Author Archives: keithbwalters

Blue Peter Blog Tour: Booktrust and Malorie Blackman’s day with Blue Peter!

Hey, blogosphere! I can’t even put into words how excited I am to be posting in the Blue Peter Book Awards blog tour (And hosting the first post…. SQUEAL!). The list of books for this year’s awards are absolutely fantastic, and you can read more info, over here.

Onto the blog tour post! So, enjoy this written coverage of Malorie Blackman’s event with Booktrust at the Imagine Festival…

Booktrust and Malorie Blackman’s day with Blue Peter

On Saturday 15^th February, team Laureate battled through the wind and rain to head down to the Southbank Centre, which was teeming with families all taking advantage of the Imagine Festival. With so many author events, storytelling and interactive workshops to go to, there was no danger of children getting bored this half term! We parked up in the café with some strong coffees to get ready for… A DAY WITH BLUE PETER! As part of the Blue Peter Book Awards, the show has been running all sorts of special book content. One of these features is “A Day in the Life of an Author” – and what better author to choose than the Waterstone’s Children’s Laureate, Malorie Blackman? And as Booktrust manage the Laureate and help out with the PR for the prize, we had double reason to go along. Nothing to do with a secret hope of getting a Blue Peter Badge out of it……

Malorie pulled up with the Blue Peter crew and presenter Lindsey Russell, who had been interviewing her en route – we all headed into the green room at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, where Malorie had a huge stack of books to be signed ahead of the event. We amused ourselves by making use of the glitzy dressing room all for Malorie – with lights around the mirror and everything! Malorie also had a go at playing the green room’s piano – despite protesting she sounded rubbish, Random House publicist Lauren and I were VERY impressed!

Malorie busy signing

Next we headed into the main auditorium where Malorie recorded her answers to some of Blue Peter’s viewers’ questions. They had some great ones, including “what’s your favourite cheese?” and “Would you rather have a bath of baked beans or a bath of custard?” !! But now it was time to get serious, and have a chat with her event chair Damian Kelleher (who also had his very own dressing room!) The Imagine event was brilliant, with over 600 children who all seemed to have questions for Malorie. Blue Peter dashed about filming the event and a few lucky audience members’ questions.

Malorie with a Blue Peter Presenter

After the talk, it was time to tackle THE EPIC SIGNING QUEUE! There were so many children and teens, bursting to meet Malorie, and lots were interviewed in the queue by Blue Peter too, which only added to their excitement! After an hour and a half, the crowds finally dispersed and Malorie got to rest her hand and voice, but not before the Blue Peter crew and presenters lined up to get their books signed too…

Lindsey and the producers were so lovely, we had such a great day with them – we can’t wait to watch the show which is on TODAY on CBBC at 5:30pm!

The Blue Peter Book Award winners will be announced on World Book Day, 6^th March on Newsround at 7:40am. www.booktrust.org.uk/bluepeter

I am SO jealous- I couldn’t go to this… but the event sounded awesome! I’m looking forward to seeing the show. Make sure to keep up with the Blue Peter Book Awards blog tour! Here are the dates and bloggy details:

Thursday 20^th Feb = The Bibliomaniac – Booktrust and Malorie Blackman’s day with Blue Peter

Saturday 22^nd Feb = Much Loved Books – Rooftoppers

Monday 24^th Feb = Being a Mummy – Whale Boy

Wednesday 26^th Feb = Bare Naked Mummy – Tony Robinson’s Weird World of Wonders

Friday 28^th Feb = Live Otherwise – Marvellous Maths

Sunday 2^nd March = Book Sniffer – Animal Infographics

Tuesday 4^th March = My Book Corner – Oliver and the Seawigs

Thursday 6^th March = Winged Reviews – Marcus Sedgwick on being a Blue Peter judge

Fangirling about Favourites! #1

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So! This is another experimental post and I came up with the idea a little while ago. The layout today is a little bit messy, as I created half of it while I was on my old theme, and this week I tried to change parts and… I’ve messed up the colours and things, but oh well… It’ll look better next time! 😉

Fangirling about Favourites, if people like it, will probably go up once a month or so! Every post will focus on a different genre, and focus on one of my favourite books or series form that there. Today it’s Sci Fi and Dystopian- and I’ve picked STRAY and BURN by Monica Hesse…

Book Review: Running Girl by Simon Mason

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Published January 2nd 2014 by David Fickling Books.

