Bookbabblers has Jenna Burtenshaw, author of ‘Wintercraft’ sharing her thoughts on reading with us…

Imagine there is a door in your house that changes shape every day.

Sometimes it is tall, gothic and black.  Sometimes it is blood red, with a sword propped against it and sounds of battle echoing from the other side.  Other times it is green and welcoming with forest creepers reaching in from whatever lies in the wild place beyond.

This door exists in every person’s world, but many people choose to ignore it. Like the Narnian wardrobe inviting Lucy Pevensie to step through its dusty coats for the very first time, the door stands patiently, waiting for us. Its appearance changes to match the mood of the person in front of it and the place it leads to alters all the time.  It is the door into both the scientific world of the future and the dinosaur-filled past; to worlds of magic and adventure, sorcery, history, impossibility, and every imaginable place in between.

Imagination is the only key needed to open this door.  With it, we can step through and discover new worlds of our own, or we can use books as our guides, leading us along paths and into stories that other readers have walked through before.

Whenever we pick up a book and read its first few lines, we step through that door and let the words carry us completely into another world.  Books invite readers to explore unlimited places and times.  They lead us down streets we have never seen and introduce us to fantastic characters that never would have existed until someone decided to write them down.

Books challenge us, excite us and scare us.  They share knowledge with us, and people who died many years ago can reach out from the past via their inky pages.  Books free our minds from the restrictions of everyday life, teach us how our own world could be made better and show us how people cope when life takes a turn for the worst.

Books have always been an important part of my life.  I remember sleeping with a book under my pillow when I was younger and reading by torchlight under the bedcovers during the night.  Most of them were adventure books, mysteries and fantasy stories. Even now, years later, my tastes have remained very much the same.

My writing space is lined with bookshelves and I love picking one out and curling up in a chair ready to head off through the imaginary door.  Reading is a kind of magic that many people take for granted.  Words really are just black marks on a page, but once you can decipher them an unlimited wealth of knowledge and experience is there to be explored.

When we give our imagination free rein and step through that door into the unknown, I think we learn a little bit about ourselves too along the way.  Give one book to ten people and most of them will see the world within it a little differently.  Few will agree exactly what a character looks like and each reader will relate to those characters in a different way.  This is because books allow the reader to remain in control.  Unlike film or television, where one view of a character or place is assumed to be right, books allow readers to draw those people and places using ingredients from our own lives and our own experiences.  Writers and storytellers show us glimpses of worlds they have created and invite us to fill the spaces in between.

I still sleep with a book or two near my bed and there are certain books from my childhood that I will never part with – stories like 101 Dalmations by Dodie Smith.  Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl.

I can’t remember a time when I couldn’t read, and certainly can’t imagine a time when I will ever stop. Reading is a fascinating and infinitely rewarding experience.  The imaginary door is a permanent and welcome fixture in my world and I am happy to step through it as often as I can.

Thanks, Jenna. Is this how all Bookbabblers feel about reading? Share your thoughts with us on this great post.

Wintercraft is in our shop now, and you can find out more about Jenna and Wintercraft here, and follow her on Twitter here.

Girl Meets Cake – Susie Day

Everybody loves Heidi’s boyfriend – Gingerbread Ed.

He’s deliciously perfect – a gorgeous, guitar-playing, motorbike-riding poet. There’s one tiny problem -he doesn’t exist. Heidi invented him in an emergency. Now her friends are messaging him with their deepest secrets…

Dating an imaginary biscuit can be surprisingly dangerous.

First of all: The Cover. I really like the real gingerbread people on the cover, it’s very cute. I’m not too sure about the font of the title, though, I find it a bit hard to read; but the colours are cool and they definitely stand out – that’s always a good thing! I like the little love heart sweet on the cover, too. It’s keeping with the sweets theme but it’s also a LOVE heart, so it ties in with the story as well.

I love the idea of The Little Leaf coffee shop where Heidi works. Her boss’s name is Betsy and she has a teenage son called Teddy although his real name is Rupert. I love this mini storyline, it works so well weaved in with the main story. And you’ll NEVER guess what happens at the end!! ….Obviously I’m not going to tell you what happened, although it’s SO tempting because it’s SO good!

The characters are funny and realistic, especially Heidi. Ludo, Heidi’s best friend, does get a bit annoying after a while…I don’t think she’s as realistic as some of the other characters, and her random shouts of OMG!!! while funny at first, do get a little annoying towards the end.

A sweet thing (excuse the bad joke, there) about this book is that at the beginning of every chapter, there is a funny recipe for i.e “Recipe for an Imaginary Boyfriend” or “Recipe for the End of the World”. I think they are really cool and definitely something I have never seen in a book before – very unique.

