I read around 75 children’s books this year, up from 57 last year, which made it a much harder year to distill down into a top 10. There are loads of great books I’ve left off the list! As usual, date of publication is completely irrelevant – my only criteria for inclusion are that the… Read More
reading
It’s that time of the year when bloggers looking for something to write about trot out their “best of” lists for the year. I think most of us will agree it’s been a particularly crap twelve months. But hey, at least there are still books to give us solace – until the Bradburyesque Firemen come… Read More
I’m delighted to welcome Barbara Henderson to my blog today as part of the Fir for Luck blog tour. Fir for Luck is a tale of the Highland Clearances, that darkest of times in Scottish history; it’s an atmospheric and thrilling debut novel from an exciting new talent in children’s fiction. My review will be up… Read More
And now for the second and final part of my books of 2015. Part one covered my top 5 adult books: this is my list of my top 10 children’s books. Same rules as before. The publication date has absolutely no bearing. This is purely a list of the best books I read in 2015. Slight… Read More
As in previous years, I’m doing a run-down of the best books I’ve read this year. This year it’s split into two parts: adult books and children’s books. I haven’t read enough comics this year to come up with a top five – although if I did, it would certainly include John Allison’s Giant Days ongoing series… Read More
I woke up this morning with the theme tune to Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face in my head, which as earworms go, is probably about as bad as it gets. This can only mean one thing – yesterday was the UKMG Extravaganza in Nottingham’s Central Library. Over thirty children’s authors were in one room for an afternoon… Read More
So many books, so little time
There’s an article on Medium.com about the number of books people read in a year, which prompted me to have a look at my records. Since 2004, I’ve been keeping a list of the books I read in a spreadsheet. Yes, yes, I know, what a geek. But it’s interesting to look back and see,… Read More
I could read and write before I went to school – my Mum taught me using comics, I seem to recall, and I remember writing my name in big bold capitals – JOHN – before my aunt, who was a teacher, told my mother off for not teaching me to write lower case letters first…. Read More
This is the third and final part of my round-up of the books I’ve enjoyed most in 2014. See my posts on the best comics and best children’s books for the first two parts. As with children’s books this year, I’ve read an awful lot of great general fiction. But after a lot of careful… Read More
I’ve already covered my best comics of 2014, so next on the agenda is my list of the best children’s books of 2014. Last year, in my round-up of the best children’s books I read in 2013, I had a hard time whittling the list down to just five, and in the end I ended… Read More