Review: Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

This is another book that I picked up to read ahead of #yalc. I've seen the eponymous hero grinning at me from the cover in the school library for years, and never once felt the urge to pick him up. I don't know why, maybe the graffiti font or the garish colours made me think this was a book for boys who needed bright colours and grinning skeletons to make them pick up a book. Oh how wrong I was!

Firstly, Skulduggery isn't really the hero. Granted, cheating death and surviving as a living skeleton detective with awesome combat and magic skills is pretty heroic, but wait until you meet Stephanie. She's just a teenage girl, chilling out alone in the house that her dead uncle bequeathed her, when she gets thrown into a secret world of magic and ...erm... Skulduggery! The end of the second chapter had my heart racing, and I've already used it as a good example of storytelling with a student I'm tutoring.

As Stephanie is just learning about this new world and trying to figure out how she fits into it, she doesn't  play too much of a part in the numerous action scenes, and does end up being rescued by Skulduggery and his allies on several occasions. What she does have in abundance though, is determination. Despite many characters warning her off the path she has chosen, she is committed to discovering who murdered her uncle and helping Skulduggery to prevent his arch-nemesis from awakening an ancient evil. There's a small part of me that cheers every time Stephanie does something badass in the book - this is a girl that boys enjoy reading about. I'm so unimpressed with the stories in the recent press, such as this one in The Times, about men and boys not being able to read books written by or about females, or deemed to be good by females. Stephanie would kick Frankie's Magic Football right where it hurts! (Don't even get me started on footballers writing books for children...)

The grimace suggests that, perhaps, she already has.

I devoured this book. The fast-paced action, the snarky dialogue and colourful characters made it a real pleasure to read. It's definitely a good book to hook a reluctant reader, as the gripping story and short chapters make it really accessible, but there's also lots in there for more accomplished readers - references to other stories and myths, and Landy is clearly a lover of language - the names of his characters are perfect. For adults who are interested in a bit of YA fiction, if you like Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, you will probably like this.

Why not the full five stars? At the novel's climax, the brilliant dialogue and description was definitely playing second fiddle to the epic fight, and Landy's subtleties that I'd appreciated earlier on became somewhat lost. However, once I have finished my mission to read as many of the authors attending YALC, I will definitely be picking up the rest of this series, as I think this is going to be one awesome adventure!

Review: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

This book had been recommended to me by a girl in Year 9 last year, and despite having owned a copy since December, I only just got around to reading it, in readiness for #yalc, where the author will be appearing. Having only read one of Ness's short stories before, this seemed like the book to start with as it not only won the CILIP Carnegie and Greenaway Medals for writing and illustration in 2012, it also won the National Children's Book of the Year, the Red House Children's Book Award and the Kitschies Red Tentacle award (Best Novel) for speculative fiction. Phew!

But does it live up to the hype? It's a relatively short book - just over 200 pages - but it feels even shorter, as it's absolutely compelling and un-put-downable! Conor, a teenage boy whose mum is battling cancer, is plagued by nightmares and then a monster visits his room one night. At first Conor assumes that it is just another nightmare, but when he awakes to find his bedroom floor covered in yew tree leaves, he realises he's going to have to give the monster what it wants - the truth.

I really enjoyed this book, as it blurred the lines between reality and dream, science and spirituality. In a way, it reminded me a lot of Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which also used magic and old gods to help a young boy through several experiences of loss. Both of these books have a magical quality of their own, that instantly immerses you in the world of the story, and has you feeling the pain, the fear and the comfort that the protagonists themselves experience. 

What I especially enjoyed about this book, were the stories told by the monster. Conor complains that they're terrible stories because they don't have happy endings, but these stories, to me, are captivating because they, A) establish that not all stories have happy endings, B) present a moral ambiguity that is true to real life, and C) highlight the complex, often contradictory nature of people. That's pretty heavy stuff for a YA book, but massively important stuff too, so hurray for Patrick Ness who doesn't shy away from the tough stuff or dumb it down for the younger audience! 

With that in mind, I don't think this book should be limited to a YA readership - there is an important message in this books for adults and children alike. Ultimately it is a magical story about the limits of reality. Sometimes bad things happen to good people and vice versa. Sometimes, even though you try your hardest and do everything you can to help someone, it' still not enough. Sometimes the kindest thing you can do, for others and for yourself, is to let go. This is a beautifully written, subtle and symbolic story that I would recommend certainly to teenagers, but also adults, especially the ones that think YA fiction is all about sparkly vampires and and other such nonsense!

  

Once I've completed my YALC readathon, I'm really looking forward to reading Ness's Chaos Walking trilogy and More Than This.

One Month On...

Yesterday marked the monthiversary of my #100happy days challenge. Am I happier? Yes.  Is this because of the challenge? To be honest, I don't really think so, but I'm liking taking the photos, and looking forward to my photo album at the end of it.

Some highlights so far have been, in ascending order:

                            New books...                                     New hair...

                            New job...                                          New house... For the boys, at least!

