I was completely mesmerised by the wonderfully old-fashioned, timeless quality of this story which had a Victoriana feel, and a truly exceptional cast of characters.  The mysterious atmosphere is perfectly realised with the winter setting and rolling sea mist, just perfect for hiding, and revealing, secrets at exactly the right moments.

Herbert Lemon is the Lost-and-Founder at the Grand Nautilus Hotel, and he prides himself on being rather good at his job.  However, his life is about to take a rather dramatic turn … when he finds himself face-to-face with a girl who is being chased by an enraged man with a boathook for a hand! 

Because I’m lost … and I’d like to be found.

Violet Parma is looking for her lost parents, and she needs Herbie to help find them.  They went missing from Eerie-on-Sea, leaving her abandoned as a baby at the hotel 12 years previously.  What happened to them?  Does their disappearance have anything to do with the legend of the feared Malamander? 

Rather reluctantly, Herbie agrees to help solve the mystery … and what an adventure it takes them on.  Violet is prescribed a book by the rather creepy Mermonkey at the Book Dispensary which sets them on the trail of the local legend, but they are not the only ones seeking its treasure …

In a place like Eerie-on-Sea, legends can sometimes have a little more … bite.

There is an abundance of tension, danger and fast-paced action as the children race to solve the clues they find before a cast of deliciously nasty characters including Boathook Man, who is much more than he appears, thwart them.  I love the fact that the reader is never quite sure who is a friend and who is a foe, as secrets are revealed and more mysteries appear.  As they get tantalisingly closer to the truth, I was completely swept into the legend … and willing it to be true.  The mixture of present, past and legend fascinated me … and the reveals are just astonishing!

If the impossible is possible anywhere, it’ll be possible in Eerie-on-Sea.

Herbie and Violet are fantastic protagonists who complement each other brilliantly.  Herbie’s background is something of a mystery as he was found washed up on the beach in a crate of lemons.  He is rather cautious and deliberate in his actions whereas Violet is much more adventurous, feisty and daring.  They are both brave and look out for each other, regardless of the danger and fear. 

I have to mention the wonder that is the map of Eerie-on Sea and the splendiferous place and character names:  Mrs Fossil’s Flotsamporium, The Whelk & Walrus Pub, Lady Kraken, Mr Eels:  just brilliant!

Malamander is a truly glorious read which completely hooked me, and reeled me into a world which I definitely want to visit again. 

This story is both an incredible testament to the bravery and resilience of a German refugee during the Second World War, and a good old-fashioned adventure which completely absorbed me and, I am not ashamed to admit, led to heartfelt tears.  Any children’s book that can capture and affect me so deeply is a real credit to the depth, honesty and power of the writing.

The Second World War is studied by many children in Year 6, so I loved the way this story started in a Year 6 class with the children being asked if they knew anyone who lived through the war.  Daniel did and, when he spoke to his Grandmother, he probably wasn’t expecting mention of MI5! 

There aren’t many of us left, and it would be a shame if our stories died with us.

This is the heart-breaking, but ultimately uplifting, story of Daniel’s Grandmother, Anna Schlesinger, who travelled to England from Germany before the outbreak of the War on the kindertransport in order to escape from the cruel and terrifying persecution of the Jewish community by the Nazis.  This persecution is compellingly described and made me appreciate the terror that Anna carries with her throughout the story.  She locks images she can’t deal with in a box locked away in her mind.

Once Anna arrives in England, she is taken by her new foster parents to their family farm in Kent, and a new life begins.  The family, including their two children Molly and Frank, are friendly and welcoming and Anna finds herself settling into her new life, despite the worry for her parents and her nightmares … until the war comes to Kent!

An injured British soldier is hiding in the hayloft, desperate to visit his ill mother … but is he who he appears?  Anna makes a terrifying discovery that makes her nightmares real.  Will she be able to overcome her genuine fear to thwart a plan to cause possibly insurmountable damage to Britain’s war with Germany?  So begins Anna’s incredible tale of courage, daring and determination to help the war effort which sees her involved in a dangerous web of intrigue.

Anna is such a wonderful young protagonist who could easily have been destroyed by her horrific experiences in Germany, but instead she chooses to honour her mother and father by making the most of the opportunities she is given, and by making them proud of her.  She is kind, loyal and courageous despite her heartache and fear, but also reacts in a totally believable way to the prejudice and betrayal she is faced with after the outbreak of war with Germany.  

