Oh I just thought this was wonderful - I didn't want it to end. It's one of those books that you just want to be part of, you want to live in their world and live how they live. I guess in this instance it's because all the characters are very free spirited and they all enjoy their lives. I don't want to make out it's a happy book, because it isn't really. A mother has gone missing, feared drowned, so her husband and children have spent 11 years not knowing whether she'll come back into their lives or not. The book has 3 intertwined storylines - the present where it's 2004, the children are grown up and carrying on with their lives, and the father, Gil, has an out-of-control habit of collecting second hand books that have old letters or notes or doodles from past owners in them. The second storyline is from the mother, Ingrid, in 1992 where she is writing letters to an absent Gil, telling him what she and their daughters are doing with their lives, and hiding the letters inside books. The third storyline is also set within the letters - Ingrid is retelling the story from when she and Gil first met in 1976, upto the present. It is mostly through these letters that we learn all the characters, especially that of Gil, and what may have caused Ingrid to disappear.
I loved all the characters, but all in a different way. I thought they were very realistic. I just wanted it to go on and on. I'm definitely going to have to read her first novel 'Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the 2015 Desmond Elliott Prize.
The Chronicles of Egg: Deadweather and Sunrise
by Geoff Rodkey
Egbert (the titular Egg) lives on Deadweather Island - dull, grey, humid and sticky. He is constantly picked on and punched by his brother and sister and ignored by his father. His mother has passed away. One day, his father comes home from a walk to his plantation of 'ugly fruit' and the cleaning of the cannon which keeps the pirates away, and announces they are to take a trip to Sunrise - the beautiful island a short boat trip away. So begins the adventure. Dad, brother and sister die in a ballooning accident, Egg befriends Millicent whose father is super rich and powerful but who also has a dark side, and who sets out to kill Egg in order to get to treasure hidden on Deadweather. Along the way we meet scary pirates and an unlikely friend in Guts, a one-handed cabinboy.
A great adventure story for 9-12yr olds.
A Boy And A Bear In A Boat
by Dave Shelton
A boy steps into a boat and asks to be taken "over to the other side".The person rowing the boat is a bear! We are told no names apart from that of the rowing boat - Harriet - and the town the boy comes from - Cromer. So begins a very peculiar story about a very peculiar voyage across a sea with no destination in sight. You wonder how the author can keep up nearly 300 pages of this, but surprises are in store in the shape of sea monsters, storms, rocks and ghost ships. The boy and the bear help each other through tricky situations like near starvation and near drowning. They manage to lose three boats and end up using the bear as a boat, a suitcase as his float and a ukelele as a paddle. Will they ever reach "the other side"?
A quaint original story with loads of great illustrations.
Oh I just thought this was wonderful - I didn't want it to end. It's one of those books that you just want to be part of, you want to live in their world and live how they live. I guess in this instance it's because all the characters are very free spirited and they all enjoy their lives. I don't want to make out it's a happy book, because it isn't really. A mother has gone missing, feared drowned, so her husband and children have spent 11 years not knowing whether she'll come back into their lives or not. The book has 3 intertwined storylines - the present where it's 2004, the children are grown up and carrying on with their lives, and the father, Gil, has an out-of-control habit of collecting second hand books that have old letters or notes or doodles from past owners in them. The second storyline is from the mother, Ingrid, in 1992 where she is writing letters to an absent Gil, telling him what she and their daughters are doing with their lives, and hiding the letters inside books. The third storyline is also set within the letters - Ingrid is retelling the story from when she and Gil first met in 1976, upto the present. It is mostly through these letters that we learn all the characters, especially that of Gil, and what may have caused Ingrid to disappear.