17999143 Goodreads Synopsis: Meet Garvie Smith. Highest IQ ever recorded at Marsh Academy. Lowest ever grades. What’s the point, anyway? Life sucks. Nothing ever happens.

Until Chloe Dow’s body is pulled from a pond.

DI Singh is already on the case. Ambitious, uptight, methodical – he’s determined to solve the mystery and get promoted. He doesn’t need any ‘assistance’ from notorious slacker, Smith.

Or does he?

My Review: Running Girl was a book I’d been really looking forward to- and luckily I did really enjoy it! Not entirely as much as I thought I would, but still, it was a really fun mystery to follow.

I started the book with a pretty clear idea of it, as I’d talked to the author at the RHCP crime event about it! I was really absorbed in the story for most of the time: I enjoyed the beginning, especially, which really hooks the reader in. I really did like the pot; it’s a classic crime fiction scenario, though it felt fresh and new, and completely original.

I enjoyed guessing throughout, though Running Girl is so misleading! It’s clever, really clever, though I found a lot of parts quite confusing. It’s a really great crime book in the way that it leads you to think the killer’s one person, when really it’s the person I least expected… though I think so much was going on, I lost track! I ended up re-reading a lot of passages and chapters, because I did get confused.

Garvie’s a really uncommon main character. A lot of books I read centered around mysteries have character that are the complete opposite. Instead, Garvie Smith is lazy, incredibly intelligent but unwilling to do anything, and prefers to hang out with crime-committing kids instead of going to school. Despite his personality, I loved him. He was very much like Sherlock Holmes, only willing to do something if it interests him hugely- and that, now, is working out the mystery behind Chloe Dow’s murder.

I admit it was hard to like him at first, but I did really grow to like him! He was brilliant, a really alternative protagonist, that I think a lot of teens and adults will become attached to. I don’t think he developed very much through the events, but I’m hoping to get to know him even better in book two.

Overall, Running Girl is a book that I’m really mixed on, though I’m mainly loving it. Despite the fact I struggled to follow at a few points, the murder plot was really clever. It’s unpredictable and unexpected, and Garvie’s journey is wild and takes him everywhere on a search, from a Casino to a school… I really enjoyed reading about Garvie’s search, because he’s not your average fictional character. Recommended to crime fiction fans. (:

My Rating:

I received a copy of Running Girl from the publisher, in exchange for a review. In no way at all did this affect my thoughts.

Oh hai, new blog theme!

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SO IT HAPPENED! New theme! I decided to get it out of the way, today. I’ve had a lot of feedback over twitter and in the comments of my last blog post. Virtual hugs to you all!

I’m now The Bibliomaniac Book Blog, and I’m now blue (No, I mean, just the theme and stuff. I’m cold, but I’m not that cold :P). I have a new theme and a new blog header…

…and to match, I now have new little rating system symbols- still my little hearts in speech bubbles,but slightly differently designed (but, with the same meanings! You can check out my rating system, explained properly, here.):

Post Update! 😀

I was going through older posts, and realised I hadn’t re-designed the book haul banner. So, I did a bit of a rushed one this morning, for Saturday’s post. I think I’ll probably make a better one, but…

And, ta-da! So, it’s all new looking and shiny now! Slightly winter-y. But, I like it, so I hope everybody else does, too. I’m keeping my URL for my blog the same, because otherwise I might lose followers and readers, if I switch, etc.! But, I hope you all like the new layout and the new name. I’m happy with it! Huge thanks to everyone again who gave me feedback and who read the blog (: ❤

Bloggy Changes! (possibly)

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Books and Writers JNR has been running for almost exactly three years now, and I’ve gone through three different themes! In 2011, it had a really simple, normal theme, that doesn’t seem to be on WordPress anymore… (I tried to find a screenshot of it, and failed). Then, and I think this was at the start of 2013, I swapped to this theme:

