Bookbabbler Emily has reviewed The Witch of Turlingham Academy for us…

Summary from Goodreads
It’s not easy being the only day girl at Turlingham Academy: Sophie misses out on all the midnight feasts and late night gossip. And when new girl Katy turns up it feels like she’s bewitching all of Sophie’s friends! Katy’s no witch, but there is a witch at Turlingham. Katy comes from a long line of witch hunters whose job is to stop evil magic. Sophie is going to help her – anything to get Katy out of her life and get things back to normal. But what she discovers means nothing will ever be normal again!

When I first saw this book, I thought that it would be great. Now, I am pleased to say that it lived up to expectations. The main character, Sophie is the only day girl at the Academy, plus her mum is the headteacher!

Despite not being able to have midnight feasts and share secrets in the dorms, Sophie still has friends in the school. Well, only until new
girl Katy joins their year and she is left out.

This was a very good book, in fact, one of the best books I have ever read. I could not find anything negative to say about it! My favourite character is Erin because she is a well thought out character, and she suits the story. I think this would appeal to girls age 12-15 .

Thanks Emily and thank you to Atom for sending us a copy to review.

Frances Hardinge is one of my favourite authors, so I was very excited to receive an early copy of her latest novel ‘A Face Like Glass’.

‘A Face Like Glass’ is a story unlike anything I have read before. It follows Neverfell, a young girl who lives in the cheese tunnels of the underground city of Caverna. Caverna is a city deep underground, which functions with its own leader the ‘Grand Steward’ and an army like group of ‘Enquirers’ who keep the peace. The court is made up of different Masters of Trades, such as Grandible the Cheese Master and Maxim Childersin, one of a number of Masters’ of Wine. There are also Facesmiths who create different faces for people (each person is born with a ‘blank’ face and must learn different expressions). I was fascinated by the facesmiths, who made the different faces and the ‘Putty Girls’ who had to display them to potential clients. Having different faces indicates the class that characters belong to. The drudges are working class inhabitants of Caverna and only possess one generic type of facial expression, whilst those higher up the social scale were able to buy different ‘faces’ to suit the occasion.

Neverfell is an outsider who is desperate to escape from her mundane life in the cheese tunnels. However, she is not prepared for the world of Caverna that she finds. Neverfell’s origins are at once evident, as she cannot hide her expressions. Soon, she is swept up into the politics and drama of the court, but who can she trust?

I loved Neverfell’s character, especially as she sees the good side of everyone and is so loyal. I also really liked Erstwhile’s character. Erstwhile is a drudge, but he befriends Neverfell and will do anything to protect her. The Kleptomancer plays a huge part in this story and is a fascinating character. This is a story full of surprises and twists and turns that will leave you desperate to find out what happens next. It is beautifully written and transports the reader to a world where nothing is quite as it seems.

Hardinge’s imagination has run wild and left the reader with a fantastic adventure to devour. I loved this book and would highly recommend it. The cover is stunning too!

Thank you to Macmillan for sending us a copy to review.

Frances Hardinge is our May Author in Residence. Read our interview with Frances here: http://bookbabblers.co.uk/2012/05/interview-with-frances-hardinge-author-of-a-face-like-glass/

The Queen of Teen shortlist has now been announced! The ten shortlisted authors are:

Cathy Cassidy, Maureen Johnson, Sarah Webb, Joanna Nadin, Cathy Hopkins, Samantha Mackintosh, Chris Higgins, Hayley Long, S.C. Ransom and the first ever male shortlisted author, James Dawson.

The award will be presented at a glittering award ceremony in July 2012, when the writers of the best nominations will be invited to mingle with their favourite authors, invited journalists and other special guests. The ceremony is to be held at Queen of Teen HQ in leafy Surrey and will be superbly pink and sparkly – a truly majestic celebration of this thriving and important genre!

You can now vote for your favourite author by visiting www.queenofteen.co.uk

Voting is open until Monday 25th June 2012

Bookbabbler Wendy has reviewed Mike the Knight – Meet Mike! for us…

Mike is a knight so brave and so bold. He’s daring and strong but not very old. As the name suggests this book is about meeting Mike the Knight, his friends and the land of Glendragon. It is based on the television series and is the first in a series of books tied in to it.

The graphics in the book are bold and bright and are based on screenshots from the series and there are lots on each page so it is a great book to look through as well as to read. My children had not watched the show but were still interested in the book as it goes through each character, explains about the land of Glendragon and gives a snapshot into some of the adventures that they have had too. So I am sure viewers of the series will love it.