So taking the photos hasn't made me any happier, but on the days where I haven't been to the hairdressers or got a new job, it has made me more conscious of the little things that make me smile. And without sounding too much like an old hippie, I would encourage anyone who's feeling a bit down in the dumps to try and be more mindful of the things that bring them joy, even fleetingly, because it does start to change your outlook on things. I find I am worrying a bit less, especially about things outside of my control, and actually doing more, as I'm actively trying to do more things that make me happy and not just mooching around being a bit 'meh'.

I've been reading more (which was one of my goals when I started this blog), and will try to get some YA reviews posted on here, ahead of me and a friend attending the first EVER Young Adult Literature Convention #yalc. This is doubly if not trebly happy-making as the books I've read so far have been excellent, but to see lots of brilliant writers speaking on panels and running workshops for a whole weekend (plus an exclusive fringe soirée) is going to be AMAZING!!!

I've been writing more - although, clearly not on here. I entered my first short story competition and was chosen as a runner-up. I later found out the most of the entrants were teenagers, which did slightly take the edge of my achievement, but never-mind... I've also started an online fiction-writing course with the Open University, which so far has been really interesting. The best thing about it? It's totally, utterly, 100% FREE! Reader, you too can sign up here if it sounds like something you're interested in. There's lots of other free courses from other universities on all manner of subjects, so have a look. Now. And then come back again!

Lastly, I've been making more. Later this year, I will become a great aunt! I know, how did I get this old? This has meant that the crochet hooks and knitting needles have been out and clicking away; the previously threatened crochet post will become a reality soon! I'm also knocking up a rather lovely pair of book bags for my friend and me to take to YALC so we can stock up on signed copies of our fave authors' works. Can you tell how excited I am about this? Only 52 days, 12 hours and 45 minutes to go. 

Ho hum.

Happiness

Now that spring has sprung, and the sun has put in an appearance, I'm generally feeling optimistic about things. The last 12 months have proved quite challenging for me in a number of respects, but I'm beginning to feel that perhaps I just need to rethink my - for want of a better word - priorities. I've been quite reflective these last few weeks about how things have turned out, and how all the worrying and ranting and analysing I've done about the situations or people that have bothered me have served no purpose other than to make me more anxious about said situations and people.

And it pisses me off! Whilst I'm brooding over whatever problem, I wind myself up about it completely, start thinking about all the (negative) consequences of any course of action and ultimately ends up in some self-pitying  fantasy of running off to some far-flung place and starting a new life. Which then makes me even more miserable, because what sort of wife/mother/friend would do that?!

Um... So this post was called 'Happiness', and so far it's been pretty bleak. Sorry! Here' something to cheer you up:

Awesome tune, and I challenge anyone not to start tapping their toes and grooving along! It also has a great message in the second verse : 

Here come bad news talking this and that
Yeah, give me all you got, don't hold back
Yeah, well I should probably warn you I'll be just fine
Yeah, no offense to you don't waste your time

I've let stuff bother me, when really I should've just said at the time 'I don't agree with this... This is what I'm going to do...' So watch out - I am being happy and I'm not putting up with any of your negative shit, ok?

To keep up the positive vibes, I've started the #100happydays challenge, and will be sharing a photo of something that has made me happy each day on Facebook, but I'm sure a few of them will migrate over here too. Here's my first one:

I had a gorgeous day out with my family at Cholderton Charlie's Farm, picnicking, looking at the animals, watching the boys playing on all the climbing stuff, doing an Easter Egg hunt/quiz and meeting real Easter chicks! And then the hubby got the grill out for the first BBQ of the year - winner.

We're off to see my parents in West Bay now, so more sunny, happy family fun. And lots of chocolate eggs. What's not to be happy about? xxx

The 3 'R's - Reading, Running and [w]Riting

Firstly, apologies for radio silence... It's been a busy few weeks! There's been World Book Day, a Wally run, a night on the tiles, an outbreak of norovirus, a parents' evening, a trip to West Bay and competition deadlines to meet - phew! So in this post, I'd like to catch you up on the important things in that list whilst omitting the messy ones!

World Book Day
To celebrate WBD at school, I carefully planned an assembly on Reading for Pleasure and significant books in my life to share with Year 10. And then promptly failed to email it in to work, so the head of IT did an assembly on not being a GTA addict instead, with a seamless link to WBD -  suggesting that instead of picking up the Xbox controller, the students should pick up a book instead.

Despite this rather poor start, I had organised a competition with the staff to decorate their classroom doors with a book-related theme, which bore rather more impressive results.  A special guest judge and I then scored each door on three aspects: how clear the book choice was to students, how creative the door was, and how much effort had been put in. Here are the top 3 prize-winning doors...

For my door, I chose to re-create both the exterior and interior of 221b Baker Street, based on the BBC series, Sherlock to make it more recognisable to students (I did suspend my university copy of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in the interior diorama, just to make sure it was a book-related door, and not a TV one). This is what it looked like...

At lunchtime, we had a real life 'Where's Wally?' hunt in the library, where students had to record the location of 5 hidden Wallies to be entered into a prize draw. There were also some Wally activities that I found on the Scholastic site, and plenty of Where's Wally books for students to examine. This Wally-themed WBD was to help promote the Wally 'fun' run that was taking place the next day.

