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Books I’m buying for kids this year
I’m sure it’s no surprise to hear that a good portion of the gifts I buy each year are books. This year I’m buying for two specific groups of kids – the just turned 10 to almost 11-year-old girls, and the fairly newly independently reading boys. I thought I’d share a couple of the titles I’ve picked out for them. For 10ish yr old girls: – The Audition by Maddie Ziegler My daughter has been watching Dance Moms and is going to love this:Twelve-year-old Harper McCoy has danced practically since she could walk, and she is making her mark as one of the top dancers at her studio. Until her…
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Review:: Cat Kid Comic Club: Influencers
To be completely honest, I’m lucky if I get to spend more than the 2 minutes it takes to open the package when a new Cat Kid Comic Club book arrives, because my daughter adores them and they are immediately whisked away to the abyss of her bedroom to be read over and over (and over) again. Here’s what she had to say about this latest offering, the fifth book in Dav Pilkey’s series: Cat Kid Comic Club – Influencers Is an amazing book. It tells the story of baby frog siblings. My favourite this about it is the humorous jokes. I think there’s a lot to love about this series from…
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Three Books to Help Your Kids Count Down to Christmas this Year.
I’ve talked before about our approach to using books as an Advent countdown – I like to wrap four books (one for each Sunday in Advent), and then keep all our favourite picture books in a basket by the tree, and others on the shelf to pick up all through the season (more on Advent here and our book basket here). Today, though, I want to talk about Advent books – where the book itself is a kind of countdown calendar. I love the idea of creating a quiet December ritual where we sit together and read for a bit every evening and, this year I’ve picked out 3 books…
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Review :: The Glow by Sofie Laguna, illustrated by Marc McBride
What is The Glow about? Megan and her best friend Li must team up and draw on all their creativity and courage to defeat a strange monster that threatens their town. Megan is obsessed with drawing fantastical creatures and she shares them with her best friend Li who writes stories to go with the pictures. They are kindred spirits with big creative dreams. One day everyone in town – except Megan and Li – is immobilised by a strange glow coming from their phones. Megan and Li are initially frightened and alarmed, but when they realise they are somehow immune, they set out to seek help. Soon a battle unfolds,…
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Currently Reading :: Jane Doe and the Quill of All Tales by Jeremy Lachlan
I adore Jeremy Lachlan’s Jane Doe Chronicles series – they are such a great combo of adventure and fantasy and heart, with fabulous female characters and awesome Indiana Jones vibes. The third book, Jane Doe and the Quill of All Tales came out this week, and the team at Hardie Grant kindly sent me an early copy. I’ve finally had the chance to get into it over the past few days and I’m loving it – it was the perfect book to get lost in for Australian Reading Hour today. I’ve popped the synopsis for Jane Doe and the Quill of All Tales, and I’ll share my review here in…
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Q&A with Aussie kids’ writer Bethany Loveridge
I know I’ve said it before, but one of my favourite things about social media is making new friends with people all over the country and world that have similar interests. Today I’m excited to be chatting with one of my Instagram friends Bethany Loveridge, a fellow fan of middle grade books and aspiring author. Bethany’s Instagram account is always packed with amazing recommendations for readers 8-12 (ish) – she reads for pleasure but also for research for her own writing, and the breadth of her reading is evident from the range of books that pop up on her page. Bethany is currently working on a manuscript, which I happen…
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Q&A with Aussie kids author Jeremy Lachlan
I’ve been reading more and more middlegrade/children’s fiction novels by Aussie authors over the past few years – as my daughter grows our reading tastes seem to be coming closer to each other and this year it’s the category I’m judging for the Aurealis Awards. There are soooo many amazing Aussie kids books and authors – literally someone for every reader to love – and one of my favourite series for kids who love adventure books is Jeremy Lachlan’s Jane Doe Chronicles. Today I’m lucky enough to have Jeremy as a guest here on my blog, chatting about his books and reading and summer. Read on for our chat, and…
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Book Advent 2022
It’s the first Sunday in Advent today, and one of the ways we celebrate the countdown to Christmas each year is with a book Advent calendar. I have written a bit about bookish Advent calendars before (check out this post for more info if you’d like). We’ve tried a few different things as my daughter has grown, and my number one ‘rule’ is always to do what works for you. For a few years when she was little and we were reading picture books we tried doing a book each day or every second day, but in the end what we’ve found works best for us is to have four…
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Review :: The Goodbye Year by Emily Gale
I really love books about those times when people – young people especially – are about to step into a new phase in their life, where they are just on the cusp of something new and the story centres around all be bittersweetness of beginnings and endings and change. This is one of the things I really love about both YA and children’s novels, and with a title like The Goodbye Year I had a feeling that Emily Gale‘s latest book was going to hit right on all of those feels! What is Emily Gale’s The Goodbye Year about? It’s the start of 2020 and Harper is filled with anticipation…
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Review :: The Wintrish Girl by Melanie La’Brooy
I’m reading loads of kids’ fantasy books at the moment and absolutely loving them. I posted a little preview of The Wintrish Girl by Melanie La’Brooy when i was reading it a few weeks ago and tonight I’m sharing my review. What is Melanie La’Brooy’s The Wintrish Girl about? On Talisman Day in the Empire of Arylia, every child receives an object that gives them special powers and reveals their destiny. Every child except for the Wintrish girl, Penn, that is. All she has ever wanted is the impossible: to own a Talisman and return to her home in Midwinter to find her true family. But Penn’s trapped – doomed…
