Be Kind To Your Books

One thing that really gets me about certain book readers is the way they treat their books. Here's my Top Five Reading Worries;

My Top Five Reading Worries






1. I absolutely hate it when people bend back pages in their books, instead of using bookmarks. I mean, WHY would you do that?!?!?!?! I understand of course, but instead of bookmarks you could just use some scrap paper, crisp packets, food packaging; anything except for BENDING THE PAGES!! Because once you've done that, there's no turning back. You'll have bent book pages for the rest of your life, and unless you iron out the pages (not exactly recommended), you would have physically abused a SLICE OF A TREE, WITHOUT EVEN A SECOND THOUGHT.




2.I can't stand it when people break the spines of books by bending the book back too much. It always leaves little crinkles, and makes the book look cheap and rubbish looking. So whenever I read a book, I'm SUPER careful and I only open it a few centimetres so I can read the words without damaging the book. Not the best approach, I admit, but  it works.



3. I think it's HORRIDIOUS when people leave books flat on their fronts. Again, you don't need a bookmark for this sort of thing, just some scrap paper or rubbish. The book of the spine snaps and then whenever you close the book, you'll still be left with the same page open. 




4. I don't know how people can BEAR to bend the book all the way round whilst reading. I felt really guilty the first time I did it, and never did it again. Because not only are the pages all crooked after, but the glue breaks away from the pages, and so you're left with a massive gap of no-pages in the book. And the spine is then bent so far back, it makes an arch shape. It's a truly horrible sight.



5. And lastly, I absoluetely CANNOT STAND when people WRITE or DRAW in books. Sure, it's their books, but how would THEY feel if a tree was to come up to them, chop them down, slice them up, glue them back together, print ink of them and then write on them?!?!?!?!! Pretty awful, right?!?!

So yes, I feel REALLY-QUITE-STRONGLY about Book Abuse.

How do you feel about it? What do you hate?

AAWAD(:


Earth Bound

Just because I don't know what else to talk about today, I'll be sharing with you some of my English homework. It's not my best work, as we only had about 15 minutes to write it, but I guess you'll want to read it, nevertheless.

First day of High School. Normal people would be excited, over the moon. Normal people would be scared; filled with nerves. Normal people would have their bags ready, nagging parents to drive them to their first day of school.
But I’m not normal.  I’m not excited, over the moon, scared, filled with nerves, whatever. My bag isn’t ready, and I would definitely NOT ask my parents to drop me off at school
My name’s Robin. The river’s my blood, the soil my bones, plants and animals my organs. Yeah, I’m Robin Rouscoe, And I’m Earth Bound.
~*~
The Cadlin arrived right on time. I shouted goodbye to my so-called family. I left and saw them fall to their knees and turn to ash.
Earth Bound, born from the most delicate of flowers to be  passed onto a ‘family’ of Protectors until the Earth Apprentice is old enough to go to high School. No love, joy, nor happiness. Just Protectors to stop the Earth Apprentice from leaving. Once those bound to the earth can leave with permission, the Protectors crumble out of relief.
This isn’t a fairytale to be proud of.
“Miss Rouscoe,’ The Cadlin driver said to me. “Take a seat, your package is awaiting prior #’16.”
There’s very few of us remaining. All our ancestors died out, and now we’re left with the hopeless Apprentices; Earth Bound, Sorcerers, Telekenisisions, Mind Meddlers.
I went to the back of the Cadlin and saw a sign on seat #16 labelled in big letters, ‘Magician Of Earth’,
I sat down and ripped off a bag dangling from a piece of string above me.
Just as I was about to open it, the Cadlin driver shouted into a microphone. “Buckle your seatbelts, Gentle Dees and Lad Men!”
Everyone else on the Cadlin screamed with joy. Confused with the commotion, I sank back into my seat.
And the Cadlin galloped into the air...
And flew.
~*~
The Cadlin skidded to a halt. I paused to get my breath back, and then opened the bag.
Inside was...
A bracelet.
Nothing but a bracelet.
No survival kit, pencil case, books, lunch. No nothing.
But then I took a closer look at the bracelet.
It had about ten beads on it, with clips attached to each one. There was a green one, a blue one, a red one; each with different symbols engraved on them.
I stroked a pale  grey  bead, and the breeze around me began to strengthen.
More. More. More.
I had a sudden urge to unclip the grey bead, but just then, a piercing screech erupted from somewhere behind me, and a woman in maybe her mid-fifties came running towards me.
“No, no, no, no!” She shouted in my face. She started shaking my shoulders back and forth, back and forth. “Too powerful!” She continued. “Earth dies out! Dies out!”
“Whoa, Maisie,” another voice said. “Let the girl go, it’s her first day. Don’t spoil it by telling her she’s going to end the world. Because she isn’t.”
Maisie laughed a high pitched wail of a laugh. “Richard, dear. Robin hasn’t ended the world, you’re right.  Or, at least, she hasn’t ended it yet.


