Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts

Monday 13 August 2012

I'm Not Scared – my perfect summer read

I'm writing this review as part of the Tots 100 summer reading challenge in association with Tesco in which they are rounding up some of our favourite summer reads. I love reading but life is so manic I hardly get a chance to sit down with a book, so I'm going to make sure I pick one from the list and make some time to do so.

I'm delighted to share one of my favourite books with you but I've never reviewed an actual grown up book before so I hope I do it justice!

It took me a while to narrow down my perfect summer read to just one book... I was all ready to write an enthusiastic post on 'The Poisonwood Bible' (an awesome book). It's good and thick and certainly lasted me a summer, but as I know it's not for everyone I decided that didn't really qualify as a summer read... maybe not what people are looking for whilst relaxing on the beach!

The book I have chosen is one I loved and one I think really anyone would enjoy – 'I'm Not Scared' by Niccolo Ammaniti. Set in Italy during a brutal and scorching summer, the story follows 9 year old Michele, his gang of friends, and their childhood antics. The writing sets the scenes so perfectly you feel as though you have been there running through the wheat fields yourself. It captures all the different childhood relationships really well and took me back to my long summers running through fields with all the local kids. All much more innocent, we imagined and invented our dramas and mysteries... Michele's however, soon become all too real.

As Michele tells the story you're with him all the way, and the group's childhood dares and adventures soon lead him to a discovery that sets his world spiralling around him (I don't want to give any more of the story line than that away!). You're soon swept in to a absorbing mystery that will keep you hooked until the end.

I just loved reading this book and as soon as I had finished I tried to get everyone I knew to give it a go! It is so easy to read and completely sucks you in. I didn't want to put it down and, although I'm a pretty slow reader I finished it quickly. It's not too long, so if like me you don't often get time to read, it's not at all daunting to start! Well told, charming, intriguing, exciting and sad, it's a perfect little tale which has it all for a summer's day on the deck chair.

If you do read it I'd love to know what you think... and I'd love to hear from anyone who's read it already? I hope my post tempts you to read it, I'm no great writer myself, which I think is why I love reading what other people have written so much, I just find it amazing!

I'm looking forward to reading the Tots 100 round up and getting some new ideas and inspired for my next read.

Tots100 Parent Blogger Book Club

Saturday 25 February 2012

Book Marks: Tiddler the Story Telling Fish

Tiddler the Story Telling Fish
Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler


I had walked past this in book shops so many times. When Squiggle was really small I had a quick look at the board book and the writing was so tiny I was put off without even reading it. I hadn't considered it since until my sister brought her the larger version of the book when she visited the other week. And that was it. We have been completely Tiddler mad ever since! 


It is a really charming story, just about the right length for my 2 year old, and entertaining enough for both of us. It tells the story of an imaginative little fish who is always making up stories to excuse being late for school, until he finds himself in a real life scrape and lost at sea. He finds his stories have travelled across the sea and he's able to follow his story home. It's really captured Squiggle's imagination, she's been making up wonderfully silly stories ever since! 


The rhymes are a little more sophisticated than some of her other books which is great for her language. Trying to put my finger on why she loves it so much, I think it must be down to Tiddlers slightly mischievous personality, the appearance of all her favourite ocean creatures, and the fact he gets 'stuck'. She loves things getting stuck and having to escape or be rescued, it's so funny! Is this a running theme with all toddlers or just mine?!


Whatever the reason she has absolutely fallen hook line and sinker for this tale (check me and my punns out). Our book came with a CD and I'd really recommend this version, we've listened to it lots in the car and she's enjoyed swimming around pretending to be Tiddler when listening to the game. Heck, we've even made the fish tank with the characters supplied in the back and it has given her a ridiculous amount of fun. Now that's a book that really delivers it's moneys worth!