#Adventure Dayze @lovebooksgroup @mullane_wayne @lovebookstours blog tour

ADVENTURE DAYZE BY WAYNE

Independently published 3rd June 2021

Genre: Non-fiction, mental health, birdwatching, walking and trekking 

Pages: 200

Hiking is the gateway to adventure.

Being in the Great Outdoors is great for the mind, body, and soul. And the even better news? It needn’t involve much more than putting on a pair of trainers and heading out your front door.

In Adventure Dayze, author Wayne Mullane recounts his hiking experiences in Britain and Ireland with his friends, including overcoming limitations walking at altitude and having a dodgy sense of direction!

This book aims to help you get started… or, if you’re a seasoned hiker, to encourage you to hike with renewed vigour. This story shares insights and discusses the benefits of hiking, including fitness, friendship, courage, mental health, and…err…the joy of eating.

Adventure Dayze will inspire you to overcome your limitations and get outdoors to enjoy all the unique beauty that is on offer. Even pandemic lockdowns won’t be able to suppress your exploration, as the author found out, there are many ways to bring the outdoors inside when there’s no other choice.

MY REVIEW

I was absolutely fascinated by this book written by Wayne Mullane, so much so that I decided to do my research online about Wayne’s hiking up mountains.

The book Adventure Dayze is not a guidebook for a particular hike it is more of an overview of hiking and its benefits. Even I do a one mile walk most days, early evening, not to lose weight or anything just simply to get fresh air and the heart pumping round.

Wayne Mullane takes readers through his own mission in long walks, and hiking mountains with his friends. While They are all hiking up Scafell Pike in the Lake District Wayne suffers from the fear of heights, acrophobia was setting in. But he loves being at altitude, so despite having a fear of heights, he does love the benefits to his mental health and being high up did outweigh his level of acrophobia.

Scafell Pike is the highest promient Mountain in England being 978 meters or 3,209ft and takes up to 2 hours to hike up and 2 hours down. I can imagine that’s once up on top of Scafell Pike there must be a lovely view looking down. Lucky for me I’m not scared of heights I just the opposite from Wayne I’m claustrophobic, so I did understand that wayne suffered from acrophobia. I really did feel sorry for him, as when you have a phobia about something it plays havoc with your life at some point. The main thing is Wayne managed to conquer his acrophobia.

Wayne and his friends stop at pubs to discuss what route they will take next to hike. There is a part set within this book in why Wayne walks. And what happened during lockdown when his friends couldn’t meet up.

Adventure Dayze is so inspiring to get out there and start walking. This book has been well planned out with handy tips for those wanting to start hiking.

Author Bio
I live in Maidenhead, England. I’m a local council worker. My main hobbies are hiking, writing and playing board games. I also like spending time with family and friends. As well as writing about my hiking adventures, I write short stories and poems that appear on my website. I enjoy reading books on travel and fantasy novel.

Here is where you can find Wayne Mullane

https://www.Instagram.com/mullanewayne

https://www.twitter.com/Mullane_wayne

https://waynemullane.com/

Buy Links Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventure-Dayze-Overcoming-limitations-Irelands/dp/B096LKHGLN/ref=sr_1

The Island of Missing Trees Elif Shafak

Today I’m celebrating the Cheltenham Literature festival by being part of this amazing blog tour reviewing The Island of Missing Trees by the fabulous author Elif Shafak.

THE ISLAND OF MISSING TREES BY ELIF SHAFAK

HARDBACK PUBLISHED BY VIKING 5TH AUGUST 2021

It is 1974 on the island of Cyprus. Two teenagers, from opposite sides of a divided land, meet at a tavern in the city they both call home. The tavern is the only place that Kostas, who is Greek and Christian, and Defne, who is Turkish and Muslim, can meet, in secret, hidden beneath the blackened beams from which hang garlands of garlic, chilli peppers and wild herbs. This is where one can find the best food in town, the best music, the best wine. But there is something else to the place: it makes one forget, even if for just a few hours, the world outside and its immoderate sorrows.

In the centre of the tavern, growing through a cavity in the roof, is a fig tree. This tree will witness their hushed, happy meetings, their silent, surreptitious departures; and the tree will be there when the war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to rubble, when the teenagers vanish and break apart.

Decades later in north London, sixteen-year-old Ada Kazantzakis has never visited the island where her parents were born. Desperate for answers, she seeks to untangle years of secrets, separation and silence. The only connection she has to the land of her ancestors is a Ficus Carica growing in the back garden of their home.

