#Review by Lou – Noah’s Gold by Frank Cottrell-Boyce #MiddleGrade #ChildrensBook – Happy Publication Day! @frankcottrell_b @MacmillanKidsUK

Noah’s Gold
By Frank Cottrell-Boyce

I was excited to see that I had been accepted to review Noah’s Gold. I’ve seen Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s work before in books and on screen and been impressed. Noah’s Gold did not disappoint and middle-grade readers of 9 years plus will have a great adventure in their hands with this book. It is perfect for the home, classrooms, libraries, bookshops. This is the book children who enjoy humour and trepidation, will find hard to put down. I am feel so excited for the children who may pick this book up, as my fingers fly enthusiastically across my laptop as I write the review.
Find out more in my review and the blurb and then check out what other top, very popular children’s authors have to say about it. Then find out more about this exciting author and illustrator and some social media and purchasing links. I thank the publisher – MacMillan Children’s Books for gifting me a book.

Packed with mystery, adventure and laughs, Noah’s Gold is the exciting novel from the bestselling, multi-award-winning author of Millions and Cosmic, Frank Cottrell-Boyce. Fully illustrated in black and white throughout by Steven Lenton, this is perfect for readers of 9+.

Being the smallest doesn’t stop you having the biggest ideas.

Eleven-year old Noah sneaks along on his big sister’s geography field trip. Everything goes wrong! Six kids are marooned on an uninhabited island. Their teacher has vanished. They’re hungry. Their phones don’t work and Noah has broken the internet. There’s no way of contacting home . . . Disaster!

Until Noah discovers a treasure map and the gang goes in search of gold.

Review

Noah’s Gold is story-telling at its best! Frank Cottrell-Boyce has produced an absolutely terrific book for middle-grade readers of aged 9 plus, that’s entertaining, attention grabbing from the start, humorous and one fabulous adventure and mystery!

I love that the chapters become letters, this is ingenious! This book will feed right into children’s imaginations as they join a rip-roaring adventure, that starts as a normal school trip, but there’s so many issues with the sat-nav and all starts to go wrong.
Meet Noah, Ryland, Lola, Dario and Ada as they unexpectedly end up on an uninhabited island. Mr Merriman, the teacher, then mysteriously disappears!
The characters wild imaginations take hold of them and their theories are most entertaining. There’s also the issue of there being no phone signal, which would be the stuff of nightmares for children.
There’s some neat references to faeries and Katie Morag and Paddington 2 that come into play, as they work out what to do next, to resolve their mysterious predicament. There’s also commaraderie amongst the class and some team work as they pull together to create and light a fire and more… as they try to survive together. The book may be thought-provoking to children, who may turn their attentions to what they may do if they found themselves in a similar situation. For all that, it’s a sparky tale, full of energy and wit.

There’s also the fun discovery of a treasure map, with clues that are found in the most curious of places as they magically appear as they go on this further adventure to try and find the gold and then to find out where Mr Merriman can be.

The book is the opposite to Lord of the Flies, which has its merits, which are still important for today, Noah’s Gold has humour and also shows children coming together and pulling all their knowledge and resources together in a positive way. It also puts me in mind of a modern Famous Five or Secret Seven in some ways, and has a bit of a nod to Roald Dahl too, which is so wonderful in this riveting adventure.

The book is fully illustrated in black and white pictures that make it all accessible for children who are still into pictures in their books. I was impressed by the artistic nature of the writing too, as tunnels are found, the colours of the text changed. There’s even a recipe for children who like to bake. The book has absolutely everything!

Children can read this themselves and it would also work well in a class situation, being read out loud.

Praise for Noah’s Gold

Brilliantly entertaining & thought provoking . . . I am in total awe.’ David Walliams

‘Proper, sparkly, witty, enticing storytelling . . . It’s perfect.’ Hilary McKay

About The Author

Frank Cottrell-Boyce is an award-winning author and screenwriter. Millions, his debut children’s novel, won the CILIP Carnegie Medal. He is also the author of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again, Cosmic, Framed, The Astounding Broccoli Boy and Runaway Robot. His books have been shortlisted for a multitude of prizes, including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Whitbread Children’s Fiction Award (now the Costa Book Award) and the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth was shortlisted for the 2017 CILIP Carnegie Medal and selected for the inaugural WHSmith Tom Fletcher Book Club.