Overall I’d say this novel is amazing and a must-read for anyone who loves a bit of humour. I give it a rating of 5/5 – Susie, you are now one of my new favourite authors!!

Wow – that’s quite a review, Amber! We’ve added Girl Meets Cake to our shop now. Find out more about Susie on her website here and you can follow Susie on Twitter here. We also have a signed copy of Girl Meets Cake to giveaway to a UK based Bookbabbler! Yes, yes, we spoil you…! If you want a chance to win it, just comment on this post, retweet it or ‘like’ it on our Facebook page – simple! We’ll pick a winner Monday 11am – good luck!

We thought a little update might be in order about now. We know you like to know what’s happening here, so here it is:

We’re now numbering 332 Twitter followers, 218 Facebook fans and 148 website members. A great start to our group, and hope you’re all enjoying it? We now want to break through the magic 1000 mark, so that’s the next milestone we’ve set ourselves. As such, we have lots more ‘spreading the word’ planned here, and we’d like to think some of you guys are telling people about us, too. If you want to pop a poster up about us somewhere, just email us and we can send you one to print off. Of course, as a thank you, we’re sure to be able to arrange a few prizes when we break through the 1000 mark!!

So, what are we working on now? We’ve quite a few plans to further develop and bring you even greater things over the next few months, such as:

Growing our review panel: We’re starting to get quite a few books through to us now to review, so not only does that mean that we’ll be sharing more reviews with you, it also means we’ll probably need more people on our Bookbabbler review panel soon. If you’d like to be considered when that time comes, just send in a review on something you’ve recently read, along with your age and what books you like, letting us know you would like to be part of the panel. We’ll get back in touch with people when we feel we need more reviewers, though it’s looking likely to be sooner rather than later.

Developing our For Little Ones page: We added this page in from the start, but haven’t really worked on it since launch. We’d now like to regularly feature books for younger children, both old and new titles. We’ll be looking for a parents review panel for this one, so if you’re interested, just drop us an email. Equally, any publishers can add us to their review list for younger readers, too, now.

Author in Residence: We plan to have an author in residence each month, and no, that doesn’t mean they have to come and live with us! Said author will be part of the babble that month however they like, getting involved by writing guest posts, Q&A’s, featuring reviews of their book(s), extracts from their books, commenting on blog posts, signed book giveaways, having a thread open in our forum for babblers to chat to them over the month and just generally getting to know them better. Hope you’re as excited as us about this idea, and authors, feel free to get in touch if you’d like to be ‘in residence’ with Bookbabblers!!

Bookbabblers Members Page: You’ve already heard a little from our review panel, so they’d be the first to be included on this page, but what about the rest of you? We want to know your favourite authors, books, hobbies, why you love to read and what you like about the Bookbabblers, so we’ll introduce members to you. We’re also thinking of running some sort of Bookbabbler awards, with those who read book of the month with us, contribute to the babble etc. having the chance to be rewarded – need to give more thought to this one, but ideas welcome!

Non-Fiction Pages: We plan to have non fiction pages, sponsored monthly by publishers, on any themes you want – cookery, gardening, football, space, dinosaurs, animals, The Vikings, dancing – anything!! The idea would be that a whole page is devoted to the theme, with the publisher/authors writing content they choose and featuring any good books related to that subject. Again, get in touch if you’ve themes you’d like to see, or if you’d like to sponsor a page. We’re looking forward to expanding into the non fiction world..!

Coming up in the next couple of weeks: So much!! This very day, we’ll be bringing you our review of Susie Day’s ‘Girl Meets Cake’, and Susie’s been kind enough to offer us a signed copy of the book for a giveaway, so look out for that later today. We also have posts from Jenna Burtenshaw, Tamsyn Murray’s Harriet Houdini, our review of The Littlest Detective books, a Q&A with Simon B Nicholson and our review of the first of The Oldmoor Orphans books, Simon Cheshire’s Saxby Smart shares his tips on how to be a detective, oh, and so many more great books being reviewed and fabulous authors dropping by. And of course, there’s bound to be a few prizes along the way!!

Quick heads up on July’s Book of the Month reads, too, so you can get your copies now. We’ll be reading ‘Gimme a Call’ by Sarah Mlynowski (thanks to Amber’s suggestion), ‘Skulduggery Pleasant’ by Derek Landy (as our reviewers Josef and Jonathan both like Derek Landy) and ‘Ballet Shoes’ by Noel Streatfeild (Amber says it’s an all time fave of hers and Bethan names Noel Streatfeild as a favourite author). We’ll bring you more details on these at the end of the month, and all are in our shop now so you can order them ready to join the July babble!