In The Island of Missing Trees, prizewinning author Elif Shafak brings us a rich, magical tale of belonging and identity, love and trauma, memory and amnesia, human-induced destruction of nature, and, finally, renewal.

MY REVIEW

The Island of Missing Trees, is from the author Booker shortlisted author of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World.

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist whose work has been translated into 54 languages and is the top 10 Sunday Times Bestseller. All of the six chapters are beautiful written.

Prologue Island

PART ONE How to Bury a Tree

PART TWO Roots

PART THREE. Trunk

PART FOUR Branches

PART FIVE Ecosystem

PART SIX How to unbury a Tree

I loved all of the chapters, where there was plenty that amazed me about the literature fiction.

In the chapter Fig Tree there was something that really grabbed my attention as this kind of thing really does happen in real life.

Extract from The Island of Missing Trees: chapter Fig Tree

It was he, after all, who had brought me to this sunless country from Cyprus, hidden inside a black leather suitcase. I was, if truth be told, smuggled on to the European continent.

At Heathrow airport, as Kostas pulled the suitcase past the gaze of a burly custom officer, I tensed, expecting him to be stopped and searched any second. His wife meanwhile, walked ahead of us, her stride brisk, purposeful and impatient as always. Define was pregnant with Ada at the time, though they did not yet know it. They thought they were bringing only me into England, unaware that they were also bringing their unborn child.

When the arrivals doors opened wide, Kostas exclaimed, unable to control the excitement in his voice. “We’re here, we made it, we made it! Welcome to your new home.

Was he talking to his wife or was he talking to me? I’d like to think it was the latter. Either way, that was more than sixteen years ago. I have never been back to Cyprus since.

I still carry the Island with me, though. The places where we were born are the shape of our lives, even when we are away from them.

ABOUT AUTHOR ELIF SHAFAK

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist. She has published 19 books, 12 of which are novels. She is a bestselling author in many countries around the world and her work has been translated into 55 languages. Her latest novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and RSL Ondaatje Prize; and was Blackwell’s Book of the Year. The Forty Rules of Love was chosen by BBC among the 100 Novels that Shaped Our World. The Architect’s Apprentice was chosen for the Duchess of Cornwall’s inaugural book club, The Reading Room.

Websitehttp://www.elifshafak.com/
TwitterElif_Safak

The whistleblower Robert Peston

Gil Peek, Press Gallery

All that interests me is the narrative, the story, and who controls it. As a glory seeking journalist, I sometimes reveal scandals. But more often I try to find out what the powerful in politics and business are planning, so that I can reveal it before they have the opportunity to impose their interpretation, their spin. In my more pretentious moments, I justify what I do as empowering the people to make up their own minds about how they are governed. Most of the time I am just having fun, pissing off minsters, chief executives, their minders, putting their secret schemes on the FC’s front page. If London is a collection of villages, I am the pedlar who wanders between the communities of politicians, financiers and businessmen, trading nuggets of information until I have enough to tell a tale that you’ll pay to read. Britain’s capital is vast and claustrophobically small. Everyone who matters knows everyone else who mattters. My job is to eavesdrop then share it with you.

1997. A desperate government clings to power; a hungry opposition will do anything to win. And journalist Gil Peck watches from the sidelines, a respected commentator on the sport of power politics. He thinks he knows how things work. He thinks he knows the rules.

But when Gil’s estranged sister Clare dies in a hit-and-run, he begins to believe it was no accident. Clare knew some of the most sensitive secrets in government. One of them might have got her killed.

As election day approaches, Gil follows the story into the dark web of interests that link politics, finance and the media. And the deeper he goes, the more he realises how wrong he has been.

But power isn’t sport: it’s war. And if Gil doesn’t stop digging, he might be the next casualty…

MY REVIEW

I’m a fan of politics as I always read the political pages in the newspaper. 

The Whistleblower is political fiction.  

I enjoyed reading The Whistleblower right from page one up to the very last page. 

The author Robert Peston, may have wrote a novel based on what he knows, but he has weaved tragedy into the storyline. 

Gil Peck is a political journalist. I felt literally quite upset for Gil, when he finds out his sister has been involved in an accident suffering a traumatic brain injury, and has been unconscious since the accident. 

This legal thriller story takes another turn. Gil is going to find out exactly how this accident happened. 

