Waiting on Wednesday–Conspiracy Girl by Sarah Alderson

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, started by Jill at Breaking The Spine, highlighting future book releases everyone is waiting on! Today I am super excited about the next book from Sarah Alderson, one of my favourite authors. Conspiracy Girl will be published in February 2015 by Simon and Schuster and I can’t wait to read it.

Book Summary

Everybody knows about the Cooper Killings – the Bel Air home invasion that rocked the nation.
There was only one survivor - a sixteen year-old girl.
And though the killers were caught they walked free.
Now eighteen, Nic Preston - the girl who survived - is trying hard to rebuild her life. She’s security conscious to the point of paranoia and her only friend is a French Mastiff bulldog, but she’s making progress. She’s started college in New York and has even begun dating.
But then one night her apartment is broken into and the life Nic’s worked so hard to create is shattered in an instant.
Finn Carter - hacker, rule breaker, player – is the last person Nic ever wants to see again. He’s the reason her mother’s killers walked free from court. But as the people hunting her close in, Nic has to accept that her best and possibly only chance of staying alive is by keeping close to Finn and learning to trust the person she’s sworn to hate.
Fleeing across a snowbound New England, frantically trying to uncover the motive behind the murders, Nic and Finn come to realize the conspiracy is bigger than they could ever have suspected. But the closer they get to the truth and the closer they get to each other, the greater the danger becomes.
To survive she has to stay close to him.
To keep her safe he has to keep his distance.

The Black North by Nigel McDowell

‘

Would you snap-shut your trap and listen – I can hear something.’

‘I hear nothing. Imagining things, so you are.’

‘Not. Tell the lads to be ready. They’re close now.’

‘The lads are ready enough – we all are. Ready to die for the Cause!’

‘Not gonna die.’

‘Don’t be frighted now, sister dearest.’

‘Not.’

‘Dying in battle isn’t a thing to be worried about. Remember – it’s how Da and Granda went.’

‘I know that. Can’t forget, can I?’

Published by Hot Key Books in 2014

416 pages in paperback

Cover by Manuel Šumberac

Summary form publisher’s website

The Divided Isle, once a place of peace and tranquillity, has been ravaged by war. Twins Oona and Morris live with their grandmother in a stone cottage in the quiet southern county of Drumbroken, but the threat of the Invaders of the Black North - the ravaged northern part of the island - is coming ever closer. When Morris, fighting against the Invaders, is kidnapped by one of the evil Briar Witches, Oona must journey to the unknown realms of the Black North in search of her brother.  She is accompanied only by Merrigutt, a jackdaw with mysterious transformative powers, and a treasured secret possession: a small stone in the shape of a plum, but a stone that reveals truths and nightmares, and which the Invaders and their ruler, the King of the North, seek more than anything. Oona must keep the stone safe at all costs, and find her brother, before the King of the North extends his evil hold over the whole island and destroys it forever.

********

Review by K.M. Lockwood

This is only Nigel’s second book – and it’s a cracker. To be fair, it has a distinctive voice which not everyone will relish, but those who do will absolutely love it.

If you would enjoy a re-working of Irish myth and legend with a moving family story at the heart of it, then this is for you. Add a much larger drama with some frightening elements of dark magic and you’ve definitely got my sort of book, oh, and don’t forget the beautiful writing.

It’s an adventure story with a brave girl at the centre of it, and some very scary enemies. A kind of Northern Irish Guillermo del Toro imagination animates this strange world. It’s easy to enjoy the weirdness and pace of the story – but there are deeper ideas beneath the fascinating surface. For me, it left a distinct and satisfying imprint after the end.

I would highly recommend this for any fans of fantasy who are competent readers and not too easily scared. Adults will get more out of it than perhaps they might expect. If you delight in Kate Thompson or Michael Scott for example, this might well suit you.

Lockwood & Co: The Whispering Skull by Jonathan Stroud

Don’t look now,’ Lockwood said. ‘There’s two of them.’

I snatched a glance behind me and saw that he was right. Not far off, on the other side of the glade, a second ghost had risen from the earth. Like the first, it was a pale, man-shaped curtain of mist that hovered above the dark wet grass. Its head too seemed oddly skewed, as if broken at the neck. I glared at it, not so much terrified as annoyed. Twelve months I’d been working for Lockwood & Co. as a Junior Field Operative, tackling spectral Visitors of every horrific shape and size. Broken necks didn’t bother me the way they used to.