Frank is a judge for the 500 Words competition and the BBC’s One Show As You Write It competition. Along with Danny Boyle, he devised the Opening Ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics. He has written for the hit TV series Dr Who and was the screenwriter for the hit film Goodbye Christopher Robin. @frankcottrell_b

Steven Lenton is a multi-award-winning illustrator, originally from Cheshire, now working from his studios in Brighton and London with his dog, Big Eared Bob. He has illustrated many children’s books including Head Kid and The Taylor Turbochaser by David Baddiel, The Hundred And One Dalmatians adapted by Peter Bently, the Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam series by Tracey Corderoy and the Sainsbury’s Prize-winning The Nothing To See Here Hotel series written by Steven Butler. He has illustrated two World Book Day titles and regularly appears at literary festivals and live events across the UK. Steven has his own Draw-along YouTube channel, showing how to draw a range of his characters. He has also written his own picture book Princess Daisy and the Dragon and the Nincompoop Knights’ and his new young fiction series Genie and Teeny. For more info visit stevenlenton.com

Purchase Links

Amazon Waterstones Bookshop.org

#Review By Lou Coming To England – 25th Anniversary Edition by Floella Benjamin @FloellaBenjamin @MacmillanKidsUK #ChildrensBook #Memoir #NonFiction

Coming To England
By Floella Benjamin
Illustrated by Joelle Avelino

Review written by Louise (Lou) @Lou_Bookmarks

Floella Benjamin, I am sure a lot of people will have heard of her. I certainly remember her in Playschool, probably nearer the end of that series. Hers is perhaps the main name I remember as she captivated my childlike imagination. Now she is made a Dame and has been in parliament and done more good, so to have the opportunity to review her book is just astounding and a big honour! This isn’t just an exciting book, because I’m picky about contents of books, no matter who is writing it), and this is one excellent book that is informative and has a lot of colour and life to it that makes it absolutely fascinating to read about travelling between Trinidad and England.
Coming to England is great for Middle-Grade readers and is being re-released. She first wrote it over 20 years ago and then it was published again in 2016 and now on 15th April, it is ready for this new generation of children to enjoy and is a very special 25th Anniversary Edition you can buy now.
It’s perfect for bookcases everywhere and in classrooms. Teachers and children’s group leaders could easily find creative ways of using this book, there’s so much scope to be inspired from it to teach children of Trinidad through the memoir, the carnival, the food. There’s also a lot of discussion about different topics that come through in the book too. It is as relevant then as it is for today’s generation. Coming To England is Timeless!

As I write this and my full review, I find my fingers flying across the keyboard in excitement in what I found within the book, which is a memoir that is incredibly well-written for children and is as relevant today as it was in yesteryear.

Thanks to Macmillan Children’s Books/Pan Macmillan for gifting me Coming To England.

Find out more about this special 25th Anniversary Edition of Coming To England in the blurb and my full review and buy links.

Blurb

This 25th anniversary edition of Floella Benjamin’s classic memoir, Coming to England, includes a foreword by the author and some additional historical information. It is beautifully illustrated by Michael Frith.

Floella Benjamin was just a young girl when she, her sister and two brothers arrived in England in 1960 to join their parents, whom they had not seen for fifteen months. They had left the island paradise of Trinidad to make a new home in London – part of a whole generation of West Indians who were encouraged to move to Britain and help rebuild the country after the Second World War.

Reunited with her mother, Floella was too overwhelmed at first to care about the cold weather and the noise and dirt from the traffic. But, as her new life began, she was shocked and distressed by the rejection she experienced. She soon realized that the only way to survive was to work twice as hard and be twice as good as anyone else.

This inspirational story is a powerful reminder that courage and determination can overcome adversity.