Does it make any sense? Would you want to read more of it? What could I do to improve?

Thanks for your never-ending advice and criticism(:

AAWAD(:

Update On Little Green Seed

You should be like 'OMG! Little Green Seed! AAWAD, how's your orange tree? Is he alright? Coping well? How do you feel about being the proud owner of an orange-tree-to-be? I bet it must feel AWESOME...'

But for those of you who are shouting, 'ERM, AAWAD, what the FLYING FLAMINGO are you on about?!?!? Who's Little Green Seed??! And why is HE so special?!?!?!'

Well, Little Green Seed is my beloved orange-tree-to-be, mentioned a few posts back. He is so special because... well. He just is.

I just thought that you lovely, interested people would like an update on him, see how he's doing. RIIIIIGHT??

Little Green Seed, isn't he gorgeous?

An Adrenalin Junkie from SUCH a young age... Brings tears to the eyes, really, it does

He's got arms! Oh hallelujah!

Swaying in the breeze...

And THAT, my friends, is Little Green Seed, aged three weeks old.

MWAH!

AAWAD(:

Ultimate Question Of The Week

Last week's Ultimate Question was 'Who would you rather be? (a) A friendless loser or (b) Someone with tons of friends that secretly hate you,' which was taken from Lisi Harrison's book, The Clique. The poll results was seven votes (come ON, people!), with 99.6% of the results saying (a) whilst only 4% said (b). So basically six said (a) whilst one said (b).

Anyway, this week's Question Of The Week is inspired by Rachel Caine's series, 'The Morganville Vampires,' and it is;

Would you rather be;
a) A vampire
b) A werewolf
c) A witch
d) A sorcerer
e) Someone who sees ghosts
or
f) A telekenisision

(Woah, (f) was hard to spell...)

Just in case you don't know, (a) is someone who sucks blood, (b) is a sort of Mega-Wolf, (c) is a female spell-caster, (d) is a male spell-caster, (e) is just self explanatory and (f) is someone who can move things with their minds. PS, SAFETY WARNING, these come from old tales and legends, so please don't freak out if I've scared you or anything. And besides, you can always call the BBC Helpline, they know everything.

Anyway, comment with your reasons, or vote on the poll is you can't be asked to click a few buttons..(:

AAWAD(:

Forty-Fifth Book Review

I know, I know! I haven't done a book review in CENTURIES.

Okay, slight exaggeration

Anyway, here's my forty-fifth book review...



My forty-fifth book review is on The Summoning by Kelly Armstrong.


This book had a sort of... haunting beauty to it. I admit, some times throughout the book I was utterly freaked out and wanted to hide behind the sofa with all the lights on. But other times... it was magical. Kelly Armstrong left many strings untied, and for every answer she let out, she released at least a dozen other questions. It was not at all what I expected it to be like, and I quite enjoyed the untold mystery of it all. It had a really strong storyline, leaving me scared yet mesmerised by what was happening. By the end of it, I was even doubting myself.

Even though the cover is absolutely gorgeous, I didn't think it had much to do with the actual story. Chloe, the main character, mentions a red necklace once or twice, but I don't think it played a key part in the book. Armstrong never actually mentioned what the necklace was or did, so I think it could have been improved by having a suitable front cover.

In the book, Chloe Saunders lives with her Aunt because her dad's away most of the time, and her mother had died a few years back. All her life, Chloe had seen things and heard things that no one else could, and so it's no surprise when she ends up in a home for crazy people. Everyone else in there seems pretty normal to her, 'Who puts someone who likes matches in a home?' Soon Chloe finds out that no one is who they said they were, and her life's twisted with lies and distrust of the greatest forms. And so when Chloe discovers that the greatest form of lie is actually true, well, that just sends her over the top.

The is a book full of magic.  Dark magic. And only when Chloe reaches the light at the end of the tunnel will she be able to set herself free.

