The Inkdeath of me!

Who's stupid enough to read 700 pages in under 48 hours? Apparently me! So said I on one of my social networking rants.

I have never been the most organised with my time, but last week when I went into my school I saw this book winking at me from the school library. I felt really sad, seeing the library empty and untouched. No junior librarians there to organise the shelves. No children asking me if there were copies of a certain book they'd been looking for. It was really quite sad just seeing those books gathering dust.

But nonetheless, this one caught my eye, so I borrowed it, realising it was a massive SEVEN HUNDRED PAGES LONG and promising myself I would read a hundred pages a day: easy peasy.

But I'm not well organised, so day one melted away and I'd read nothing. So what? Just tack on an extra 50 pages to the next couple of days. But then day two and three vanished in just the same style: with nothing read, not even a single line.

By day four it was looking less and less likely that I'd read it at all. So I sat down to give it a try, and for the next two days I could barely get through the first 50 pages. So there I was, at page 50 on day six and the story was just starting to hit it's stride. A crazy thought occured to me, could I get it read on days six and seven? Could I read the entire thing in those last two sacred days before my blog post was due?

Well in that penultimate day I breezed through 250 pages, not a bad dent, but the lion's share of the work was still to do. So yesterday dawned and I ignored the world for as long as possible, reading myself almost to the point of having a severe headache!

It was worth it though, this story is a slow starter but once it gets going it is wonderfully steeped in plots and subplots with every one of it's characters feeling like a vital part to the story. This is the first book I've read in a long time where I didn't want to see any of the protagonists die, they all meant something to me.

Inkdeath is the third installment of the Inkheart trilogy. Set in a magical world that centres on the city of Ombra, it tells of a gifted author, who's words are so powerful that (when read aloud by the right people) can come true. Then you have the right people, those who's voices are so magical that when they read this authors words, everything comes to be.

Now there is a power worth having, I think I'd write and read myself up a lottery win!
But the real novelty of these stories is that people from our world, have accidentally read themselves into the land of Ombra, a land known as the Inkworld. The author and all of the people in his world are actually works of fiction themselves!

So the battle for power rages, with the forces of good and evil wanting this special book, the one in which Inkworld is written, for whoever controls the book, controls the world.

You don't have to have read the previous two books in order to read this third one, Cornelia Funke does a great job of bringing you up to speed on the events thus far. In fact she does the job a little too well.

The only downside to this book is the repeated reminder of peril, particularly in those first 50 pages. We are constantly reminded of the children who were orphaned in the last book, or the families who were starving under the yolk of tyrrany and oppression, or the danger that the main characters KNEW that they were constantly putting themselves in. I honestly think the book could've have been a hundred pages shorter if the dead horse hadn't been so severely flogged.

The last 50 to 100 pages is the complete opposite, I honestly could not put the book down. Right up until the last couple of pages I had no way of knowing who would win, how it would turn out. I love a book that keeps me hanging on a string right to the end.

There are illustrations at the start and end of most chapters, and the wonderful nuance of quotes from other texts that link in to the themes of each chapter. She uses these quotes at the start of every chapter and quotes everything from Harry Potter to Dreamfighter by Ted Hughes, W.B. Yeats to John Steinbeck! There are some really wonderful quotes in there. But perhaps my favourite quote is from her story itself. 'A reader doesn't really see the characters in a story, he feels them.' How true, especially of the characters in this story.

The vocabulary is wonderfully rich, I haven't read the word supercilious in many a year! But on at least three occasions an unnecessary swear word is thrown in, which rules primary school children out of reading it. I'd love for year 6 children to give it a whirl but there would have to be some serious discussions with parents and some consent sorted first before I'd brave that journey!



Book 5 out of 52 and my book with over 500 pages (and then some).

Book Title: Inkdeath
Author: Cornelia Funke
First published 2007 - 2008
Number of pages: 699 followed by a few for the a-z of the Inkworld trilogy
Suitable for: ages 11 and up
Interesting words: surreptitiously, unctous, supercilious, protuberant, beguiling, morose. 

To the Ends of the Erth

Let's just address a little foible of mine, right off the bat. I happen to love The Big Bang Theory, I've found myself a little hero in the character of Sheldon Cooper. I'd like to think that there is something relatable to most people about the character. It didn't take me long to find what I relate to most.
It's two things really, the first is that I have an uncanny knack for inadvertently (or sometimes very deliberately through lack of tact) insulting people. My social skills were never fantastic (haha).

But the second and strongest link between Sheldon and I lies in an obsessive, desperate need for closure. Such is my urge to try and finish what I start that I recently started doing jigsaws to pass the time and would not stop until every last one was out and done, in spite of the fact that I lost pretty much the entire expanse of the living room floor!