The book is nicely written in a simple style that is ideal for early readers too and my 6 year old loves reading it to her brother with him enjoying all the pictures.

Thanks Wendy and thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending us a copy to review.

The Hunt was an action-packed ride that was both creepy and nerve wracking.

17 year old Gene lives in a world where humans, or hepers, are near extinct. They have been eaten, devoured, by the more dominant species. And to blend in and hide his true nature, Gene must disguise every clue that if discovered, would mean certain death. For Gene walks among them, pretending to be one of them. He salivates at the sight of a heper on TV. He doesn’t smile. He doesn’t blush. He scratches his wrist instead of expressing amusement or excitement.

But then he is chosen to be a contender in the Hunt. Every decade there is a government sponsored hunt for hepers. They are released from the dome in Savannah where they are studied and the hunters give chase. Gene must figure out every possible escape. There is no way he can be a part of the hunt, he would be discovered…and then hunted himself.

I sat on the edge of my seat as I read this book. It was fever pitched and all out terrifying at points. The Hunt was brilliantly written, placing the reader in the middle of the action alongside Gene, terrified to sweat or give away a clue about our own nature.

Readers will devour this book, be greedy for more and scared to put it down. This is one for all the people who said vampire novels were over done and unoriginal. That may have been true, but now there is The Hunt.

Thanks Pamela and thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending us a copy to review.

On Thursday 10th May at 11am Authors Live will be screening a live event with David Walliams. David will be talking about his new book Gangsta Granny.

Parents, readers and fans of David can watch the event by going directly to the BBC website at 11am on Thursday http://bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning/authorslive/

If you’re a teacher, you can register your entire class b following this link:

http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning/authors-live/david-walliams

If you can’t watch the live broadcast, the event can be downloaded for free from Thursday 17th May here:

http://scottishbooktrust.com/learning/authors-live/david-walliams

Bookbabbler Pamela has reviewed Uglies for us…

We first meet Tally a few months before her sixteenth birthday. Tally can’t wait, for her birthday will bring about the operation she has waited her entire life for, and in turn, it will reunite her with best friend, Peris.

At the age of sixteen each person goes through with the operation to make them Pretty. Tally, and everyone else in Uglyville, has spent their lives ugly. But soon she will cross the river to New Pretty Town and be just as gorgeous as everyone else there. She will spend her days having fun and playing with all the high-tech gadgets she can get her hands on, and spend her nights at the best parties.

But with three months between Peris’ birthday and hers, Tally knows the wait will be even more excruciating. After returning from a risky visit to New Pretty Town to see Peris, Tally meets a girl named Shay. Shay likes all the same things as Tally and shows her other tricks to pass the time whilst waiting to become Pretty…only Shay doesn’t want the operation. She wants to leave the city and find Smoke, a place where everyone is still ugly, and totally free.

While Uglies was a great read and very easy to fall into, it was also deeply disturbing. Tally herself is a very flawed and superficial character to begin with. She is known as Squint to her friends. In Uglyville you are known by the nickname that highlights your biggest flaw than your actual name.

Shay is Tally’s counterpart. Where Tally doesn’t like to take the biggest risks, Shay laughs in the face of danger and openly taunts the rules that regulate their lives. Where Tally sees an ugly face, Shay sees the face she was born with. Tally dreams of being in New Pretty Town. Shay dreams of being free.

It was a pleasure to watch Tally grow as a character, to lose her selfish and superficial nature and become more considerate of others. As the protagonist of the story she kept it moving easily enough. There were enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing and while I feel a few of the bigger plot points could have been developed further, the story didn’t lack anything because of it.

This book will certainly get readers thinking and the author has certainly hit on a very serious note. We are left with an agonising cliff hanger that will ensure everyone rushes out to grab the second in this thought-provoking dystopian series.

Thanks Pamela and thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending us a copy to review.

I’ve always enjoyed reading about the legend of King Arthur, so I was quite excited to receive a copy of Sword of Light by Katherine Roberts.

This is a King Arthur story with a twist, as Arthur’s secret daughter takes centre stage. Rhianna Pendragon’s parentage has been kept so secret that even she doesn’t know who her parents are. She has been raised in the magical realm of Avalon, but always knew that she was different to those there. When Merlin arrives in Avalon with King Arthur’s body it is up to her search for the sword of light and bring it back to Avalon to save Arthur.