I enjoyed every little bit of this book, except for the end. Chloe's talking to a ghost - I'm not going to spoil it by saying which one - when the book finishes. It's a very spooky ending, but then they show a quick taster of the next book. Somehow, she's calling the ghost again, the bit just before the ghost appears and they have a conversation. But instead of the conversation they had at the end of the book, a different ghost appears, and tells us a different story. It would have been okay if it had been explained, but it left a cliffhanger of confusion. And not a good confusion, either.

Anyhow, overall I would rate this book a 9/10 and would recommend it for ages 13+.

It's all a hallucination...

AAWAD(:

Four Out Of Six

Well, today I received my forth Blue Peter Badge in the post, and I just thought you'd be interested to hear about them.

The first badge I won was the Blue Badge;

I won it by writing a poem about the Blue Peter Pets. I can't remember it exactly, but it was about Shellie the turtle being shy and Lucy the dog being sly and Cookie being 'the cat that likes the attention.'

The second badge I won was the Green Badge;


I won this one by sending off loads of facts about the environment. I'd done a three-minute-long presentation to show in front of my class, and since I;d learnt a lot from my research, I figured it was worth a go to send them a load of facts.

The third I won was the Silver Badge;

Sorry it's a bit blurred

I won the Silver Badge by sending in a drawing I'd done of an eye. I still have the copy of it somewhere in my bedroom.

And finally, the badge I received today was...

Just ignore the camera reflected in the mirror

Drumroll please...


The Purple Badge!

To win this one I'd done a review of their show. I wish I could show this to you too, but of course I'd sent it off to them without photocopying it or anything.

All I need to do now is win the Purple Badge (by being a runner-up in one of their competitions) and the Gold Badge. I'd sent off an entry for the Gold Badge, but they didn't reply. So I sent it again. And again. And again. So eventually they gave in and sent me a signed postcard from the cast with a load of stickers.

My entry was from when I was on my bike and went in front of a car. The Gold Badge is for extreme bravery and I honestly think I could have got it.

Alas, I've come to the end of the post. Only because I'm off to send another Gold Badge entry...

AAWAD(:

UNIQUE BLOG AWARD!!!!!

Yep, you heard right! I've won my second award!! SQUEEEE!!!!(:

Here's the rules;
  • Add the picture to your sidebar,
  • Post five random facts about you,
  • Tag five other blogs and tell them (they can be blogs who have already been tagged)

The five ransom facts about me;
  • I'm meant to be tidying my room right now, AGAIN.
  • I have a clay penguin sitting on my shelf
  • I want to take Welsh for GCSE, even though I'd most likely fail 
  • I want to become a famous photographer/writer, but everyone else tells me I can only do those things as a 'hobby'.... sigh
  • And... I have 51 signed books on my bookshelf at the moment

The five blogs I'm tagging;


Sorry to everyone that I didn't tag- there were just so many blogs to choose from!!


AAWAD(:

Interview With The FABOO Author Sue Ransom

When and why did you begin writing?
I gave up writing fiction at school, and only took it up again three years ago when I started to write Small Blue Thing. My English teachers would be rather surprised!



What was your inspiration for the Small Blue Thing trilogy?
I wrote the first book for just one person – my daughter Ellie. She loves to read, as I do, and I wanted her to have a book which reflected the world she knew, not somewhere in America, so I wrote her one during my daily commute.



Did you always plan it as a trilogy?
Not initially, but when I was finishing it I knew that, if she liked it, I could write her some more of the story. Luckily she did like it, so it all of the story saw the light of day.



When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I still don’t really – I think that you have to be earning your living doing it, and at the moment I still have my day job. Seeing the book on the bookshelves in WHSmith and Waterstones for the first time was close though. I’m often on the shelves next to Philip Pullman, and that’s pretty cool.


What inspired you to write your first book?
Small Blue Thing was the first thing I wrote – there are no other unfinished novels sitting in drawers!


Do you think you have a specific writing style?
I like writing in the first person, as I think that it’s a good way to connect with the readers, and I try hard not to put too much in that will date a book – I rarely mention any particular technology, for example, as that moves on so fast. What I always do is describe things the way an adult would – just because I’m writing for teens doesn’t mean I have to dumb down the language, and reading is a great opportunity for increasing vocabulary.


What made you give your books the title they have?
The titles of all three books come from the lyrics of Suzanne Vega’s Small Blue Thing, a song which I, and my daughter, love. Relevant bits of the lyrics are reproduced in the front of each book, but I was intrigued by the concept of the eye, of it watching you, and when I started to write the story it seemed obvious to explore that further and use the title.



Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
No, nothing hidden away! I guess it is about trust and friendship, and what someone might do in a set of very unusual circumstances. But broadly I just want people to enjoy reading, to keep turning the pages, and if I’ve encouraged that in any way, that’s perfect.


Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
The main character, Alex, is based on the sort of girl my daughter Ellie might become when she is seventeen (she is only 14 at the moment), and all the locations are real and are places which she knows. Everyone else is made up, including Callum, sadly.


Do you have any advice for young writers?
The best advice I can give is to read lots! That will give you confidence in your writing. The other thing is to just give it a go – get something written down, even if it isn’t perfect. Nothing is perfect first time, and it will never be unless you write it down!


Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
A big Thank You! I still can’t quite believe that so many people have read Small Blue Thing, and that it’s on sale all over the world and in different languages too. I love it when they write to me on the website (www.smallbluething.com) or send me letters. I try to reply to every question I’m asked.


How did you feel about being a 'Contender' for the Queen Of Teen Awards?
Stunned doesn’t even come close! To be in the nominations with such fantastic authors is amazing – I can’t wait to meet them all at the ceremony.



How do you feel about getting as far as you have in the Queen Of Teen awards?
I’m so pleased on behalf of all those who nominated me, and of course my publisher, Nosy Crow. I was their very first publication, and they took a huge risk on a debut author, so to win this would be a lovely way to say ‘Thank you’ to them too. But to do that I have to win, so everyone needs to get online at
www.queenofteen.co.uk and vote for me!


What would you do if when you become the Queen Of Teen?
I like that – when!  I’d do all the sensible stuff, which would include waving my magic Queenly wand and giving everyone a book that they will enjoy reading, even if they have never picked up a book before. I’d also insist on there being chocolate and cake pretty much everywhere, but it would be special non-fattening varieties so we could all eat as much as we wanted. I’m not sure I’d insist on the mass wearing of pink though!





AAWAD(:

THANK YOU BEX

Yep, Bex you heard right! A WHOLE POST dedicated in Thanks to YOU.

Other readers out there, you're probably like, 'WHAT THE HECK?!?! I WANT A POST TOO!!!' But to do that you'd have to choose me to win your very recent, very nice competition and then be prepared to send me the prizes.

No?

Blahh, it was worth a try.

Anyway, I'd won Bex's latest competition. My entry was this;


And I WON!!

And so here's what she sent me (because I know how much you like Stuff);

 Summary (notice the very nice paper it came in. I didn't put up the whole thing because it had my address on it..)

 In black and white, you know, experimenting...

 The FABOO notebook (it's handmade, may I add)

 The bracelets (omigosh, nice right?)

 The broach (took me ages to get my camera settings perfect)

The earrings (again, ages with the camera settings) 

The brown bracelet, each ball is like a birds cage, with space inside and the barriers around it, if you catch my drift (and again, ages with the camera settings)

 The silver bracelet with the pastel beads and light blue woollen Dangler (and AGAIN, ages with the camera settings)

 The silver bracelet with the pastel beads and charms (once again, ages with the camera settings)

 I think this one looks like a donkey...

 The blue and brown glass bead bracelet (again, ages with the camera settings)

 The notebook

 Yes, the donkey charm REALLY flies...

 Black and white summary of what I won

*And she sent me a cute vintage compact mirror, but my camera died before I could take a close-up of it.*


So yeah, I think it's a pretty good reason to dedicate a post to Bex, because she had to pay out for the post and packaging and everything as well.

THANK YOU BEX.

Visit her blog here at http://thisisthetickettolife.blogspot.co.uk/

AAWAD (:


Woop-Woop!!

Guess what happened today. Go on, guess!

Arghh, you guys have no imagination. Seriously.

Well, anyway, the WORLD-WIDE FAMOUS AUTHOR JEAN URE CAME INTO MY SCHOOL!!

Only one of her many hundreds of books. (My favourite, one of the ones I took into school with me)

At Lunch today, my friends and I went to the library and waited. You see, we'd raised almost £200 for her to come, by hosting Cake Sales and everything. Of course, the teachers only decided to tell us YESTERDAY. Grrrrr...

Anyway, we set up the chairs and SHE CAME! Not that I expected her not to, obviously, it was just unexpected that she was REAL. Erghh, I know how bad that sounds. I've seen many authors at events and stuff, it's just that feeling when you see an author for the first time, after reading their books so many times. It's... unreal. If you catch my drift.

