One Transplant, Two Books and Seven Days to Say 'I Do' by Maria Farrer

Last week I got a message from both Emma Carroll and Maria Farrer about a topic that, honestly, isn't one I've given much thought to until recently: that of organ donation and the fact that this week, the 7th - 13th September is National Transplant Week. And to celebrate and to help spread awareness and to start a conversation about organ donation and transplants, Maria Farrer is here with a very emotional story of her family's experiences and how her nephew's heart transplant has inspired two books.  I think it's fascinating and thought-provoking and I do hope that it encourages more of you to consider registering to become organ donors with the NHS.

This comes just a couple weeks after I watched Dawn Kurtagich's transplant story and heard how much it had changed her life and inspired her own story, The Dead House, and made me remember a little boy that used to be friends with my son who was on the transplant list. It made me realise that organ donation/transplants is something that so many of us have experience with or in contact with in some personal way. And it is a reminder that more needs to be done in order to help and also a great way to show just how very much becoming an organ donor helps out people and families.

ONE TRANSPLANT, TWO BOOKS AND SEVEN DAYS TO SAY “I DO”

by Maria Farrer

It is spring 2013 and I am on the motorway driving towards Cambridge. My sister sits beside me, pale and tense and, for once, it is nothing to do with my driving. Suddenly the traffic parts and an ambulance screams through, blue lights flashing, sirens wailing. In the back of that ambulance is my sixteen-year-old nephew. My sister blinks back her tears, winds down the window and I wonder if she is about to be sick.

Even as I re-read that first paragraph, it sounds like something from a novel, but sadly there was nothing fictional about this scenario - it was a real life (and death) situation.

As a writer, I tend to avoid writing too specifically about anything or anyone I hold very close and dear, but today I am going to ignore all that because this week is National Transplant Week and I want to encourage everybody, young and old to discuss their thoughts on organ and tissue donation. The story of my nephew, Max, was the inspiration for my most recent YA novel, “A Flash of Blue”, but it turns out that Max was also the inspiration behind a character and plot-line in Emma Carroll’s magical MG book, “In Darkling Wood.”

Emma and I met up a few weeks ago and, given the thread of heart transplant running through both our books, decided that we would like to help publicise the organ donor campaign and to support it in any way we could. We would both like to thank the generosity of Michelle for allowing us to do this.

Just over two years ago it seemed like a pretty average Sunday morning in my house. I did a bit of writing and we had friends coming to lunch. The phone rang - as phones do - and as soon as I heard my sister’s voice, I knew something was very wrong. She told me, as calmly as she could, that my 16 year old nephew’s heart had stopped working and he was fighting for his life in critical care. Within a few minutes, I had sent messages to colleagues at work, had packed a bag, jumped in my car and headed straight for the hospital in Southampton. As the situation deteriorated, it became clear that my nephew needed to be moved to a specialist transplant unit. Within hours he underwent emergency surgery to allow his heart function to be carried out by a machine outside his body. It was a roller-coaster time and as soon as he was stable enough, he was put on the list to receive an emergency heart transplant; a transplant that was his only hope of a future. A few weeks later a donor heart became available and was successfully transplanted. He was one of the lucky ones and if I could, I would share my gratitude with the world.

There aren’t enough donors and that is the sad and simple fact of the matter. Every day in the UK three people die while waiting for a transplant. Three people every day. To become a donor is probably the most personal of personal decisions and every person’s choice should be respected. When my nephew went into hospital, I wasn’t a registered organ donor - not because I didn’t want to be, but simply because I hadn’t really thought about it or got round to it. But a few days in a transplant unit focuses the mind, I can tell you. I went home, registered as a donor and it felt like one of the most meaningful things I had done in my life. If the unthinkable happens to me, how do I want my story to end? With nothing? Or with the hope that I may be able to give someone else the chance of a better life? And as I looked around at all those brave people in the critical care unit waiting for a transplant - many of them very young - how did I want their stories to end? Happily, of course.

I often feel as if I put a small part of my heart into every story I write. If you could write your story, from the point of view of a donor or a recipient, how would you want it to end? My hope is that all of us will live a long and happy life, but my hope is also that all of you will think about becoming an organ donor and, if you decide it is something you want to do, to register on https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk and make your family aware of your wishes.* There is no age limit, young or old. Any one of us could help to save or improve more than 5 lives. How incredible is that? Is there anything greater than the gift of life?

Thanks to one amazing person, my nephew is now 18 and off to university. Thanks to the promise I made to him when he was waiting for his transplant, I wrote “A Flash of Blue” and he was by my side at its launch in April (no prizes for guessing where the title came from!).