Rhianna sets out for the human world with her best friend Prince Elphin and two magical horses. However, there is someone else also searching the sword of light and Rhianna and Elphin find themselves trying to reach the sword before the evil Prince Mordred gets there.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it is quite fast paced and keeps you wanting to find out what will happen to Rhianna and Arthur. I am looking forward to reading the next instalment in this series and would highly recommend this book.

Thank you to Templar for sending us a copy to review.

Frances Hardinge is our May Author in Residence. Here is our interview with Frances…

Tell us a little about yourself
By the time I was about five, I knew I wanted to be a writer. Mind you, back then I also planned to teach myself to fly, and to master the language of cats. I suppose one out of three is better than nothing.

Even when I was young I was writing stories that tended to feature twists, turns, murder and mayhem. My sense of humour is darkly weird, and I’m incurably odd. I’m a friendly oddity, however. I love people – I find them fascinating, inspiring and incredibly funny. Although I wear black nearly all the time (including a black Trilby hat) I’m actually pretty cheerful by nature.

I started writing my first children’s novel on the advice of a good friend of mine, fellow author Rhiannon Lassiter. When I had written five chapters (which I thought were dreadful), she prevented me from hiding or burning them by stealing them away and showing them to her own editor. A week later, to my huge surprise, I had my first book contract.

Although I write for younger readers, I don’t plan to have children myself. Being a mad auntie is much more fun. I have a nephew, a god-daughter, and various ‘honorary’ nephews and nieces.

Tell us about ‘A Face Like Glass’ and your inspiration for the story
The book is set in Caverna, an underground city which nobody is allowed to enter or leave. The elite are the Craftsmen, producing delicacies so extraordinary that their effects seem magical – perfumes that enslave the mind, cheeses that give you visions, spices that let you see in the dark.

There is something wrong with the faces of those who are born in Caverna, however. The babies do not smile, and without training their faces would remain blank forever. Every person in Caverna has a collection of expressions that they have been taught, slowly and with difficulty. Each time they change their expression it’s a deliberate act, like putting on a different hat. There are no natural smiles, no genuine frowns. Everybody is a perfect liar.

The one exception is Neverfell, a scatterbrained, amnesiac twelve-year-old with a face that shows her every thought, a girl that cannot lie. Plunged into the decadent and treacherous Court of Caverna, she soon becomes the latest novelty, and finds herself surrounded by those who wish to own her, show her off, use her as a pawn, even kill her…

I’ve always been fascinated by underground places, and the idea that there could be mysterious worlds hidden away beneath the ground. When I’m walking around in Oxford, I love knowing that the tunnels from the Bodleian library are stretching unseen beneath my feet, full of books many centuries old. I’ve seen the underground streets of Seattle which
were once full of illegal speakeasies, the (scarily dark and narrow) Cu Chi tunnels that Vietnamese guerilla fighters used as hidden bases, and Chislehurst caves where a whole ‘town’ was set up during WW2, full of people hiding from the bombing raids.

At the same time, the idea of living underground makes one nervous. There’s a gut-level fear of being buried alive.

Where is your favourite place to write?
I live in both Oxford and Isleworth, and divide my time between them. When I’m in Oxford, I write at a desk in my bedroom. In Isleworth, I am lucky enough to have my own study (though it also serves as a storeroom for random junk).

What are you working on now?
At the moment, just as an experiment, I am writing two books at once. Usually I find that by the time I finish writing a book I’m thoroughly sick of it. This time I’m hoping that by writing two novels simultaneously I can avoid hating either of them. Any time I get bored of one, I can get on with the other.

One of them is best described as a dark fairytale set in the 1920s. The other is a pirate story that takes place in an otherworldly ocean where all our memories take solid form.

What do you like to do outside of writing?
I love travelling to new countries, because it shakes up my ideas, and forces me to throw aside everything I think I know. When I’m in warmer climes I enjoy scuba diving and snorkelling. (Sharks have never been a problem, though a triggerfish once bit a piece out of my flipper.) I’m also completely obsessed with volcanoes, and seize every chance to run
up, around and inside them.

I’ve done a certain amount of historical re-enactment, and I’m perfectly happy dressing up in old-fashioned costumes and pretending to be somebody else for a bit.

Every Thursday I go for a hike of at least ten miles. For some reason I find it easier to think through plot ideas while I’m walking. I’ve got no sense of direction and I get lost all the time, but that just means I discover interesting places unexpectedly.

Aside from that, I like reading, spending time with my friends, playing board games and trying things I’ve never done before.