Where's Wally?
Friday 7th March. 3.30pm. 30ish Wallies running around Amesbury to raise money for The National Literacy Trust.  The money is still coming in, so I will update you with how much we raised in the near future.  Quite a few of the staff and students positioned themselves along the route to cheer us all on which was blooming LOVELY! We also got 'Facebook famous' with a mention on the 'Spotted in Amesbury' page!  Was it fun? Sort of. The run itself was ok, but I still had to walk most of the death-hill... I did manage to run the rest though, and completed the route in 34 minutes. Seeing my colleagues dressed up as Wallies and jiggling around town - and the reactions we got - that was the fun part.

Sadly, I have not been for a run since, as the post-run night on the tiles ended with a rather nasty toe injury, that definitely counts as one of the messy bits that I said I wasn't going to mention! I'm hoping to start running again next week. Target 1: get comfortable with running 5k (including hills!); Target 2: start building up to 10k, so I can join in with all Emma's (Central Wally above) other silly runs!

Writing Comps
On Tuesday, I finished my first short story for a writing competition on the website, Movellas. It's a community of professional and wannabe writers where you can publish your writing, get feedback from readers/writers and enter competitions.  The one I have entered is based on a YA novel called Who Framed Klaris Cliff? I found it quite challenging to tell the entirety of my story within the 3000 words limit, and I'm not entirely happy with how it turned out. If, however, I do win a prize, I might be tempted to share the story more publicly.

I'm now focussing my attentions on a poetry competition. I've got one poem down that I'm really quite pleased with, one that I think is a bit crap, and one that is still a little germ of an idea in my head. I've got until the end of the month to finish those off, but if any of them get selected, they will be published in a real book!!! If that happens, you will be among the first to know!

On that note, I should probably stop writing this, and get on with something more productive...

The Final Countdown (will things ever be the same again?)

T - 6 days until the Where's Wally [alleged] Fun Run. In my massively condensed training programme, I should have been running for 25 minutes solidly today. Reader, I failed. I ran for only 20, which is what I should have done this time last week, but again failed by doing a short walk after 10 minutes, before picking the pace back up.

BUT...

I'm actually feeling pretty good about this last run, because although I didn't go the distance, I did push myself to reach some different milestones.

Look at this...

That bit of running is at a fairly steady 6'30"/km, having calibrated my Nike+ to match my stride. If I can match that pace on Friday, I'll do my 5k in just over 30 minutes (it took me nearly 50 the first time I did the route at the beginning of the programme!)

Furthermore, there's two hills hidden in that run. Two! Normally, I try to run around on as flat a route as I can manage, but today I thought I needed to face my fear, so that the mountain I have to climb on Friday might seem more like a molehill. And do you know what? It actually does! Turns out, I could run up not one, but two hills, with no change to my pace whatsoever... 

So... 

Hopefully I should be able to make at least part of the monster hill if I just chill out and take things 

s-l-o-w-l-y! Bring it on!

And why am I putting myself through all of this? Well apart from trying to get fit for 30, I'm also doing this run in particular to raise money for The National Literacy Trust to help with their work to promote and encourage good literacy skills for both young people and adults.  For an interesting perspective on reading and literacy, have at look at this speech given by my hero, Neil Gaiman, at The Reading Agency's annual lecture last October.

I've quoted the conclusion on my JustGiving page, as it really resonates with me as a reader, a mother and a teacher. If you'd be kind enough to sponsor me, you can make a donation on my online sponsor form (thank you in advance!).

If you'd just like the quote, here it is:

"Albert Einstein was asked once how we could make our children intelligent. His reply was both simple and wise. "If you want your children to be intelligent," he said, "read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales. He understood the value of reading, and of imagining. I hope we can give our children a world in which they will read, and be read to, and imagine, and understand."

Happy running and reading, until next time, adieu!

Call off the search!

It's OK, I'm still alive! I did my run yesterday and then had a lovely time meeting my friends' - Adam and Clare - new baby, Thomas! He was gorgeous and can totally wave, which is pretty amazing for 6 weeks old.

I will confess, I didn't quite make the 20 minutes solid running; at 10 minutes I did about 30 seconds of walking, which at the time I felt I needed and, on reflection, wish I had pushed through so I wasn't having to explain myself to you now. Ah well, in 3 runs' time, I have a full 25 mins to aim for, so hopefully I'll use this experience to try and tought that one out a bit better.

As I'm moving towards proper running now, I thought I'd share some links that I found useful when I got into running the first time around.  Firstly, this is a really quick warm-up routine from Runner's World that gets your legs good to go. And, from the same website, this is a lovely Yoga-based cool down that really stops you from feeling stiff and achy. I also noticed that I became a lot more flexible after completing this routine after each run for a couple of weeks.

Finally, after sustaining a fairly nasty ligament injury in my foot, due mostly to high in-steps and poor running form, I did a bit of research, corrected how I was placing my foot on the ground, and found  this blog post after my friend Suzi suggested I lace my trainers differently. There's lots of suggestions for combatting common foot problems, so check it out.