SEVEN DAYS TO SAY I DO: From Max and Maria and Emma, please support organ donation and pass it on.

https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk

COVER REVEAL: Winterkill trilogy by Kate A Boorman

Hello! I have something very special to show you today. This time last year I read a wonderful book, Winterkill by Kate A. Boorman. It was one of those books where I fell into the characters and the setting and the story so easily. It was beautifully written and atmospheric and emotional and I'm really looking forward to reading more in this trilogy!

Faber have rebranded the first book in the series and today I (along with other bloggers!) will be sharing the new covers. I hope you're just as excited as I am. And kudos to Will Steele, the cover designer, and Helen Crawford-White, the illustrator, for these covers. Amazing! ( #picturesmeanbusiness )

Before we get to the exciting Darkthaw reveal, let me show you the new look for Winterkill:

Where Emmeline lives, you cannot love and you cannot leave...

The Council's rules are strict, but they're for the good of the settlement in which Emmeline lives. Everyone knows there is nothing but danger the other side of the Wall, and the community must prepare for the freezing winterkill that comes every year.

But Emmeline struggles to be obedient under the Council's suffocating embrace - especially when she discovers that a Council leader intends to snatch her hand in marriage.

Then Emmeline begins to hear the call of the trees beyond the Wall...


And here is the sequel, Darkthaw in all its glory! Darkthaw will be published 5th November and I will certainly be reading it straight away. I won't add the synopsis here, in case you haven't yet read Winterkill. Minor spoilers!

And, because Faber are very forward-thinking, they have also started work on the third and final book in the trilogy, Heartfire, (I'm assuming) publishing sometime next year. This cover is not final! But it will give you a good indication of what the whole trilogy will look like together.

What do you guys think? I love them.  The original cover for Winterkill was very blue (and I like that cover too!) but having seen these covers now, I much prefer them. I love how each cover has colours that really complement each other and that the whole trilogy sits nicely together. I love the snow and trees and the solitary silhouettes in each of the covers. They're just so pretty.

Now tell me what you think! 

Can characters be unlikeable but still loveable? by Alexia Casale

Absolutely pleased and honoured to be sharing this guest post from Alexia Casale today. Alexia is the author of The Bone Dragon and House of Windows (published this month!) as well as the organiser of upcoming literary 'festival' for MG/YA #YAShot. 

House of Windows is one of my favourite books I've read all year. You can read my review of it here and I'm so glad that Lexi chose to write about the likeability (or not) of her main character, Nick. I think it's really interesting and I hope you enjoy it too! 

Find out more about Alexia Casale, her books and YAShot using the following websites: 

Alexia Casale ... Alexia on Twitter ... YAShot

Can characters by unlikeable but still loveable?

by Alexia Casale

         

A while back, I did an interview about The Bone Dragon that included the question ‘Why will readers like your protagonist, Evie?’ I remember blinking at the screen and realising I’d never even thought about it before because it had never occurred to me as an issue. I love some of my characters and hate others, but I never think about whether they’re likeable. It seems such a low bar to set – and, at the same time, it’s so hard to achieve a general ‘likeability’ that everyone will agree with. Likeable characters are like bread: very pleasant, but also very easy to get fed up with unless you add something to the mix. How could any writer ask people to read an entire book about bread-people? Books need to be about marmite-people: people love or loathe. People readers will have a strong opinion about.

            Nick, the protagonist of House of Windows, is a prickly, touchy, difficult, largely self-centred smart-alec. I don’t expect the majority of readers to like him. Instead I hope most will slowly come to love him, not because they discover he has a hidden heart of gold but through gradually coming to understand him: to see why he’s self-centred and why such a smart person is so dumb when it comes to people. There are reasons that Nick is as he is, but during the book he starts making different choices and becoming a slightly different person. But his choices aren’t a matter of him saying ‘Oh, I guess I’m a bit of a jerk: better do something about that’, they’re about him coming to understand that there are other ways of behaving.

As we slowly realise, Nick needs some help learning enough about other people to know how not to be selfish. I love Nick and I feel for him because I understand why he hasn’t seen the other choices he could make before. Also, he’s still a child and I think there’s a lot to love about a person who is doing his best, as he approaches adulthood, to find a way to be a better person when he’s really not had any help figuring those things out. The things we learn about why Nick as he is don’t excuse his behaviour, but they explain it. It’s easier to have sympathy for people when we understand where they’re coming from. Often we see that when people aren’t nice to us, they’re not trying to be hurtful: they’re just try to deal with stuff going on in their own lives. When we see that people don’t mean us harm, it’s easier to see past their actions. That’s the journey I hope to take readers on with Nick.