Threaded throughout this powerful story are themes of loss, sacrifice and prejudice which are just as pertinent to today’s society as they were during the Second World War.  These would make for some fantastic discussion in any Year 6 classroom. 

What can I say about the ending of this story?  It is fair to say that I closed this book with tears streaming down my face, tears of both sorrow and release.  This story is truly inspirational:  heart-breaking in places, but also full of hope that adversity can be overcome, and that goodness will shine through in our darkest moments.

Thank you to Toppsta and Nosy Crow for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

He still dreams about them sometimes.  Nightmares that leave him wide-eyed and gasping, with fears sixty years old pounding fresh through his blood.

I read The Legend of Podkin One-Ear earlier this year and really thought it was amazing.  I can’t believe I haven’t read this yet – there’s just so many amazing middle-grade books I want to read!  Goodreads synopsis:

The bard tiptoes out of his room, the crow-dream still echoing in his head, making him twitch at imaginary creaks of iron wings . . .

The bard must leave Thornbury. It is not safe for him to stay. Rue, his new apprentice, travels with him – keen to learn his trade – and hear the next instalment in the legend of Podkin One-Ear . . .

Podkin and his fellow rabbits have been sheltering in Dark Hollow after their battle with Scramashank. Paz tends to the rabbits with sleeping sickness; Crom meets with the war council . . . Podkin has nothing to do! Frustrated, Podkin goes exploring and discovers an abandoned underground chamber. Armed with the Gift of Dark Hollow, Podkin learns to moonstride, and Paz is rewarded with a magical gift of her own.

This is a meme hosted by Taking on a World of Words.  It asks three questions:

1.       What are you currently reading?

2.       What did you recently finish reading?

3.      What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m still reading Malamander as I took a break from it to read a book I won on Toppsta.

I recently finished Anna at War by Helen Peters which I won on Toppsta. Oh my goodness, this was a fantastic book which I got up at 6:00am to finish this morning. The story is full of courage, strength and sacrifice – and I absolutely sobbed at the ending – incredible story telling! Review coming shortly

As I’m now off on summer holiday, I’m hoping to get a LOT more reading done! I’m going to read two more from my #20BooksofSummer. This will complete the half I’ve chosen from middle-grade, and then I’ll be moving to YA/Adult reads. I’m also going to read The Space We’re In which I was approved to read via NetGalley.

Stories are their own magic.

I completely and utterly adored this magical, humorous, action-packed adventure, which is also a celebration of the power of books and libraries to cast a spell over the reader. I’ve been spellbound by books ever since I was a child, relishing the opportunities they provide to allow me to travel to other worlds and to go on adventures with the characters.  And, goodness, I really loved this adventure!

Kit is a bit of a tomboy, enjoying the great outdoors, getting muddy and climbing trees, so it is not surprising that she wants to explore outside – even if it is a cemetery –  with her best friends, Josh and Alita, on the first day of their summer holidays rather than accompany them to their local library. 

Although this book is set in a library, Kit, unlike her friends, is definitely not a fan of books, and feels completely out of place in Chatsworth Library.  She can think of nothing worse than having to read aloud.  Sage advice is given by the librarian, Faith:

No one starts off good at everything.  You get good by doing.

Faith Braithwaite, who is rather more than she appears, is determined to find the perfect book to hook Kit.  This small detail succinctly encapsulates the importance of librarians. Kit makes an incredible discovery whilst checking out a book that changes her life in the most extraordinary way. 

What follows is a magical, action-packed, exciting adventure, suffused with humour, as the children must work together to thwart the evil corporate bad guy, Hadrian Salt, who is a deliciously nasty villain, determined to close down the library.  Does he really just want to add to his corporate empire, or does he have a more sinister reason for buying the library?

The magical system in this story is truly wonderful, and very clever.  I loved wandering and exploring with Kit and her friends.  Of course, as the title suggests, there is a dragon – and an adorable dogon – in the library. 

The children in this story are great friends who support each other wonderfully, and find that they are stronger when they work as a team. 

The illustrations are gorgeous, and really complement the story-telling.  I especially enjoyed the drawings of Hadrian Salt!  And the final image of Kit brought a very warm smile to my face – another win for reading!

Dragons, books, libraries, plucky heroes, magic … the recipe for the perfect book to engage any young reader and those who may not be quite so young, but still remain eager to escape into an exhilarating, magical story.

