A Dash Of Christmas Spirit by Susan Buchanan

Sep24

Christmas Miracles

A Dash Of Christmas Spirit by Susan Buchanan is the most wonderful contemporary festive offering. It is a book that will warm your heart and leave you smiling.

This really is Christmas in a book. It is a time for coming together with friends and family. It is a time for Christmas miracles.

The Sugar & Spice café is at the heart of the novel. “Sugar & Spice was a haven for all ages and generations.” People come together in community to eat and drink festive fayre, and to take part in community activities – a book club for different generations, craft activities.

We drop in on many different households – a widower and his two children. “He wondered when he’d start living again instead of simply existing, going through the motions.” As well as a lady being squeezed out at work; a newly separated character and her son; an elderly Grandad; and a mysterious benefactor. All these lives interact within the novel.

I really loved A Dash Of Christmas Spirit with its’ Christmas activities, movie mentions, and Christmas book titles to tempt the reader.

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The Storyteller Of Krakow by Carly Schabowski

Sep20

Of War, Captivity, & A Bear Called Wojtek

The Storyteller Of Krakow by Carly Schabowski is a powerful historical tale that consumed me from the start. It is a blend of fact and fiction, educating the reader as we go.

The tale follows lead character Lena, who is Polish. We follow her through her war – first the Russians over-ran Poland and Lena and her parents ended up in the Gulag. Then Russia swapped sides, freed everyone in the Gulag and recommended that the Poles make their way to Uzbekistan as that was where the Polish army was in exile.

The army included a mascot of an orphaned Syrian brown bear called Wojtek. We see that bond he forms with Lena and how he recues her on more than one occasion. Their bond is beautiful.

Lena’s war sees her travel through Egypt and ends up in the blood-bath of Monte Cassino.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Storyteller Of Krakow. It is told in two time periods – the second World War and 1994 as we drop in on Lena. She is still feisty and out to protect the under-dog.

This tale will educate you as you read. I certainly did not know about the war from the Polish viewpoint. And I did not realise that Wojtek was real. The author tells us that there are statues to Wojtek in Krakow and in Edinburgh as he ended up in Edinburgh Zoo after the war.

I received a free copy. A favourable review was not required. All opinions are my own.

JULIA WILSON

Images from Google Images https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=0cdee08023f22ac1&sxsrf=APpeQntrIU7VGcgAbcjf7CMMljTjzOGRlQ:1789902150498&udm=2&fbs=ABfTbFVyMZGZf1hfvX9uKjN_-G8c4u0nXx4bEIpwm1lnNH832VstEKsVDqPorK0Gahnm2no1YAFtlsByIZaJlK7yr6gIShz8_nfnRyCFKBFanfbilRY_0kwdNHtgmcDRLQV2EOTgQQNHPW-40y0BLSqR0sKVQJ9SqohMh3B7F-UdYZ8Eakj42P4nLXxFdbhvy4Un33Fa98qr2pLi-KTIxWjIK9UoYjN6lQ&q=wojtek+the+bear&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjsufOOgf2WAxV8_rsIHU9RGkoQtKgLegQIJhAB&biw=1912&bih=948&dpr=1#sv=CAMSURoyKhBlLXZWWEkxS0tkd3FZVXVNMg52VlhJMUtLZHdxWVV1TToOSHN3VXAxNHZmd1FxUU0gBCoXCgFzEhBlLXZWWEkxS0tkd3FZVXVNGAEwARgHIJbQqY4LSggQARgBIAEoAQ

Winter Term At Malory Towers by Pamela Cox

Sep18

Kindness & Friendship

Winter Term At Malory Towers by Pamela Cox is another marvellous book for girls aged eight years and over. It is the ninth book in the Malory Towers series. Whilst it can be read as a stand-alone, I recommend reading the books in numerical order for continuity of that tales. Each book begins where the previous one left off.

The Malory Towers series was first penned in the 1940’s by Enid Blyton. Pamela Cox has made the seamless transition as she writes in the same style as the originals.

We rejoin Felicity Rivers as she enters the autumn term in the fourth year (year 10). The girls are tasked with producing a play for Christmas.

Two new girls start the year. They are very different personalities. We witness tension, clashes and misunderstandings.

I absolutely love the Malory Towers series, possibly even more than I did when I first discovered then fifty years ago. The original six books were a constant companion in my early teens.

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Five Go Down To The Sea by Enid Blyton

Sep18

Entertaining

Five Go Down To The Sea by Enid Blyton is a marvellous children’s adventure book that entertains from the start. It is the twelfth book in the Famous Five series but can be read as a stand-alone.

The famous five have been amusing children since they were first penned in the 1940’s. The adventures have a timeless appeal. Only the lack of technology, vehicles and the freedom that the children have to roam, dates the books.

Once more the children stumble into an adventure as we join them as they holiday on the rugged Cornish coast.

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