Review

With a brilliantly coherent foreward, that is a Must Read, (I say because I know that some people skip over these parts and miss a great deal), it gives an insight for what’s to come, with some of the history and circumstances laid out. The entire book is hugely interesting and many children will be able to relate to so many aspects themselves or learn so much from it and will (hopefully) see that moving can be challenging, especially to a different country and what can be faced and also how challenges can be overcome. They will also (hopefully) learn that humans, whatever their race etc don’t need to be mean to each other (putting it politely) and learn tolerance and also learn something about the Windrush Generation. It is a book that may inspire and is written in such a way that children will be able to get into easily and understand immediately and may prompt curiosity and questions and thoughts. Floella Benjamin, with her new foreward proves she’s still got it when it comes to children and young people, to reach out to them and their level.

Readers get to know a little of Dame Floella Benjamin’s brothers and sister – Ellington, Sandra and Lester whose mother they call Marmie, in affectionate terms, who met Dardie aged 19, all of which I think is just lovely. The memoir starts with Life in Trinidad and it feels quite uplifiting in some ways and warm. There is much enjoyment for children to get their teeth into and so much knowledge to be gained about food and other parts of the culture. No matter where you’re from, whatever your culture, it shows that some things are the same the world over, such as baking. This is one of the beauties of this book, it starts off showing that there are similarities in life, after all, who doesn’t at the very least, like cake or ice cream? It has such a positive feel to it for children to read about that is heartwarming as it will make it easy then for children to warm to it. Then there’s school life, so some of this will be familiar to children too, although there are some changes, but this is where it’s interesting for children, and it was for me growing up too, as I grew up without the fear of the belt, whipping down on me, but in the 60’s, 70’s this seemed more like the norm.

There is the fun and spectacle at the carnival and there are some great illustrations of this, as there are throughout the book. Between that and church life, children will be able to see the British (and other countries) influences.

The reasons of creativity as to why people were moving out of Trinidad to England are fascinating and England seemed perfect for creating styles of music, such as Jazz etc that weren’t so popular in Trinidad. The memoir takes readers on a real journey of life and even to the crossing of the sea, which is great, I was glad this wasn’t missed out as it seems so pivitol and adds more to the story, instead of just landing in England without this part and I think children will be able to also feel the excitement (as I do, thinking of this book as a child might), for the family to make it across the sea safely. The atmosphere really comes through and carries the story across those waves and onto the train when the ship meets the land. The book is truthful and shows those natural anxieties during the trip.

There’s a stark turning point of the book when the family reaches England, with the changes in colour and increased traffic and the way people behaved towards them, which is far from pleasant and children will either be able to relate to or sympathise with and recognise this, it also shows resilience and how people lived in certain areas and what was endured. The book however, has another turning point that will give hope and brightness and also enters the family’s grown-up lives so readers can read about what happened next. There is also a bit about The Windrush Generation in general which children can learn much from in just a few pages. So, yes, unfortunately due to the world views at the time etc, she, like lots of others within the Windrush generation had to work twice as hard, but it is not all as harshly written as that sit-up and take notice blurb, it does have some lightness, It is detailed but refrains from overly complicating things. It’s a book for today’s generation and generations to come with its timeless themes and it is properly interesting and is a surprising page-turner, not least because who doesn’t care about Dame Floella Benjamin? But you care about her, her family and the whole windrush generation and hopefully everyone will see everyone as just being human and bring some humanity, no matter how small it is and just some peace and live and work together and see differences, but also similarities and find ways to not segregate or anything like that. This book could provide some hope for the future as adults may well read this with their children too, no matter where they come from, what their race is. It is relevant for everyone. It is about one family but is further-reaching than that…

Buy Links

Waterstones

WHSmith

Scholastic

#ChildrensBook #Review Happy Publication Day for Monster Max and The Bobble Hat Of Forgetting by Robin Bennett @writer_robin @fireflypress @rararesources #FunnyFebruary

Monster Max And The Bobble Hat Of Forgetting
By Robin Bennett
Illustrated by Tom Tinn Disbury
Rated:

