What's Up With Jody Barton ? Book Review

"I'm about to let you into a huge secret, one that even my twin sister doesn't know about.

Its epically messing with my brain."

WHAT'S UP WITH JODY BARTON? is a book to be talked about, but also NOT to be talked about, it really is a tricky one. You see, once you've read it, you'll be DYING to talk to someone about it, but you also won't want to ruin it for anyone who hasn't read it yet. I guarantee that you will love  happening upon the twist in Jody's tale so much, that you would never want to spoil it for anyone else, unless you really hated them.

Xene read the book from start to finish yesterday, she couldn't put it down, and it certainly did not disappoint her, she said that it was very funny, made her laugh out loud and it has a great surprise waiting, she enjoyed it so much, she refused to tell me the huge secret and has insisted that I read it for myself.

She recommends it to any teenage girl, especially if they are fans of the Lottie Biggs books, also written by Hayley Long.

It is published in paperback on 31st may 2012, and can be found here.

If your teenager loves books then get them to head over to Queen of Teen 2012 and vote for their favourite teen author, Hayley has been shortlisted, along with some other fabulous authors.

Lottie Biggs Is Not Tragic Review - A Perfect Teen Read

Here are the top five things that we will miss about the Lottie Biggs series:

- The casual and infectious use of the word ‘ridonkulous’

- Gareth Stingcombe and his manly thighs

- Winnie, the wisest chinchilla in all of Wales

- Justin Timberlake knickers

- LOTTIE BIGGS

Lottie Biggs is (not) Tragic is the third and final book in the fantastic series that has captured the hearts of readers of all ages across the country. Written with the wit of Louise Rennison and the depth of Jacqueline Wilson, this has been the journey of Lottie Biggs, a very small teenage girl from Whitchurch, Cardiff. There are no vampires, werewolves, trolls, pirates, spaceships or ghosts. Just Lottie, and her hilarious, completely captivating voice. We have experienced the trails, tribulations, ups and downs of Lottie’s very REAL LIFE. . . complete with hair dye, rugby playing boys with manly thighs, older sisters, mental health problems, best friends, divorced parents, part-time jobs and of course, Justin Timberlake knickers.

In the last book of the series, Lottie is in the midst of an existential crisis. Her mum’s all soppy over a bloke with a horrible shemo* daughter, and her pal Goose has developed a severe case of Nerd rash. Time to get out of Cardiff and hit the road with the gorgeous Gareth (and his manly thighs). But things don’t go exactly to plan…*a female emo, obviously

Xene adores these type of books, so was very enthusiastic to read the complete series of three books in as many days. They must have been good, because she didn't put them down and I did have to draw the line at her reading whilst eating her dinner!
Her thoughts on the books were that they were hilariously funny and a truly typical teenage girl read, she is nearly fourteen and I asked which age she thinks they would be most suitable for and she said definitely thirteen upwards, as I skimmed through one book, the  words I saw his giant sausage lead me to believe that yes they are for her age and above!!
They certainly seem a popular read, as all of her friends at high school have either read, in the middle of or waiting to read the three books.
I would definitely recommend the series for any teen girl in your family, I am sure they would not be disappointed.

The Princess and The Sleep Stealer

A magical tale of fantasy and adventure . . .  
sweet dreams guaranteed!

Princess Luna is the Sleep Keeper of the little town of Papier. Every night, she leans out of her castle window and sprinkles sleepy dust down to the houses below, sending everyone gently to sleep until morning. But disaster strikes when the dust disappears! Where has it gone? And with time rapidly running out, will the princess get it back before bedtime?

With sleep-stealing pirates, a friendly dragon and a heroic princess, not to mention a moonlit race over sugar mountains and through liquorice trees, this book has all the ingredients for the perfect bedtime story!

Elissa Elwick graduated from the Arts Institute at Bournemouth in 2008 with a pencil firmly fixed in her right-hand and she hasn’t stopped drawing since. In addition to her illustration work, Elissa makes greeting cards and plush toys and also runs illustration workshops at schools. When not thinking up stories or inventing new characters, she’s usually making a cup of tea, buying yet another book or gluing googly eyes onto inanimate objects. Elissa lives in London and THE PRINCESS AND THE SLEEP STEALER is her first picture book.

When we first received this book to review, I was a little apprehensive, Eowyn is at the age where she enjoys `happy' stories, and I was worried that someone doing something bad would not go down very well.

We have certain episodes of television programmes that feature witches or naughty goblins that she immediately turns off, so I read the story myself first just to make sure.

However, it did not prove to be a problem, the illustrations are fun and there are some very funny characters called Bobwobs  and the three zees, added to that liquorice trees and sugar mountains and Eowyn was transfixed.

A very unique story that made a change from the traditional, and without giving too much away, it does have a happy ending!

The book is not too long and is a perfect bedtime story, that will make the reader feel very sleepy and somewhere in the distance maybe Princess Luna will be sprinkling her sleepy dust...

Cats Ahoy - A perfect rhyming read for little ones.

A swashbuckling tale of pirate plunder, derring do and a huge

haul of haddock!

When Alfonso the cat hears there’s a boat coming into harbour carrying its largest ever catch, he hatches a plan. It’s brave! It’s bold! And it involves a ghost pirate ship, some rather gullible fishermen, and cats … LOTS of cats.

With an infectious rhyming text and laugh-out-loud illustrations, this book is set to become a firm favourite for fans of life on the high seas.

Peter Bently lives in the writer-filled town of Totnes with his wife and a perfect ready-made audience of two young children. He enjoys visiting schools and sharing his writing. Inspired by living close to the sea, Peter's first book for Macmillan was the terrifically toothy THE SHARK IN THE DARK. Staying with the watery theme, Peter has employed his trademark humour and mastery of rhyme once again to the fun-filled CATS AHOY!

Jim Field is a lead-driven, pencil-pushing, 25-frames-per-second, Led Zeppelin fan. He is also a hugely talented illustrator and animation director whose previous clients have included Waterstone’s, Sainsbury's, Oxfam, The Independent, The Guardian, The FT, Channel 4, Virgin Mobile, Nokia, GQ, Haymarket and BAC. CATS AHOY! will be Jim's first picture book, and his vibrant, energetic style and witty detail is sure to delight children and adults alike.

We received this book to review and my children think its great. There are pirates for Kaide and Cats for Eowyn and Neva, all rolled into one.

It is a rhyming book which always seems to make for good, fun reading. It isn't too long so even at aged 2.5 Eowyn sat and listened to it without being distracted. The illustrations are funny with lots going on, it has friendly looking cats, even when dressed as Pirates.

Both Xene and Lochlan enjoyed reading this book to the younger ones and I could hear them reading it in character voices, which is always a good sign that a book has met with their approval.

I would definitely recommend this book for families with young children as it is short enough to hold their attention and its the kind of book you don't mind reading over and over.

It is also perfect for slightly older children like Kaide who is learning to read, because of the rhyming, if he gets stuck on a word, chances are he can figure it out because of the previous sentence ending.

A great read for everyone!