            Meanwhile, one of the others characters is presented as a ‘nice chap’. But then there’s a bit of stereotypical, slightly cartoonish ‘comedy’ with one girl and then another… and over time I hope readers will see that this ‘likeable’ ‘funny’ ‘nice chap’ isn’t really either of those things. In his way, he’s a much less pleasant person than Nick – he’s just got a shinier, smoother surface. He doesn’t prickle at everyone and periodically sneer, but he is much more deeply unkind. More deeply selfish.

And that’s another issue I have with ‘likeableness’. Often the people who are overtly likeable aren’t actually that nice or kind or decent. Yes, they make nice and they smile and they never actively say anything horrid and they try to avoid conflict… but those things aren’t always good at all. If someone stamps purposefully on your foot because they fancy it and then smile and make an apology, it’s harder to call them on it. But I’d say that person is worse than the one who just comes up and stamps on your foot while glaring at you and then swears at you and walks off. We often mistake slick for likeable. After all, how can anyone be ‘likeable’ and still challenge implicit prejudice from someone who is smiling and oblivious when this will doubtless mean upsetting people and ‘causing a fuss’? On the one hand it’s not likeable to do otherwise, but upsetting people and causing a fuss are antithetical to the appearance of being agreeable and smiling and getting on with everyone that we often associate with likeableness.

Likeableness is a mask people wear when you first meet them. It doesn’t tell you much about what’s going on underneath and that’s what I care about in creating characters: I don’t want them to be a small list of traits but feel like real people - complex and contradictory and all the more wonderful because of it.

            It’s not that hard to love people who act in selfish and difficult ways provided they’re not cruel and you understand why they’re behaving that way. Liking people is all about surface impressions: it’s relies on not knowing very much about someone. Love relies on complexity: it’s about liking some bits and not others, but understanding how all the bits fit together and appreciating the whole person as more than the sum of their parts. That’s what I strive for with my characters. I want them to be interesting. I want them to gradually come to make sense. Then you can like them or not, love them or hate them, but I hope you’ll see them as I do – as people on page, not just characters acting out a story.

REVIEW: House of Windows by Alexia Casale

I really loved House of Windows by Alexia Casale. It is a book I'd been looking forward to reading very much, ever since Alexia Casale's previous book, The Bone Dragon, swept me away and broke my heart.  I had very high expectations of House of Windows but luckily I enjoyed this book very much. It didn't initially feel as though I would be as affected emotionally by it as I was by The Bone Dragon but I found House of Windows to be a real slow-burner.  It came as a huge surprise when in that last quarter, I had to put my book down and cry for a bit because I'd come to care a great deal more about these characters than I'd realised.

House of Windows is about a 15 year old boy, Nick, who is starting his first year of university in Camridge. And Nick will be the first to correct anyone who calls him a genius, he's not. What Nick is is somewhat prickly and sarcastic and I loved him for that.  I always find myself relating to people completely unlike myself or with characters who have personality traits that I aspire to, and what Nick is definitely not is a people-pleaser and I loved that about him.  What I also loved is getting to know Nick and finding out just what has turned him into the sort of person he is when we meet him.

I have to admit, it was a little difficult to get into this book straight away. That first 50 pages or so are all about the different words and phrases that people who go to Cambridge University call things. They have their own words for everything and it felt like a steep learning curve for both Nick and the reader trying to navigate through this new lingo.  And at first, I wasn't sure how necessary it was but it got to a certain point and I started thinking differently.  I think having this language for things helps set up the incredible setting that is Cambridge University. I've never been, but after reading House of Windows, I really feel like planning a day-trip and doing some exploring of my own. And I felt like I was part of it too, in learning these new phrases for everything and seeing Cambridge University through the eyes of Nick.

But also, I felt like this book was about Nick finding a place to belong and everything worth joining has it's own language. From families to universities to sports teams (like the rowing crew Nick joins). It felt like it all came together as Nick was learning the language and the people involved and his part in everything. It just made sense.

The thing that I loved so much about this book is that it's very character driven. There isn't a great deal of plot, it covers an academic year and follows Nick on his journey through this first year of university. But it felt like so much more as Nick really progresses throughout the story from this kind of unlikeable, lonely teenage boy into someone who belongs.

The family  relationships and friendships in this book really made me cry. But what I loved about them in particular was how real Alexia Casale made them all. I read this book and it felt like she'd brought these characters to life for me.  And even if I didn't always like them (looking at you, Nick's dad) I at least always felt like they were believable in the things that they said or did. I loved the realisations that Nick comes to about the meaning of friendship and what it is to be a family.