She sat down and talked to us about inspiration and what she does and hopes and dreams. I've already read it all on her Q&A section on her website, but it was a different sort of thing to hear her say those things. I didn't ask any questions, I already knew the answers. Plus I've already interviewed her.

But the way she talked about her books. It was... deep. Honestly, I almost shed a tear back there.

We had refreshments, and in less than a few seconds she had to GO AGAIN. Of course, it wasn't just a few seconds, but it felt like it. Time just zoomed past. I took her down to Reception, but I had no idea what to say. I just walked along, trying to calm myself down over the fact that she was RIGHT THERE. I should have said something, but I didn't. I had no idea what to say!

We parted, but the second she left I realised something.

I had her books in my bag! I really wanted her to sign them! But in the rush of things I didn't, and I could hardly turn back and run after her.

I could have kicked myself. Seriously.

But I'd had a picture with her, and I'd actually GONE THROUGH AND RAISED THE MONEY, and my English teacher wants me to write an article on the day for the School Newsletter, and you know, JEAN URE HAD COME TO MY SCHOOL. THAT was worth it.

Overall, it was a pretty awesome day. It was so inspirational! And then, after, to use up the last twenty minutes left of school, we wrote our own mini books.

Want to know what mine was about?

A Vampire called Valencia who has had a curse put apon her- she's now a vampire.

I'll let you knwo how that goes.

Thanks for reading,

AAWAD(:

Deadlines

Oh yes, the dreaded D word. Deadlines, we all hate them. I mean, who even thought them up? I bet it was Shakespeare.

'Ooh, I must remind thou to give in thee manuscripts of Macbeth. But why shalt no one remind thou of thee date? I shalt now promote thee urgency as thy 'Deadline,' international hatred and misery. Yippee, maybe now thou shalt sleep in peace.'

See what I mean?! Unnatural, right? But maybe they help us?

If there were no deadlines, and we had all the time in the world to do whatever we wanted, maybe nothing would ever get done.

'Oh, hallelujah! I've finally found the cure to colds and flus! Let me just get on my coat and I'll take it down to the lab... Actually, I might wait until Eastenders has finished.'

There could be an upside, though.

'Hear ye, hear ye, the Great War the Third has begun! Well, it will after we've all had some tea and biscuits.'

Catch my drift? Deadlines could be good or bad, depending on how you interpret them. We all hate homework, but it's got to be done. We all hate early mornings, but what would we do without them? We all hate fruits and vegetables (my opinion, anyhow), but we'd die out if they all suddenly disappeared.

What I'm trying to say is, be nice to your deadlines. Without them we'd never get anything done. So thank them every once in a while. Give them a hug.



Do you love your deadlines?

AAWAD (: <3

My Orange Tree

Yes, you heard right, I HAVE AN ORANGE TREE!

Well, I haven't exactly got a tree yet, but it's growing...

 Meet Little Green Seed!

Grown from the insides of his mother, from scratch

I'll have to water him again in a minute, once I've finished blogging 

There were a few mushrooms in there, but somehow the wind was so strong a few days ago, it blew them away without blowing the pot off the side. 

Isn't he cute!

And he lives outside the window(: 

And that is Little Green Seed(:


I just thought you'd like to know about Little Green Seed and his wonderful life outside the window. I'll keep you updated with the progress of his life(:

AAWAD(:

The Ultimate Question Of The Week

Today's Ultimate Question Of The Week (for Question Saturday) is,

"Who would you rather be?
a) A friendless loser
b) Someone with tons of friends that secretly hate you."

This week's Ultimate Question has been taken from The Clique by Lisi Harrison.

I would actually rather be a) than b), because I think that either way you'd have no friends, but with b) everyone would hate you. With a)  you'd still get a chance to make friends, but with b) everyone is already against you. I'd hate the rumours passed around too, and I'd never even know about them.

Which would you rather be? And why?

Can't be bothered to comment? Choose from the poll on the left.
AAWAD (: <3

A Change Here, A Change There...

To celebrate my 1364th Blog View, I have changed my blog ONCE AGAIN!! The URL has been changed to http://awkwarddonkey.blogspot.co.uk/ , my blog's name has changed to Life Of An Awkward Donkey, my name has changed to A.A.W.A.D (Amy-Anne Williams -AKA- Awkward Donkey), and really I'm just looking for other ways to make my blog BIGGER and BETTER.


