I’ve read so many books this week I needed two photographs to fit them in, but that’s what happens when you include picture books and early readers in your TBR heap.
I absolutely loved Please Mr Panda by Steve Antony. A gently funny book that reminds children to use their manners and say ‘please’ if they want to get the goodies.
The Dot by Peter H Reynolds is a charming story about doing your best, believing in yourself and not giving up, but it also encourages the reader to pass on the support they have received to other people who are struggling – great advice, no matter what age you might be.
The Memory Tree by Britta Teckentrup and Fox by Margaret Wild are both ‘issue’ books about Foxes. In The Memory Tree, Fox dies after a long life and his forest friends gather to remember their happy times together. Margaret Wild’s fox is a trickster who tries to break up a mutually rewarding friendship between a blind dog and a wing-damaged bird. Both books have been very well received but, unfortunately, neither of them resonated with me.
One of the story books I read this week didn’t have many more words than the picture books. Under a Silver Moon by Anne Fine is full of good messages about friendship, exercise and healthy eating but, first and foremost, it is a lovely story with glorious line drawings. Funnily enough, that same description would apply to Clean Break by Jacqueline Wilson, but with the addition of family break-ups.
The rest of my books this week were all YA / adult. Maybe I’d been reading too much Early Years stuff, but none of them were nearly as satisfying or comfortable as the books for young children – but then again, they weren’t meant to be!
It seemed appropriate to read The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson over the Easter weekend, as that was where the book started. A mix of social history, witches and magic it was a well crafted novel, but the story was very bleak and some of the descriptions were gruesome. Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill is a dystopian novel that made me snarl with feminist indignation. Set in a world where a chosen few women give birth to only male children and females are designed and made to order I also questioned the science, minimal though it was. Not a book to read if you are looking for a happy (or even a hopeful) ending. I really don’t know what to say about the final book in this week’s selection. A Confederate General from Big Sur by Richard Brautigan defies any sort of neat categorization. It is funny, trippy, decidedly off-beat and not particularly politically correct and I absolutely loved bits of it.
What will next week’s book bundle bring? You’ll have to come back in seven days time to find out. What have you been reading? Would you recommend it?
Kim A Howard 