Monthly Archives: December 2016

Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares

Posted on by

Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Book of the Week: 11 December 2016

dash-and-lily

It’s Christmas in New York and ‘Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on her favourite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. Dash, in a bad mood during the holidays, happens to be the first guy to pick up the notebook and rise to its challenges.’ (Blurb on the paperback published by Random House).

Winter reads

The Christmas holidays can be a great time to settle down with a book, especially if the weather is horrible – although we are much more likely to get higher than average temperatures rather than snow these days. Perhaps we need to remind ourselves of more traditional winter holidays with some of these chilly stories.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The story of bitter, old miser Ebenezer Scrooge visited by the ghost of his business partner Jacob Marley.

A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas. Not really a book but a prose poem. Read it aloud and marvel at the use of language.

After the Snow by S.D. Crockett. Set in a world of ice and snow, this is the story of Willo who has lost his family and must survive alone. If you enjoyed The Knife of Never Letting Go, you may like this.

The Dead of Winter by Chris Priestley. A desolate country house in the dead of winter and the appearance of a mysterious woman. Chris Priestley specialises in the creepy.

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. Jack is alone in the Arctic – or is he? This is an adult book by Michelle Paver who wrote Wolf Brother and its sequels.

Monster by C.J. Skuse. A group of girls are stranded in their boarding school over Christmas with a monster on the loose. Gory horror.

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. This features the northern wastes of a parallel universe and the journey of Lyra in search of her missing friend. One sentence really does not do it justice however – it truly is an extraordinary book and a must-read.

Bonechiller by Graham McNamee. It’s winter by a frozen lake and a legendary beast stalks the small nearby town. Canadian author Graham McNamee combines action and tension.

Books as Christmas presents

If you are looking for ideas for books as presents for parents, grandparents and other grown-up family members there are loads of book vloggers on YouTube. Jen Campbell has a vast knowledge of books and her Christmas recommendations can be found here.

Word Nerd

Posted on by

Word Nerd by Susin Nielsen

Book of the Week: 4 December 2016

word-nerd

 

Reading a Susin Nielsen book is like eating a quality box of chocolates – you feel you should tackle some broccoli but the chocolate is just so addictive. That is not to say that big topics are avoided in her books,but that they are delivered with humour and such a light touch that you can’t put them down until they are finished.

Word Nerd features one of her typically likeable but dorky central characters. Ambrose has little dress sense, often says the wrong thing at the wrong time, loves Scrabble and is called ‘Spambrose’ and ‘Jambrose’ by the boys at school who pick on him. His single mum is a struggling university lecturer on a temporary contract who has been anxious about Ambrose’s every move since his father’s death before he was born. She decides to home-school Ambrose so he can escape the misery of school, inadvertently sending him into a downward spiral of loneliness and boredom until Cosmo, the grown-up, ex-convict son of the neighbours, moves in next door. Together they join a Scrabble club where Ambrose feels he can demonstrate his word skills; and Cosmo his talent at impressing Amanda, the attractive Club Director.

The problem is that his mother is very much opposed to Ambrose having anything to do with an ex-convict or to going more than two blocks from home. Ambrose feels he has to keep the whole thing a secret; and that’s bound to end badly.

If you enjoyed Susin Nielsen’s other books: We Are All Made of Molecules and The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen, then you will find this is just as good. If you are a Scrabble fan, like Ambrose, you may also like Seven-Letter Word by Kim Slater.