House of Windows is a really beautiful book. It's beautifully written and populated with some amazing characters. The themes brought up of belonging and of family and letting other people in were really important felt incredibly emotional for me. It felt like the book I needed to read at exactly the right time. This is an amazing book and I really highly recommend it.

The Trouble With Brothers by Emma Carroll

Today I have a very special guest post for you by Emma Carroll, the author of lovely middle grade books Frost Hollow Hall, The Girl Who Walked on Air and In Darkling Wood.

One of the things that I loved so much about the book are the family relationships. Especially between the main character, Alice, and her little brother who is need of a heart transplant. And so I'm super glad that Emma is here today talking about her own relationship with her brother. I can relate to this post so very much (my brother lives 3000 miles away from me and has done for the past 15 years!) 

In Darkling Wood is a beautiful, magical story and I definitely recommend it. 

Emma Carroll ... Emma on Twitter

The Trouble With Brothers

by Emma Carroll

Though they don’t get much page time, brothers are a major part of the story in ‘In Darkling Wood’. Sometimes, for me, a person’s absence has more impact than their presence. Certainly, that’s the case with my own brother.

Growing up, I didn’t like my brother much. He was two years older than me and quite fancied himself- a lot of girls did too, which didn’t help. While I was galloping around the garden on my imaginary horse, he was hanging out in the high street wearing drainpipe jeans and a The Clash t-shirt. And if he wasn’t in town ‘posing’, (the family name for it) he’d shut himself in his bedroom and play music so loud, I couldn’t concentrate on my pony books. No wonder then, that the dog was known as ‘my sister’- I spent far more of my childhood with her.

Then we all grew up.

I started uni. The dog died. And, out of the blue, my granddad did too. My parents were on holiday in America at the time. We couldn’t get hold of them, so we- the kids- had to deal with it. I rushed back from uni and the brother who met me at the station was different. Or maybe I was. He was softer. Kinder. Funnier. From that point on, we sort of ‘found’ each other.

For the next few years we became very close. We hung out together, had mutual friends, went backpacking around Turkey in the summer hols. It seemed hard to think we’d not been that close growing up.

After uni, I moved to Brighton. And he went to Australia. He stayed there. Twenty years on, he’s still there, with his English wife and two brilliant daughters. At first, I was completely gutted. I got angry.

Then I got cancer.

It was a massive, life-changing experience, and one he wasn’t there to see me through. I missed him. Yet it also made me realise that his life wasn’t here with us anymore, but on the other side of the world. I learned something else too- and it really helped.

 

Getting ill was a bit like my granddad’s death: it brought everyone together, only this time it was with my friends- good, gorgeous, funny friends who became like family because of how rock solid they were. Friends like my dearest buddy Karl who bought joke chemo wigs, and who I think of as a brother. I’ve never forgotten what a difference those people made. Never will.

 Family is flesh and blood. But it’s also the people who are there- the partners, the best friends, and yes- the dogs. It can be as big, as varied and as vibrant as you want it to be. Just so long as it works.

Natasha Farrant (Awesome Women)

I'm really happy today that Natasha Farrant is here answering some questions about women and books and role models.  Natasha Farrant is the author the The Things We Did For Love as well as the Bluebell Gadsby Diaries and I have enjoyed them all!  The Things We Did For Love has been repackaged with this pretty new cover as well.

To find out more about Natasha or her books, do visit the following websites:

Natasha Farrant ... Natasha on Twitter ... Natasha on Facebook

Can you tell me a little something about yourself?

I was born in London and still live there with my husband and my two teenage daughters. I have a brother and two sisters, I’m half French, I speak Spanish, I love travelling, reading and the cinema. I combine writing with my job as a Literary Scout, looking for English language children’s and YA books on behalf of publishers in other countries. My favourite food is smoked salmon on toast, my favourite drink is champagne, and my perfect evening would involve both of those and a good book. 

Did you have a role model growing up?

My aunt. She’s an incredibly strong, hard-working woman who raised her two children alone, while also supporting her artist ex-husband, and maintaining a tremendous sense of fun throughout.  She is one of the toughest, most glamorous, life-loving people I know. She lives in the south of Spain and I stayed with her many times. She made all her morning business phone calls from her bed, smoking and drinking coffee and I wanted to be just like her. She’s the first person who made me realise what it means to take control of your life – that you don’t have to follow the path people expect you to. 

Who do you look up to now?

People of integrity who are true to themselves and their beliefs.

When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be self-employed (like my aunt) and a writer. And now I am both!

Tell me something about the women in your life who have been an influence on you?

