Me and my girl and boy, raising awareness and acceptance of autism

Archive for the ‘Bookworm Wednesday’ Category

BookWorm Wednesday – my favourite book ever!

Today’s “BookWorm Wednesday” is my favourite of all time.

20130116-102014.jpg

It’s a book I would dip in and out of in childhood; and when my parents divorced when I was 9years old, it vanished. They were both dealing with the aftermath of a very viciously fought divorce and I couldn’t very well say “ummm, do you remember that book…”, I’d have probably been told off for reading it anyway.

The book has long since been discontinued but I found a copy on Amazon and have really enjoyed re-discovering it.

It’s not really a book you’d read from cover to cover in one sitting, but more of a dip-in-and-out when you’ve got a rare moment to yourself.

The book is split into three sections – the first covers ancient superstitions, creatures, plants and festivals. The second section covers regional stories from across Great Britain such as alleged hauntings, origins of place names and local festivals. The final section details British folklore.

It’s not a small book, both in size and content but I’ve always found it both interesting and, when I was younger, terrifying!

This is an example of the wonderfully detailed illustrations in the book:

20130116-110316.jpg

It’s certainly a book that makes you consider how ancient folklores and traditions have shaped festivals and superstitions today, as well as some genuinely spooky stories.

Definitely worth a read.

BookWorm Wednesday by D – Bud and Roo’s Spectacular Adventures, The Beach – Product Review

20130109-095412.jpg

Today’s “BookWorm Wednesday” is one with a difference; D has made her first comments for these posts and it’s also a product review too, multi-tasker me 😃👍.

Here’s today’s book:

20130109-095651.jpg

“Bud and Roo’s Spectacular Adventure – The Beach” follows two dogs as they find clues which lead to their first adventure.

The book has very simple, but very effective illustrations and the detailed illustrations provide plenty of opportunities for questions and discussion about the pictures.

20130109-100111.jpg

20130109-100116.jpg

The text is large and bold, easy to spot on the page, which is important for readers to gain their confidence.

This is what D thought, I asked her what she liked about the book:

“Everything, the two funny dogs found the blue bucket. The bucket was the same colour as the Ferris wheel and the door. I liked the ladybirds in the pictures”

There is a ladybird in every picture, sometimes it’s easy to spot, sometimes to have to hunt for it. D enjoyed that aspect!

20130109-100543.jpg

“Bud and Roo’s Spectacular Adventures – The Beach” is available from Amazon and you can follow the author on twitter @JMCvalentine. A lovely little book!

Disclaimer: we were sent a copy of the book for the purpose of this review. These are my words and I have not been paid.

BookWorm Wednesday – Astrosaurs The T.Rex Invasion

Today’s “BookWorm Wednesday” is once again supplied by T (my 10 year old) – he asked for and received loads of books for Christmas – and it’s a way of utilising his brain cells during the holidays too.

Over to T (as before these are his words, I’ve made minor cosmetic adjustments):

20130102-095318.jpg

Astrosaurs: The T. Rex invasion

Author: Steve Cole

When Teggs and his crew are on holiday in the spooky stone planet of Sphinx II, Teggs meets his old friend, Tute.

Tute says he discovered a pyramid and Teggs is willing to investigate. Tute said that the pyramid used to belong to the T.Rex’s years back and Lord Ganster discovered it a thousand years ago.

When Teggs, Tute and the crew get there, they spot a T.Rex mummy! But as it disappears in the distance, Teggs, Arx and Tute discover the way in.

Meanwhile, Iggy and Gipsy are investigating a warship that was found a few miles away. But the pair are only lucky enough to fall into a trap led by a large T.Rex bearing his teeth – the terrifying Skunch.

Back at the pyramid, Teggs, Arx and Tute were passing a series of tests eg. dodging laser beams. But the hardest came to building an alien engine. As the lights kept going out to signal the start of a bomb exploding, the three finished a few jewels before. But an alien named Keprish has been controlling Lord Ganster and the mummies.

With Keprish’s power and the T.Rex invasion troops hard on their heels, will the Astrosaurs and Tute ever get out alive?….

20130102-095629.jpg

Thanks for reading, I’m sure he’d appreciate comments Jx 😘

He was delighted that Steve Cole read his review:

20130102-170055.jpg

BookWorm Wednesday – Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Third Wheel

T has written today’s BookWorm Wednesday, he loves to read (something I’m very pleased about) and the majority of his Christmas list contained books!

20121219-110451.jpg

Over to T, apart from minor cosmetic tweeks, these are his words:

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The third wheel

Author: Jeff Kinney

Books published: 9

The story:
Greg Heffley is having to deal with harder times nowadays. But when Uncle Gary moves in for a few weeks, Greg has to sort out why his uncle goes on his computer.

When Greg finds out in assembly that the student council will be replaced, his best friend, Rowley Jefferson, runs for Social Chairperson.

When the elections come, Eugene Ellis, was running for president, and when he says that he will replace the toilet paper with the expensive-quilted kind. When he finished his spreech the whole place went berserk.

As Eugene won president, the vice- president – Hilary Pine – suggested doing a class fundraiser. Javan Hill came up with the idea of a motor cross stunt show and Eugene suggested a wrestling event. But they settled on a mixed event. Eventually the event is morphed into a valentines day dance.