Happy reading!

As promised, today ‘The Moonstone Legacy’ blog tour is stopping by at Bookbabblers, so we bring you our review and our Q&A with the authors..

Our Review:

“In a sacred cave high in the mountains of northern India, a white-haired hermit sits cross-legged, and signs his final testament: “George Abercrombie, 1874…”

In present-day England, fourteen year old Lizzy Abercrombie’s mother dies in a tragic accident on the full moon. But was it really an accident? Lizzy discovers that her death may be linked to a mysterious family curse. Determined to find the truth, her quest takes her from a splendid Anglo-Indian mansion on the Yorkshire moors to India, where she uncovers her ancestor’s terrible past and a stolen inheritance. But her discoveries put her in mortal danger from a ruthless enemy.”

This book is aimed at young adults and is a really great read. The authors manage to keep you in suspense about the outcome of the book right until the very end and the climax of the book is quite action packed. I found it extremely interesting to try and figure out exactly what happened to the mysterious George Abercrombie and how his past actions are affecting Lizzy in the present day.

The best bit about this book is definitely the end, and the last few paragraphs open up a whole new mystery, which I think is going to be unveiled in a second book, which I now can’t wait to read.

From the Authors:

What was it about Collins’ ‘The Moonstone’ that tempted you to write this book?

It has the perfect ingredients which we could remix for our East / West mystery adventure story.

How does it link in with The Moonstone?

The last line of the original is “What will be the next adventure of the Moonstone? Who can tell?” We start from there!

If you were to use just 3 words to describe The Moonstone Legacy, what would they be?

The Moonstone Legacy!

As the book’s the first in a trilogy, what progress is there on the next 2 and when will they be out?

We’re hoping to get Book Two out within a year as it’s nearly finished. Book Three is under construction.

As you co-write, how do you share the writing?

Plot thoroughly together, then draft, draft and redraft togather on the same laptop.

And finally, who are your favourite authors?

Wilkie Collins, Vikram Seth and Anon (The Bhagavad Gita, the Bible and countless others…!)

All other tour dates are listed on our post 29.05.10.

We thought we’d let you know a little about some of our review panel, thought it keeps growing all of the time! Along with these guys, Jocelyn (Big Bookbabbler!!) reviews books from picture books all the way through to YA lit, we have our Parents Panel over on our ‘For little Ones’ page and we’ll keep you updated with any new regular reviewers.

Iffath

My Favourite Authors: Oh! Tricky one! I have millions of favourite authors, mainly because it changes every time I finish a really good book (which is most of the time!!). Some I’m really enjoying at the moment include: Mary Hooper, Jenny Han, Vanessa Curtis, Rosemary Clement-Moore and Heidi R Kling

Other Favourite Things: It must be quite obvious now..but I loveloveLOVE reading!! Writing has always been there for me..and talking..I could go on forever..PROCRASTINATION ROCKS MY WORLD! TheVampireDiaries & Twilight is also a HUGE part in my life. Mostly Edward Cullen.

If you could be any fictional character, who would it be? Bella Swan*ahem*SoICouldKissEdwardCullen*ahem* just joking. Okay, maybe I’m not. Or maybe I’d like to be Edward Cullen..hmmm..he sparkles, I *could* sparkle, what more could you want?

Anna

My Favourite Authors: Noel Streatfield, Kate Brian, Maureen Johnson and Gabrielle Zevin

Other Favourite Things: Watching my favourite films such as Amelie and Fame. I also enjoy playing the piano.

If you could be any fictional character, who would it be?: I’d be Scarlett Martin from Suite Scarlett and Scarlett Fever because she lives in a hotel in NYC..

Jean

My Favourite Authors: Gemma Malley, Sarah Dessen, Rachel Ward, Jandy Nelson, Jim Carrington, Delphine de Vigan

Other Favourite Things: I am obsessed with Japan and it’s culture! I am also a fan of cutting out pages and sticking them on my wall, drawing in my sketchbook, finding Classics to read, games (Zelda, Sims 2) and watching awesome comedy programmes (IT Crowd, Big Bang Theory, Mock The Week etc.)

If you could be any fictional character, who would it be? This is a hard one.. but I would really love to be Nonie from Sophia Bennett’s Threads. She gets to run a show at Fashion Week! What’s not to love? I’d also like to be Crow from Threads as well… Being able to create such amazing pieces of fashion I would die for!

Aly

My Favorite Authors: Cassandra Clare simply becuase she created the most fantastic series ever! as well as LJ smith and Simone Elkeles & Becca Fitzpatrick

Other Favourite Things: I really enjoy writing in my spare time even though I’m a reading junkie, I try to make that extra time simply for writing because I actually find it therapeutic. Oh, and I need music with me at all times. My favourite movie of all time would be Titanic becuase it was so amazing and romantic… sad, heartbreaking all mixed into one!

If you could be any fictional character, who would it be? I would really want to be Sayuri from Memoirs of a Geisha although I know she faces great hardship, I found her utterly amazing and loved her character.

Bethan

My Favourite Authors: Noel Streatfeild, Enid Blyton (& Pamela Cox continuations) and Adele Geras

Other Favourite Things: My favourite films are Ella Enchanted and The Sound of Music. My favourite TV show is Horrid Henry and I enjoy cycling and dancing.

If you could be any fictional character, who would it be? I’d be Fatty from Enid Blyton’s Mystery stories because he’s so great at solving the mysteries and he knows so many detective tricks.

Josef

My Favourite Authors: Tanya Landman, Derek Landy, And Jeremy Strong.

Other Favourite Things: I enjoy the movie The Lion King, and I’m a BIG Doctor Who fan. Of course, I’m a big fan of reading, and I also enjoy writing little stories containing just up to 3 chapters.

If you could be any fictional character, who would it be? Hmmn. Hard one. I would like to be the character Graham, in The Poppy Field series by Tanya Landman.

Amber

My Favourite Authors: I have lots of favourite authors – I really love novels by Cathy Cassidy, Luisa Plaja, Keris Stainton, Holly Webb and also Tamsyn Murray. I have tons of favourite authors – too many to list here!

Other Favourite Things: My favourite movie is Wild Child, it’s really good. I have two favourite actresses; Emma Roberts and Miley Cyrus. They both care for the environment and they’re just so down to earth. They rock! My favourite TV programme is Eastenders. I don’t tend to watch TV during the day anymore, I only switch it on for Eastenders!

If you could be any fictional character, who would it be? Ooh hard question! Ummm….well I think it would be cool to be magical Rose from Rose by Holly Webb. It’d also be really cool to be Jo from Split By a Kiss by Luisa Plaja. I just can’t choose!

Jonathan

My Favourite Authors: I don’t have one favourite author, but I especially enjoy science fiction and fantasy books, like those written by Derek Landy, Terry Prachett and the joint authors Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell.

Other Favourite Things: I don’t have a TV, but I really enjoy following Doctor Who on the iPlayer.

If you could be any fictional character, who would it be? It would be Skulduggery Pleasant from the Derek Landy books.  He’s a brilliant detective, he has amazing magical powers and he can never be killed because he is already dead!

Ooh – lots of talking points there! It is tricky to choose just a few favourite authors and characters. Have your say and let us know your favourites and who you’d be – we’d love to hear from you!

How’s everyone doing? The ‘book of the month’ reads going well? A few of you have let us know what you’re reading by voting in our poll, so do all tell us. There’s not many of you having your say in the forum yet, so hope you are all just too busy reading!!

We’ve been looking at all the great new books out there – so many to read and so little time! Though we love to bring new books to your attention, we wouldn’t want to overlook the many classics and favourites that we love, and there really are many!, so we thought we’d just bring you five at a time. We’ve used Amazon’s descriptions here to give you a feel for the story, if you’ve not read them yet…

Charlotte’s Web – E B White

The tale of how a little girl named Fern, with the help of a friendly spider, saved her pig Wilbur from the usual fate of nice fat little pigs.

Matilda – Roald Dahl

Five-year old Matilda longs for her parents to be good and loving and understanding, but they are none of these things. They are perfectly horrid to her. Matilda invents a game of punishing them each time they treat her badly and she soon discovers she has supernatural powers.

The Borrowers – Mary Norton

The Borrowers live in the secret places of quiet old houses; behind the mantelpiece, inside the harpsichord, under the kitchen clock. They own nothing, borrow everything, and think that human beings were invented just to do the dirty work. Arrietty’s father, Pod, was an expert Borrower. He could scale curtains using a hatpin, and bring back a doll’s teacup without breaking it. Girls weren’t supposed to go borrowing but as Arrietty was an only child her father broke the rule, and then something happened which changed their lives. She made friends with the human boy living in the house…

The St Clare’s books – Enid Blyton

School life has never been so splendid as in these editions of the classic series, St Clare’s. Full of dilemmas and school pranks, this best-selling series keeps young readers looking forward to each and every term at St Clare’s. Start with ‘The Twins’ as this is the first in the six part series.

The Animals of Farthing Wood –  Colin Dann

Farthing Wood is being bulldozed and a drought means the animals no longer have anywhere to live or drink. Fox, Badger, Toad, Tawny Owl, Mole and the other animals band together and leave their ancestral home and set off to move to a far-away nature reserve. Their journey is full of adventure and fraught with disasters: a fire, a storm, a treacherous river crossing and a hunt. The animals must unite in adversity and in doing so they learn about each other’s habits and limitations.