‘Oh, that’s brilliant,’ I said.’ Where did he spring from?’

Published by Random House in September 2014

496 pages in hardback

Summary from publishers’ website

Ghosts and ghouls beware! London’s smallest, shabbiest and most talented psychic detection agency is back.  Life is never exactly peaceful for Lockwood & Co. Lucy and George are trying to solve the mystery of the talking skull trapped in their ghost jar, while Lockwood is desperate for an exciting new case. 

Things seem to be looking up when the team is called to Kensal Green Cemetery to investigate the grave of a sinister Victorian doctor. Strange apparitions have been seen there, and the site must be made safe. As usual, Lockwood is confident; as usual, everything goes wrong – a terrible phantom is freed and a dangerous object is stolen from the coffin.  Lockwood & Co. must recover the relic before its power is unleashed, but it’s a race against time. Their obnoxious rivals from the Fittes agency are also on the hunt. And if that’s not bad enough, the skull in the ghost-jar is stirring again…

******

Reviewed by K. M. Lockwood [no relation!]

I decided I’d better read the first Lockwood story [the Screaming Staircase] before I reviewed this. I’m glad that I did.

They are both great fun – in a spooky way – but this second one’s even better. If you like a mixture of detective novel with creepy bits mashed up with humour in an alternative ‘now’ – then these are for you. 

There’s a really pleasing balance of chills, thrills and laughs – I could so see it as a serial in the manner of Randall and Hopkirk [Deceased] if anyone remembers that. One of the best things is there are two boys and a

girl involved – and not a hint of a love triangle. Hurrah. Adventure, risk, strong female characters – and no soppiness. What more do you want from this sort of book?

It’s not profound – it never makes any claim to be – but the friendships are well drawn and the sense of honour in our investigators is engaging. There are some ongoing strands which are not fully resolved – so you know there are more books to come – but this one has more completeness than the first, perhaps. I found this plot more satisfying though sometimes I do get pulled out of the story by strange details – like rapiers and Velcro. This is probably an adult perspective – and a finicky one at that. I doubt younger readers will notice at all.

I would recommend these for when you want a fast-moving, entertaining read with likeable central characters – and you love a mix of eerie and funny. You want to be a competent reader – but audio would be great too. I hadn’t really expected to – but I’ll definitely be looking forward to the next one!

The Twelve Days of Christmas By Britta Teckentrup

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…

a partridge in a pear tree. 

Summary From Little Tiger

Introduce children to the traditional song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, in this beautiful new book, featuring illustrations by Britta Teckentrup. The peep-through pages reveal each new Christmas gift, creating a stunning layered effect. A perfect gift for your true love! 

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Review by Liss Norton

This book is very cleverly designed. Every present that 'my true love' handed over during the Christmas season is drawn on the last page of the book, and the pages before it are cut out in such a way that the gifts only become visible when the reader reaches the appropriate page. But the drawback to this way of presenting this well known Christmas carol is that the pictures are rather small which probably means it will appeal to older children, rather than the under-5s. 

The front cover shouts Christmas with its dark blue background and silver holly leaves and snowflakes, the title page is Christmassy and there are snowflakes on the back of every cut-out page, too, though some of the pages have flowers or autumn leaves which detract a bit from the seasonal feel.

I imagine this book will sell well as Christmas approaches. It should be particularly popular with people like me who are always singing but can never remember whether the drummers come before the pipers or the other way round. I've got no excuse now for getting the words wrong and neither will you have with a copy of this book on your bookshelf!  

The Moment Collector by Jodi Lynn Anderson

A key is buried under the front stairs of 208 Water Street. Scorched on one side, was it in a fire? Who lost it, and when?

From me, it’s a clue, a piece of the past. Because the yard of this house is a graveyards of moments, and everything left behind is a reminder: sand paper, a bracelet, a love note, some letter, a match, a movie stub, a postcard.