The July theme for Six for Sunday, hosted by A Little But a Lot, is Summer Reads and today’s prompt is for:  Books and the Seaside. When I was growing up, I used to love going to the seaside in County Donegal and County Antrim, both geographically in the north of Ireland, but in different countries! I remember how stunning the coastline was and still love going home to visit.  With this in mind, I’ve decided to go back to the country of my birth and base my SixforSunday on Irish writers whose work I love.  I’ve been wanting to do a post on Irish writers I admire for a while, and this seems like a perfect opportunity.

1.  Sinead O’Hart has written two fantastic stories:  The Eye of the North, steeped in mythology, and The Star-Spun Web with a sci-fi twist.  I really hope she does a sequel for each of these!

2.  Celine Kiernan is the writer of The Wild Magic Trilogy.  I read the first two books, Begone the Raggedy Witches and The Little Grey Girl over the course of a weekend and am waiting ever so patiently for the final book. 

3.  Catherine Doyle has written two books in the Stormkeeper series:  The Stormkeeper’s Island and The Lost Tide Warriors, which are both set on the magical island of Arranmore which is inspired by her real-life ancestral home of Arranmore Island in County Donegal, my home County!  The third book is one of my most anticipated releases for 2020.

4.  Padraig Kenny has written Tin and Pog.  Tin is still on my TBR, but I loved Pog and the exploration of real grief contained within a fantasy setting.

5.  Oscar Wilde.  His Stories for Children, including The Selfish Giant, The Happy Prince and The Nightingale and the Rose are timeless classics, and are still capable of making me cry, and smile, every time I read them.

6.  C S Lewis who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, all of which I loved reading growing up, especially The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which I’ve re-read a few times.

This is a delightful treasure trove of a story, which I enjoyed enormously.  The gorgeous illustrations by Nicola Kinnear complement the story perfectly.

Ariki is an apprentice Star Walker living on Turtle Island (having washed ashore as a toddler) with her Guardian, Arohaka and her mischievous pet pig, Bad Boy.  She is a wonderfully carefree young girl who wants nothing more than to have fun and explore the ocean, for which she has a deep affinity.   

Adventurous and strong-willed, she decides to ‘borrow’ a boat so that she can go exploring with her best friend, Ipo and Bad Boy.  Unknowingly, they sail into the eye of a storm, cast adrift for many days, until they eventually come ashore on an island. 

It is not long before she meets a castaway who has been living on the island with only the company of its incredible native species, including the wondrous Giant Bowerbirds who are vital to the survival of the island.  Crusoe McRobinson is a fantastic character whose deep-rooted love of, and respect for, nature is obvious. 

However, the idyllic, peaceful island is being threatened by something non-native, and rather scary, which has the power to destroy the island.  Can Ariki and her friends save the island? 

I loved Ariki!  She is adventurous, quick-thinking and courageous with a wonderfully exuberant personality, and a real affinity and empathy for nature, with the incredible ability to communicate with animals through her thoughts.

Whilst the story is a real celebration of the beauty and awe of nature, there is a timely warning that we cannot take it for granted.  The underlying themes offer an excellent opportunity to explore what happens when non-native species are introduced to an environment and the impact this can have on the natural ecosystem, including threats to habitat and the danger of the extinction of native species.

This is Ariki’s second adventure, with Ariki and the Giant Shark being published in 2018.  I can’t wait to find out more about where Ariki has come from, and join her on further adventures. This is a perfect read for children of 7+.

Each of us carries the map of our lives on our skin …

This is a truly captivating story, steeped in mythology, and told with a beautifully lyrical quality, full of action, tension and deep emotions.  Both utterly entrancing and terrifying!

Isa lives in the town of Gromera, on the Island of Joya, with her cartographer father, under the harsh rule of the interloper, Governor Adori who has cut the town off from the rest of the Island, but no-one understands why. 

Isa is best friends with the Governor’s daughter, Lupe, until the day they have a bitter fight as Isa accuses Lupe of not caring about the horrific murder of one of their classmates.  This fight between the friends provides a catalyst which sees Lupe determined to restore her friendship by leaving the town to track down the murderers that her father is unwilling to hunt for. 

The Governor may not care about the death of one of the islanders, but he will not abandon his daughter, so he leads an expedition to enter the Forgotten Territories to find her.  Filled with guilt, Isa is determined to help track her friend and offers to be the group’s navigator.  Despite her apprehension, she is excited about the opportunity to map the island as her father has taught her a deep-seated love of cartography.