We have one copy of ‘A Face Like Glass’ to give away. To enter, retweet this post or leave a comment. Open to UK residents only. Closes 31st May at 5pm.

As part of the How to Keep a Boy as a Pet blog tour, we have a guest post from Diane Messidoro…

BOY MISTAKE NUMBER 304A: HOW NOT TO BE A-PEELING

I started writing How to Keep a Boy as a Pet three years ago, and since then, I’ve had some interesting reactions to the title.
Most often, I’m asked by friends, ‘Ooh, does that work on so-called grown-up boys too?’ (Yes.)
Then there’s been, ‘So, is this a manual – do you actually train boys to fetch and sit still and things?’ Um, no, or rather, not exactly, although my heroine, Circe Shaw, might disagree with me.
But the most interesting reactions I’ve had have come from boys, or rather men, ‘How dare you! I am NOT a pet!’ To which I reply:
a) ‘You sort of are. You’re mammals i.e. animals who’ve come indoors from fields/jungles/caves etc and learned to keep your muddy paws off sofas and behave nicely in company (well, some of you have).’
b) ‘Oh dear, please don’t get huffy/puffy.’ (The boy/man has often puffed up to make himself as tall as possible to differentiate himself from a hamster) ‘I love pets – and male humans! They’re brilliant. To be like a pet is not an insult, it’s a compliment! Pets are cuddly, loving, fun, really clever*, great company, they can keep you fit, they can even lower your blood pressure. Plus they never say they’re going to call then act as if you don’t exist; they never flirt with you, then ask your best friend out, and they never, ever talk about football!’
* At this point, the man/boy usually relaxes enough not to notice when I ask him to fetch me a cup of tea and a custard cream.
c) ‘When you’re a teenage girl and BOYS ARE THE WEIRDEST PEOPLE ON THE ENTIRE PLANET, whereas pets are pretty easy to get along with (see b), comparing a boy to a pet can be really, really helpful. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about, when I was a teen, I made every boy mistake possible (and a few more).
I learnt a lot.’
As soon as I admit this, the boy/man wants to know all the juicy details about my romantic disasters. But I always just smile mysteriously and say, ‘Sorry, you’ll just have to read the book…’ But now, for the first time – and because Bookbabblers asked so nicely – I’m going to reveal one of those mistakes: number 304a (of about 500). Okay, deep breath, this is a little embarrassing…
When I was about 14 there was a boy I really fancied, let’s call him ‘Carl’, who seemed to quite like me too. Then, when we ‘accidentally’ (thanks to my precision stalking) bumped into each other in the park, he asked me out. Well, he mumbled, ‘See ya, alright, you here tomorrow lunchtime?’
I sprinted home – a sort of date, and only 24 hours to prepare! I spent the first 20 hours working out what to wear (although I only owned jeans and T-shirts) then it hit me – argh – it didn’t matter what I put on, I looked too pale! Carl was olive-skinned and his last girlfriend had been dusky too – and the one before that was even darker skinned – he’d never fancy pastey-faced me! Luckily, my mum was out at work and she’d left her make-up bag in the bathroom – result! The only trouble was, Mum had lots of different lotions and potions, but none of them made my skin quite the right colour…
Four hours later, I arrived at the park. Carl was already there, sitting on the swings. He waved and his grin got bigger and bigger as I walked towards him, and once I was within arm’s length he stood up and stared really hard at me. I froze, my heart pounding, and stared really hard back at him, because he’d never looked at me like that before and I thought it meant something romantic. Then he lifted his hand to my face and I thought he might lovingly tuck a lock of hair behind my ear. But he didn’t, he said, ‘Stay still’ and picked at my cheek and when he drew his hand back he was holding an olive-ish (orange) rubbery-looking circular patch.
I stared at it, confused, then at him, then at it again, then…
Oh. My. God.
My carefully applied mixture of about ten different foundations, bronzer and fake tan had got so thick it had cracked and he’d actually peeled it off!
I wanted to turn and run, but I didn’t, I just…
No – that would be telling. If you want to know what happened next,
or rather how Circe Shaw (who’s far smarter than me, thankfully) coped with a very similar situation, you know what you need to do…

Electric Monkey are running a fantastic competition to win a copy of How to Keep a Boy as a Pet and a t-shirt. To enter, you need to tell them your most cringeworthy pet boy dating disasters.
For more information and to enter please visit:

http://www.electricmonkeybooks.co.uk/competitions/how-to-keep-a-boy-as-a-pet-competition/