The Next Saturday Theme

I think that lasted for less than a month… I decided against the colours, and it was a bit too in-your-face for me. A bit later in 2013, I changed to the Crafty theme:

Crafty Theme

And it’s been like that ever since! I never really played around with the themes much, and although I do like this theme at the moment, I’ve found a few others and I think they’ll be better for the blog. A lot of them are paid themes, and I don’t think I want to pay for a theme yet, so this is a free one I like: I can play around with it a lot and it’s a simpler format. I think I prefer it to Crafty, because the Crafty theme makes my blog look a bit… happy, when I don’t think that really reflects what kind of books I read and review! (flowers and a happy looking apple dude in my widgets bar, next to zombie books. Um.)

Minimalizine

I don’t just want to change my blog theme, though- I’ve decided on altering the name a bit. Books and Writers JNR is kinda confusing- I always get asked what the JNR’s for! (If you still don’t know, it’s because this is the ‘jnr’ version of my dad’s Books and Writers blog). After my dad decided to stop blogging at books and writers, I wanted to take the JNR off, but I was never sure I wanted simply Books and Writers. Over the last month I’ve been Googling up lots of blog names, and a lot are already taken- the blogosphere’s huge, and keeps growing, and I’ve been scared I’ll steal a name without realising!

But, I’ve decided on The Bibliomaniac. I like the name, and there’s been a book blog called this before, but as far as I’ve been able to see, it’s been changed. This week I’ve been playing around with header ideas for the blog, and this is one I like- I designed it quickly and it might be temporary, it might not be! I’d love to hear what you think about it, over Twitter on in the comments:

So, that’s the header and the theme that I’m hoping to put up very soon- I just want to hear what people think! I don’t want to actually change my site name, though- I think that will just be kept as booksandwritersjnr.wordpress.com, as I’m not the best at WordPress-y things and I don’t want to mess things up of anything.

S0, I’d love to hear what you think- Do you like the possible new blog name and the header? 😀 I might end up tweaking some things over the next couple of days, but aside from that, my blog should hopefully be re-designed by the end of the month!

New Books! #40

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Small book haul, but a really exciting one, this week!

Received in Post:

The Madness by Alison Rattle: I fell in love with The Quietness by Alison Rattle last year, and I’ve been looking forward to more historical fiction from her ever since! I was so excited when this arrived, because it was talked about at the Hot Key Books event I went to in October. I’ve already started it (I couldn’t wait! I abandoned the TBR…. *hangs head*) and I’m seriously enjoying it. Thank you, Hot Key!

The End of the World as we Know it by Iva-Marie Palmer: This was talked about at the Hot Key bloggy event, too! IT sounded really action-packed, but funny too…. A little similar to Vivian Versus The Apocalypse, which revolves around a party before the end of the world. I’m looking forward to starting this. Thanks again, Hot Key Books!

EMBEDDED IMUJ PERMALINK

I had to include this, too… for Valentines day, Indigo books (Part of Orion!) sent out Shadow and Bone postcards! Shadow and Bone’s an epic fantasy read, and these postcards were written with a Happy Mal-entine’s message…. you’ll understand it if you’ve read the books! 🙂 Thank you for the postcard, Indigo- I must reread Shadow and Bone, in prep for the trilogy finale- Ruin and Rising, which the cover’s just been revealed for!

So, ta-da! That was the little, but awesome, book haul for the week. Have you read either of the titles, if you’re a blogger? Or are you looking forward to them too?

Also, quick note- there’s going to be a bit of a different blog post up tomorrow, about my blog design. I’d really appreciate feedback on my random ideas, if you have some- make sure to look out for the post tomorrow- thank you! (:

Book Review: Far From You by Tess Sharpe

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Published by Indigo (Orion), 27th March 2014. (Also, admire the pretty GIF cover from fiercefiction.tumblr.com! ;D I had to borrow this for the post. It’s gorgeous.)

