Category: #picturebook

Great books from 2019 – Happy New Year and Happy Reading #HappyNewYear #2019books #2019wrapup #MyYearinBooks #BestBooks #MustReads #amreading #readingforpleasure #books #CrimeFiction #Thriller #FamilySaga #Saga #Historical #Kidslit #YA #NonFiction #Fiction #Fantasy #UpLit #Bookish

Great Books to check out and read from 2019

I have read and reviewed so many books this year. I have decided to follow the trend of compiling an end of year list of what I would consider “The Must Read or Top 2019 Books. The list will be in no particular order, but will be broken down into genre. Here you will find great Children’s Books and Young Adult books, followed by all types of crime fiction; followed by general fictional books; followed by family saga/historical fiction; followed by fantasy; followed by non-fiction/autobiographical/biographical.
Firstly, I would like to say a few thanks:

I am incredibly grateful to everyone however who contacts me through my blog or Twitter, interacts with me, sends me books to review, either personally or through publishing houses. I am grateful for the generosity of authors, publishers and bloggers for sharing my reviews on their social media platforms and websites. I thank publishers and authors for considering me and for giving me the responsibility of reviewing their books. Reviewing someone’s work is something I don’t do lightly. A lot of thought goes into it all and also I am so conscious that what is in my hands at that moment is someone’s hard work and, whether I’ve met the person/people face to face or not, I am always aware of them being human too. I must say that I do love writing my blog and I appreciate every opportunity I have ever had that has come with writing it.

I also thank those authors, publishers and bloggers who have been kind and generous in other ways too, such as help with the community library I currently lead. You know who you are and I am eternally grateful.

Now onto the lists. I hope people find something new, some inspiration or are perhaps reminded that they want to check out a book. The books on the list are all on my blog, so feel free to check out the full reviews. The books can be borrowed from libraries, bought from bookshops and are also e-books on the various e-book platforms.

Children and Young Adult Fiction


Princess Poppy – Please, Please Save the Bees by Janey Louise Jones
Timothy Mean and the Time Machine by William A.E. Ford
The Hangry Hamster by Grace McCluskey
Leo and the Lightning Dragons by Gill White
Toletis by Rafa Ruiz
The Age of Akra by Vacen Taylor
The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone by Jaclyn Moriarty
10 Things to do Before You Leave School by Bernard O’Keefe (YA)

Crime Fiction , including Thrillers and Political Thrillers

Absolution by Adam Croft
Nothing Important Happened Today by Will Carver
In the Absence of Miracles by Michael J. Malone
Nothing to Hide by James Oswald
The Poisoned Rock by Robert Daws
Death at the Plague Museum by Lesley Kelly
The Killing Rock by Robert Daws
In Plain Sight by Adam Croft
Sealed with a Death by James Sylvester
Hands Up by Stephen Clark
The Silence of Severance by Wes Markin
A Friend In Deed by G.D. Harper

General Fiction

 


The Strawberry Thief by Joanne Harris
Birthday Girl by Haruki Murakami
A Summer to Remember by Sue Moorcroft
Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls
Let it Snow by Sue Moorcroft
Summer at the Kindness Café by Victoria Walters
Secret Things and Highland Flings by Tracy Corbett
Sunshine and Secrets – The Paradise Cookery School by Daisy James

Family Saga/Historical Fiction

Bobby Girls coverHeady HeightsTime will tell book

Bobby Girls by Johanna Bell
Welcome to the Heady Heights by David F.Frost
Time Will Tell by Eva Jordan

Fantasy

The Blue Salt Road Joanne HarrisThe Old Dragon's Head Coveer

The Blue Salt Road by Joanne M. Harris (YA and Adult)
The Old Dragon’s Head by Justin Newland

The Longest Farewell by Nula Suchet
Zippy and Me by Ronnie Le Drew
First in the Fight 20 Women Who Made Manchester by Helen Antrobus
The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler

I have some books to review already and working on them for 2020.
I’ve plenty of exciting things to be blogging about in 2020 and hopefully many more exciting opportunities will crop up in the future. I will also be publishing brief resumes of great theatre shows from 2018 and 2019, most of which are still running, going to tour nationally in the UK and some of which come back every so often, so could be ones to look out for in the future.
For now, I hope you enjoy what I have for my 2019 resumes and all else that is on my blog. I hope you all had a great Christmas and I wish you all a Happy New Year and all the best for 2020. Thank you too for following and reading my blog, without such, it wouldn’t exist. I love writing my blog and always grateful to those who give me opportunities to review and to write and to talk to people and to those who read what I write. Thank you!!!!

