Book Review: Five Children and It

I have just finished reading “Five Children and It” by E. Nesbit. 

I haven’t read this since i was a child but as i read it, the story came back to me and i remembered how silly it is! Not in a bad way, of course!

It’s really random how the children discover the Psammead in a gravel pit and ask it for wishes everyday. The Psammead is a bit of grumpy creature and warns them about the wishes bringing trouble but they still manage to make trouble for themselves!

Thankfully the wishes only last until sunset, which helps them out of a few sticky situations but still has repercussions, some good and some bad.

My favourite is when they wish for wings and end up stuck on top of a church tower at sunset when their wings disappear. Thankfully they manage to convince people to help them and the happy outcome of this is that the children’s family servant, Martha, ends up meeting her future husband.

I like how this book covers the idea of being able to wish for anything you want and the problems with having this freedom. It’s no surprise that the children wish to be beautiful and to have lots of money, but they soon find that these traits has unfortunate consequences. The moral of the story is that having everything you want isn’t as simple or as desirable as you would think!

I give it 8/10 because it is a classic children’s story which is a fun read!

Nina Bawden (1925-2012)

Today, the great writer Nina Bawden passed away at the grand age of 87.

Nina Bawden (1925-2012)

I loved “The Witch’s Daughter” as a child and i was forever checking it out of the library because it was a big favourite of mine. I really need to buy my own copy of it because i would love to re-read it!

The Witch’s Daughter – Nina Bawden

Nina was best known for “Carrie’s War”, which i have actually never read! So i think i will put that on my To Read list!

15 Years of Harry Potter!

Today marks the 15th anniversary of  the publishing of the first Harry Potter!

Harry Potter 1-7 boxset (via Bloomsbury.com)

I remember the first time i came across Harry Potter: I was in Year 5 and about 10 years old. Our teacher had bought the first book and started reading it to us during Reading Time at the end of each school day. We were all magically silent and fascinated by the story, and i personally was impatient to read it by myself!

Funnily enough, i didn’t buy the first book for good few years: I ended up with Book 2 when i was off sick, and then started buying the rest as soon as they came out! I eventually bought Book 1 just before Book 4 came out! When my mum ordered Book 4 for me and my brother, i was so excited when it finally arrived that i couldn’t put it down all day, which wasn’t good when i was visiting my grandad and was completely distracted from what was going on around me!

The books just got better and better, and i was so sad when i went to buy my copy of the final book (a few days after it was released when the initial rush was over!).

The Harry Potter series is by far my favourite set of books, and i don’t care that my mum says i should have moved on from them by now (i’m in my 20′s!), i will always love them and never plan to get rid of my lovingly battered books! (Mum never read them, but plenty of adults have so i don’t know why i’d ever grow out of them!)

So, i will share some of my favourite things from the book series:

1. I loved: Ron and Hermione finally get together, after all the fighting and bickering!
2. I was pretty much in tears when: Dumbledore died and during his funeral. And when they killed off Fred!
3. I was very moved when: Harry finally got to visit his parents’ graves. And when Dudley showed how much he appreciated Harry saving his life.
4. Funny moment: When Dumbledore described finding the Room of Requirement full of toilets when he had “an exceptionally full bladder”. (A bit of toilet humour never goes amiss!)
5. My highlights: Hermione slapping Malfoy!
6. I never expected: To feel sorry for Aunt Petunia when she got rejected from Hogwarts for being a Muggle.
7. Biggest surprise: Snape turning out to be the hero.
8. I hated: Bellatrix Lestrange, particularly when she killed Sirius Black.

I’d like to send a big thankyou out there to J.K. Rowling for creating such a gem all those years ago!

J.K. Rowling ( via Bloomsbury.com)

What are your favourite things about the Harry Potter series?

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Related News:

Bloomsbury is running a competition to celebrate 15 years of Harry Potter by finding the biggest HP fan! See the link below for more information!

http://harrypotter.bloomsbury.com/hptrade

February Book Challenge – DAY 15

First “chapter book” you can remember reading as a child

This is difficult, because i read from a young age and read a lot of chapter books and i can’t remember the first one! It was possibly The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, but i’m not certain!

Book Review: Grimm’s Fairy Stories

I have been reading Grimm’s Fairy Stories on my Kindle and really enjoyed re-reading stories from my childhood!

Grimm's Fairy Stories - Brothers Grimm (via Amazon)

These are the early versions of the stories we know and love, although they are a bit darker than the modern Disney versions we know, but that makes them much better i think!

My favourite stories include: “Catherine and Frederick”, “Briar Rose” and “The Six Swans”.

It’s funny how a lot of them have evil stepsisters and stepmothers! And they all seem to be rescued by a prince or a king! No hint of fairy godmothers though, that must be the Disney influence!

I love these old stories: they reward the hardworking underdog and punish the lazy and jealous people!

10/10!

Note: I read this on my Kindle as it was free, and there are a few little niggles with the ebook – the stories are all stuck together and don’t start on a new page; you can’t navigate to one particular story; and my version is supposed to be illustrated but there aren’t any. There are also a few mistakes grammatically, and a few other errors, which ruin the ebook a bit.

June Book Challenge – Day 17

Image via Wikipedia

Today’s question: Pick a random book in your collection and tell us about it?