Goodreads Synopsis: Nine months. Two weeks. Six days. That’s how long recovering addict Sophie’s been drug-free. Four months ago her best friend, Mina, died in what everyone believes was a drug deal gone wrong – a deal they think Sophie set up. Only Sophie knows the truth. She and Mina shared a secret, but there was no drug deal. Mina was deliberately murdered. Forced into rehab for an addiction she’d already beaten, Sophie’s finally out and on the trail of the killer – but can she track them down before they come for her?

My Review: Far From You is a beautifully written, captivating novel, and as soon as I picked it up, I physically couldn’t put it down. It’s gripping, thrilling, and I think it’s going to be a seriously big debut! Far From You touches on drug and accident recoveries, whilst also being about a really beautiful but complicated love story. I loved it, and I’m pretty sure every body else who reads it will, too.

Sophie was an instantly loveable character; she was so strong and realistic, and jumped off of the pages. I think she’s the best developed character I’ve read about all year (and that’s out of almost 40 books!). She nearly dies at at a young age in a car crash, and the second time she has a close chance of dying, her best friend, Mina, is killed. After Sophie comes out of rehab, despite never needing to go in the first place, she’s determined to uncover the killer, and work out the mystery. I fell in love with her from the start, and Mina too- as she featured in most of the flashbacks. I grew so attached to the characters that I really didn’t want to finish reading about them at the end…

The plot was unpredictable, a real roller-coaster of a book. As soon as I opened the first page, I was completely sucked into the story, and as I already said- was left reluctant to leave everything behind after I finished! There was no way I could’ve guessed anything. I loved the themes, and it was just addictive… I have no other words to describe it!

The story is written in a breath-taking style. I think Tess Sharpe is definitely a write to keep an eye on! I loved the format of the novel- written in chapters that alternated between the present and key moments in Sophie’s past. It all unfolded in such a genius way, though I think at points I did get a little confused, mixing past events up in the present, but I did get it all in the end, and I loved it.

Overall, Far From You was a beautiful debut. I was so excited for it as soon as I first saw the cover- and it was definitely worth getting excited for! It’s a chilling, dark crime thriller, with hints of romance, and centered around a really strong relationship. Sophie and Mina were amazing characters, and I don’t think I could forget them. Although I struggled a couple of times with the format, I think Far From You was written really, really well. I’m looking forward to more from Tess Sharpe- this is set to win awards, and it definitely deserves to!

My Rating:

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I received a copy of Far From You from the publisher, in exchange for a review. In no way at all did this affect my thoughts.

Book Review: RED by Alison Cherry

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Published by Quercus, January 2014.

18755824 Goodreads Synopsis: Top student. Beauty queen. Girlfriend of the hottest football jock: Felicity’s got everything. And it’s all down to her red, red hair.

Felicity lives in Scarletville, the world’s only redhead sanctuary, where red hair is celebrated, protected – and the key to sucess.

But Felicity has a secret. A red hot secret. And if anyone finds out, she’s finished.

Because Felicity’s actually a natural blonde.

And in Scarletville, blondes need not apply.

My Review: RED isn’t the kind of book I’d normally read. I often read contemporary books, but none that are about beauty pageants and hair and… well, not exactly my thing! But, I requested this after some great reviews… though I read a few bad ones too… I did enjoy quite a few parts of this, though! I’m really mixed, overall.

The world is one thing that really bugged me! Felicity, the main character, has naturally strawberry blonde hair, and living in Scarletville, the world’s redhead sanctuary, you’re destined for a life of discrimination. I kind of didn’t get that at first- I’m strawberry blonde, and I’m mistaken for being a redhead. Yet Felicity would get harassed for being one… But, I pushed that aside and then thought, as I know Debbie did, why didn’t Felicity just move? Surely that would be an easier option…

I did really enjoy the plot, on the other hand. Its main focus was on bullying and blackmailing, with a really nasty non-redhead girl controlling Felicity to get her way. I enjoyed watching everything unfold, and there were a lot of great plot twists that did keep me reading. The relationship between Felicity and one other character I won’t mention here was really well written, I loved that aspect. Also, it has a bit of an undercover agent feel, what with Felicity sneaking down to a hidden underground place to dye her hair… though I found that a bit funny at first!

Felicity was really hard to like for a large part of the book, to me. She just let herself get blackmailed by someone. If I were her, I would’ve done something back… Yet, Felicity just seemed to let it happen for the most part, and get really stressed about it. I was hoping for her to fight back more. I’ll admit, though, that I did grow to like Felicity a lot towards the ending, where there’s a certain rebellious act involved that puts everything in the line. I did love her for that!

Overall, RED is a book I’m really mixed on! Despite being largely about beauty pageants and dresses and things I generally dislike, it was an enjoyable read, and quite fun to follow. I liked the plot, though I couldn’t really get my head around the fact that Felicity had never considered moving, seemingly. Felicity was hard to like at points, not always standing up for herself, but she did definitely become more likeable as the story progressed. The unfolding love story was cute. Recommended to fans of contemporaries revolving around high school events, though I’m not sure it’s exactly for everybody!

My Rating:

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I received a copy of RED from the publisher via Netgalley, in exchange for a review. In no way at all did this affect my thoughts.

Book Review: The Humans by Matt Haig

New Books! #39 & A quick event recap!

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I’m super excited about all of the books I bought and received in the post this week! (:

Bought:

The Hundred Year Old Man who climbed out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson: One of my school teachers talked to me about this book a while ago, and it sounded crazy, but like something I’d enjoy reading, for some reason! I spotted it in a bookstore and decided I’d pick it up, along with The Great Gatsby- because that’s something I’ve been meaning to read for ages, too. I’m not sure how the title of Jonas Jonasson’s book is going to fit in a future blog post review title! ;D

Secret Avengers- REVERIE (Collecting issues 1-5) from Marvel, Spencer and Ross: This looks really, really awesome. I ordered it and it arrived yesterday, and I’m so excited to be starting the series! I wanted to buy the issues individually when they first came out, but I never did. I love Hawkeye and Black Widow, so I’m pretty sure I’ll enjoy this, and the future volumes, which I’ll probably buy soon if I like it!

Received:

Mutant City by Steve Feasey: I’ll admit I’ve never read Changeling, which is Steve Feasey’s famous werewolf novel, but I’m really excited about his new title, here! I wasn’t expecting this at all; actually, I had no idea he had written a new book. The proof arrived this week, with the coolest ARC cover ever. It’s been compared to the X Men and Darren Shan’s horror books… so I’m definitely looking forward to it. (: Thanks, Bloomsbury!

The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler: This was talked about at the RHCP blogger’s event that I went to in January! It sounds awesome, like a really fun adventure to get lost in. Thank you, Random House!

INCINERATOR by Niall Leonard: I finished CRUSHER, which is the first book in this sequence, a couple of weeks ago. I really enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to seeing what else is in store for the protagonist. Niall, author, gave a reading of one of the scenes at the RHCP crime showcase that I went to, and it was terrifying… and brilliant. I’m hoping to start this tomorrow! Thank you again, Random House.

…And an author event!

Yesterday, (Saturday) my local library had Gina Blaxill, YA crime author, for a talk about her books. I went along to it, because I really loved all three of Gina’s books (below!) and really wanted to meet her, after getting the chance to interview Gina on my blog a while ago.

Pretty Twisted Forget Me Never Saving Silence

Gina talked about her titles, and her inspirations behind them, and why she decided to write them. She’d always wanted to be an author- writing a fantasy series with a friend at a young age featuring literally thousands of characters! Fantasy had always been a favourite genre, but so had crime, and that’s what Gina has been writing ever since her first publication.

It was really interesting to hear her give writing tips and more- there was a Q & A too but I’m too quiet when I’m at events and things (I know, it totally doesn’t go with my loud fangirly Twitter/Bloggy alter-ego D: )so I didn’t actually ask a question, though everybody else asked some really good ones. I’m looking forward to reading more of Gina’s books, after she shared some info on future ideas she’s planning! Thanks to Ashburton Library’s Liz for organising the event, and to Gina for giving the great talk and for singing my books!