The whistleblower by Robert Peston, is his first novel, he has his own politics show and often talks on the news about political matters. 

As I enjoyed this novel so much I would definitely read another book by Robert Peston. I’m actually wondering what Robert Peston will write about next. On that note I wouldn’t mind if Robert based his next book as political fiction, too.

ABOUT ROBERT PESTON

Robert Peston is ITV’s political editor, presenter of the politics show Peston on Sunday and founder of the education charity, Speakers for Schools (www.speakers4schools.org). He has written four books, How Do We Fix This Mess?, Who Runs Britain?, Brown’s Britain and WTF. For a decade until the end of 2015, he was at the BBC, as economics editor and business editor. Previously he was City editor at the Sunday Telegraph, political editor and financial editor at the FT, a columnist for the New Statesman, and at the Independent in various roles. Peston has won more than 30 awards for his journalism, including Journalist of the Year from the Royal Television Society. His blog is itv.com/robertpeston, on Facebook he is facebook.com/pestonITV and he is @peston on Twitter.

A Discovery Disappears Pip Murphy blog tour

A DISCOVERY DISAPPEARS CHRISTIE AND AGATHA’S DETECTIVE AGENCY BY PIP MURPHY AND ILLUSTRATED BY ROBERTA TEDESCHI

Book 1 in the 1920’s detective series

PAPERBACK IS PUBLISHED BY SWEET CHERRY PUBLISHING 9TH SEPTEMBER 2021

ISBN 9781782268147

PAGES 128

FOR AGE 7-9 YEARS

It’s not easy growing up in the 1920s. While Christie can usually be found up a tree or trying a spot of amateur engineering, her shy twin Agatha buries her nose in books and dreams of being a writer. The pair couldn’t be more different. But when a scientific discovery goes missing, they find that together they can make a winning combination.

Whoever gave you that sandwich did it deliberately. They wanted to sabotage Fleming’s research.

When Agatha accidentally eats a major scientific discovery hidden in a sandwich it’s a race against time for the twins Christie and Agatha to find out who’s trying to ruin physician Sir Alexander Fleming reputation.

MY REVIEW

I’m very excited to be part of the Christie and Agatha blog tour for book 1 of the new Christie and Agatha detective agency book, which is book 1 from an exciting new book series.

Oh dear ! At a tea party, Christie eats a sandwich that Mr Fleming a scientist had been keeping for his research. Now Agatha and Christie are on the case to find out how this could have possibly happened to Christie.

So who is it ?

Who’s been messing with Flemming’s discovery of mould juice? 🤷

A Discovery Disappears Christie and Agatha’s detective agency is a brilliant entertaining modern day story and provides beautiful modern illustrations.

I thought this book was wonderful with a special QR code to a free audiobook for every reader.

To help you on your way to discover what’s in store for twins Christie and Agatha I’m sharing with you a sneak preview from chapter one in what the book 1 looks like. I do hope you will enjoy it reading it to your children as much as I have reading it.

CHAPTER 1 FROM A DISCOVERY DISAPPEARS

ABOUT AUTHOR PIP MURPHY

Websitehttp://pipmurphy.com
Twitterpipmurphyauthor
GenreChildren’s, Mystery, Young Adult

Pip Murphy is a British author who lived her early life in England on the Wirral. She has loved reading her whole life. She read every book in her primary school, some of them more than once!

Pip studied Classics at Edinburgh University, before relocating to Tokyo, Japan where she currently teaches English. She believes that humour and creativity are the best ways to learn.

Sweet Cherry Publishing 🍒 is an award-winning independent children’s book publisher based in Leicester. We believe that all children should have access to great stories and aim to make reading fun for children aged between 0 and 14.

Sweet Cherry Publishing 🍒 was awarded Small Press of the Year at The British Book Awards in 2021.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=A+discovery+disappears&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

What Page Sir? Simon Pickering

WHAT PAGE SIR ? BY SIMON PICKERING

PAPERBACK PUBLISHED BY RED DOOR PRESS 9TH SEPTEMBER 2021

What Page Sir ? The Joy of Text in a Secondary School Classroom

Not being on the same wavelength as your students is an occupational hazard for teachers. But for the English department, there’s the challenge of engaging a whole class in text they’re at best reluctant to read, and at worst loathe to.

What Page Sir ? records the hilarious and sometimes painful experience of secondary school English teacher as he struggles through some very familiar literary texts with some very unenthusiastic teenagers.