Published by Orchard Books in August 2014

Pages – 256

Summary

There's a ghost haunting 208 Water Street. She doesn't know who she was, or why she's still here. She does know that she is drawn to Maggie, the new girl in town, and her friends - beautiful, carefree Pauline and Liam, the boy who loves her.
But the ghost isn't all that's lurking in Gill Creek... Someone is killing young girls all across the county. Can the ghost keep these three friends safe? Or does she have another purpose?

*****

Although I enjoyed this story, I found myself confused about it for nearly three quarters of the book. It wasn’t until I reached the end, that I truly understood what was going on.  From the first few pages, we know a killer is on the loose in the little town, but we never ever find out who it is. It felt as though a certain aspect of the story was set up in the beginning but unfortunately not carried through to the end.  I couldn’t see the point of making such a big deal about the murders if they weren’t integral to the plot.

Out of all the characters in the book, Maggie was definitely my favourite. She was a bright young thing, who worked hard at her studies and did all she could to make her parent’s lives easier.  On arriving in town, she was soon befriended by Pauline, who annoyed the hell out of me. Pauline came across as flighty and immature. I felt that she used Maggie when ever she felt she needed a friend. It was pretty obvious from the start that Pauline would always win every outcome.

This story is told mainly in third person, apart from the sections where the spirit speaks in first person. Now I’m a big fan of using  a mixture of narrative points of view in one novel but I will be honest, I struggled with it in this book until the very end. By the time I reached the conclusion,  it finally dawned on me why it had been written in this way and completely made sense; however I felt that was a bit too late to appease my annoyance throughout the rest of the book. 

The ending was the saviour of this story. However I was quite shocked to discover the true identity of the ghost in the last chapter. This was an OK read with a really strong ending. If you enjoyed  A Certain Slant of Light, you would probably enjoy this one too.

Waiting On Wednesday - The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

I haven’t participated in this memo for quite some time, but as there seem to be so many new books coming out in the next few months that have caught my attention, I wanted to show my share my excitement with you.

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

Published by Indigo in January 2015

I am so excited about Holly Black’s new book! She is without a doubt, one of my most favourite writers. She could probably rewrite the phone book and I would read it.  In this book, Holly goes back to her fairy tale roots to bring us this exciting new tale.

Book Summary

Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.
Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.
At the centre of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.
Until one day, he does…
As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?

Afternoon Tea with Zoe Marriott

A few weeks ago I was invited to afternoon tea with Zoe Marriott at Walker Books headquarters. It was a brilliant event, which included some gorgeous cakes, a few of my favourite book bloggers and the always inspirational Zoe Marriott. At the event, we also got to meet Annalie, Zoe’s editor and Maria, the designer of her book covers.

Zoe told us all about her new book, Frail Mortal Heart, which is the final book in the fantasy trilogy, The Name of the Blade and will be published in July 2015. She hasn’t any plans  to ever write another trilogy, so with it being the last book, Zoe decided that she had to go big or go home. Her main intention is to make us cry and break out hearts into tiny pieces, in the grand tradition of Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan! In the second book, The Darkness Hidden, the characters went through a very dark time, so by this book they needed to do something really different. Zoe decided to send them into a different realm, which is both beautiful and parallel. Lots of unexpected things happen in the third book and we are told on good authority, that some people die. We all gasped at this news, as no reader likes to discover their favourite characters are about to be killed off.

Zoe reading a chapter from Frail Mortal Heart

Zoe talked about plotting. She mentioned how everyone thinks she is really good at plotting because of all the diagrams and plans she has showcased on her blog. But in actual fact, Zoe feels that plotting is her weakness. She often goes back to the beginning of the book to make it match the end. However when writing a trilogy, she couldn’t do that. She had to make sure her characters stayed with the original plot.  The only way Zoe could plot this trilogy was by writing a really detailed synopsis. It was 10 pages long and she threw everything into it. She then folds it up and puts it in the back of her very special notebook and it very rarely sees the light of day again. So plotting really feels like a controlled fall for Zoe, where she hopes she will catch a branch on the way down and save the whole story.

Zoe revealed the cover for the final book, Frail Mortal Heart.

Zoe also talked about world building.  It is one of her favourite things to do and she does it instinctively. If it is a real setting, Zoe likes to be culturally respectful and realistic as possible, so she immerses herself in research until her brain feels saturated, in the hope that it will inform the story. Zoe includes a lot of the information she has discovered in her story, but it is often cut out at the editing stage.  When creating a new fantasy world, it can be even harder to develop. You need to have a base line of reality in the story and it has to be even more solid., because the reader is unable to imagine what the world looks like.

