Fun & Games At Malory Towers by Pamela Cox

Oct1

Rolling Back The Years

Fun & Games At Malory Towers by Pamela Cox is the tenth book in the Malory Towers series. It can be read as a stand-alone but I recommend reading the books in numerical order for character development and timeline progression. Originally penned by Enid Blyton, Pamela Cox continues the stories in the same style. The swap-over is seamlessly achieved.

In this book Felicity Rivers and her friends are in the fifth form (year 11). They have to set an example to the younger girls but June still has a sense of fun.

We drop in on the girls as they are preparing for a tennis tournament and also a music competition. Everyone is working hard. We see the importance of praise. “It wouldn’t be so bad if we got a word of praise now and again… Millicent should take a leaf out of June’s book… she encourages them [the girls playing tennis] with plenty of praise.” People work better when shown the carrot rather than the stick.

It is not all about winning. “I shall do my very best to make sure that we win”… “but even if you don’t, I hope that everyone who takes part will learn something of value from the experience.” It is good to be a part of a team and not a lone wolf.

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Five Go To Mystery Moor by Enid Blyton

Oct1

Foiled Again!

Five Go To Mystery Moor by Enid Blyton is the thirteenth book in the Famous Five series.

Though the books were penned in the 1940’s and 1950’s they still appeal to children today.

Once more, a little holiday turns into an adventure as the children stumble into crimes happening on the moor.

Timmy the dog is the hero of the day, again. His love for owner George means there is nothing he won’t do for her. The baddies are foiled again.

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The Day Our Lives Collided by Laura Pearson

Sep29

Friendship, Love, Life, & Everything In Between

The Day Our Lives Collided by Laura Pearson is a simply beautiful book set over a series of weddings from 2008 onwards. Three friends who met at Birmingham uni seventeen years earlier, share the celebrations over a number of years.

The action is told through three alternating points of view in the first person. The reader gets to know each character intimately.

We witness the highs and lows of life as we follow the wider group of friends down the years. Some are party animals; others are of a quieter nature.

We see rifts in lives. Some marriages make it; others don’t. And there is a funeral. “We couldn’t know… that one of our group would die within the year. If we’d known that, I wonder whether we would have done anything differently. Loved harder or lived more fully.” When death hits, there are always regrets. When death hits the young, it is tragic, especially if children are involved. True friends step in with a life-changing offer.

One character has a disabled sister who is in a wheelchair. “The first time they met… Tash spoke to her like she would anyone else… All too often people crouched down and spoke to Grace as if she were a little kid.” I can empathise as I used to work at the local high school and often worked with teens in wheelchairs – far too often people would speak over their heads to me, asking how the person was. I used to reply “they are sitting right here, why don’t you ask them.”

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Bob & Shirley’s Killer Cat Puzzle by Suzy K Quinn

Sep29

Loved The Interactions

Bob & Shirley’s Killer Cat Puzzle by Suzy K Quinn is a really fun contemporary novel that goes hand in hand with the other books in the Bob & Shirley Mystery series.

This book is unique in that the reader can interact with the characters, find the hidden clues, and decide if Sambuca, Bob & Shirley’s cat is guilty of murder. Or is it one of the other four lower village cats?

Bob loves his puzzles and draws out a grid within which we can place our clues. We need to decipher the clues in each chapter, add them to the grid, and work out who is the guilty party? – Easy?… Err, nope! Not for me! I am hopeless at that sort of thing. I had great fun finding the clues (some of them) and filling in the grid. But was left scratching my head, wondering which was the guilty cat? Fortunately, Bob goes through the clues in detail towards the end of the book! Don’t jump to the back to read the solution as it takes away the fun!

Of course, you can always just read the book without filling in the grid. As with the other books in the series, this is highly amusing with Shirley being slightly scatterbrained and definitely in Sambuca’s corner, and Bob providing the analytical brain and very fussy about the English language. The pair bounce off each other and are hilarious.

As the previous owner of a psycho cat, Marble (died aged 19 in July 2020), I can definitely identify with Sambuca. “Shirley says Sambuca is misunderstood, but I find him extremely easy to understand. He’s a spoiled, vicious, entitled cat with an alcohol problem.” I used to say Marble was misunderstood! And you had to keep an eye on his eyes, as he could go from enjoying a stroke o biting!! “There’s… a warning sin on the bar that says ‘Do not look directly at the cat’.”

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