Summer Reading

Yep! Here I am going on about getting kids reading again. Well, while there are still children out there who say, "I'm no good at reading." I am going to keep giving out ideas to encourage and inspire them.

I came across a website today with some good ideas of how to get children reading over the summer holidays. Click here and be inspired!

If just one person (apart from me) looks at it, then it will have been worth posting.

What The Hell Was I Thinking?

What in Hell is up with Heaven?: No rest for the wicked... by Christopher David Petersen

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I didn't like this book; I found it very odd. I know it is supposed to be a religious satire, but it's just not what I expected. To begin with, the conversation between God and Satan is amusing, especially the "Does the Pope sh*t in the woods" conversation, but it just isn't enough to make a whole book out of. I quickly grew tired of the cheap gags. Again, it is amusing to think God might have a spitting contest or might have to go on a diet, but these are stand alone jokes and none of them really gel together to make an interesting read.

This book is unusual, in that many of the characters are ones we are already very familiar with. I don't think that was a problem, but the personalities of the characters were not consistent making them difficult to believe. Their dialogue didn't match their personalities and I found it annoying that the characters' styles of speech changed so regularly.

There were many spelling and grammatical errors, which a quick proof read could have corrected. That on its own usually spoils a book for me, because it feels like the book has been rushed to the publishers without the attention to detail required. If an author can't be bothered to read their own book, why should I?





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Surprisingly disappointing

This Side of the Grave by Jeaniene Frost

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I read this book after just finishing Shadowfever by KMM, who is admittedly a hard act to follow, but I'm afraid 'This Side of the Grave' was my least favourite book of the series so far.

I just didn't find it very exciting. The plot was okay, but there were no major surprises and I'm unsure I would have kept reading if I hadn't already read and enjoyed the others in the series. At times I felt like I had missed a few pages, as it skipped to a new scene leaving out too much detail in between, making the plot confusing in places.

There was some character development, but not a great deal and the new characters which were introduced were nothing special.

The big fight scene at the end was the first time while reading this book that I was really engaged by the story and didn't want to put it down.

Despite my disappointment, I look forward to the next book, which, judging by the taster in the back of this book, promises to be more interesting than this one.






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A Pleasant Read

Playing With Fire by Derek Landy



I am currently reading this with a year 5 (10 year old) pupil, who is really enjoying it. It has a good balance of action and mystery to keep a 10 year old boy's interest. The characters, who all have great names like 'Barron Vengeous' are amusing and interesting, allowing for good discussions about them as well as writing based on what we know about them. The writing provides fantastic examples of interesting sentence structures, brilliant imagery as well as interesting and exciting vocabulary. This book was recommended to me by an 11 year old, evidently one with good literary taste. It's all I can do not to read ahead to the end!


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