From the coalface of the education system. Simon Pickering serves up the comedy every teacher could do without, from rhyming couplets to re-sits. Ofsted to Covid and everything in between.

Featuring the unusual suspects Austen, Priestly, Golding, Waugh, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Greene, Conan Doyle, Orwell, Dickens, Shelly and of course, the Scottish Play this book provides a fresh and irreverent look at the stalwarts of the school curriculum and asks whether it is finally time for a change.

If Mr Pickering had done his job well and taught me right syllabus, maybe I would have studied English at university. Be didn’t and now I’m a full time drummer who loves Pride and Prejudice. I guess it worked out in the end.

MY REVIEW

What I liked about What Page Sir ? is that it discusses passages from books, that I haven’t read, leading me to actually learn a few things myself.

Until I read this book, I hadn’t quite realised how much teachers try to make a lesson an enjoyable one when it comes to reading a book that might appear boring to some in the classroom. As pupils in the class study a topic of a book they are encouraged make notes of characters.

All of these great writers are mentioned in all these chapters. Macbeth, Great Expectations, Pride and Prejudice, An Inspector Calls, Romeo and Juliet, Lord of the Flies, A Christmas Carol.

Simon Pickering a school teacher takes us through his journey of the schools he has filled in for just before lockdown and talks about after his first year of teaching in a boys comprehensive school.

I found this part very interesting in What Page Sir? Where it is explained all about it the 1990s and early 2000s, about year 9 third year pupils studying for their SATs Standard Assessment Tests.

In the book, what page Sir ? The most popular choice of Modern Text for GCSE is An Inspector Calls as it’s a much easier to read. However the teacher in year 10 finds that some of the boys are reluctant to find a given page or even open the book. With the teacher telling the class what page to turn to, one would ask What Page Sir ? then another in the class would say Sorry sir, what page was that ? Well actually I do remember that well, when someone in my class would ask my English teacher the same question.

There’s nothing wrong with reading Orwell, Dickens, Hemingway but I just personally feel that maybe pupils need a break from reading about past authors. This is clearly because times have changed.

Now days with so many authors producing engaging novels, some teenagers would rather read an up to date book than eighteenth century. And then you get some pupils that don’t mind reading books by past authors.

My heart goes out to all teachers who have to engage in the classroom to capture their attention, making a boring subject become more interesting.

Maybe some of the trouble that teenagers may not be paying attention these days when reading for a GCSE is that too many teenagers are more programmed into playing games on their phone and Xbox, rather than read.

My thirteen year old grandson will not read anything, all he does is play on his Xbox. I do worry as in a few years time he will have to read a book for his GCSE, or simply fail his English exam. He is the only one in our family who doesn’t read.

I blame the technology of today that teenagers which just aren’t reading enough.

In our days we read more because we didn’t have all this technology to distract us.

Here on the plus side of reading about Austen, Macbeth, An Inspector Calls , Orwell, Hemingway, Dickens Waugh and Steinbeck, there are always questions coming up on quiz shows etc about them and for those who have read or had to study them for an exam will know the answers.

The question has been raised is it time for a change ? With the studies of Austen, Priestley, Golding, Waugh, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Greene, Conan Doyle, Orwell, Dickens, Shelley, and the Scottish Play. I think this comes down to personal opinion on the reader within themselves. Austen is my top favourite author.

With my curiosity about what pupils are studying these days for GCSE, I decided to look it up on the internet and indeed it looks like times have changed with some Modern Prose Text, being available with the likes of books that we can all recognise, with, To kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee, Boys Don’t Cry, Malorie Blackman, women in Black, Susan Hill, Never Let Me Go , Kazuo Ishiguro, and About A Boy, Nick Hornby. These are just a few of Modern Prose Text for GCSE, there are quite a few more really good books available for teenagers studying for their exams.

Back to the point of all past authors, set for GCSE, why are GCSE about nineteenth century? Well did you know Michael Gove is the one who made it compulsory for all pupils to sit final exams on a nineteenth century novel which therefore it’s unfortunate for teachers who are responsible for some of the most boring lessons in a students life.

I personally loved reading What Page Sir ? The Joy of Text in a Secondary School Classroom, as it taught me a lot about books that I haven’t even read, and with the hilarious scenes in a classroom, and recommend it .