Any other things I can do to make my blog better, just comment below and let me know. Also, incase you haven't noticed, you don't have to be a member of Google or anything to comment anymore, as I know how that can get on people's nerves.


So, come on, SPEAK UP, PEOPLE! This is YOUR blog! (Technically mine, but made for you(: )

A.A.W.A.D (: <3

Internationally Famous Professional Artistic Quad Skater Champion

Remember that I wrote a post a few days about how 'books influence my life' and told you all about my life long dream? Well my dream is now a reality.

SQUEEEE!

When I got home from school, I saw this lovely box outside my front door.


Of course, I didn't want to become an internationally famous professional artistic cardboard box champion, I wanted to be something else.

So I opened the box...


Aren't they just gorgeous! Here's what they look like on grass...


And in black and white...



It was LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT!!!!

So, I put them on and headed straight out the door (after kissing and stroking them repeatedly), only to land straight on my tail bone (also known as a coccyx). I'm still crouched over in pain.

But, nevertheless, I hobbled on up the road.

Considering I haven't been on in-line skates in donkey's years (ironic), it was no surprise when I started rolling down the hill on my Quads.

I put my hands out in front of me, to stop myself from injuring myself (much), and then went straight into the newly painted garden fence. I'm still scrubbing yellow paint off my hands.

I dodged out of the way of a car, and ignored some silly snickering Primary school kids.

I eventually made it to my destination, and started skating about on the smooth floor of the Village Hall's car park.

I've never felt so alive in my life.

I raced around, wind rustling my hair, filling my body with oxygen.

The bad thing?

I couldn't stop.

And by then I was heading straight for the road.

I screamed, and held my hands out in front of me again, crashing straight into a metal pole.

With my hand twisted at a weird angle, I skated home.

Of course, my house lives at the bottom of the hill.

And, because things ALWAYS have to get worse, my brakes just happened to fall off RIGHT THEN.

I was DOOMED.

As I raced down the hill at 200 miles per hour, I reached out and clung onto a bush for dear life.

The bush came apart, and there were just big chunks of leaves left in my hands.

I fell onto the ground face first, and started rolling.

Rolling.

Rolling.

I stopped right outside my house, dizzy.

I took my Quads off, placed them by the front door, ran up to my bedroom and slammed the door behind me.

I don't think I'm going to become a Internationally Famous Professional Artistic Quad Skater Champion any time soon. Or in the near future.

I'll try again tomorrow.

Once I've bought a helmet.

Triple Review!

Right, I'm now going to write..


A TRIPLE REVIEW!!!

I've never done one of these before, so please excuse me if it goes all skew-whiff..



Forty-Second

Title: Strike A Pose, Daizy Star
Author: Cathy Cassidy
Liked: That the book had many comedy elements
Disliked: That the book was too young for me
Rate: 6/10
Recommend: Ages 9+
Opening paragraph: We are lolling about on the sofa, watching my little sister Pixie's DVD of The Little Mermaid for the 379th time and sipping hot chocolate with marshmallows on top. Pixie is spellbound. She knows every scene, every word, off by heart. It is her favourite DVD of all time.


Forty-Third

Title: The Sky Is Everywhere
Author: Jandy Nelson
Liked: That I could never guess what was going to happen next, and the images it'd show you at the end of each chapter
Disliked: It was really depressing (but then again it would be if it's a book about trying to deal with the passing of your sister)
Rate: 9/10
Recommend: Ages 13+
Opening paragraph: Gram is worried about me. It's not just because my sister Bailey died four weeks ago, or because my mother hasn't contacted me in sixteen years, or even because suddenly all I think about is sex. She is worried about me because one of her houseplants have spots.


Forty-Fourth

Title: Ice Dreams
Author: Jo Cotterill
Liked: The book was so descriptive, even I now want to become a professional ice-skater
Disliked: The storyline was somewhat predictable
Rate: 8/10
Recommend: Ages 11+
Opening paragraph: The air was chilly, but Tania didn't feel it as she skimmed across the ice, her skates cutting perfect curves in the surface. Wearing a navy practice dress, dark tights and legwarmers and with her dark ponytail, her slim figure stood out strongly against the white expanse. There were other skaters on the ice, but Tania knew that the smattering of spectators only had eyes for her.


How'd it go? Did my triple review make sense?

AwkwardDonkey(: