Pocket Jeunesse have done marvellous covers for my Dragon Orb books. This is the final one, released on 3 June. I glanced at the amazon.fr rating for it the other day and was delighted to see it was inside the top 500 (477 to be precise, not that I’m obsessive or anything!) which is a [...]
Category > Brilliant Books!
Reading Fest 7 – Wishful Thinking
I don’t know what the monsters have been feeding Ali, but her imagination has been on fire recently. Perhaps she’s got a secret source of fudge and has been living it up in a dizzy sugar high behind our backs, or maybe there has been a bit of prayer and divine inspiration going on. Whatever [...]
Reading Fest 6 – The Hunger Games
Now this is what I call a story! Set in a post-apocalyptic future, The Hunger Games is a Battle Royale style story of 24 young people fighting to the death in a huge ‘Big Brother’ style arena that brought back memories of the Arnold Swarzenegger film, The Running Man. When her younger sister is randomly [...]
Reading Fest 5 – Troubadour
Mary Hoffman is another of my favourite authors for young adults, though she writes in a different style to most that I read. Troubadour will probably appeal more to girls than boys, as it is essentially a love story, though anyone who enjoys historical fiction will find it fascinating. It is the year 1208 and [...]
Free eBook – by ME!
While having a sort through my hard drive recently, I came across one of my early attempts at writing a children’s book. It was written about 2 years before I started work on INVISIBLE FIENDS, and it’s a competely different style of story. Where Invisibe Fiends is a horror story with some funny bits, this [...]
Reading Fest 4 – The London Eye Mystery
What a great book! Clever plotting, great characters, good pace and a setting that most are familiar with makes this a gem amongst books for young people. It will have equal appeal with girls and boys as this baffling mystery story unfolds through the unique viewpoint of Ted, a boy with Aspergers. Ted has a [...]
Reading Fest 3 – Here Lies Arthur
As anyone who follows this site will know, I consider Philip Reeve to be of at least demi-god status amongst writers, if not higher. He is one of the few authors I’ve come across whose work appears original, gripping and beautifully written. The Carnegie Medal winning book Here Lies Arthur is no exception. The story [...]
The Glory of Blaise
One of my favourite authors, Peter O’Donnell, died this month. UK newspaper The Guardian gave him a nice obituary which you can read here. I’d like to mark his passing by recommending to you what are, no kidding, the very best action thrillers I’ve ever read. Ever since my friend Simon introduced me to the [...]
The many faces of Raggy Maggie
Those of you who read my first Invisible Fiends book, Mr Mumbles, will possibly have read the sneak preview from book 2 which is tucked away at the back. Book 2 is called Raggy Maggie, and sees Kyle pitted against… um… a five-year-old girl with a dolly. But the girl, Caddie, is no ordinary five-year-old, [...]
The Way of Pain
Pain is, frankly, something that I prefer not to experience for myself, if I can avoid it. But when I’m safely ensconced in a comfy reading spot I seem to have no problem with it being inflicted on other people…! Tom Yamada, central character of new series The 5 Lords of Pain (published by Barrington [...]