“Great Lies to Tell Small Kids” by Andy Riley

- This is a humorous book that i got as a gift one Christmas, and the cartoon style is really cute, and the little scenarios are just really funny! It’s like the Bunny Suicides: amusing, a little dark, and really entertaining!

June Book Challenge – Day 10

Image via Wikipedia

Today’s question: Which book(s) could you never give away?

“Peter Rabbit” series by Beatrix Potter

- Not that i ever like giving away my precious books -except for a stupid phase during my teens where i went off reading and gave pretty much all my childhood books away to charity (i regret that now). But i know i could never get rid of my collection of Beatrix Potter’s books: they sit gathering dust on my shelf and i rarely read them, but they’ve survived the clearout, and i can’t imagine getting rid of them. They are a true classic, and as i live in Cumbria where Beatrix lived for quite a while, they have sentimental value. My collection are an edition that uses photographic techniques to reproduce Beatrix’s beautiful artwork, and they are really lovely. The edition was published in 1987, making them the oldest books i own!

My Childhood/Young Adult Reading List

Cover of The Dare Game

Lately I’ve been thinking about the books I read as a child. Possibly because at uni we’re currently studying Children’s Publishing, and someone happened to ask me what I read as a child.

Having had a period during my teens where I read very little because I was given access to my own computer with the Internet, and thus became obsessed with the new technology at my fingertips, I had quite forgotten what I read as a child, and I had cleared out all my unwanted childhood belongings in a fit of teenage desire to grow up. I am massively regretting giving all my childhood books away, as this list would be far easier to compile, and I would be a lot closer to having my own personal library!

So, I have been doing some research and I am compiling a list of books I read as a youngster, from the earliest ones i can remember, to the later ones in my teens. As I remember them I will add them to the list, so check back for my updates!

And so, in no particular order, here is my list:

• Six Cousins at Mistletoe Farm – Enid Blyton
• The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carle
• Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
• Swallowdale – Arthur Ransome
• Charlotte’s Web-  EB White
• His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
• The Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis
• The Catcher In The Rye- J. D. Salinger (school text)
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland- Lewis Carrol
• Through the Looking Glass – Lewis Carrol
• The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling
• Green Eggs and Ham – Dr. Seuss
• The Cat in the Hat – Dr Seuss
• The Railway Children- E Nesbit
• Tom’s Midnight Garden- Philippa Pearce
• The Sheep-Pig -Dick King-Smith
• The Iron Man- Ted Hughes
• Z for Zachariah – Robert C. O’Brien (school text)
• I Capture the Castle – Dodie Smith
• 101 Dalmatians - Dodie Smith
• Goodnight Mr Tom – Michelle Magorian (school text)
• The Story of Tracey Beaker – Jacqueline Wilson
• Bad Girls – Jacqueline Wilson
• Vicky Angel – Jacqueline Wilson
• Double Act – Jacqueline Wilson
• The Mum-Minder – Jacqueline Wilson
• The Bed and Breakfast Star – Jacqueline Wilson
• Dustbin Baby – Jacqueline Wilson
• The Dare Game – Jacqueline Wilson
• Harry Potter – J.K. Rowling
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
• James and the Giant Peach – Roald Dahl
• The Witches – Roald Dahl
• Danny, The Champion of the World – Roald Dahl
• Not Now Bernard – David McGee
• Where’s Spot? – Eric Hill
• Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit (and the other stories) – Beatrix Potter
• The Magic Faraway Tree –Enid Blyton
• The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
• A Bear called Paddington – Michael Bond
• Peter Pan – JM Barrie
• Burglar Bill – Janet and Allan Ahlberg
• Funnybones – Janet and Allan Ahlberg
• Famous Five – Enid Blyton
• The Valley of Adventure (from The Adventure Series) – Enid Blyton
• Elmer –David McGee
• The Complete Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales
• Pippi Longstocking – Astrid Lindgren
• Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
• Treasure Island – RL Stevenson
• Anne of Green Gables – L M Montgomery
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer –  Mark Twain
• The Witch’s Daughter – Nina Bawden
• Sweet Valley High series – Francine Pascal (only read a few in this and the other series)
• Aesop’s Fables - William Caxton
• Grimm’s Fairytales – The Brothers Grimm
• The Little Mermaid, The Snow Queen, (and various other fairytales) – Hans Christian Anderson
• Five Children and It – E. Nesbit
• Pollyanna – Eleanor H. Porter
• The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
• The Noughts and Crosses series – Malorie Blackman
• Babar The Elephant – Jean deu Brunhoff
• The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series – Ann Brashares
• Animal Ark series – Lucy Daniels
• Flour Babies – Anne Fine
• Mr Men and Little Miss series – Roger Hargreaves
• Nancy Drew: Sweet Revenge – Carolyn Keene
• The Babysitter’s Club – Ann M. Martin
• Stargirl – Jerry Spinelli
• A Child’s Garden of Verses – R.L. Stevenson
• Goosebumps series – R.L. Stine
• Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
• The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
• 11 O’clock Chocolate Cake – Caroline Pitcher
• Twilight series – Stephenie Meyer
• Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging (and other titles) – Louise Rennison
• Blinky Bill – Dorothy Wall
• T.Witches: Double Jeopardy – H.B.Gilmour and Randi Reisfeld
• Pongwiffy and the Spell of the Year – Kaye Umansky
• The Wreck of the Zanzibar – Michael Morpurgo