My family is full of strong, somewhat complicated women. But my aunt (the one above) said to me recently, “I have made a beautiful life”, and I think that is true of all of them. Through war and heartbreak, good times and bad, they have crafted beautiful lives, with home and family very much at the centre.  There have been terrible fights – epic, really – but always, also, so much love and such a sense of belonging.  It’s something I come back to in my books again and again. 

Who is your favourite fictional character? And why?

It’s a hard call between Atticus Finch (who is true to his beliefs, see above) and Anne Shirley (see below).

Is there a fictional character that reminds you of you?  And if you could choose to be best friends with a fictional character, who would it be? 

Anne Shirley. No question about it. Because of her wild imagination and tendency to get into scrapes. Oh my god, I love her so much. I so desperately wanted to be an orphan and sleep in that bedroom and marry Gilbert.  I went to Prince Edward Island a few years ago and you can visit Green Gables! I wept when I saw it. I even bought an Anne hat (straw boater with red braids hanging down). I’m going to stop now before it gets embarrassing.

What were you like as a teenager and how did you cope with all the changes that occurred?

I was awkward, angry, obsessed with being cool and failing miserably at it. But I loved to lose myself either in books or on long solitary walks.  Both were very grounding and helped give me a sense of perspective on my really not at all miserable life. 

Which book would you say that every teenager should read and why? 

A difficult question, since every teenager is different (as my daughters keep reminding me).  I think, To Kill a Mockingbird because it tackles prejudice on so many levels, makes you question what is right and wrong, presents this amazing role model in Atticus, and also because it’s such an incredibly tender story about growing up and letting go.  

If you had any advice for yourself as a teenager, what would you say?

All those people you think are so sorted are secretly just as insecure as you… Also, do more exercise.

If you could choose to have a girly sleepover with any fictional characters, who would you choose? 

Apart from Anne? Lydia Bennet. Flora Gadsby, from my own books. The whole of Mallory Towers. Probably not all at once though, and assuming I was about 13.

Of the issues and concerns that women are faced with today, what's the area you most like reading/writing about?

I don’t know if there’s any one issue I like to read or write about.  I do feel there’s a real need for strong female characters who take on the world on their own terms – feminine without being vapid, strong without trying to emulate men, at ease with themselves and confident of their place in the world. That’s really important.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Just thank you!

Thank you, Natasha!

COVER REVEAL: House of Windows by Alexia Casale

The Cover

The Product Description 

'The body is a house of many windows: there we all sit, showing ourselves and crying on the passers-by to come and love us.' Robert Louis Stevenson

Nick hates it when people call him a genius. Sure, he's going to Cambridge University aged 15, but he says that's just because he works hard. And, secretly, he only works hard to get some kind of attention from his workaholic father.

Not that his strategy is working.

When he arrives at Cambridge, he finds the work hard and socialising even harder. Until, that is, he starts to cox for the college rowing crew and all hell breaks loose...

Add House of Windows on Goodreads ... Pre-order House of Windows at Amazon 

My reaction

I was absolutely thrilled and honoured when Alexia Casale asked both me and Luna from Luna's Little Library to co-host the cover reveal for Lexi's new book.  Her debut book, The Bone Dragon, is one of my favourite ever books. And I was always going to be crazy excited about anything else she writes.  And House of Windows sounds really intriguing.  I hope you all are just as excited about the cover and this book as Lexi, Luna and I are... 

Now onto my thoughts on the cover! When I first saw the cover for House of Windows, my first reaction was 'OMG, look at the pretty!' I absolutely love the colours in particular. And I love that this cover and The Bone Dragon are very similar in design with the trees and the splash of colour at the bottom leading up to a single figure.  In fact, here are the two covers next to each other so you can see how much they mirror each other. 

Aren't they gorgeous? I love the font that's used here and the softness of the colours. But also how you can see Cambridge in the background of House of Windows. What a pretty cover. I really hate that now it's a waiting game until July! 

In case that cover and the product description are just not enough to get you excited, here is Alexia Casale to bring you further hints about the story line and what you can expect...

Plot hints from Alexia Casale

I'm not allowed to reveal too much about the book, but I can say that it features a graveyard, a police station, tropical fish (deceased), a girl who wants to be a flower fairy (not deceased), a hospital, some very good singing, some very bad singing, an awful lot of coffee, and a very special book.

The story starts on Nick's 15th birthday: his birthday wish is to get a First in his First Year exams at University. The book ends one calendar year later.

Two things that I expect will surprise people after The Bone Dragon:

1. House of Windows is probably best categorised as Literary Contemporary.
2. It's written in the third person, past tense.

House of Windows by Alexia Casale is expected to be published by Faber on 2nd July 2015.  

