character Traits I Love

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. So this week we are looking at character traits we love. Things… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Character Traits I Love

30 Day Book Challenge: Day 15!

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I really should have limited myself to just naming a book and moving on! One name, one image; job done! Instead, no, I decide I'm going to chat and talk about them! I do find it hard not to chat about books. That's the problem! So now, if I do one a day every day, I'll finish… Continue reading 30 Day Book Challenge: Day 15!

The Trees, Ali Shaw

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This book might win the most striking cover award this year: the stunning autumnal russets and reds are gorgeous! But you know what they say about judging books by their covers? As a parent and as a teacher, we trot out that truism time and again but on what else are you going to judge… Continue reading The Trees, Ali Shaw

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs

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Woohoo my first finished novel of 2015 and a start to my Reading Challenge! This book was not what I expected. There was something very evocative and intriguing about both the title and cover - as well as the photographs inside. Almost all of which, according to the note appended to the novel, are genuine… Continue reading Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs

More Than This, Patrick Ness

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I am a huge Patrick Ness fan! Let me put that out there at the start of this. I hugely admired his Chaos Walking Trilogy but was utterly blown away by the visceral emotion and mythic scope of A Monster Calls. There are few books that dig inside you as much as that one. This… Continue reading More Than This, Patrick Ness

Summer Reading

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With a week to go before the summer holidays, my reading list is starting to grow. Currently queued up on the ereader I have the following: These are crime thrillers penned, under the pseudonym Benjamin Black, by John Banville who wrote The Sea. I was particularly intrigued by The Black-Eyed Blonde as a new Raymond… Continue reading Summer Reading

A Greyhound Of A Girl, Roddy Doyle

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Roddy Doyle is a great writer. He wrote The Commitments which is a fabulous book and one of my favourite films of all time! He wrote Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha which is a fantastic evocation of a ten year old boy's childhood. Roddy Doyle does voices extremely well. He creates the voices of children… Continue reading A Greyhound Of A Girl, Roddy Doyle

Carnegie 2013 Shortlist

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It's that time of year again: the Cilip Carnegie Medal Shortlist has been announced! It is genuinely one of the highlights of my year! I reserve the Easter holidays to reading as many as I possibly can of the list. I mean, we do shadow the Carnegie Medal in our school and I like to… Continue reading Carnegie 2013 Shortlist

Carnegie Medal Winner, A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

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A MASSIVE congratulations to Patrick Ness for the historic achievement of winning the Carnegie two years running AND winning both the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Prizes simultaneously. A Monster Calls is a truly exceptional book and a mighty winner! It is one of those books that EVERYONE should read! The story is moving, evocative, primal,… Continue reading Carnegie Medal Winner, A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness