This week has been exciting, book wise and, of course, award wise!
Book Haul this week: I have wanted to read 1984 by George Orwell for ages, and spotted it in my school library. I had to borrow it! I’m about halfway through now, and it’s a very eerie read. I’ll post my review soon.
Also, I bought a copy of By Any Other Name by Laura Jarratt. I have read so many brilliant reviews of this, and I found it in Waterstones. I had to get it, too! It just looks and sounds so amazing. It has gone straight to the top of my TBR!
I also realised earlier this week that Zom-B: Angels was being published on Friday. I rushed to the shops to grab a copy, I jst couldn’t contain my excitement! I hunted down one, and boy, the cover is so awesome. I really can’t wait to start this fourth installment.
Some lovely, lovely people at Piccadilly Press ailed me a copy of Hold Your Breath, by Caroline Green. I’ve heard many good things about her previous book, Cracks, and think that this book will make for a great introduction to Green’s writing for me. By the blurb, it seems pretty amazing! I’ll be starting this as soon as I can.
Finally, the awesome people at HarperCollins sent me an absolutely beautiful finished copy of The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chianani. I enjoyed this book so much, when I read a proof copy in February! You can find my review of it HERE. I’ll definitely be reading this again soon, and I really recommend it to young teens and older children.
A huge thanks to the publishers who’ve sent me books this week!
In other words… The Carnegie Award winners have been announced!!
I only shadowed one shortlist- the children and teens fiction one- and read seven out of the eight books on there. The titles listed were so brilliant, and all of them deserved to be up for the award. I was literally jumping up and down when I heard that Sally Gardner won with my favourite title of hers, Maggot Moon! It so deserved the award. Here’s my review of it: https://booksandwritersjnr.wordpress.com/2013/03/31/maggot-moon-2/.
Also, in the illustrated children’s books shortlist, which unfortunately I didn’t read any of, Black Dog by Levi Pinfold won! I did scan the shortlist online, and the artwork for that cover was one of my favourites. So, I’m glad it won.
Happy Reading, and congrats to the two worthy winners of the Carnegie Medal!
Goodreads synopsis: Gadzooks! It’s another term at Dother Hall for Tallulah and her mates. But can they keep their minds on the arts with all those boys about…
Goodreads synopsis: What if you woke up tomorrow and everything had changed? Money is worthless. Your friends are gone. Armed robbers roam the streets. No one is safe. For Matt and his little brother, Taco, that nightmare is a reality. Their only hope of survival is to escape through the Channel Tunnel. But danger waits on the other side…Stay or go. What would you do?
Goodreads synopsis: Bluebell Gadsby is 13 but that’s the least of her problems. Both her parents seem more interested in their careers than the family, leaving Blue and her three siblings as well as their three pet rats (who may or may not be pregnant), in the care of Zoran the au pair. The enigmatic Joss moves in next door and Blue thinks she might be falling in love, until he takes out her older sister Flora instead (who, incidentally, is trying to make a statement by dying her hair bright pink but no one takes the blindest bit of notice). Blue thinks and feels very deeply about life but can’t really talk to anyone about it, because no one in the Gadsby family wants to address the real problem – that Blue’s twin sister, Iris, died a year ago, and they are all just trying to hide their grief in busyness…
A massive THANK YOU to everyone who entered the giveaway for a copy of Half Lives by Sara Grant! I wasn’t expecting that many entries, seeing as it’s my first giveaway, but I got quite a few! Maybe I’ll run some more in the future.
Goodreads synopsis: 1910. A cabin north of the Arctic Circle. Fifteen-year-old Sig Andersson is alone. Alone, except for the corpse of his father, who died earlier that day after falling through a weak spot on the ice-covered lake. His sister, Anna, and step-mother, Nadya, have gone to the local town for help. Then comes a knock at the door. It’s a man, the flash of a revolver’s butt at his hip, and a mean glare in his eyes. Sig has never seen him before but Wolff claims to have unfinished business with his father. As Sig gradually learns the awful truth about Wolff’s connection to his father, Sig finds his thoughts drawn to a certain box hidden on a shelf in the storeroom, in which lies his father’s prized possession – a revolver. When Anna returns alone, and Wolff begins to close in, Sigs choice is pulled into sharp focus. Should he use the gun, or not?
Goodreads synopsis: ‘I am Friday Brown. I buried my mother. My grandfather buried a swimming pool. A boy who can’t speak has adopted me. A girl kissed me. I broke and entered. Now I’m fantasising about a guy who’s a victim of crime and I am the criminal. I’m going nowhere and every minute I’m not moving, I’m being tail-gated by a curse that may or may not be real. They call me Friday. It has been foretold that on a Saturday I will drown…’
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