What do you think? Excited?

REVIEW: Memoirs of a Neurotic Zombie by Jeff Norton

I first heard about Memoirs of A Neurotic Zombie by Jeff Norton at a blogger event earlier this year and Jeff Norton was there to read some of the beginning of this book aloud ... and it was hilarious. I found myself laughing a lot listening to this funny, awkward, neurotic pre-teen turned zombie and his adventures and I knew that I was going to love it.  And I did.

Adam Meltzer has the shock of his life when a few months after he dies from a bee sting at his 12th birthday, he wakes up as a zombie.  This is his story of how he both adjusts to zombie-hood but also how he solves the mystery of his own death/why he turned into a zombie.  It was a whole lot of fun and is populated with some great supporting characters. I especially loved the idea that everyone is different and that those differences should be celebrated.

The thing with Adam Meltzer is that he's many things.  He's obviously a pre-teen and now a zombie, but he's also a germaphobe and an absolute worrier and those things can offer their own sorts of humour.  But I think the thing that I love most about Adam Meltzer is how literal he is. I know an almost 9 year old who is just as literal as Adam and I could really understand and relate to some things Adam seems to question throughout this book.

Together with Adam in this detective mission for answers are two friends Ernesto and Corina who are in the unique position to understand Adam's predicament in that they are a chupacabra and a vampire respectively.  What I really loved about this trio is the level of support and friendship they give to each other.

Altogether, Memoirs of a Neurotic Zombie was a really fun, funny book about a group of outsiders who find a place to belong and who go on this dangerous adventure seeking truth in this really entertaining way and I was gripped throughout by what they get up to.  I loved reading a book that was so humorous as well as being full of heart. Highly recommended!

REVIEW: Flora In Love by Natasha Farrant

I absolutely loved Flora In Love by Natasha Farrant! I adored the first book in the series, After Iris, and I thought while not containing as many emotional highs as the first book that Flora In Love is a wonderfully chaotic and fun sequel.   I desperately want to be in a large family like the Gadsby family and be part of all their weird and wonderful antics.

I will always eagerly pick up a book about this family and their fabulous madness that only comes from being in a large family.  I think Natasha Farrant does an incredible job with the family dynamics and especially in the dialogue that readers will be able to mentally picture incredibly well given that it is presented both in written diary entries as well as transcripts of video diary entries.  I really love this combination and it really made me feel like I was there alongside Blue and Flora and Twig and Jas and everyone.

Flora In Love takes place a year after the events of After Iris and Blue explains at the beginning of the book that she stops writing and filming diary entries when things are good in the Gadsby family ... and so right from the start we see that there are cracks that are now appearing in Blue's, her parents', and her brother's and sisters' lives.  Blue's parents are behaving strangely, Zoran has given up being their nanny and Jas in particular is feeling a bit left out now that everyone but her is having relationship problems.

I think it was really interesting to see the new relationships that everyone is forming.  The title of the book is that Flora is in love but Blue also has her first real relationship with her best friend with interesting consequences and we see Twig having a crush on a girl at school that makes his behaviour change.  I think all three of the older Gadsby children have things to learn about relationships and it was really fun to witness these experiences over the course of this book.

I think the thing I love the most about this book and series besides a great mixture of humour together with sadness and a whole heap of large family chaos is that all the characters presented are so wonderfully developed.  I got a really great sense of everybody from the youngest Gadsby, Jas, to their parents and Zoran and his new charge, Zach.  Everybody felt very real and everything that these characters go through in this book felt real and believable too.  I really want to read more books about the Gadsby family!

The Bigger The Danger, The Bigger The Crowd by Emma Carroll #CountdownYA

It is my great pleasure today to welcome Emma Carroll, the middle grade author of both Frost Hollow Hall and also The Girl Who Walked On Air.  The Girl Who Walked on Air is being published by Faber on the 7th of August and the wonderful Jim from YA Yeah Yeah has organised this Countdown to 7th August blog tour.  

Today, Emma Carroll is here talked about Victoria tightrope walkers, which forms the basis of this new book!  It's fun and adventurous and I've loved what I've read.  I'll hand you over to Emma now, but if you want to know more about Emma Carroll or her books, please do visit the following links: 

Emma Carroll ... Emma Carroll on Twitter ... Add Emma's books to your Goodreads shelf

Massive thanks to Michelle for hosting me on her beautiful blog to talk about famous Victorian tightrope walkers, the inspiration for my new book ‘The Girl Who Walked On Air’…

The Bigger The Danger, The Bigger The Crowd

by Emma Carroll

It’s a myth that the Victorians were prudish. Underneath those tight corsets and spotless top hats, they actually had pretty gruesome tastes. Dog fighting, rat baiting, freak shows, child acrobats- all were popular entertainment in the C19th.