Zoe also talked about her journey to publication as well as diversity in books, which is an area that Zoe was pioneering long before it became fashionable.

During the event, Zoe revealed the final cover of the trilogy, which we all thought was stunning. She then went on to read a chapter, which had us all desperate to read the rest.

We all had a lovely afternoon at Walker Books. I want to thank Zoe for inspiring us all. And I would also like to thank Annalie Grainger, Zoe’s editor who organised the event.

Some of our lovely UK book bloggers who also attended.

To find out more about Zoe Marriott:

Twitter / Blog / Facebook

The Last of the Spirits by Chris Priestley

The boy had never spoken to the old man before, nor scarcely noticed him. The old man, had he been asked, would have sworn under oath, hand on the Bible, that he had likewise never seen the boy.

But the truth was, over the last few years, they had passed within inches of each other a hundred times. The old man had even brushed the boy aside more than once as he beetled his way to his office. To the old man, the boy was just another tiresome obstacle to be avoided. To the boy, the old man, along with all the other hard-faced strangers like him, was yet another reason to hate the world.

Published by Bloomsbury in November 2014

180 pages in hardback

Summary adapted from Chris Priestley’s own site

“The Last of the Spirits is the last in my trilogy of metafictions - books that have been inspired by, and run parallel to, stories that had a big impact on me when I first encountered them.

It began with Mister Creecher, linked to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, then The Dead Men Stood Together, inspired by Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and now there is this book - a story that takes a sideways step out of the world and characters of Dickens 'A Christmas Carol.”

******

Reviewed by K. M. Lockwood

This is the best retelling of ‘A Christmas Carol’ I have encountered – and I am a great fan of the story in its many forms.

This version reads if Chris Priestley were present at the same time – but filming from a different angle. He’s taken away the worst of the Victorian clutter, and given us a sparer, stronger tale. There’s all of Dickens’ anger and compassion shown through a modern lens –on two unexpected characters.

You know the basic story too well for there to be spoilers – but this does have an alternative take. It is not a contemporary re-imagining, it is firmly set in the19th Century – but it does still resonate with today’s world. It’s rather easier to read than the original – but there still is that recognisable Dickensian ‘look’.

A pleasing and rather humble extra to this relatively short book are two ‘bonus features’ about Dickens and other versions of the story. The production values throughout are also high quality. The only thing that could improve it for me would be more illustrations inside, whether by Zdenko Basic who did the eerily attractive cover art, or Chris Priestley himself.

Highly recommended for any confident reader wanting a ghostly Christmas story with humanity at it heart.

Tales from the Crafting Corner– Pom Pom Wreath

So many of you know that earlier in the year I started a part time job in a rather large craft chain. I was looking for something to get me out of the house as writing most days on my own can become quite lonely and I felt it was time I entered the world again and socialized with people in person rather than just online. However what I didn’t expect when I took the job, was to rediscover my passion for craft. When I first started this blog back in 2009, I used to feature a  lot of my scrapbooking pages. Now I’m crafting again, I want to be able to showcase some of the things I’ve made. These posts  will run sporadically on a weekend; this way they won’t affect the book reviews and author posts which I usually run during the week. So the weekend, is time out for other interests from now on.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been really busy making things for work and for home. So be prepared for a few regular posts as I update you on my makes.

If you follow me on Twitter,  I’m sorry if you have already seen these pictures. I’m just so darn excited about the things I’ve learnt to do and make in the past couple of months.

This week, I wanted to share with you my pom pom wreath. I was asked to make it for work for a demonstration evening. If I’m honest, when I agreed to it, I didn’t have a clue if I could actually make it look nice. So I was quite blown away by my own achievement.

This is the what it looked like when it was completely finished. I needed help from one of my colleagues with the bow as I can’t tie them. The little silver ones were bought already made and added on. I used Snowflake wool to make the pompoms using a pompom maker. If you’ve never used a pompom maker, then I would highly recommend it. Not only is it therapeutic, but it is so much easier than the round bits of card often used to make them. I also stuck the pompoms on a polystyrene ring which gave it the depth it needed. Also the best thing to stick the pompoms on with is a glue gun.

This wreath is now on display at our store for the next month. I enjoyed making it so much that I’m now making another one for home. I’ve put in some pictures below of the products used, in case you get the urge to make one yourself.

I hope you enjoyed this post and will pop back over the next couple of weeks to see more of my creations.

Setting The Scene–The Walled City by Ryan Graudin

I am so pleased to be part of The Walled City blog tour this month. I loved the book so much and you can read my review here. As part of the tour, the author, Ryan Graudin has written a post about Kowloon, the real walled city, alongside her fictional version, Hak Nam.

Picture this: A hive of buildings with no formal architecture, stacked fourteen stories high, interconnected with bamboo bridges and ladders, crammed so thickly together that sunlight cannot penetrate the lower levels. There is no formal drainage, so water from rains long past drips down walls in a constant flow. The streets are more like tunnels, usually no more than one to two meters wide and covered with pipes. These are lined with a plethora of human activity: illegal dentist shops, apothecaries selling powdered sharks fins and various herbs, steel mills, noodle makers, brothels, kindergartens, opium dens. The upper levels consist of apartments, most no more than twenty-three square meters. The window and verandas of these places are covered in bars to deter thieves. 

This neighbourhood is only six and a half acres wide, but it is crowded. More that 33,000 people live within its walls. Shop owners, prostitutes, school children, street hawkers, enterprising dental hygienists… people from all walks of life thrive in this place. It’s a no-man’s land in terms of the law, which means that heroine and gang activities abound, but the city’s inhabitants manage to keep a strange balance of crime and community.

This is the Hak Nam Walled City, the setting of my YA novel THE WALLED CITY. The place my three characters—Jin Ling, Mei Yee, and Dai—all find themselves trapped in. 

This was the Kowloon Walled City. A real neighbourhood that existed in Hong Kong in the 1980s. I first found out about this place in 2011, when I met a woman named Jackie Pullinger who lived in Hong Kong and worked in the Kowloon Walled City for over twenty years. She described it much as I did in those first two paragraphs. The place sounded so surreal, so much like a setting out of a dystopian fantasy, that I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of it before. I was fascinated, and started to research the place by watching documentaries (made by film crews who explored the city before it was torn down in 1993) and reading all of the literature I could get my hands on.

The more I researched the Kowloon Walled City, the more I knew I had to write a story in its setting. Instead of letting my plot build my world, I did the opposite. The concrete, unique setting of the Kowloon Walled City helped me develop my plot. As I started thinking about the neighbourhood's inhabitants, three different characters came to mind. Jin Ling lives under a tarp in the Walled City’s streets, disguising herself as a boy to stay safe as she searches for her lost sister. Her sister, Mei Yee, was taken from their farm and is now trapped in one of the many brothels that line the city’s sunless streets. In order to get a look inside these places, Jin Ling must complete drug runs for a mysterious boy named Dai, who has his own life or death mission.

Although I altered some of the city names to highlight how surreal this neighbourhood was, most of the details of the actual city are unaltered in the novel.

It’s written to be read on two levels. It can work as a dystopian-esque story, or as realistic fiction. It’s my hope that readers, when they get to the end of THE WALLED CITY and read the author’s note (where I talk about the real Kowloon Walled City) will be driven to research it on their own and discover more about this truly fascinating place.

Thank you Ryan for a fantastic post.

THE WALLED CITY will be published by Indigo on 6 November 2014 9781780621999/ Trade paperback at £9.99 and eBook at £5.99

Author info:

Ryan Graudin was born in Charleston, South Carolina with a severe case of wanderlust. When she's not travelling, she's busy photographing weddings, writing and spending time with her husband and wolf-dog.

To find out more about Ryan Graudin:

Twitter/ Tumblr / Pinterest / Website

Dr Who–12 Doctors 12 Stories–DW09 The Beast of Bablyon

Ali was having a picnic with her family in the little water park on the edge of town when she first saw the Doctor. He was striding across the grass, glancing around, eyes a bit wild, as if he was searching for something.

Republished by Puffin in October 2014

Pages – 592

To celebrate the arrival of Peter Capaldi as the newly regenerated twelfth Doctor Who, Puffin have reissued this collection of short stories each written by a different author and now with an added brand new story  from Holly Black.

******

I was very pleased to be asked to take part in the 12 Doctors - 12 Stories blog tour to celebrate the rerelease of this fantastic short story anthology that features 12 stories – one for each of the 12 Doctors there have been, written by 12 very different YA authors.

I was asked to review Doctor Who 9 – The Beast of Babylon, which is written about the 9th Doctor, Christopher Eccleston and was penned by Charlie Higson. Surprisingly, this was my first Doctor Who story and my first Charlie Higson story. To be honest, I was impressed  by how much I enjoyed it. I’m not sure if this was helped by the fact that I could visually picture the Doctor and Rose Tyler, but it made it easier to imagine the story playing out in front of me and it wasn’t long before I was lost in it.

This story got off to a fast pace which really didn’t stop until the end. There  wasn’t time to take a breather as the Doctor swayed from a pretty big disastrous situation to an even bigger one. This  written version of the Doctor came across as slightly insane and just tittering on the edge of madness, which I felt easily fitted with  all the Doctors I had witnessed on TV  in the past.

In this story, the Doctor has yet to convince Rose to join him on his travels, yet her name comes up repeatedly.  He finds himself  on Karkinos as he tries to destroy the Starman and briefly acquires Ali, as his companion. The battle to kill the Starman hurtles them both  to Earth, but not to the Earth we presently know; because as we all know, the Doctor is a Time Lord  and can travel in any direction through time, so following the Starman back to Babylon buried deep in the Earth’s past, is merely a flick of a switch to him.

Ali is a kick ass character who stops at nothing when battle rage takes over, however, she doesn’t last long as the Doctor’s companion as she is far too volatile and  considered a liability. The Doctor requires an assistant that can show compassion at all times, which basically describes his reasons for practically always picking a human and his yearning to return to Rose Tyler. I felt this was a real shame, because Ali came across as a brilliant character who deserved a bigger part than just a few chapters in a short story, especially as she never  actually featured as  a companion on the TV series. 

I think Charlie Higson managed to capture the real Doctor, with  the slightly off the wall perspective he seems to have and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this fast paced story. Enough to make me want to read the rest of the book.

This book is  a must for all Doctor Who fans and an excellent introduction to readers yet to be converted to all things Doctor Who.

The Sign of the Black Dagger by Joan Lingard

Lucy didn’t like the look of the man the moment she opened the door. The light in the alley was dim and she couldn’t see his face properly but the set of his shoulders and the angle of his head in some way intimidated her. She took a step back.

‘I’m looking for Ranald Cunningham.’

He had a smooth voice but she didn’t like it either.

‘He’s not in,’ she said.

‘When will he be back?

‘I don’t know.’

Originally published in 2005, this edition July 2014

208 pages in paperback – with a black and white map

Cover designed by Astrid Jaekel, winner of the inaugural Kelpies Design & Illustration Prize

Summary from publisher’s own website

One day, Will and Lucy's dad just ... vanishes. They have no idea why he's disappeared until a creepy stranger reveals their dad was keeping a BIG secret. Then there's the second clue: an old diary they find hidden in the walls of their Royal Mile house, with a sinister black dagger on it. Will and Lucy must solve a mystery that's over two hundred years old if they want to find their dad and bring him home. But can they find the answers in time to rescue him?  Award-winning author Joan Lingard weaves a fast-paced mystery set in and around Edinburgh's Royal Mile. The story alternates between Will and Lucy, searching for their dad in the present day, and their ancestors William and Louisa, struggling to save their own father while following the sign of the black dagger and uncovering a plot to kill a French aristocrat.

********

Reviewed by K. M. Lockwood

This is a welcome and timely re-issue by Floris in their Kelpies range. In one short book, Joan Lingard manages to cram in two timelines, a mystery, a family drama and convincing history, without it feeling over-stuffed or confusing. All that excitement in just over 40,000 words!

Although very precisely set in Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, it’s fine if you don’t know the area. Firstly the writing conveys the location very clearly and secondly, there’s a Pinterest board to enjoy. You certainly don’t need to be Scottish to enjoy this thriller.

It’s ideal for reasonably confident readers from 8 upwards. There’s peril and danger - but a satisfying ending makes it suitable for relatively young children. Themes of debt, courage and family loyalty don’t change across the decades.  I’m glad this second edition gives a chance for a new audience to enjoy Joan Lingard’s work. Children will experience her skilled blending of pace and emotion without noticing the craft involved. They will just enjoy a really good read.