We’d highly recommend all of these, so if you can get copies from your library, give them a go. We have also added them to our shop, under featured/reviewed. Read them and tell us what you think. Feel free to let us know what would have to be included in your ‘favourites’ list, too, by commenting on this post or telling us in the forum. We’ll keep popping up with more old favourites from time to time, so do tell us what you think we should be featuring.

Coming up soon here at Bookbabblers – our stop on The Moonstone Legacy blog tour, Harriet Houdini’s hopping by to chat, get to know more about our review panel and read their reviews, our Q&A with ‘The Oldmoor Orphans’ author Simon B Nicholson, signed book giveaways…the list goes on!! Oh, and we’re debating our July Book of the Month choices this week, so have your say and help us to choose.

Until next time, happy reading!

Bookbabblers caught up with Helen Grant, author of The Vanishing of Katharina Linden and The Glass Demon, recently:

From your childhood, what book(s)stand out for you?

One of my favourite books was The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who also created Sherlock Holmes). My father had a paperback copy of it on his bookshelf. It looked really exciting – it had some explorers being threatened by a monstrous dinosaur on the front! I begged and begged to be allowed to read it but my father said that if I read it when I was too young it would “spoil” the book for me. Finally when I was 10 he said that I could read any of his books. I went straight to the bookshelf and got down The Lost World!

I was very fond of adventure stories. I also loved She by H.Rider Haggard, about a lost tribe in Africa ruled by an immortal princess. It’s quite an old book now (it was published in 1887). When I was a child I had a lot of the books my parents had owned in the 1940s and 1950s so I read a lot of old- fashioned adventures!

How did The Glass Demon idea come to you?

The Glass Demon was actually inspired by the fascinating true story of the Steinfeld stained glass.

Steinfeld Abbey in Germany had a fabulous series of sixteenth-century stained glass windows, many of them created by the master craftsman Gerhard Remsich (who is supposed to have created the Allerheiligen glass in the book).

Several times in their history the Steinfeld windows had to be taken out of the window frames and hidden, becausethere was a war on and they could have been damaged, or in one case to let the cloister dry out. When the abbey closed in 1802 they were sold and vanished altogether. For a century nobody knew where they were.

In 1904 the famous ghost-story writer Montague Rhodes James was cataloguing the stained glass in the chapelofAshridge House in Hertfordshire, and realised that most of it came from Steinfeld. The name of the abbey was written on one of the windows in Latin. He was inspired by the glass to write a story called “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas,” which is set in Steinfeld. A German priest called Father Nikola Reinartz heard about the story and when he was in England for a conference he contacted M.R.James to find out where the glass was. He was then able to visit it at Ashridge. He was thrilled that the lost glass had been found at last.

The Steinfeld glass was auctioned at Sotheby’s in the 1920s and sold for the equivalent of about ?800,000 in today’s money. Most of it is now in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

I found this story fascinating for several reasons. I would never have believed that something as fragile as stained glass could be taken out of the window frames and transported to another country without being broken. Also, I couldn’t help thinking how amazing it would be if there were another set of similar stained glass windows still hidden somewhere, waiting to be found. It would be rare and almost priceless. That’s what inspired the The Glass Demon.

Why the name Lin Fox, and how do characters take shape?

Lin’s name is actually a shortened version of her full name (which is revealed at the end of the book); I chose to give her that name because it is rather revealing about the relationship between her and Tuesday. Tuesday is quite pretentious (which is why she chose the name) and Lin resents it. I chose the surname Fox because I think it sounds short, sharp and quite cool. Lin’s father Oliver is very concerned with his image; if his surname had been something unglamorous-sounding I think he would have changed it.

It’s hard to explain how the characters take shape. I don’t feel conscious of “thinking them up”. I feel as though they have an existence of their own; I just describe them, the way they are. When I was working on The Vanishing of Katharina Linden (my first novel), one of the first publishers I spoke to suggested some changes to the book which didn’t really fit Pia’s (the heroine’s) character. I had a very clear image in my head of Pia shaking her head and then walking sadly away. It was as though she was speaking for herself.

We know you enjoy having folklore running through your stories – what about it appeals to you?