Up until 1868 when the last public hanging in England took place, an execution might draw a crowd of 20,000-100,000. It was quite common to make a day of it with a picnic.

Nowadays, we get adrenalin kicks from movies or video games. The risk is imagined; in Victorian times they were very real. And this was all part of the thrill. Or as the Victorians’ called it, sensation.

Take Charles Blondin.

On 30^th June 1859, Blondin became the first person to cross the Niagara Falls on a tightrope. When Nic Wallenda did the same stunt in 2012, it was a legal requirement that he wore a safety harness.

Blondin wore none.

Bets were placed on him falling 160 feet into the river below. Reports spoke of the crowd being’ visibly affected with palpitations of the heart.’

In the following weeks, Blondin crossed the Falls blindfold, in a sack, on stilts, carrying his manager on his back. He even cooked an omelette halfway across the rope.

Eventually, the crowds grew bored.

Back in the UK, Blondin’s name became synonymous with daring. On seeing his act, Dickens commented: ‘half of London is here, eager for some dreadful accident.’ In October 1861, one young tightrope walker calling herself ‘The Female Blondin’ crossed the River Thames in front of 20,000 people.

Yet for another ‘Female Blondin’ such daring came with a price. In January 1863 at Aston Park, Birmingham, her rope broke. She fell to her death in full view of the crowds; she was eight-months pregnant at the time. The show continued with ‘unabated gaiety’, ending with a firework display at midnight.

A public outcry followed. Queen Victorian voiced her disgust and the pressure grew to make performances safer. Laws were introduced. Eventually, tastes did change,. As for Blondin, he died in his own bed at the aged 73 of diabetes.

REVIEW: The Girl Who Walked On Air by Emma Carroll

I absolutely adored The Girl Who Walked On Air by Emma Carroll.  This is Emma Carroll's second historical story aimed at a middle grade audience but it is the first book of hers I've read. I'm sure I'll go back and read Frost Hollow Hall based on the strength of feeling I had for this book though.

I absolutely loved the main character, Louie, and witnessing her journey throughout this book.  She goes on such an adventure! And I definitely think my favourite aspect of this book is Louie's determination to succeed and follow her dreams despite everyone around her telling her that she can't because she's young and a girl.

But things aren't all smooth sailing for Louie.  As a baby, Louie was abandoned by her mother and taken in by Jasper, a trapeze artist at Mr. Chipchase's circus.  Louie has grown up to become a ticket-seller and mender-of-costumes but she dreams of being a show-stopper, she dreams of being a tightrope-walker.  Together with her lovely little dog, Pip, she's been training for years to hone her craft in order to impress Mr. Chipchase.  But he doesn't seem to take her any notice at all.  And instead the first of two strangers enters her life and changes things all around.

I loved all the details that Emma Carroll wrote into the story about Victorian circuses and how every act needed the WHIFF OF DEATH in order to be widely entertaining and how every act needed to be daring and pushing the limits and taking things one step further to be truly death-defying and amazing.  And Louie definitely gets pulled into this mind-set and idolises other risk-taking tightrope-walkers like Charles Blondin even after a horrible accident leaves the person closest to Louie in a terrible state.  It felt exciting to read about all the risks and daring that these performers get up to, but also really scary that a balance hadn't been set.

Other than Louie herself, I really loved all of the secondary characters in this book.  Jasper, Mr. Chipchase, Pip, Louie's best friend, Ned ... even Kitty, Louie's arch-nemesis was a really entertaining addition to the story.  But for me, it was Louie and Gabriel, a performer from another circus who comes to audition for the role of showstopper that really took the limelight for me.  I loved how we are able to see Louie's courage next to Gabriel's nervousness and stage fright and how we slowly discover how Gabriel came to feeling this way.

There were several really emotional scenes during The Girl Who Walked On Air and I felt slightly surprised by how quickly I came to love Louie and how much I wanted the best for her.  I actually cried from pride at one point in the book because she had achieved something wonderful and my heart just felt fit to burst.  This book was just so lovely and entertaining! I really do recommend it especially for slightly younger than YA readers who are looking for a story about adventure and empowerment and friendship and bravery.

P.S. Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog post which will be a guest post by Emma Carroll!

REVIEW: Dead Ends by Erin Lange

Review by Kulsuma

After having read the brilliant Butter, I couldn’t wait to read the author’s next book, Dead Ends by Erin Lange. Dead Ends follows Dane, a teenager who’s not afraid to use his fists when he feels the itch. Most wouldn’t want to cross him, so of course Dane is surprised and put out when, Billy D, the new kid with Down Syndrome, is not scared of Dane in the least.