I am delighted to be kicking off the blog tour for Monster Max And The Bobble Hat Of Forgetting on
Publication Day!!!
Meet Monster Max – a book that is sure to excite and entice your 7-9 year old children and make them laugh in this comedic tale. You may have seen it around in The Beano, Toppsta, Lovereading4kids. I am excited to be part of the blog tour in ‘Funny February’ to get the word out about this hilarious book. There is also a PRIZE you can win… see details after my review…
Robin is an experienced author who is also available for events and is preparing YouTube videos, an audiobook and social media competitions. So look out for those.
Thanks to Rachel at Random Resources Tours for inviting me and for FireFly Press for supplying me with a book.

About the Author

Aged 21 Robin was all set to become a cavalry officer; aged 21 and a half, he found himself working as an assistant gravedigger in south London wondering where it all went wrong. Robin has gone on to start and run over a dozen successful businesses from dog- sitting to cigars, tuition to translation. The list is quite exhausting. Robin is married with three young children. He spends his time between Pau in the Pyrenées and Henley-on- Thames.

Monster Max and the Bobble Hat of Forgetting is Robin’s first book with Firefly Press publishing in February 2021. He has also written other books for children, published with Monster Books.

Rampaging Rugby, first in the Stupendous Sports non-fiction series for 7-11-year-olds will publish August 2021.

Follow Robin on Twitter @writer_robin and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/robinbennettauthor/

Blurb

First book in the hilarious Monster Max series

Max is an unusual 9-year-old. He can turn himself into a huge, bin- eating monster by BURPING. Being a monster is brilliant, unless he sneezes (which turns him back) and he finds himself far from home in just his pants.

Max decides to be more responsible and ‘protect and do good stuff’, starting with catching a local vandal. But his nemesis, Peregrine, is convinced Max is the vandal, and invents his POOP (Portable Operating Omni Prison) machine to trap him. If Peregrine can prove the truth, Max and his mother could be put in a zoo … or worse. Max will have to use his wits as well as his strength to catch the real culprit, before Peregrine can catch him…

Review

Max is like any ordinary child and has a cat called Frankenstein and attends St. Cuthbert’s Primary School. Maybe, not just any ordinary child… with a burp, he will turn into a monster, until he sneezes and he turns back into a human boy. As a monster, he is out to do some good in stopping some bad guys from stealing ever again.
Moving onwards, children will discover this is just no ordinary family, with their tales of a king, a snake, sprites and much more. Within the humour is magical adventure and a nemesis.
The way the book is written has much comedy value that 7-9 year olds would most certainly appreciate. It’s all pitched very well at their level of humour, within the characters in what they say and do as well as many of their names.
It’s well illustrated throughout, that just adds to the humour.
With the P.A.N.T.S and P.O.O.P machine (each, clever acronyms) for what is used within a secret mission, children are sure to get much enjoyment out of that and in finding out if all will be well in the end, after some mild trepidation in the middle that will hold children’s attention and grip them further and yet still finding the comedy.
This is also a tale with a powerful message within it as it also illustrates how it is important to be yourself.
Don’t forget to read the epilogue. It’ll ready children for Book 2… it may just make them gasp and it may just fill them with intrigue as to what’s to come next!

Purchase Links:

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Monster-Max-Bobble-Hat-Forgetting-ebook/dp/B088BJLLTM/

US – https://www.amazon.com/Monster-Max-Bobble-Hat-Forgetting-ebook/dp/B088BJLLTM/

Website: https://fireflypress.co.uk/books/monster-max/

Giveaway to Win a Monster Max Cuddly Toy (UK Only)

*Terms and Conditions –UK entries only, welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

Click Link To Enter: Monster Max Cuddly Toy

Lou’s #Review of How Do You Make A Rainbow @crowehoho @MacMillanKidsUK #ChildrensBook #KidsLit

How Do You Make A Rainbow
By Caroline Crowe
Rated: 5 stars *****

Beautifully written, this is no ordinary rainbow. This is one that promotes kindness and encourages children to care and not take things for granted. It’s a gloriously enticing book that’s full of joyous positivity and fun!
Perfect for homes and the classroom, it’s a treat of a book, with a story and activities.
Thanks to MacMillan Kids for accepting my request to review.
Please read further for the blurb and full review.

How do you make a rainbow? This joyful story, written by Caroline Crowe and illustrated by Cally Johnson-Isaacs, shows how to find colour and hope when days seem dim and grey: celebrating love, positivity and the precious relationship between a child and her grandad.

Stuck inside on a cloudy day, a little girl asks her grandad to help her paint a rainbow on the sky. But as Grandad tells her, rainbows aren’t painted on the sky, they grow out of kindness, hope, and helping other people.

How Do You Make a Rainbow? is a reassuring, heart-warming story of colours, kindness, community and nature, that shows that brighter times are always around the corner.

Review

This book is beautifully written and cute. This is far from any ordinary rainbow. It has colour, but more than that too… This presents ideas of how to paint a rainbow and it is different from what you may imagine… There is a story of A grand daughter who is curious about the rainbow in the sky, so asks her grandad about how to paint it, but it turns out the rainbow is made out of all different things. The book oozes with love and kindness and of untroubled times. It talks of the symbolism of a rainbow and what it means to them in a lyrical story-form. Grandad talks of how it is hope and kindness and a lot of other things from the natural world thrown into the mix as well as all the people you may know or may meet. It’s all the simple things people take for granted or don’t really think of. It’s incredibly heartwarming. It serves as this cosy reminder to children of what is good and positive around them and promotes kindness and encourages children to look around them and to think of who and what they see and really, properly care. It’s an important message as well as lots of fun for children. It champions who and what is good within the world they live in.

To go with the story is a crafting idea for each idea presented on each page for what makes up a rainbow and encourages children to think of all the things that would make up theirs, so it encourages discussion and also writing.

This book would be great in the home and any primary classroom and library.

#BookReview by Lou of – In The City of Fortunes and Flames – A Freddie Malone Adventure by Clive Mantle @MantleClive @award_books #ChildrensBooks #YA 8yrs plus

In the City of Fortunes and Flames
A Freddie Malone Adventure
By Clive Mantle
Rated: 5 stars *****

In The City of Fortunes and Flames is where to find a terrific time-travelling adventure to London, in the times of the plague, slavery and The Great Fire of London. This is book 3 of the Freddie Malone Adventure books and it’s quite the page-turner with lots of adventure and action, which is suitable from ages 8 and into younger YA/Teens.
Be re-acquainted with Freddie, Ruby and Connor and also meet some people from history along the way. There is good news in that there will be a further 2 books coming soon.
Find out more about In The City Of Fortune And Flames in the blurb and review…. I happened to have bought this book. It is available as a physical book and an e-book.

Links to books in order :-
                                 Amazon – Treasure At The Top of The Mountain
                                   Amazon – A Jewel In The Sands Of Time
Amazon – In the City of Fortune and Flames

Blurb

The mysterious world map on Freddie Malone’s bedroom wall ripples into life and the swirling vortex begins to form, but is Freddie prepared for where – and when – it will take him? Join Freddie, Connor and Ruby as they travel to the plague-stricken and fire-ravaged London of the seventeenth century, where the streets are ruled by a merciless gang of criminals and kidnappers. Stalked through time by the menacing, shrouded figure of the Collector, can the friends outwit their enemies and save history? It’s all just a question of time…

Review

Having read and reviewed and was very impressed by the calibre of the story-telling and the themes of the first two Freddie Malone books, I figured I would review the 3rd. Clive Mantle, quite rightly so, is The People’s Book Prize Winner Author. The books are suitable for confident readers ages 8 years plus. Very nicely this one starts off with what happened previously…

With the magical map Freddie got for his birthday in the first book, the map has more ideas…
The book starts with the brilliant and never-ageing poem – IF by Rudyard Kipling, it’s as pertinent now as it was in 1895, when it was written. IF is also pertinent to portals in this series.

