Mr Gum and the Goblins by Andy Stanton (AUDIO)


The brave small girl Polly, wise old man Friday O'Leary and gingerbread man come nature teacher Alan Taylor climb the mysterious Gobin Mountain, face the Three Impossible Challenges and solve the mystery of the missing children of Lamonic Bibber.

Me and my 7 year old daughter completely loved this audio book. Stanton's hilarious text is brilliantly augmented by the BBCs sound effects, Stanton's voicing of the different characters and the disgusting goblin songs.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - AUDIO read by Derek Jacobi


A fabulous collection of the 13 stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle after he brought Sherlock Holmes back from the dead, read wonderfully by Derek Jacobi.  Holmes' mind and observational skills are just incredible, it's like cryptic crosswords in that once you know how he has unravelled the mysteries you can see how he did it, but I'm fairly sure I'm like most people who couldn't have worked it out on their own.  The wealth of period detail is fascinating, a world where the fastest form of transport is a train and personal transport is limited to train, foot and bicycle, communication to telegraph, letter and hand carried note.  The motivations of criminal intent have not changed, greed, coercion and desperation, but the motivators are different and are intriguing such as primogeniture and social and gender stratification in a very unequal society.

As the other reviews have said, the spindle is a bit hard to handle, but I liked having it all together like that.  Really enjoyable.

200 Knitted Blocks for Blanket, Throws and Afghans by Jan Eaton


Eaton's book contains enough blocks to create your own afghan, each block will be the same size if the same yarn and needles are used and the inspirational potential is great. I agree entirely with the reviewer who said this doesn't actually contain over 200 blocks as some are just variations, some only colour variations which any of us can do.  However, my major issue is with the construction of the book.

Eaton starts with a short interesting introduction on how to use the book and block directories.  But she places a 'mix and match' section on ideas for combining blocks before the block directory itself, which I feel would have been better the other way round giving the reader time to look at the blocks and absorb their detail first.  She places her 'techniques' section last of all, which I would have put in the introduction, because it is here she deals with yarn weights, calculation of amounts, needles, stitches and abbreviations, after the designs which use these abbreviations in the first place.  Each section is really useful, but even as a fairly experienced knitter I found the order confusing.

However, as a source of inspiration and as a resource this is a great book

Sewing Basics by Sandra Bardwell

This is an excellent book to get those new to hand and machine sewing started and an invaluable reference guide for more experienced stitchers.  It takes you through every aspect of using sewing machines, commercial patterns, techniques, tools, materials and hand sewing with clear text and good step by step illustrations.  Bardwell's book encourages patience and good methodology everyone who sews can learn from.

Beginner's Guide to Goldwork by Ruth Chamberlin

If you are, like me, unable to get to classes to teach you goldwork this book is the next best thing.  Chamberlin takes the reader gently through introductory pages about her training at the School of Embroidery and a bit of the history of goldwork, before going on to introduce the materials and equipment you need.

There is a really clear Getting Started section which shows you how to prepare and frame your fabric in a slate frame, transfer a design and begin and end gold and coloured threads.

Chamberlain shows you how to create a sampler and double page spread is given over to each stitch: laid stich, couching, padding (floss, cotton, card and felt), satin stitch, long and short stitch, brick stitch, using kid and basket stitch.

Each spread begins with a section about the stitch  and lots of great tips so that your effort will come out as well as possible.  Then there are numbered steps clearly illustrated by really good photographs.

The Drawing Bible by Marilyn Scott


A lovely spiral bound book, easy to use and well laid out.  It is split into 3 sections covering all aspects of drawing:
choosing and using materials - including pencils, charcoal, conte, ink, pens, pastels and papers
further techniques - including tonal, lifting out, blots, stippling, brush, line and wash, contour, frottage, burnishing, masking, impressing, resist and scraperboard
subjects - including figures, landscapes, cityscapes, still life and nature

Each page is really well illustrated with information, artists tips, step by step instructions with photographs and lots of artwork to inspire you

My only reservation is that the tutorials aren't quite up to the same standard, one of them has a lot of complicated preparation that could put a beginner off.

Lorelei's Secret by Carolyn Parkhurst


Paul's beloved wife Lexy is found dead having fallen from the branches of the great apple tree in their back garden.  The only witness is her Rhodesian Ridgeback Lorelei.  Paul, a university professor in linguistics, is desperate to know why.  Did she slip and fall, did she commit suicide.  As Paul delves further into his memories of his time with the woman who was everything to him and further into a kind of madness trying to enable Lorelei to tell him what happened he maps beautifully the torments of the shining artistic soul who was the love of his life.

One of few non thriller / action / crime books which has gripped and held me from the first page to the last, poignant, and deeply comforting in that Lexy's feelings of inadequacy, being lost and fearing her own self were a mirror to my own 3am reflections on my self.

The Inside Story: The Sisters Grimm Book 8



This is Buckley's 8th Sisters Grimm book and once again it is full tilt.  Daphne and Sabrina Grimm are young sisters, fairy tale detectives and descendents of the great Brothers Grimm.  Along with the boy trickster king Puck they chase their arch enemies Pinocchio and The Master through the Book of Everafter, a kind of interactive storybook created to allow the Everafters - the storybook characters that populate the town of Ferryport Landing - to relive their infamous fables, fairy tales and legends.  But beyond the stories the three children leap through one after another in search of the Master and the girls' kidnapped baby brother something terrible is lurking in the margins and the final showdown turns out only to be a taste of worse to come.

Great fun and the idea of storybook characters being stuck playing out certain roles unable to escape from the boundaries of their stories is quite poignant.  The development of the characters of Sabrina, Daphne and Puck is interesting and sweetly sad too as they leave early childhood and Sabrina has to deal with new emerging emotions.

Sea of Tears by Floella Benjamin


Jasmine is 12, a black south Londoner who cares for the same things as most girls her age: her best friends Rachel and and Michaela; shopping; clothes and boys.  She is still sad for her lost baby brother who died of cot death at 5 months but generally life is okay, true one of the boys at school gets excluded for threatening another with a screwdriver, but it's a source of gossip not worry.

But Jasmine's parents do worry, and after one of the girls at Jasmine's school is groomed over the internet by and runs off with a 37 year old man they decide to emigrate back to Jasmine's dad's home island of Barbados.  Jasmine is devastated by the prospect her parent's complete overriding of her feelings.  She acts recklessly, endangering herself.  Things don't get any better after the move to her new Carribean paradise home, ostracised at school and lonely she makes only two friends, her grandmother and the son of a fisherman.  But then things begin to get better.

Benjamin's narrative is at times a little clunky but this is a good gentle story about growing up and coming to terms taking responsibility for your own actions and happiness.

Sophie and the Shadow Woods: The Goblin King



Sophie Smith, tomboy, could not be more different from her in-crowd twin brother Anthony.  They are staying with their grandfather while their archaeologist parents are away in Egypt, and Sophie is used to being ignored by him in favour of her brother.  But on her 10th birthday she comes into her inheritance, she is the Guardian of the Gateway, the barrier between her world and that of the goblins of the Shadow World who would love to get through and cause mayhem.  But Sophie, whilst playing with her best friend Sam, has lost the key to the Inkcap Goblin King.

Good size and length for a confident 7 year old reader, fully of funky illustrations.  The ideas aren't really new, Spiderwick is the obvious influence but great fun all the same