Dane is one step away from expulsion and Billy D has some thugs out to get him, so the pair make a deal (grudgingly on Dane’s part) to help each other out. In the process, the two find out that they have a lot in common and that the other isn’t as bad as they first thought.

I enjoyed Dead Ends mostly because of the characters. They were very realistic and going through problems which readers can relate to. Dane is poor. All he wants is a car so he can drive himself places, but his mother, who has really good luck when it comes to the lottery, never cashes in her tickets, but rather puts them on display. This is one of the factors that leads to Dane’s bitterness which sometimes shows in the story through his violence.

After Dane promises to help Billy D find his father, they set out to solve the clues in the atlas Billy D’s father gave to him. I felt really sorry for Billy D because all he wanted was to find his father. His frustration is evident through the pages of the book. However, all things considered, this book fell short for me as I found it anti-climactic. There were no big surprises and I didn’t feel like I really related to any of the characters or supported their motives. While I didn’t like it as much as Butter, it was a good story.

Thanks for this, Kulsuma!

Memoirs of a Neurotic Zombie by Jeff Norton Cover Reveal and Extract

Earlier this year, I was thrilled and excited to attend a blogger event with Faber Children's books. It was an awesome afternoon and one of the highlights for me was hearing Jeff Norton read aloud from his upcoming book, Memoirs of a Neurotic Zombie.  Apparently I laughed quite loudly.  But it just sounded so wonderful and funny and fun that I couldn't help falling for poor Adam Meltzer, a germaphobe and ...zombie. 

I'm thrilled today to share this fantastic cover of the book and also a fun extract. Memoirs of a Neurotic Zombie by Jeff Norton is being published by Faber on the 7th of August.

Add Memoirs of a Neurotic Zombie to your Goodreads shelf
Find out more about Jeff and his books on his website
Follow Jeff Norton on Twitter

 On to the good stuff! Here is the wonderful cover... What do you think? 

'My name is Adam Meltzer and the last thing I remember was being stung by a bee while swinging at a robot-shaped piñata on my twelfth birthday. I was dead before the candy hit the ground.'

Memoirs of a Neurotic Zombie is narrated by the hilarious Adam Meltzer - pre-teen, worrywart, and now zombie. Adam's family gets the fright of their lives when he turns up at their door desperate for a shower . . . three months after his funeral.

When most people think zombies, they think of eating people, and unintelligent monsters. But Adam doesn’t like germs. Or dirt. Or things being disorganised. So waking up as a zombie was definitely not in his plans, and the idea of eating people is disgusting. Getting stung by a bee doesn’t normally lead to becoming a zombie, and it seems incredibly unfair that it’s happened to Adam.

Soon Adam's back at school trying to fit in and not draw extra attention to himself, but when he sees his neighbour Ernesto transform into a chupacubra, and the beautiful Corina (Adam's number one mega-crush) turns out to be a (vegan) vampire, undead life is never going to bethe same again.

A hilarious adventure caper - if Ferris Bueller met Shaun of the Dead - all about friendship and being yourself . . . even if you're undead.

Extract 7 - Adam sees his new zombie reflection

I came face to face with my ghastly complexion.

Since Mom was a doctor, we’d had all sorts of conversations about what to expect from puberty. I was the best prepared pre-teen for zits, pimples, whiteheads, blackheads, and patchy peachy fuzz. But the boy in the mirror wasn’t puberty personified, he was grotesquely zombified.

My flesh was grey, decomposing, flaking off. There was a five cm skinless patch on my forehead where my skull shone through like a crescent moon on a cloudy night. My eyes had lots their natural hazel sparkle and were now that trendy grey colour that paint stories called urban slate.

I was a monster.

I started at the fresk show in the mirror. I couldn’t really believe what was staring back. Was that really me? I wanted to stop, but I couldn’t look away.

‘It’s not all bad,’ offered my mom, stroking my hair and pulling out a coffin splinter. ‘Tell me one good thing about what you see.’

That was her little cheer-up game that she played whenever Amanda or I were feeling low. I tried to play along.

‘Well,’ I sighed, trying to ignore my skin. ‘My hair actually looks better.’

Death had somehow smoothed out my most unruly curls. I’d tried all of the commercially available conditioners, and none of them had the juice to relax my curls the way three months of coffin confinement did. Of course, my dark brown bouffant was still covered in grave dirt so a shampoo-rinse-repeat was definitely in order.

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Now go visit Luna's Little Library for the next hilarious extract...