The setting is London and the time is both the present and 1665/1666. There’s a map with a key chart, which illustrates the events at that time and then readers are reunited with Freddie and his friend Connor on a school production of The Pied Piper of Hamlin before a compelling adventure begins.

There are little references here and there of the Nepal (book 1) and Egyptian adventures (book 2), but it is okay if you’ve not read that one yet as it does also move onwards to this current adventure. This time the portal takes Freddie to London, 1665, where he meets a slave. Samuel Pepys is in need of a servant who can write, so Freddie is tested. There is, like the other books, a lot that children can gain within these books and that can feed their minds and get them curious about history. There’s also the mystery as to why the map took Freddie to 1665 and readers, apart from getting to know Pepys, also get to know something of King Charles II and the plague on Drury Lane. During the segments of Freddie being back in the present with Connor and Ruby, more is told of his journey. As time flips from the past to the present and back again, it is done in such a succinct way, that is easy to follow and understand. It’s a book that children and young teens can really get into as it is an engrossing page-turner. The facts mixed with the fiction is written in an expressive and exciting way with likeable fictional characters meeting those who really lived. This combination works really well.
As time moves on, Freddie (and readers), then experience the atmosphere of The Great Fire of London and the impact it had. There’s also intrigue within this, as indeed within the whole book.

#Review of #ChildrensBook – The Puddle People by Tommy Ellis @TommyEllis14 #MiddleGrade

The Puddle People
By Tommy Ellis
Rated: 4 Stars ****

Good versus Bad, Adventure, Action, Science – The Puddle People (the first in a series), will entertain ages 8-11 year olds who are looking to enter a new world to read for pleasure.
Thanks to Tommy Ellis for sending me over a copy to review.
Check out the eye-catching cover, blurb and my review.

Blurb

Eleven-year-old Ethan Myles is having a bad day: His summer holiday has been cancelled, the weird glowing crystal he found in the garden has given him an electric shock, draining him of enjoyment, and his mum is suffering from a terminal illness.
If that wasn’t bad enough, he’s only got minutes to stop a race of strange watery beings, led by evil ice-man, Doctor Freeze, sucking the fun from humanity, leaving the entire human race in the darkness of everlasting misery.
Will Ethan and his nine-year-old sister Amber manage to defeat Doctor Freeze before it’s too late, or will all human pleasure cease to exist?

Review

Suitable for 8-11 year olds, it places The Puddle People firmly in the Middle-Grade market. Jump in a puddle and see where it takes you. When I started out reading, it was Puddle Lane. Now for 8-11 year old kids, it’s Puddlemere to meet the Puddle People. The Puddle People is one of the latest books kids can have fun with and add to their book collection to read for pleasure, to begin a whole new adventure. This is book 1 of a series…. book 2 will come soon…

There is some sibling rivalry between Ethan and Amber. Ethan also gets a right telling off from his mum that will resonate with both parents and children alike. Parents who tell their children so many times not to do something and children, for how many times they’ve heard this. This is even though his mum isn’t at all well. It demonstrates well that nothing gets past parents, even when there is a health issue. It doesn’t dwell on this and instead develops into an action-packed adventure.

Ethan and Amber discover a cave, a strange piece of quartz and odd watery behaviour from a puddle and end up meeting Storm Floodwater, Private Drizzle, Private Drip and the evil Doctor Freeze. There is also an Emporer who is contemplating how humans, or Overlanders as residents of Puddlemere call them, can bring fun and against the evil Doctor Freeze’s wishes. There’s some trepidation and parts I’m sure kids will gasp at and want to continue in this relatively fast-paced book, where they will also discover some science, especially in the form of chemical symbols, neatly added as part of the story-line. In certain places, there is a bit of darkness, but mostly not so much different from action hero movies and tv shows. There are no illustrations, hence more for confident and gaining confident readers, but the descriptions are good and it’s a world that children will be able to imagine and have fun with.

This is a book suitable for confident readers or those gaining confidence in their reading.