As Greg scrambles to find a date, he’s worried about being left out in the cold on the big night. His friend, Rowley, doesn’t have any prospects either, but maybe that’s a consolation. Then an unexpected twist gives Greg a partner and Rowley the odd one out.

But a lot can happen in one night, and in the end you’ll never know who’s going to be lucky in love……

20121219-111403.jpg

For more information on the books and the author, please click here

Thanks for reading, I’m sure T would love feedback Jx 😘

20121219-111614.jpg

Bookworm Wednesday – “If” by Rudyard Kipling

Today’s “Bookworm Wednesday” is a poem, one of my favourites but not THE favourite. It was my Grandma’s favourite too and epitomises the “keep calm and carry on” theme.

“IF…..

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
‘ Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!”

20121212-124734.jpg

Thanks for reading Jx

The Castle of Frankensaur – Astrosaurs – Bookworm Wednesday

This is a guest post by my 10-year old T, he absolutely loves reading and this is a book we bought at the weekend for him. We haven’t been sent this to review, T wanted to read and share his thoughts. I’m sure he’d love feedback!

Over to T:

Astrosaurs- The castle of Frankensaur

Author: Steve Cole
Books written in the series: 22

When Teggs (orange-brown stegosaurus) and his crew discover a two-headed dinosaur criminal floating nearby in space, Teggs, Gipsy (a stripy hadrosaur), Arx (agreen triceratops) and Iggy (an iguanodon) follow the creepy space robbers. But the carnivore criminals lead Teggs and his crew to an asteroid called Zeta Three, which beholds a creepy, black castle in the distance, owned by super scientist Dr Frankensaur! But when the Astrosaurs discover that evil carnivore professor, Hydra, is causing trouble inside the castle, Teggs and co are then plunged into a sinister mystery where headless horrors, mutant monsters and creepy cohorts lie in wait. But when the herbivore heroes find out that professor Hydra is controlling Dr Frankensaur, and the fact that Hydra is creating a cunning cohort, the Astrosaurs will need all the luck they need……

My review
I enjoyed this book because of the fact that the Astrosaurs were plunged into a intense mystery and that I didn’t know what was going to happen next. I would recommend this gripping book to people over eight years old because of the age group on the back of the book.

About the author
One of my favourite authors, Steve Cole, has written over four series’ in his writing career. They’re Astrosaurs, Astrosaurs academy, Slime squad and Cows in Action. He’s written over 60 books, imagine how much writing he does!

20121205-102917.jpg

20121205-102929.jpg

Thanks for reading Jx 😘 comments/RTs/shares welcomed.

T was overjoyed to learn that Steve Cole had read and RTd his review and sent the following:
@SteveColeBooks: @AutismMumma Thank you so much for forwarding such a lovely review! All best to you all.

Flowers In The Attic – Bookworm Wednesday

I really enjoy doing “Music Monday” posts, it’s great to revisit songs and really think about what they mean to you, or just share because they are brilliant.

I was trying to think of a hashtag that went with reading and discovered that there is “Bookworm Wednesday”. So, jumping firmly onto that bandwagon, here is my first choice:

20121128-131656.jpg
This book absolutely riveted me when I was a teenager, I can’t remember how many times I read it, each time finding something new.

This is the information at the back of the book:
“The four children had such perfect lives in such a happy, golden family.
Their father died suddenly. The children now lived alone, hidden in the airless attic.
Their mother promised they would only stay long enough to inherit the fortune. But gradually she forgot how much she adored those children.”

This book has it all: betrayal, abuse, incest, cruelty, death and finally retribution.

Apparently it was based on a true story. There was a film made of the book, in which the ending differed slightly but it was just as effective. Victoria Tennant played one of the “baddies” and her performance was so eerily sinister that I couldn’t watch her in other films for a while afterwards.

There was a prequel “Garden of Shadows” and several sequels “Petals on the Wind”, “If There be Thorns” and “Seeds of Yesterday” but, in my opinion, “Flowers in the Attic” was the best one.

I’ve always loved immersing myself into a good book, my grandparents (when they were alive) had shelves and shelves of books and one of the best things about visiting them was reading from one of their shelves. It’s great that I can carry books around with me on my phone, either in iBooks or the Kindle app but nothing comes close to opening a new h a r d cover book for the first time.

So glad that T and D enjoy reading, they’ve already each got quite a collection and, if we’re in town and I say “you can choose a toy or a book”, they will invariably choose a visit to Waterstones.

20121128-133237.jpg

Thanks for reading Jx 😘
Comments/RTs/shares as ever welcomed.
https://bluecrisps.wordpress.com/category/bookworm-wednesday/page/2/
bluecrisps.wordpress.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2020-40
75989
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:ULH7QIZ5O5NSWYWAJDUTO2ZKNKRYMSBO
<urn:uuid:f7c42dfb-d30f-4aff-b6c0-62a23d0cf4f8>
2020-09-24T21:33:31Z
192.0.78.12
text/html
sha1:26VC3A5ZTAVZ66VDMHESDHZWXNYF4A4Q
<urn:uuid:34a9f6fe-6ceb-417c-80b1-245c6e00d5df>
https://bluecrisps.wordpress.com/category/bookworm-wednesday/page/2/
response
<urn:uuid:e52b1b92-44b7-4768-a23e-32bec8bf1422>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2020-40
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for September 2020
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-59.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.17 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/