ABOUT AUTHOR SIMON PICKERING

What Page Sir ? Is Simon Pickering’s fifth book. He began writing in 2016 and as a form of therapy, on the train home from his job as a school teacher an antidote to difficult teenagers and pointless government and Senior Leadership initiatives. These are both explored in Ambassadors and Zombies A Teacher’s Guide to Schools and teaching. As Adam Tangent, his alter ego, he has published Those Who Can’t, A Teacher’s Gap Years, based on his two years pretending to be a university lecturer in post-communist Poland at the start of the 1990s. In the last year he has also published Living With Jos Buttler six weeks in English cricket’s summer of love and Gaza On My Mind conversations with my brother-in-law and other Gazans. Simon is still a school teacher and lives in Hertford with his wife and two children.

Here is the Amazon to buy What Page Sir ?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=what+page+sir+pickering&crid=3EAODNRAFXGY0&sprefix=What+page+%2Caps%2C155&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_10

Primary Obsessions Charles Demers blog tour

PRIMARY OBSESSIONS BY CHARLES DEMERS

PAPERBACK PUBLISHED BY LEGEND PRESS 15TH SEPTEMBER 2021

The endearing and unflappable Dr. Annick Boudreau regularly confronts a myriad of mental health issues in her psychiatric practice at the West Coast Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Clinic. But even Annick is stunned when Sanjay, a young patient who suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, is arrested for the brutal murder of his roommate.

While Sanjay is tortured by repeated violent thoughts, he is horrified by them and Annick is convinced that he would never enact one of them in real life. But the police and prosecutor are convinced that they have caught the perpetrator and aren’t interested in looking very hard.

MY REVIEW

I am pleased to let you all know that the novel Primary Obsessions by Charles Demers is shortlisted for the 2021 Bill Duthie Booksellers Choice Award.

The story starts off a bit creepy, that grabbed my attention from the first page. The chapters certainly made me go weak at the knees.

I totally agree with Nathan Ripley author of Find You in the Dark what he says about Primary Obsessions. Delivers a nuanced portrayal of stigmatization of mental illness in collision with crime.

Here is an extract from Primary Obsessions to show you just what I’m talking about in how creepy it is.

Do you want me to keep going.

I want you to move at whatever pace makes you feel comfortable. Don’t worry about time.

Okay. Well, like I go to pull out the knife, but she’s still breathing. And then every, like, breath she takes is it’s like of gasping? And it spatters, everywhere, blood. All over me, all over her.

It’s really important for me that you know that me asking this, it’s not about judgment.

No I know.

I’m just trying to get a fuller picture.

No I know, I know, he said, and was beginning to cry now, ignoring the box of tissues on the stand next to him, and instead wiping his eyes, his nose all of it with the heel of his palm. I just don’t even like to say it out loud. Because it feels more real?

Yeah, he said, she wa es breaking over the shore, his cheeks flooding with salty rivulets dully reflecting the soft lamplight in the room. The overhead fluorescent were off. They were always off. I keep stabbing her and stabbing her, her eyes, her like her front. Like her, her down.

Her genitals ?

The young man sobbed nodded and sobbed.

It’s okay.

It’s not okay, he screamed quietly, grinding his teeth. She’s my mother.

She’s helpless. What kind of person does that to their own mother?

During sessions like these, Dr Annick Boudreau wished she still had her hair.

ABOUT AUTHOR CHARLES DEMERS

https://www.charliedemers.com/

Charles Demers (born 1980) is a Canadian writer, comedian and political activist. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is a lecturer at the University of British Columbia, where he teaches a Creative Writing course about writing comedy.

Demers has published three books: a novel and two collections of essays. His first essay collection, Vancouver Special, was nominated for a Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize. He also frequently performs comedy at live venues across Canada and on the CBC Radio One, where he often appears on the show The Debaters. Demers was one of the hosts of the CityNews show The List. He used to be the membership secretary for the Coalition of Progressive Electors.

He is the voice of Walter from Beat Bugs.

Lo and Behold ! Mouse and Mole Joyce Dunbar

LO AND BEHOLD ! MOUSE AND MOLE BY JOYCE DUNBAR AND JAMES MAYHEW

HARDBACK PUBLISHED BY GRAFFEG 21ST OCTOBER 2021

LO AND BEHOLD! MOUSE AND MOLE BY JOYCE DUNBAR AND JAMES MAYHEW

Christmas is coming, but soon enough for Mole. While Mouse gets ready for the great day, Mole thinks opening windows on an advent calendar will speed things up. But will his cunning plan work?

