Fallen Star Stories

The last post featured those books out for the teen/YA readers among us. In this post I am focusing on the intermediate reading years, sometimes referred to as confident readers or 8 to 12 (roughly). I don't like to put age limits on books because, frankly, a good book is a good book. No one should feel they have to apologise for reading something 'beneath their age level.' But that is a discussion for another day. So here are some fantastic books out now or coming out in the next few months that I recommend. Newly published now, Jake Atlas and the Tomb of the Emerald Snake by Rob Lloyd Jones is an incredible adventure tale that takes us to Cairo. Plumped as "Indiana Jones meets Mission Impossible" , add a little James Bond and they are not wrong. Packed full of  danger and excitement, this fast-paced, high-octane read is my recommendation for Dubray Books Childrens Book of the Month. Jake and his twin sister Pan find themselves suddenly thrust into a world of...

After the craziness of the holiday, as the kids go back to school, in the book world our attentions turn to "so...what's next?" So, very briefly, I wanted to share a quick glance at some of the brand-new-out-now and soon-to-be-released titles that I am particularly excited about. It looks like it will be a very good year for books! I have already put up a few reviews for books released at the beginning of this month, but they bear mentioning again. There are fantastic books that slipped in as we were doing the beginning of the year clean-up....so to speak.... and are ready to kick-start 2017 into a whirlwind of great book activity. Let's start with the teen/YA group. Mafiosa by Catherine Doyle is the third and final in the Blood for Blood trilogy. A powerful and turbulent story that finds Sophie now under the protection of the infamous Falcone family and trying to prove her loyalty to them. Caught between 2 brothers vying for her affections and bent on revenge fo...

NUI Galway Children's Studies Programme is holding another fantastic seminar. On Thursday, 19 January, Professor Peter Hunt from Cardiff University will address: Critical Approaches to Children’s Literature From Librarianship to Childhood Studies via Liberal Humanism, High Theory, Post-Theory, Metamodernism and Pooh Corner  The seminar will be held in room GO11, James Hardiman Library commencing at 5pm. "Over the past 50 years, children’s literature has become a vibrant and important part of university-level studies worldwide. Approaches to it have been as diverse and lively (and problematic) as the subject-matter, having to deal with multi-media texts, the responses of non-peer audiences, fundamental issues of cultural, historical and literary values and psychological, educational and political influences. This lecture provides an outline of the fascinating and entertaining directions which the criticism of texts for children has taken." If you are inter...

I am going to add a few more to my list of favourites. While yesterday, I focused on books that were largely 'middle-grade'/ages 8-12, today, I will complete the list for those not in that category. I begin with Picture Books...a particular passion of mine. We have a tendency to let go of picture books far too early. I think, as we grow older, we should read more, not less picture books. They give a clear, unvarnished view of the world and are very tricky to create. I believe that our visual literacy suffers because of the desire to put 'real books' in our hands. Nothing is more real than a picture book. No prizes for guessing what my Picture Book of the Year is; it has to go to A CHILD OF BOOKS by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. A clear, eloquent tale of a young girl who 'sails across a sea of words' (quite literally) to meet a somewhat unsure and reluctant young boy and take him along on an amazing journey. In the end, he himself becomes A Child of Books...