The Walled City by Ryan Graudin

There are three rules of survival in the Walled City: Run fast. Trust no one. Always carry your knife.

Right now, my life depends completely on the first.

Run, run, run.

Published by Indigo in November 2014

Pages - 424

DAI, trying to escape a haunting past, traffics drugs for the most ruthless kingpin in the Walled City. But in order to find the key to his freedom, he needs help from someone with the power to be invisible....
JIN hides under the radar, afraid the wild street gangs will discover her biggest secret: Jin passes as a boy to stay safe. Still, every chance she gets, she searches for her lost sister....
MEI YEE has been trapped in a brothel for the past two years, dreaming of getting out while watching the girls who try fail one by one. She's about to give up, when one day she sees an unexpected face at her window.....
In this innovative and adrenaline-fuelled novel, they all come together in a desperate attempt to escape a lawless labyrinth before the clock runs out.

******

What a stunning debut!

From the moment I started reading this book, I was entranced by the characters and their situation, not to mention the frightening, cramped walled city filled with the worst people you could imagine. To be totally honest, this book blew my mind. There was so much to take in and savour. I was sucked into a dangerous world where knives were your only best friend. The author really captured a time and place in history that I now find myself fascinated with. Although the Walled City is a fictional representation of Kowloon, it is extremely clear that the author researched it thoroughly to create an excellent replica. I can remember as a child, hearing about Kowloon, but it wasn’t until I read this book that I really understood the immenseness of the situation. I couldn’t believe how many properties were all crammed into such a tiny space and I am so glad that photos were included in the back of the book to give a realistic view of what the city was like.

The story is told from three points of view with each character searching for something – mainly freedom. I loved the way these seemingly unconnected teenagers find their lives entwining as they race against time to save themselves. The plot sets off at a fast pace as we count down the days until New Year when the walled city is due to be demolished. The writing in this book is extremely sensory – I  could almost taste the noodles cooking, not to mention, smelling the opium.  Out of the three main characters, Jin Ling was my favourite. She was feisty, fierce and fearless as she outmanoeuvred all the boys older than her, never once revealing that she was actually a girl. I also had a real soft spot for her cat, Chma, who has his own battle to deal with.

At times the story is brutal. The author tackles some very difficult subjects such as child abuse and human trafficking, yet writes about them with sensitivity, without shying away from them.

This story is different and really stands out within the YA market. It is  refreshing and captivating, yet gritty and realistic from start to finish. I loved learning about a completely different culture and I felt the author gave it a huge dose of accuracy. I can’t wait to see what Ryan writes next.

Surprise : The book that keeps on giving! by Fhiona Galloway and Jonathan Litton

It's time for Pass the Parcel

and though Penguin hasn't won,

She makes a Christmas stocking

and shouts out, "This is fun!"

Summary From Little Tiger Press

This Christmas board book features a brilliant game of pass-the-parcel – as the gift keeps getting smaller our group of friends discover more and more festive fun, but what will the final surprise be? Featuring cut-out holes on every page, a jolly Christmas rhyme and bright, bold illustrations by Fhiona Galloway, this is the perfect Christmas gift for curious little learners.

******

Review by Liss Norton

This Christmas-themed board book is all about a game of pass-the-parcel and each page has a rectangular cut-out which diminishes as you go on through the book, to represent the shrinking of the parcel as each layer is removed. When each of the animals removes a wrapper, he or she tears a festive shape out of it. At the end, the animal friends remove the last layer of paper together and find an art set inside and a note telling them they've all won because they've been having fun with the paper during the game.

The illustrations are simple and each page has a rhyme describing what one of the animals is doing. I'm afraid I have to say that I wasn't enthralled by this book and I don't think babies will be either. This is partly because the simple illustrations mean there's not much to talk about on each page, which is, for me, the best thing about picture books. However I also don't think that babies will understand the present inside the parcel, as paper and crayons are usually kept away from them because of their habit of putting everything into their mouths. It's great to encourage creativity from a young age, but the simplicity of this book makes me think it's targeted at babies and the message is surely aimed at children aged three and over.