MY REVIEW

I read Mouse and Mole The Secret of Happiness, so when I knew Mouse and Mole had a Snow scene and Christmas theme I just had to read it.

Mouse and Mole books are a fabulous collection that will look amazing on a shelf in a children’s bedroom.

With chilly days drawing in and Christmas not far away, this is a book that has fun glorious characters that will get children excited for the snow, to build their own snowman and for Christmas, making decorations, hanging their Christmas stockings up ready for Santa, and leaving food out for him. I do hope children will get Mouse and Mouse books to read !

Children love playing outside in the snow and like to build a snowman. Mouse and mole build a Snowmole.

All children love opening the windows on an advent calendar collecting a shape chocolate each day until Christmas Eve. But Mole had opened fifteen windows thinking that Christmas would come sooner.

Just look at these gorgeous books in the series Mouse and Mole

book 1 Mouse and Mole

Book 2 Happy Days for Mouse and Mole

Book 3 Mouse and Mole Have a party

Book 4 A Very Special Mouse and Mole

Book 4 Mouse and Mole: A Fresh Start

Book 5 Mouse and Mole : The secret of Happiness

Book 6 Lo and Behold !

All of these fabulous children’s books can be bought from graffeg directly at https://graffeg.com/

Or you can buy them on Amazon Here is the link to buy Lo and Behold! Mouse and Mole

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mouse-Mole-Behold-Joyce-Dunbar/dp/1914079655/ref=pd_ybh_a_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=BDD40PDBX059MF7MND9Y

ABOUT AUTHOR JOYCE DUNBAR

Joyce Dunbar best known for her lively and quirky picture books stories, with their wide emotional range: she can be funny, as in TWINKLE, TWINKLE PIGLET SQUID; serious, as in THIS IS THE STAR; reassuring, as in TELL ME SOMETHING HAPPY BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP; scary, as in THE MONSTER WHO ATE DARKNESS; adventurous, as in SHOE BABY; strange, as in ODDLY; poetic, as in MOONBIRD. The Guardian has named her as ‘one of the best writers for children today’ with praise for her ‘sensitivity, lyrical style and gentle humour’. She revels in the joy of language, the playfulness of words, and in seeing her work fabulously brought to life by world class illustrators. She takes a special pleasure in the 3 books illustrated by her daughter, Polly: SHOE BABY, PAT-A-CAKE BABY & I WILL NOT WEAR PINK.

Many of her stories have been dramatised for the stage and as puppet shows, with LONGNOSEPUPPETS & NORWICH PUPPET THEATRE.

She is the author of a series of 26 stories called MOUSE & MOLE, which one reviewer described as ‘among the greats of English Literature.’ These short, witty stories, so comically philosophical, have been made into T.V animation with Alan Bennett and Richard Briers playing the parts. For a Christmas Special, aired on BBC1 from 2014, Imelda Staunton joined the cast as Shrew.

She also wrote LOVE A PICTURE BOOK, a manifesto published by Booktrust. She loves to visit schools and give talks to adults. She was a creative writing tutor on the Greek island of Skyros for 10 years, and is also a tutor for The Arvon Foundation. She was a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow from 2006-2009.

ABOUT JAMES MAYHEW

Award winning author and illustrator James Mayhew is the creator of the best-selling KATIE and ELLA BELLA books, KOSHKA’S TALES and many other titles. He has been writing and illustrating for over 30 years. Katie merchandise is now available exclusively at the National Gallery in London

Albert and the Wind Ian Brown

ALBERT AND THE WIND BY IAN BROWN AND EOIN CLARKE

PAPERBACK PUBLISHED BY GRAFFEG 14TH OCTOBER 2021

Albert the pet tortoise is having a bad day. His sleep is disturbed by the wind in the trees and then, as he goes to tuck into his food, the wind blows it away. Can the other garden creatures rally round and help Albert retrieve his meal? Will Albert be able to thank them properly? Comical, charming illustrations bring this timeless tale to life, revealing the importance of helping others and showing gratitude for that help.

Also includes fascinating facts about the real tortoise called Albert, who inspired this story, a modern-day min-dinosaur living life on the veg!

MY REVIEW

I read the the first book Albert Upside Down, now I’m hooked into Albert the tortoise series.

What makes this series so special is that Albert is a real tortoise that these adventure stories are based on.

