Big Fright (Monstrous Maud) by A B Saddlewick

Maud Montague is the polar opposite to her oh so perfect twin Milly.  Milly likes pink, ballet and girly stuff and puts everything away perfectly in her lilac chest of drawers.  Maud loves her scruffy pet rat Quentin, is messy and disorganised and prefers black and bats.  And she's always in trouble at school at Primrose Towers. 

When Quentin escapes during show and tell perfectly tidy headmistress Mrs Fennel has had enough and orders for Maud to be transferred to Rotwood School.  There Maud finds herself surrounded by monsters, literally.  Can she hide the fact that she is only human, not vampire, invisible or werewolf like her new friends?  Can she scare her new teacher, vampire Mr von Bat?  And who is the scary headmistress everyone is so scared of?

Great fun for any girl who wants more than pink and fluffy, Maud is a wonderful alternative heroine

Deeply Odd (Odd Thomas #6) by Dean Koontz

Koontz returns to writing about a character he clearly has deep affection for in his sixth Odd Thomas book.  You don't need to have read the previous five to enjoy Deeply Odd but it does work with them.

Odd wakes to the sound of a motionless bell ringing, a bell worn around his neck that summons him to fulfil whatever task awaits him.  He leaves his unconventional household, the mysterious Annamaria who has appeared heavily pregnant for many years, the deathless child Tim rescued in Odd's previous outing Odd Apocalypse, and two dogs, a golden retriever named Rapunzel and Boo, a ghost German shepherd.  Walking downtown to buy jeans and socks he is drawn to a large truck and a confrontation with its rhinestone clad owner.  Odd receives a terrible vision that this sinister man will shortly murder three young children by immolating them and knows he has to stop him.  Cue a pursuit across the deserts of America with Mrs Edie Fisher, a mysterious old lady in a limousine, the ghost of Alfred Hitchcock, monsters and 17 children in desperate peril.

Yet behind all this Odd senses a larger purpose looming, there are glimpses of an apocalyptic second reality lying alongside our own, a sense that the story arc of the Odd Thomas books is coming to a crisis, and there is, as ever in Koontz, horror and hope.

I enjoyed the humour, Odd is who he is because of his humility, his sense of humour and his faith in his beloved girlfriend Stormy, dead 18 months, and the world beyond our own that she has gone to ahead of him.

The Adoption by Anne Berry

In 1948 young unmarried mother Bethan signs over her unborn baby to an adoption agency.  In the present day Lucilla contemplates middle age, her happy marriage, her grown up children, her ageing spaniel and the question over the identity of her mother.  Lucilla raised her children with kindness and strength but her own childhood under her adoptive parents was repressive and grim, marred by a lack of love. Indeed, when at 14 she is told she was adopted all she feels is relief.  Berry traces the lives of three very different women and the choices that made a sadness of all their lives.  Beautifully told but very sad.

Made by Me by Jane Bull

What there is in this book is pretty good for a child beginning to sew, the illustrations are, as with all DK books, beautiful and colourful.  The instructions for each project is clear and easy to follow.  The book covers equipment, embroidery, cross stitch, tent stitch, buttons, sewing projects and knitting, all the projects are really cute.  I just would have liked a bit more, it wouldn't keep my young one enteratined for long.

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.

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

What Our Children Teach Us: Lessons in Joy, Love and Awareness by Piero Ferruci

Does what it says on the tin and wonderfully, affirmed my joy in sharing my life with my little girl and enabled me to relax in being able to see the wonder of her. Can't recommend enough.

AZ: 'A thoughtful, deeply honest look at the transforming experience of parenthood and how our children can lead us to a more profound understnading of ourselves. 'Live with children long enough and beauty, love, innocence, play, pain, and death, everything appears in a new light...' Children: they have the ability to turn our lives upside down, to disrupt our plans and our sleep, to try our patience, and to elicit our most ferocious love. But children also have the power to teach us the greatest lessons we'll ever learn. Now Piero Ferrucci, a noted psychologist, author, and the father of two young sons, reveals how the journey of parenthood can be a learning path, a succession of experiences that can enrich and transform us like no religious retreat or course of psychotherapy ever could. Not obsessed with the usual equation of what we must teach our children, Ferrucci rather looks into the mirror our children hold up to adult behaviour and tries to integrate the spontaneity, originality and ethical awareness that he finds in his sons into his own attitudes and conduct. WHAT OUR CHILDREN TEACH US is a charming book, full of delightful wit as well as seriousness of purpose. Through lively, moving and charmingly candid anecdotes that will strike a chord with every parent, Piero Ferrucci shows us the myriad ways in which our children can help us rediscover wonder, cultivate joy and patience, and open ourselves to a richer and more vital world.'

Reading Round Edinburgh: A Guide to Children's Books of the City by Lindsey Fraser and Kathryn Ross

A fascinating wee book providing visitors with a (long) walk around the Edinburgh streets combining children's authors talking about Edinburgh, extracts from their stories which feature parts of Edinburgh, and commentary and maps of the different areas. Has reignited my love of Mollie Hunter and given me loads of places to take Cj when next through.