As I didn’t do this in 2018, here is a quick run down of the best books I read then. 
Fiction – Stealth by Hugh Fraser, Antiques and Alibis by Wendy H. Jones, The Wrong Direction by Liz Treacher, A Christmas Gift by Sue Moorcroft.
Non -Fiction – An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe, Charles Dickens by Simon Callow, Fill my Stocking by Alan Titchmarsh.
Young Adult – Tony Plumb and the Moles of Ellodian by J.M. Smith
Children’s books – The Treasure At the Top of The World by Clive Mantle.
Reviews can be found on my blog. Please note the Christmas books are reviewed within one blog post with quick reviews.

Happy New Year 2020

 

Bookmark pic

Review – Leo and the Lightning Dragons – A positive adventure rated 5 stars @FledglingPress @leolightdragons #lovebooksgrouptours #Kidslit #CHAS @SchoolReading #Scotland #UK #SEN #Education #Epilepsy #Charities #Libraries #Picturebook #Christmas

Leo and the Lightning Dragon
By Gill White
Rated: 5 stars *****

It is with thanks to Love Books Tours that I have been invited to review this wonderful, brave and magical book – Leo and the Lightning Dragons. I was delighted to review it and when I read through it before reading it to children, I was even more glad I had the opportunity to do so. It exceeded expectations. It would make a fabulous Christmas gift. This book isn’t however specifically Christmassy so can be bought as an all year round story to add to your child’s or school or library collection. Today I am pleased to be closing this blog tour with my review of Leo and the Lightning Dragons.

leo-dragons-2.jpg

Blurb

Sometimes You Just Need to Have a Little Faith in Yourself!

Everybody in the kingdom is supporting the brave knight Leo in his battle against his fearsome dragons. They try lots of different things to help him defeat them but eventually Leo realises that the most important thing to do is to believe in himself.

 

Leo Lightning dragons cover.jpg

Review

There is a lot more to this short book than meets the eye.

Meet Leo, a very brave boy. Leo does exist beyond this book. This is a lovely picture book for 4 years old to at least 7 years old because children would get different things from it. All proceeds go to the charity – CHAS – Children’s Hospices Around Scotland. You see, Leo in real life has epilepsy and a rare form at that, called Ohtahara Syndrome and sadly it is, despite many treatments, it remains uncontrolled at the point of writing.
Leo is a determined boy who just won’t give up on life. Read the very beginning of the book before the story begins to find out more. This book is however fun and bursting with kindness, friendship, bravery, adventure and positivity.
Meet Leo in this brightly illustrated book. He is a knight in shining armour. His demons are the dragons, not any ordinary dragons for these dragons attack his head within lightning. He isn’t alone though. He has magical friends like witches and a wizard mixing potions to defeat the dragons. The townsfolk protest against the dragons and his parents try to cuddle them away. None of which work, but Leo, well, he is a determined knight in a suit of armour and the dragons can’t get away with it forever. Read this small adventure of this brave knight to see if he can defeat the dragons so they can be gone for good.

The book doesn’t labour over anything. The bright illustrations fill up each page, the text is large and only a few words on each page, so the pace is great for any attention span.

This is a positive and hopeful book. Whether your child has epilepsy or not or is SEN (Special,  Educational Needs)  or not, it is enough to inspire any child to be brave through any illness.

At the back of the book it gives you ideas of where and how to turn this book into a sensory book in very simple ways. They really are worth doing.

I read this book to children who are classified as being SEN and they loved it. They loved it so much that I’ve now read it several times by request and they’ve looked at it many times themselves too. Children who aren’t SEN are also enjoying this book and are getting a lot out of it.
This book has so much scope to it. It can be read as is, or as said before, as a sensory/interactive book and also it can be a conversation/discussion piece within any school (or home).

So what’s not to like? This book is perfect for Christmas and indeed all year round. You get a great story and know that you are contributing to a great cause that supports children’s hospices in Scotland.