Albert and the Wind, shows how friends can be really do nicest things for you.

Albert’s food gets blown away by the wind. When Albert sets off to find his food , he meets one by one his creature friends, who one by one have come along to give Albert his food back .

But before Albert can say thank you to his friends for giving him his food back, they quickly have a reason to set off .

I’m really enjoying the books about Albert, so I hope there will be another adventure soon.

Albert the tortoise are a beautiful collection that children will love to read about and start collecting all the series. And in the back of the book are very interesting educational facts all about Albert and his cousin.

Albert the tortoise will bring so much joy to children. This book is perfect to all read together, or for the favourite bedtime story.

I’m truly grateful to Graffeg for sending me these beautiful books to read and review 💚

ABOUT IAN BROWN

Ian Brown is a London-based writer and producer for television and former journalist. His TV credits include The South Bank Show, This Is Your Life, Top Gear, entertainment shows and documentaries. He has written or produced for the likes of Pierce Brosnan, Harrison Ford, Simon Cowell, George Lucas, Liam Neeson, Martin Scorsese, Jamie Oliver and Homer Simpson among many others. The Albert series are his first book titles for children.

ABOUT EOIN CLARKE

Eoin Clarke has worked for thirty years in the animation industry as a director, animator and storyboard artist – his directorial work across films, commercials and documentaries has garnered thirty awards. Clients include the BBC, Channel 4, BFI, and Ray Harryhausen, as a storyboard artist, as well as animation for the opening titles of popular TV series with Harry Hill and Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. The Albert series are his first illustrated books. He lives in London.

ABOUT ALBERT THE TORTOISE

Albert, who inspired these adventures, was rescued more than fifty years ago by Ian’s wife and her family. He has lived happily with the same family ever since.

You can get to know the real Albert better on facebook and twitter

https:// http://www.facebook.com/AlbertTheTortoise

Tweets by AlbertTortoise

To buy link on graffeg

Albert and the Wind

Jack in the Box @AngelaCNurse @lovebooktours

JACK IN A BOX BY ANGELA C NURSE

Published by F and J publishing 8th June 2021

326 pages

ISBN: 9781914597015

Who do you trust when everyone has a secret?

When single mother Rowan joins her Uncle Jack’s detective agency she doesn’t expect his murder to be her first case. To find out who is responsible for his death she will need to solve another mystery, the disappearance of Jack’s best friend 30 years earlier.

Someone doesn’t want Rowan digging up the past and they’re prepared to go to any lengths to keep their secrets hidden. Can she stand up to the danger, protect her daughter and bring a murderer to justice?

MY REVIEW

I’m really pleased to find a new crime author Angela C Nurse to follow, who has written this amazing book 1 Jack in a box a Rowan McFarlane mystery and I’m delighted to inform you all that author Angela C Nurse also has published on the 23rd August 2021 the paperback book 2 Sally in the Woods the Rowan McFarlane mystery

I loved reading Jack in a Box, it was full of heartbreak and a murder mystery.

Pregnant 15 year old Rowan’s strict parents gave her the choice, if she wanted to carry on living at home she would have to get rid of her baby or leave their house, cutting her off from any support. I couldn’t believe how Rowan’s own parents wouldn’t give their love and support to their own daughter.

In need of somewhere to stay she called on her uncle Jack a private investigator and had lived with him since a young age of fifteen. Jack had gone into partnership with Mark an ex-police officer. Rowan begins to join her uncle Jack’s detective agency.

When Jack dies, Rowan is distraught, he was her rock, Jack encouraged her to do so many things and always gave his full support to Rowan.

Now Jack is dead Rowan has to be brave enough to identify him. Rowan had been left everything by Jack, but now she won’t stop until she solves who is responsible for the death of her uncle Jack. The story of Jack a private investigator being murdered leaded me to be glued to the story to find out if Rowan will solve the case who killed Jack and why? And then there’s another mystery case for Rowan to solve.

My heart went out to Rowan and her daughter, specifically as Rowan has to break the sad news that her brother is dead.

Jack in a box made my tummy flutter as the police issue a statement that human remains have been discovered.

I strongly recommend The book Jack in a Box as it is really is a fabulous thriller, one to get very excited about.

Twitter https://www.twitter.com/AngelaCNurse

Instagram https://www.Instagram.com/Angelac1975

Website

https://www.angelacnurse.com

Born in the Kingdom of Fife, Angela spent her teenage years in Penzance before returning to Scotland. She has had a varied career from Nursery Nurse to Bank Manager before becoming a full-time writer. Her Rowan McFarlane Mysteries are set in the fictional town of Cuddieford, which lies somewhere between Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy.