This blog (or rather my near miss at my last attempt of completing the year long challenge) has been such a bad dream that I've found myself haunted by the concept of getting to that final furlong, only to be broken. I had worked so,so hard on it. I'd sacrificed so much.

So my need to return to it has been overwhelming, because to me, seeing a job done completely is actually more important than whether or not it's done well. Call it a fault of mine, you'd be right. But it is me, and I will not try to change it.

With me jigsawing away till the weekend last week it seemed as if I was going to struggle to read the week's book inside of the three days I had left. Fear not friends, a knight in shining armour was at hand!

This book was lent to me by one of my school pupils a few weeks ago, they'd read it and thought it would be right up my street. There's nothing I like more than seeing kids enthusiastically recommending books, so this week I finally set about reading it. That pupil had me dead to rights, after a slow start I found I was flying through it in no time at all (he he, flying through it, dragon pun there).

The first story in The Erth Dragons series, The Wearle sets the scene of the presence of dragons on Erth, how they battled with humans as they tried to settle there, having visited from another world. It centres around one dragon, Gabrial who is accused of murdering the dragon queen.

While the dragon world is dealing with the fall out of the incident, Gabrial's human counterpart, a young boy called Ren who is dragon obsessed, decides to break all the rules of human kind by veering into dragon territory. What he witnesses while there could hold the key to the real mystery surrounding the dragon queen's death. But that makes him a target, can he survive the hunt long enough to tell his story and escape unharmed?

As Ren and Gabrial's worlds collide, no one is left unscathed.

The pace of this story flowed really well, and the use of vocabulary was fairly extensive which I enjoyed. I was slightly put off by the overuse of dragon technicals in the first chapter. The author, Chris D'lacey, went out of the way to give very detailed descriptions of dragon physiognomy. But after the third or fourth dragon description it became a little repetitive.

Get past that though and you have an intriguing story with cliffhangers on almost every chapter. One scene in particular in a mine has seared itself into my imagination and painted a picture that I'll not soon forget. That I think is the real joy of this story, much like dragons at it's heart, it paints vivid and beautiful pictures of the environments and characters. You can really see the world he's created.

I'm looking forward to flying through the second book of the series that was also lent to me (and maybe finishing it). But more than that, I look forward to the day when I can tell that pupil of mine that they were spot on when they said it was meant for me.

Book 4 out of 52 and my book that someone else recommended.

Title: The Erth Dragons - The Wearle
Author: Chris D'lacey
First published: 2015
Pages: 323
Suitable for: children aged 9 and up (year 4 onwards)
Interesting words: lunacy, conceal, raucous, derision. 

Boy Underwater/Girl Out of Depth

Before I talk about this week's book, I'd like to take a moment to talk about the process of writing and editing this blog. It's a chore, pure and simple.

Of course there's the obvious issue of writing it late at night when I'm half asleep. There are many reasons for that, so I won't go into them. On the plus side, it keeps me on my toes, helping to improve my use of grammar, vocabulary and punctuation.

Being a one - time budding author I'd always believed that writing conventions were there to be ignored, playthings to be used, or not used as the creator of the text wishes. I can't begin to count how many times I would lose the plot and have to hold my breath when I would see the conventions of writing stifle a brilliantly creative mind. Even my own son told me earlier this week to add a clause to my sentence because it would increase dramatic effect, this in spite of the fact that I wasn't trying to create any!

This isn't a novel, I'm not trying to create a world of my own imagining; this isn't even a diary entry. At best, this is a personalised book review, so I really do need to obey a few writing rules every now and again, whether I like it or not.

Cutting a long story short (too late) I ask you to bear with me if you read my posts and they are full of inconsistencies. Chances are if you look back at my post later on, the errors will have been ironed out. Right that's the girl out of depth bit out of the way; let's move on to the Boy Underwater.

Written by Adam Baron and published in 2018 our story centres around Cymbeline Igloo (yes, that is actually his name). He's named after the titular character in a Shakespearean play. Cymbeline is 9 years old and he has a problem: he has never been swimming in his life, not even once. 

So when his first school swimming lesson is announced, he inadvertently winds up being challenged to a 'swim off' by the class bully. Calamity follows when he is shoved into the pool and has a minor accident. His mother's reaction to the incident is far from minor, scaring him and others in his class and the following morning after their return home, Cymbeline wakes to find that mum has disappeared. 

With dad dead what follows is Cymbeline's solo journey to find out what happened to her and why. 

The poor boy has so many unanswered questions: 

how did his father die? 

why does mum keep painting Mr Fluffy (Cymbeline's favourite teddy) over and over? 

why are his mum and his aunt on such bad terms? 

