Title: The Tea Party In the Woods (original title: もりのおくのおちゃかいへ) Writer: Akiko Miyakoshi Publishing House:Kids Can Press Date of Publication:August 1st 2015 Rating:5 stars ‘’The woods were very still. And so quiet. Kikko’s footsteps were the only sound.’’ In a marvelous winter wonderland, Kikko is watching her father leaving for her grandma’s house. But, wait! He…
Month: February 2020
Alan Turing (Little People, Big Dreams)
Title: Alan Turing (Little People, Big Dreams) Writer: Mª Isabel Sánchez Vegara (illustrated by Ashling Lindsay) Publishing House:Frances Lincoln Children’s Books Date of Publication:April 7th 2020 Rating:5 stars ”Even a broken clock is right twice a day.” (quote from the 2014 film The Imitation Game) Alan was a shy boy. His brain could work in such mysterious,…
Irish Ghost Tales
Title:Irish Ghost Tales Writer:Tony Locke Publishing House:The History Press Ireland Date of Publication:August 1st 2016 Rating:5 stars ”There are ghosts and ghoulies that can give you a fright When you’re tucked up warm in your bed. There are things that sometimes go bump in the night Or are they just inside your head?” We have…
The Bell In The Lake
Title:The Bell In The Lake (original title: Søsterklokkene) Writer: Lars Mytting (translated by Deborah Dawkin) Publishing House:MacLehose Press Date of Publication: March 19th 2020 (first published 2018) Rating:5 stars ”The Hekne twins were young women when one fell ill. The thought of what this might mean – that the survivor would have to drag her…
The Violet Fairy Book
Title: The Violet Fairy Book Writer: Edited by Andrew Lang Publishing House:Throne Classics Date of Publication: 29 May 2019 (first published 2001) Rating:5 stars ”Stories that have been inherited by our earliest civilised ancestors, who really believed that beasts and trees and stones can talk if they choose, and behave kindly or unkindly. The stories are…
The Ninth Child
Title:The Ninth Child Writer:Sally Magnusson Publishing House:John Murray Press Date of Publication:March 19th 2020 Rating: 4 stars ”’Tis thin, this place of water and stone and tree. Here meet north and south, Highland and Lowland, Gael and Scot. Here are mountains made too thin for awe; burns that idle over-prettily, the maist o’them, for the making…
The Doll Factory
Title:The Doll Factory Writer:Elizabeth Macneal Publishing House:Picador Date of Publication:May 2nd 2019 Rating:5 stars ”When the streets are at the darkest and quitest, a girl settles at a small desk in the cellar of a dollmaker’s shop. A bald china head sits in front of her and watches her with a vacant stare. She squeezes…
Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte
Title: Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte (Tales of love of madness and of Death)\ Writer: Horacio Quiroga Publishing House: Echo Library Date of Publication: October 13th 2006 Rating:5 stars ”I don’t know whether the howling of an epileptic gives others the impression of a beastly, otherworldly scream. But I am certain that the howling of a…
The Little Mermaid
Title: The Little Mermaid Writer: Hans Christian Andersen (translated by Misha Hoekstra Publishing House: Pushkin Children’s Books Date of Publication:March 10th 2020 Rating:5 stars ‘’You’ll keep your swaying way of moving, and no dancer will be able to glide like you- but with every step you take, it’ll feel like you’re stepping on a sharp knife that’ll make…
The Book Collector
Title: The Book Collector Writer: Alice Thompson Publishing House: Salt Publishing Date of Publication:November 5th 2015 Rating:5 stars ”Once I have owned a book I am longing for the next one. Collecting is a creative act. One of perpetual longing and desire. One is never fully fulfilled. Collections live in dread of satisfaction. There is that brief,…
Coming Up For Air
Title:Coming Up For Air Writer:Sarah Leipciger Publishing House:Doubleday Date of Publication:March 19th 2020 Rating:5 stars ”The Highlands is a melancholic place. The mountains are almost always hidden in mist and the tongues of blue that lick the sky are watery and fleeting, but there is a ballad to the landscape that exists in everything. In…
The Bobcat
Title: The Bobcat Writer:Katherine Forbes Riley Publishing House:Skyhorse Publishing Date of Publication:June 5th 2019 Rating: 5 stars ”They guarded against her own ghosts as well; whenever the atmosphere grew somber or anxious, first one cat and then the other would spontaneously tear through the room, ears cocked and eyes wild, claws skittering for purchase as they chased…
Maria Montessori (Little People, Big Dreams)
Title:Maria Montessori (Little People, Big Dreams) Writer: Mª Isabel Sánchez Vegara (illustrated by Raquel Martín) Publishing House:Frances Lincoln Children’s Books Date of Publication:March 5th 2019 Rating:5 stars ‘’The greatest sign of success for a teacher…is to be able to say, the children are now working as if I did not exist.’’ …
The Starless Sea
Title: The Starless Sea Writer:Erin Morgenstern Publishing House:Harvill Secker Date of Publication: November 5th 2019 Rating: 5 stars ”Far beneath the surface of the earth, hidden from the sun and the moon, upon the shores of the Starless Sea, there is a labyrinthine collection of tunnels and rooms filled with stories. Stories written in books and sealed…
The Opinionated Reader 
You must be logged in to post a comment.