Fallen Star Stories

Today marks my second blog tour post of the year. Welcome to Mask of the Gods by Karen Furk; the first book in The Mask Chronicles is a unique and multi-layered fantasy. Are you ready for this? MASK OF THE GODS (The Mask Chronicles 1) author: Karen Furk Storm Rider Publishing (7 January 2019) ISBN: 9781912569014 Soul Demons live by taking the souls of the living. And one has just appeared in the Storm Lands in search of a mysterious artifact; the Mask of the Gods surrounded by legend and hidden in a location unbeknownst to all. The demon is held captive for a time by Haydans' father, Diego. While the demon and Diego toy with each other mercilessly, Hayden is quickly evicted to the human world and to the protection and safe-keeping of his chosen one and his warrior. But soon, his manipulative grandmother arrives with a scheme to recover the power and glory of her former life in the Elven Realm; and Haydan is paramount to her plans. Lavinia casually lures Haydan and his wa...

Welcome to my contribution celebrating The Hairy Hand by Robin Bennett! Over the next week, you can find quite a number of posts for this wonderful middle grade book presented by Rachel's Random Resources. So, let's get started! THE HAIRY HAND author: Robin Bennett Monster Books (19 January 2019) ISBN: 9781999884444 Septimus Plog always knew he was very different from everyone else that lived in the village of Nowhere. Even his own parents made him feel like a complete stranger. His name was different; he thought differently; he wanted to be happy when no one else seemed to care and...he could read. Now THAT was different. One day, a mysterious letter arrived for Sept; a letter that would change his life...eventually. The letter sent him off on a long, dangerous journey and led him to an inheritance from his Uncle, a great and powerful wizard and (more to the point, as far as his parents were concerned) a very wealthy man. Sept arrives back home after facing weird and ...

That's right...it's nearly time for World Book Day! In just a few short weeks, schools, libraries, bookshops and literacy groups will be joining together on Thursday, 7 March to celebrate the joy of reading and the pleasure of books with children everywhere, just as we have done for the last 22 years. And to encourage children to explore the wonderful world of books, schools are provided with special World Book Day Tokens to give to their students so that each child can have a book of their own, chosen from the special selection of World Book Day books released every year. (One token=one World Book Day book...so, that's a book for free!) This may sound like a very simple idea, and it is...but it is also an incredible opportunity, given the fact that so many children don't have access to books at home. I can assure you that the most powerful way of getting children into reading is to offer them the chance to own their own books. It makes all the difference...

In 2017, Angie Thomas burst into the book world with her pivotal YA novel, The Hate U Give . Both amazing and gut-wrenching, this book is now highly acclaimed, award-winning and has been made into a film. THUG quickly became one of the most essential, spectacular reads seen in a long time. Now...in just a few short weeks, we will have the release of the highly anticipated second novel from this new voice of a generation, On The Come Up and it does not disappoint. On The Come Up tells the story of 16-year-old Bri. She dreams of being one of the greatest underground rappers of all time. But Bri has quite a battle ahead of her. Living in a poor black neighbourhood; the daughter of a great street rapper who was murdered just before he hit it big , a mother recovering from drug-addiction; Bri is label as 'trouble' at school. She is fighting prejudice in the community, racism on a national scale, old-fashioned ideas within her own family and poverty. Her mother loses her job, th...

John Burningham; 27 April 1936-4 January 2019 It is with great sorrow that we learned yesterday of the death of John Burningham, aged 82. He passed away on Friday, 4 January 2019 after contracting pneumonia, his literary agent confirmed. John received a lifetime achievement award in 2018 (jointly with his wife, Helen Oxenbury) from the childrens' book charity, Booktrust; having written and illustrated dozens of childrens' books; making a contribution to childrens' literature that is simply irreplaceable. His very first picture book, Borka: the Adventures of a Goose With No Feathers, saw him receive the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1963. He won that accolade again in 1970 for Mr Gumpy's Outing. His work always delighted and inspired many others. Judith Kerr (author of The Tiger Who Came To Tea, et al) credits his picture book Humbert, about a working horse that pulls the Lord Mayors' coach with inspiring her own illustrious career. She has said it remains one of t...

Happy 2019 to you all! And welcome back to Fallen Star Stories. I want to thank you all for 'tuning in' and I do hope you have enjoyed the reviews and posts. I started Fallen Star Stories in 2010. At the time, I was working for Dubray Books Galway as their childrens books specialist. I had a great team of young reviewers at the time. They would read books (yes, I always read them first) and give me their honest reviews. I believe if you want to know whether a childrens' book is good, ask the children. They know exactly what they like. Recommending books, reading to school classes, bringing groups in for events and (especially) the World Book Day Extravaganza weeks were so exciting and really helped a lot of children become enthusiastic about books and reading that I really wanted to reach a larger audience. Also, reviewing books for Inis Magazine and other sites was important to me. So....someone said 'blog' to me and I thought, why not? And Fallen Star Storie...