Stormy Weather by Debi Gliori really is the perfect bedtime book for small children – even though you might not think it from the title. This is an absolutely gorgeous book telling of little ones across the world curling up safely and going to bed even when the weather is not too good. It depicts all sorts of small creatures cuddling up with their mummies and it cannot fail to make you go ‘aaahh!’ as you are reading with a small child.

Debi Gliori, picture book

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I had never read any books by Janet Evanovich and so I didn’t really know what to expect when I picked up ‘To the Nines’ to read. Nor had I realised that this book is just one of a whole host featuring the central character, Stephanie Plum. This did not matter in the least though, as To the Nines really works as a standalone story and I was not aware of any references to events in previous novels, although they were probably inadvertently there.

Janet Evanovich

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Recently reviewed book Single in the City prompted us to ask few questions about the book and meaning of life in general the author Michele Gorman. She is originally from Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Michele now lives in London and her experiences provoked her to write about what happens when you take one 26 year old American, add to one 2,000 year old city with a big dose of culture clash and stir…

CBF: Is Single in the City in any sense autobiographical since you are also an American living in London?

Michele Gorman

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Single in the City is Michele Gorman’s first novel and it really is a good one! From the moment I picked it up, I did not want to put it down and just wanted to read more about the exploits of Hannah Cumming, the twenty six year old American heroine in the story.

At the start, Hannah is newly arrived in London having decided to leave her less than glamorous life in Connecticut behind and to start out afresh. She is searching for a dream job, dream friends and most of all a dream man. Unfortunately none of these come that easily and Hannah discovers that she does not like being alone in the big city especially with the somewhat surprising language and cultural differences that she starts to experience.

London, Michele Gorman

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My Penguin Osbert is a delightful picture story book written by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel and illustrated by H.B. Lewis. It is a story that is told with much warmth and humour but also delivers a slightly more serious message which is that if you are given something that you ask for you have a responsibility to look after it. In this story, the main character who is a little boy but we don’t know his name has been given a real live penguin by Santa Claus. However, he soon discovers that looking after a penguin is ever so slightly tricky!

Elizabeth Cody Kimmel, H.B. Lewis, picture book

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‘What was Lost’ by Catherine O’Flynn is an interesting but unusual novel. It was the sort of book that was very easy to read but I couldn’t work out exactly where it was going and how all the different pieces fitted together until the very end. At that point I realised that I had enjoyed it very much and felt that it had been an immensely satisfying and moving book.

‘What was Lost’ could be described as a twenty-first century mystery, set in a large and somewhat impersonal shopping centre where a small girl went missing twenty years before.

Catherine O’Flynn

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My daughters love picture books and they always make a beeline for these whenever we visit our local library. Normally it is the picture on the front cover that inspires them to pick up a book and start reading and this was definitely the case with ‘There’s No Such Thing as Monsters!’ where on the cover we see a very cute cuddly bear peeking out from under the bed covers with only his startled eyes showing! The girls couldn’t wait to read it!

‘There’s No Such Thing as Monsters!’, which is written by Steve Smallman and illustrated by Caroline Pedler, tells the story of two bears.

Caroline Pedler, picture book, Steve Smallman

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‘Aliens in Underpants Save the World’ is a fabulously funny book that is bound to appeal to most children’s sense of humours. Well any mention of underpants is usually enough to have my daughters in fits of giggles! It is written by Claire Freedman and illustrated by Ben Cort, and provides a sequel to their book ‘Aliens Love Underpants’.

In this book, the aliens spot a giant meteorite heading towards Earth that has all the scientists baffled. No one knows how to stop it but the aliens realise that if they don’t do something quickly, their source of underpants will not exist and then what will they do?

Ben Cort, Claire Freedman, picture book

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‘True Things About Me’ is Deborah Kay Davies’ first novel and it is a brilliant debut. Having said that though, it is quite unusual in its style, particularly as the reader never really gets to know who is telling the story – especially by name. We do know that the narrator is a woman; someone who seems to lead a perfectly ordinary life until she meets a man who for some reason causes her to act completely out of character. As her family and friends look on helplessly in dismay, she allows herself to be used and discarded not once but many times.

Deborah Kay Davies

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Although my daughters are often quite good at remembering to say thank you, they do sometimes forget and I find myself having to remind them. This is one reason I was pleased that they selected ‘Harvey Hare Postman Extraordinaire’ during our recent library visit as it really does have a strong message about appreciating what people do and remembering to say thank you!

This lovely book is written by Bernadette Watts and features a little hare called Harvey who is a very busy and dedicated postman.

Bernadette Watts

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When I first picked up ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret?’ by Claudia Carroll, I was not too sure that I was going to enjoy it. The blurb on the back of the book made it sound a bit too light and fluffy (and even a bit silly) even for me! However, I was glad that I did decide to give it a go because it wasn’t actually like that at all and proved to be a great read by another very good Irish writer. (There are so many good female Irish writers out there that I keep losing track of which is my favourite!)

Claudia Carroll

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