 Angela now lives with her husband in Fife looking out on the River Forth where she can easily see her favourite bridge, the Forth Rail Bridge. When she is not writing she can be found walking the coast or touring the countryside in her campervan.

Amazon To buy link

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=jack+in+a+box+angela+c+nurse&crid=31QPPM5YFYDKO&sprefix=Jack+in+the+box+Angela+%2Caps%2C163&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_19

I would like to thank Kelly @lovebooktours for sending me the paperback and for very kindly inviting me to take part in this brilliant book tour.

@snezanawrites @sandyillustrates @HappyPandaBooks @lovebooksgroup @lovebookstours

YAKS CAN DO YOGA! BY SNEZANA DANILOVIC

ILLUSTRATED BY SANDY

Paperback published 5th April 2021

Find out more here

http://happypandachildrensyoga.co.uk/

Yoga makes children happy, healthy and strong!

But if you are a clumsy yak, with wobbly hooves, who has never done yoga before, it can be tricky. Join Yak in her first Happy Panda class and see how she discovers the power and playfulness of yoga.

Eight yoga poses and their benefits are clearly explained and illustrated at the back of the book so young children can easily do them at home or in the classroom.

Yoga is for everyone! Adorable, engaging characters and humorous story draw in young children and get them hooked on yoga, creating healthy mind-body habits to last a lifetime.

Mindfulness and meditation are lots and fun! The story’s humorous, creative visualisation exercises tap into young children’s innate imagination, facilitating a deeper understanding of their emotions and developing confidence and resilience.

MY REVIEW

Yaks Can Do Yoga is superb paperback is suitable for 3 – 8 year olds. Happy Panda says yoga is for EVERYONE!

But . . .

STE-T-CH . . . oops! BALANCE . . . oh, no! Yak is finding it tricky.

BREATHE Yaks can do yoga and . . . make friends

Snezana Danilovic has made yoga really fun by using animals doing easy simple movements of yoga, and breathing exercises that any child can take part in, plus the whole family could join in too. And The illustrations by Sandy Thornton the children are going just going to adore them!

The step by step guide for children to do yoga, with Yaks can do Yoga is one I recommend because this book shows an easy way for children to understand and practice doing yoga themselves.

It also shows children a relaxation pose that should always be done, after doing yoga, with relaxing on a yoga mat for at least five minutes after doing yoga.

It also gives children advice that when they learning yoga, that it’s best to a grown-up help. And what I thought was a really good piece advice is that yoga should be about having fun, but if something hurts, it’s time to stop. Yaks Can Do Yoga is fun book, with at the same time helping children to become more active.

Thank you so much Snezana Danilovic for sending me my lovely copy of Yaks Can Do Yoga and thank you so much Kelly at love books tours for letting me take part in this exciting blog tour. I have had so much fun reading it and doing the yoga myself.

ABOUT AUTHOR SNEZANA DANILOVIC

Author and experienced children’s yoga teacher Snezana Danilovic and illustrator Sandy Thornton team up to create the Happy Panda Children’s Yoga picture book series of heart-warming stories full of gentle humour, aimed at encouraging even very young children to get hooked on yoga. Parents, teachers and educators don’t need to be experienced yogis – they can learn and enjoy yoga alongside young readers, too!

Yaks Can Do Yoga! is the first book in the series

Snezana Danilovic is a children’s author and an experienced children’s yoga teacher. Her mission is to bring yoga to children through her passion for storytelling. She has spent the last 30 years writing and working in theatre and children’s TV, creating an array of characters for pre-school and early years. Snezana lives in Windsor with her husband, two children and a hamster. She loves hugging trees and her house is full of balloons and musical instruments.

ABOUT ILLUSTRATOR SANDY THORNTON

Sandy Thornton is a picture book maker with over 20 years experience in early years creative play, running her own children’s art & craft classes, whilst providing creative ideas and content for children’s TV, including Cbeebies Mr Maker. From an early age, Sandy snipped, sketched, glued and stapled her own little books and magazines, influenced at the time by Herge’s Tintin and Jansson’s Moomins. Sandy lives in North London, with her family, their dog Winston and cat Rocky.

Buy Links

https://amzn.to/3hcuv3s