I like the idea of retelling real folk tales because they are a precious link to the past. Many of them are also brilliantly good stories. “Bonschariant”, the “glass demon” in the book, is based on a legend about Count Sigebodo, who built Steinfeld Abbey. He had a foreign servant whose name was so difficult to pronounce that the Count called him “Bonschariant” (which means “the good servant”) instead. Bonschariant was actually a demon, and Count Sigebodo eventually realised that, after Bonschariant cured his wife of a deadly disease by using magic. He built the abbey and put a large cross on the highest point, to ward the demon off. I liked the name “Bonschariant”. I also thought it would be fun to use if anyone googled the name and found out that it was a real legend – it gives the book authenticity and makes it just that bit more creepy!

What are you currently working on?

I’m currently working on my third novel. It’s also set in the Eifel region of Germany, like my first two books, and like the others it is inspired by real history and legends, in this case the notorious witch trials that took place in the Eifel. The story is about a group of bored teenagers who decide to try to hex someone using black magic – and the person really dies! At first they are horrified but after a while they start to think that perhaps the person’s death was coincidence so they try again…

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

It’s wonderful being able to work at home. If one of my kids is sick and can’t go to school, I just don’t work that day (or I put a DVD on for them and work anyway!). I can take a day off when I feel like it, and I can take my holidays when I like. I suppose many self-employed people could say the same – but I also love writing itself; I can’t imagine a better job than making up stories! It doesn’t really feel like work.

Which current children/YA authors do you (or your children) most enjoy?

I really like Michelle Magorian’s books. I have read Goodnight, Mr.Tom loads of times. It’s a wonderful book, set during the Second World War, about a crusty old man who manages to find room in his heart for an unhappy child.

My son really likes the Wimpy Kid books by Jeff Kinney and my daughter is completely crazy about the Warrior Cats series by Erin Hunter. I’ve read the first Warrior Cats book and I thought it was good, too – it’s about a domestic cat who feels the call of the wild. But I’m not sure I could read every single book (there are over 20 books plus manga cartoons!).

And finally, let us in on 3 of your passions.

Exploring old buildings is one of them! I love visiting old castles and churches. Sometimes I write articles about them. I once went to the south of France to visit a particularly beautiful old cathedral, and I also went to Jutland in Denmark to look at the old houses in the town of Viborg. I had read some ghost stories which were set in those two places, and I wanted to find out what the locations were really like.

I love to learn foreign languages. French was my second language and I was absolutely terrible at it until, at the age of 13, I went to stay with a French-speaking family in Belgium for a month. When I arrived I could barely understand a word but when I got back I was fluent. I’d heard nothing but French for four weeks! Since then I have also learnt German and am now learning Dutch, because I live in Flanders. I get a tremendous kick out of being able to speak another language. I suppose it’s because I’m a completely compulsive communicator. I put this down to the fact that I come from a family of four children and it was difficult to make myself heard!

My final passion is a totally disreputable one. I absolutely love disaster movies! Don’t ask me why; I’m not a pessimistic person. I couldn’t wait for 2012 to come out in the cinema, and I also loved The Day After Tomorrow and The Core. Perhaps it’s the grand scale of the destruction that appeals – I like a bit of drama.

Who doesn’t, we say?! The Glass Demon is in our shop now, you can find out more about Helen at her website here, and follow her on Twitter here.

Here at Bookbabblers, we’re enjoying our book of the month reads (hope you are, too?) and are being kept busy by authors and a fair few characters stopping by….

Let us introduce Dino FC to you – ‘A wild and witty new illustrated series, which matches the buzz and action of the premiership with cool dinosaur characters. Join football anager Terry Triceratops and the Dinosaur FC squad for the first two comic kickoffs in this new illustrated series. The Premiership goes prehistoric as Dinosaur FC struggle to secure a win against Jurassic Park Rangers to avoid relegation, and then lure star striker Dazza Dimetrodon to join the team.’

We’ve managed to sneak a little look at Terry’s diary…

DAY ONE

I’m writing this from my tiny office at the foot of Mount Rumble. Looking after a struggling team in the Dino Premiership isn’t easy, but it does have its rewards. Today we had a great training session, with everyone working hard – even Jose Heterodontosaurus, who is very injury prone, and Steggy Stegoceras, who thinks he knows better than anyone else.

Now we’re in the close season it’s a great chance to try out new free kick routines and so on. Our new routine involves Eric and Albert Allosaurus not arguing over who is going to take it.

DAY TWO

Well, the World Cup isn’t so far away now. I’ll be watching every match with a crayon and paper, on the look out for any new tactics we can use or players we can sign (in my dreams!) My second-in-command, Cyril Stegosaurus, is going to be watching the matches in person. He got a cheap flight on Pterodactyl Airways and flies out next week.

DAY THREE

The heat! Very hot today. The team complained a lot cos I made them run along Fossil beach for a couple of hours. Like most dinosaurs I like fossils – they tell us a lot about the earth before us dinosaurs appeared.