The list goes on. 

I'll start with a plot spoiler alert, there are several twists you see coming and one (at least) that you REALLY DON'T. 

Now, I must admit that the cover illustration had me thinking this would be a totally different type of story. I expected merpeople and tales of fantastically different worlds. What I got was a long look at our real one. 

The writing style goes out of it's way to remind you that we are seeing the world through the eyes of a 9 year old boy. An example of this is on page 60 where there's a chat about his best friend having a half sister and he asks 'which half is your sister?' His friend's response is simple 'the top half'. 

This first person perspective and niaeve world view actually allows the author to drop in several jokes that are really intended for grown ups and would probably go right over kids' heads. 

There's some deliberate London landmark confusion on one page which got my inner London tourist guide itching as I thought younger readers might buy into it. There's even a 'just joking' reference to 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' just to remind you that Cymbeline is young, even for a 9 year old. 

There's also several name drops, which speak straight to my heart (those of you who know me will happily testify to this). Names such as: Chelsea football club, Carcasonne, Costa and (my personal favourite) Greggs and the enticing smell of their sausage rolls! 

These little nuances aside, I found it was a good read. A lovely story that anyone from year 4  (9 year olds incidentally) could read and enjoy. It won't have the biggest impact on the reader, but it is engaging enough to hold and captivate a reader and it's style makes it easily accessible to less confident readers. 

This is my 3rd book and a book set in my home town or region. 

p.s. the character buys the sausage rolls

p.p.s I was lucky to have one right before lockdown started, I remember how good they are! 

Book Title: Boy Underwater
Written By: Adam Baron
First published: 2018
Pages: 248
Suitable for: ages 9 and up.
Interesting words: heath, stirred, hesitated, interferred. 

Nevermore

First thing's first, I realise that this is week 2 and I'm a day late in posting. The funny thing about spending weeks in quarantine/lockdown/whatever you want to call it, is that the days suddenly mould together. I had to actually check what day it was today. However, I'm well prepared having nearly finished my third book for this blog already. So fortunately for me this pre prepared blog post has come well in handy! 🤣🤣 

Now I’ll be quick to admit that I’m quite a Tudor history fan. Not the font of all knowledge by any stretch, but I definitely enjoy hearing tales about a corpulent king and his six spouses. I have a great sympathy for those English Queens who lost their heads and for those foreign ones who lost their dignity along with their title. I’ll shamefully confess that I love the story of Anne Boleyn so much that I have a replica of the legendary B necklace seen on the painting of her by an unknown artist.

That this story practically fell in my lap was a wonderful treat.

 It was donated to my school a couple of months ago, it’s cover looking slightly less ‘children’s’ and more ‘young adults’ . Since it featured the Tower of London, the quote recommending it came from non other than Hilary Mantel (author of the epic Wolf Hall – which I will get through one day!) and the fact that the quote clearly said it was a Tudor tale, I thought I’d give it a read.

It tells the story of Kit Wagstaffe, orphan who is taken on as son by the Ravenmaster of the Tower of London. Kit himself becomes apprentice Ravenmaster, his principal job being to care for the ravens who live within the Tower grounds.

But Kit has  a special ability that no one is aware of; he can speak to them and they can communicate back. This all seems harmless enough, until the day when Anne Boleyn (my favourite of Henry VIII’s wives) is imprisoned in the Tower after suspicion grows that she has been unfaithful and that Henry is in pursuit of a new wife.

Kit and the ravens uncover a plot to assassinate the princess Elizabeth, Henry and Anne’s only daughter and it becomes his mission to stop this at all costs, even in the knowledge that his involvement could cost him his head.

It is elegantly, if a little simply written. The writing style is very straightforward, you won’t find any lengthy explanations or throw away paragraphs. There are a couple of historical liberties taken that the author is quick to mention and apologise for at the end of the book.

The plot is is linear and doesn’t deviate from the central character at all, we see the whole thing from Kit’s perspective, even though it’s in the third person.

At 223 pages it isn’t too intimidating and pace is even, so you’re not getting big jumps followed by plateaus.

Overall I found this book extremely enjoyable and mercifully, despite it’s cover, it’s easily suitable for children from around 8 or over.

Now, when it comes to book covers, I shall judge them (like the raven in the famous poem says) nevermore.

Book 2 of 52 and my book by an author that I haven’t read before.

Book Title: The Ravenmaster’s Boy
Author: Mary Hoffman
First published: 2017
Number of pages:223
Suitable for: children aged 8 and upwards
Interesting words: liberty, coronation, mercy, abruptly