As they wander deeper into the island, the tension intensifies as they find a blighted landscape and deserted villages.  It is not long before mythology seeps into reality as Isa’s map of Joya reveals hidden mysteries, inhuman teeth are found and sudden attacks are made, but are the attackers the feared Banished or the return of something more terrible?  Something the islanders believe are mere stories, stories of the Fire Demon Yote tying the island to the earth, stories of his ferocious fire dogs …

As the search for Lupe becomes more desperate and hopeless, the tension escalates masterfully… my heart really was pounding as I raced through the action, and felt the emotion of Isa and Lupe as they fight for their own survival … and the freedom of the island.

I really admired Isa who is not an infallible friend, and is prepared to accept when she has made a misjudgement, and actually do something about it, despite her fear.  I loved her courage, determination, and her deep-rooted belief in the mythology of the island.  The Governor also intrigued me: he is clearly cruel and a despot, yet obtains a certain level of redemption in his later choices, although these cannot excuse his tyranny and his failure to help the people of Joya. 

I adored this incredibly powerful story of redemption, sacrifice and remembrance, interwoven with a marvellous myth, and bursting with tension and terrifying action.  Kiran Millwood Hargrave is a must-read author whose writing captures my imagination and holds me spellbound every time I pick up one of her books.

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

Yes. There is a witch in the woods. There has always been a witch. Will you stop your fidgeting for once? My stars! I have never seen such a fidgety child. No, sweetheart, I have not seen her. No one has. Not for ages. We’ve taken steps so that we will never see her. Terrible steps.

Any ideas?

This is on my TBR. I love books with witches, and especially books about good witches. Goodreads synopsis:

Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the forest, Xan, is kind and gentle. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster named Glerk and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon, Fyrian. Xan rescues the abandoned children and delivers them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest, nourishing the babies with starlight on the journey. 

One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight, filling the ordinary child with extraordinary magic. Xan decides she must raise this enmagicked girl, whom she calls Luna, as her own. To keep young Luna safe from her own unwieldy power, Xan locks her magic deep inside her. When Luna approaches her thirteenth birthday, her magic begins to emerge on schedule–but Xan is far away. Meanwhile, a young man from the Protectorate is determined to free his people by killing the witch. Soon, it is up to Luna to protect those who have protected her–even if it means the end of the loving, safe world she’s always known.

The Maker of Monsters is a terrifically fast-paced, action-packed story, with a wonderfully realised cast of characters, which kept me engrossed throughout. 

Brat works for his master, the banished Lord Macawber, in his castle on an island, isolated from any other human contact.  His only companions are two of his master’s failed creations, Sherman and Tingle.  Brat’s master is driven by an all-consuming need for revenge, disguised as a desire to rescue his daughter, which makes him cruel and unable to see the terrible mistake he is making … until it is too late!

The horrific, yet somehow pitiful, monsters that are created through Lord Macawber’s magical ability all have one single-minded goal:  the destruction of mankind.  Brat must overcome his paralysing fear of water in order to warn the citizens of the Domed City.  The monster Army’s pursuit of Brat and his friends, led by the aptly named Wrath, is genuinely tense and scary.  Just when it appears all hope is lost, an unlikely rescuer appears.  Molly is a wonderful character, readily accepting of Brat and his companions.  She is brave, loyal and full of a sense of adventure.

And I’d rather die trying than live wondering what might have happened if I hadn’t tried …

Brat, Molly, Tingle and Sherman find themselves in a terrifying race for their lives … to get to the Domed City before it is overrun by the monsters.  A real sense of danger permeates the action as the monsters close in, which kept me on the edge of my seat, willing the companions to succeed, against all the odds. 

I adored both Tingle and Sherman who are incredibly loyal, brave and affectionate with hearts of gold, proving themselves to be true friends and giving Brat the courage he needs at some difficult moments.  They also inject the narrative with some humour to lift some of the darker parts.  Brat is an incredibly sympathetic character who I absolutely adored.  He has a real sense of justice and is determined to right the wrongs of his Master, no matter the cost to himself.  Even though he is full of self-doubt and can’t see his own courage through his fear, Molly can:

Brave is doing something even when you’re frightened.

I found the themes in this story, including the misuse of power by those in authority, denial of freedom, the destructive force of revenge and the power of friendship to overcome adversity, incredibly thought-provoking:  they would make for excellent discussion.  Who are the real monsters in this story?

This is an immensely exciting story with plenty of suspense and nail-biting moments.  A definite must-read for fans of action-packed adventure with an expertly placed sprinkling of humour at just the right moments!