Been in touch with the manager of Sauropod Celtic, trying to arrange a pre-season friendly. Wish Eric and Albert cuold be more friendly with each other – been fighting again!

DAY FOUR

Being a player manager isn’t just about football I’m afraid. Today I had to ask my chairman for some money to buy new training balls. Marcus Diplodocus lost eight during our morning penalty practice session. (three went straight into the volcano). The chairman doesn’t really like spending money so he suggested we use coconuts instead. Not a bad idea. They’d certainly toughen up our feet.

Now that you’ve seen a peek of his diary, if you’d like to keep up with Terry on Twitter, you can follow him here, and of course we’ve added the books to our shop. Last month, 2 of our lucky members won sets of Dino FC, courtesy of Usborne Children’s Books, so hope they’re enjoying them?!

Keith Brumpton is the author and illustrator of the Dino FC book series, and also the creator of CBBC’s M.I.High. He has written loads of cartoon series such as 64 Zoo Lane. He divides his time between writing for TV and writing and illustrating books. He’s had over thirty titles published to date (2 more in the Dino FC series will be published in October, so look out for those). He is also one of the Usborne authors who has written a story starter for the Usborne Young Writers’ Award www.usborne.com/youngwritersaward, that we told you about last month.

We were lucky enough to get signed copies of Daniel’s ‘Broken’ for our giveaway last month (if you’ve not read it yet, it’s brilliant- you can find it under featured/reviewed in our shop) and here’s what Daniel had to say when we caught up with him recently:

What were your favourite books and authors when you were a child?

There were very few books in our house so I just tended to read whatever I could get my hands on; usually quite dark stuff, though I remember reading The Eagle Of The Ninth (which, I think, has just been turned into a film) several times as it was so good.  Later, as a teenager, I loved The Pan Book of Horror Short Story series plus a similar range published by New English Library, then moved on to James Herbert and, finally, Stephen King.  All nice light cheerful stuff.

When did you know you wanted to write?

Since before I can remember, and long before I understood writing could be a career.

How much of Broken is based on people and situations you knew?

Little snippets definitely seeped in from my life – Mr Jeffries’ world view was quite similar to mine at the time I wrote the novel. The situation Broken’s parents go through, not knowing how to get him help, understanding the State are failing him but not being equipped to kick up the necessary fuss to get him seen by the right people, is also something I’d seen someone close to me go through.

Setting wise, it’s very personal – I live around the corner from the place where I imagine Drummond Square to be, and, in the original draft, I wrote it as if the characters lived in the same street as me (my wife made me change that…)

What was it about the story that made you confident it would be successful? (or as confident as you can ever be?!)

Successful and confident are scary words to use when it comes to trying to get your first novel published!  I don’t think either ever applied to me because I’d come close to being represented by a big-name agent once before and was pretty resigned to the fact nothing would ever happen for me, so I was just writing because I love to write and then going through all the standard motions of trying to get published with no real faith the system would work for me.  With Broken, though, six months after I’d finished the first draft, I dug it out of a drawer thinking I’d just have a quick flick through, and, reading it for the first time after such a long break, it felt like someone else’s work, and seemed to be at a much higher level than anything I’d ever written before:  I still didn’t think it would ever be published, because life’s just unfair like that a lot of the time, but it was nice to go on to prove myself wrong…

I think with any sort of writing, except, perhaps, for genre novels, it’s impossible to know if they truly work until they’re finished. For me, the few times I’ve tried to write with a specific plot in mind, the outcome has been disappointing, and usually gut-wrenchingly so.   It’s much scarier to write thinking, well, maybe something like this can happen, maybe I could throw something like that in half-way through, but the results can often be as surprising for the writer as they are for the reader, which is usually a good thing, even though you have no idea if you’re producing anything good or not until a few months after it’s finished…

What’s your new book about?

It’s called Swap and, primarily, it’s about a woman called Angela who, at the age of thirty-nine, has lived the same life her parents lived before her – one job all her life, one relationship all her life, one house all her adult life, one son to show for it all:  When her mother dies and her husband isn’t very supportive she embarks on an affair with her best friend’s husband, the repercussions of which change everyone’s lives forever.

Unlike Broken, it doesn’t really have a linear plot (it tells two parallel stories in three very distinct stages) or the same shades of right and wrong, but I really wanted to capture the way ordinary life can change so rapidly, and not through anything sensational such as murder or physical violence, just through decent people not quite valuing each other enough. I also wanted to show how an ordinary suburban woman’s life can be as shocking and riveting as anyone else’s, and just as hope-filled as well.

When you’re not writing, what do you enjoy doing?

I like to read and I write a few articles here and there, plus I critique other writers’ work for writers’ news.  Away from the keyboard I like to ski.  I surf every now and then but not very well.  I like going on bike rides as well, but only really if they involve pubs…

If you were to recommend a book(s) to children to get them hooked on reading, what would they be?

Anything they’re likely to relate to – that doesn’t mean it has to be by a modern writer reflecting life for children today, but just someone portraying character-traits and values they can recognise and identify with. I think, also, the big trick is to make books accessible but never force one on a child (or anyone, really):  I had to read Chaucer and Shakespeare at school and ended up with an Ungraded in English Literature O Level because I just couldn’t decipher what the two of them were on about, yet I’d already read Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm – which were covered in CSE – two years before we sat our exams and had written three novels of my own by the time I left school.  It was ridiculous and turned me off that sort of writing forever, whereas, probably, if I’d found my own way to them later on in life, I’d have loved them.

It might sound obvious, but I’d suggest Harry Potter.  Given how popular they are, I’d imagine no child would feel any stigma in being seen reading them. Also, as a series, they’re perfect for children because the first book is a very quick and easy read, and then each subsequent installment demands more concentration and gets progressively darker – a bit like life, really.

So that’s all from Daniel – hope you enjoyed it as much as us? We’d be hard pressed to come up with a better recommendation than Harry Potter ourselves, but let us know what you think..

It’s all go in Bookbabblers world. We’ve delighted in making prize winners out of many of you, and enjoyed putting our review panel together, too. We have also been beavering away arranging lovely authors to swing by and chat with us, so you’ll be seeing more of that soon. Oh, and in between all of this, we’ve managed to get going on our ‘book of the month’ choices. The Butterfly Lion was fab and we’re well into The Dragonfly Pool now – hope you’re enjoying them?

Onto the reading, and there’s a lot of good titles to choose from this month – always great news for book lovers! We’ve managed to choose a few for you, though you may find we pop up with a few more we like towards the end of the month, too!

The Oldmoor Orphans and the Rodent’s Revenge – Simon B Nicholson, illus. David Wyatt

Oldmoor Hotel is a rickety hotel in the middle of a bleak, foggy moor. Two children, Ernest and Daisy, manage it because their grandmother has mysteriously disappeared. But why are the guests so odd? And what draws them to this strange and isolated hotel? Rodents’ Revenge is the first in the Oldmoor Orphans six-book series and features squirrels, a mad parrot, secret passageways and a whole load of nutty goings-on.

Magical Mischief – Anna Dale

Hardbattle Books is no ordinary bookshop. Magic has settled there in every corner and over the years has brought chaos to Mr Hardbattle’s life and driven away most of his customers. His livelihood threatened, Mr Hardbattle is finally forced to take action. Together, Mr Hardbattle, the resourceful and down-to-earth Arthur and Miss Quint embark upon a quest to find a new home for the magic.

Daizy Star and the Pink Guitar – Cathy Cassidy

Meet the one and only Daizy Star! Daizy is ready to dazzle everyone with her brand-new pink guitar – maybe she’ll even find her star quality! But then Dad comes up with another crazy idea, which means swapping happy family life for milking African goats. Eeeek! Daizy needs a clever plan . . . she’s got to win the Battle of the Bands, or she can say goodbye to all her friends, sleepovers and – worst of all – custard doughnuts . . .

Girl 16: Five Star Fiasco – Sue Limb

The teenage world of Jess Jordon is looking characteristically chaotic: Mum has joined an online dating programme and has recruited Jess as advisor, while Jess’ best friend Flora has a rich new boyfriend who Jess can’t possibly keep up with. Then Jess’ own boyfriend, Fred, does something unbelievably treacherous and spineless. Jess is becoming completely fed up with the male sex, and is beginning to think that the only reliable form of male is e-mail …Never mind, there’s Valentine’s Day to look forward to. Fred is sure to make amends then. Isn’t he?

Kisses for Lula – Samantha Mackintosh

Lula Bird is gorgeous, funny and dreading her birthday because you can’t turn 16 if you’ve never been kissed…So why does every boy in Hambledon run a mile the second she bats her eyelids? The fact is, they fear for their lives. Rumour has it Lula’s been jinxed! And it’s not as if that’s her only problem: Lula thinks she has a stalker, her dad keeps sneaking out at night with a lady’s handbag, and a mysterious theft is threatening to bring the town to its knees…

You’ll find all of these under our featured/reviewed section in our shop now. If you do read one of them, leave a comment on this post telling us what you thought of it.

Coming up in the next few days, we have a Q&A with ‘Broken’ author Daniel Clay and we find out what Dino FC are up to as our own World Cup is starting. In the meantime, happy reading!