Tag Archives: Giveaway

BLOG TOUR: The Worst Class in the World Dares You! by Joanna Nadin illustrated by Rikin Parekh

It’s publication day for The Worst Class in the World Dares You by Joanna Nadin and Rikin Parekh and I’m thrilled to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for this hilarious book, along with a celebratory GIVEAWAY!

The Worst Class in the World Dares You! by Joanna Nadin and illustrated by Rikin Parekh

4B is the WORST Class in the World! But best friends Stanley and Manjit don’t care. They have a foolproof plan to catch NITS and beat everyone else at DARES! It might just mean a lot of mayhem……

If you haven’t met the Worst Class in the World yet, now is the time! Featuring not one, but TWO adventures in one book, words and illustrations combine brilliantly to bring to life the adventures of 4B and it’s somewhat hapless, but loveable inhabitants. In book three of the series, this standalone title is sure to entertain readers young and old!

You only have to read the wonderfully funny descriptions of each character from St Regina’s Primary at the start of the book to know you’re in for a treat (I particularly like ‘Harvey Barlow – Eater of many biscuits. Sometimes gets mistaken for a Year 6... – love him already!) Headteacher Mrs Bottomley-Blunt, who thinks learning should absolutely NOT be fun doesn’t stand a chance against this lot. Neither really does the class teacher, Mr Nidget, who works tirelessly to help 4B find what they’re good at and who’s motto of mending everything with kindness doesn’t always work.

Narrated by Stanley, the two adventures in this book, ‘Nits‘ and ‘Dares‘, demonstrate the amazing imaginations he and his best friend Manjit have, as they come up with yet another FOOLPROOF plan that is highly likely to get them into trouble. And usually breaks some, if not all, of Mrs Bottomley-Blunt’s 125 Rules! Or makes her create another one. As someone who has worked in schools, I am sure I may have met a few of these characters before, in some, manner shape or form!

Joanna Nadin does a great job of capturing school antics and all the ups and downs of school life; even the awkward bits, like nit-epidemics or parents like Lionel’s mum who believes school uniforms block the imagination (I’d love to meet Lionel’s mum!), often with hilarious results. Add to this Rikin Parekh’s brilliantly expressive illustrations, it’s a recipe for success. With laugh-out-loud moments galore, The Worst Class in the World Dares You! is sure to lighten a dull day, not just for young readers, but for grown-ups too (especially the ones who work with children!).

Don’t forget to enter the GIVEAWAY on Twitter and check out the rest of the blog tour:

With thanks to Bloomsbury for sending me this book to review and Fritha for inviting me to participate in the blog tour and giveaway!

#FCBGCBA2020 BLOG TOUR: Wildspark by Vashti Hardy

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It’s my absolute pleasure to be supporting The Children’s Book Award blog tour championing the brilliant Wildspark by Vashti Hardy. To celebrate, I’m delighted to be running a giveaway – one lucky winner will receive a copy of Wildspark! Head over to Twitter to find out how to enter.

Prue is a young farm girl whose older brother, Francis, had a natural talent for engineering. But after his untimely death, the family have been shattered by grief. Everything changes when a stranger arrives at the farm. A new, incredible technology has been discovered in the city of Medlock, where a secretive guild of inventors have found a way to bring spirits of the dead back into the world, capturing their energy and powering animal-like machines (the Personifates). Unaware that Francis has died, the Ghost Guild wants him to join them as an apprentice. Prue poses as “Frances” and goes to Medlock to learn the craft – but she’s on a mission of her own, to bring her brother back home. And to find Francis, she needs to find a way to help the ghost machines remember the people they used to be. But if she succeeds, the whole society could fall apart.

I was fortunate enough to read and review Wildspark last year for Scholastic (full review here) and therefore I know how deserving Vashti Hardy is of this shortlisting in the Confident Reader’s Category! Featuring a truly imaginative world full of breath-taking scenery, wondrous inventions and the most marvellous array of characters you could hope to meet, Wildspark was one of my absolute favourite reads last year.

The Children’s Book Award is the only national award voted for solely by children from start to finish. It is highly regarded by parents, teachers, librarians, publishers and children’s authors and illustrators as it truly represents the children’s choice. Author of Wildspark, Vashti Hardy, says:

“I’m overjoyed and honoured that Wildspark has been shortlisted for the FCBG Children’s Book Awards 2020! The FCBG is such a force for good in sharing and celebrating a love of books and I can’t wait to attend the ceremony, which I was lucky enough to be a guest at last year. It’s a lovely day and a great opportunity to meet some of the fantastic young readers who have taken part in reading the shortlisted books, the teachers, and of course the wonderful FCBG volunteers. Wildspark is a fantasy adventure story that celebrates the power of invention, dreaming big, friendship, and grief, and it also explores how we treat the notion of ‘other’ and difference through imagining you could bring back ghosts inside lifelike animal machines, a subject that resonates so strongly with our times. I’m looking forward to seeing what all the readers think and chatting some more to them all!”

Thanks to the support for the Award by the publishers, over 1,000 new books are donated to be read and reviewed by Testing Groups across the country every year, with over 150,000 total votes being cast in the process. At the end of each testing year, nearly 12,000 books are donated to hospitals, women’s refuges, nurseries and disadvantaged schools by our groups. It truly is a wonderful award.

Find out how to vote here. Find out more about the Award here. Follow the Award on Twitter using #FCBGCBA2020

Find out more about Wildspark on the author’s website www.vashtihardy.com and check out the whole blog tour here:

Capture

Guest blog & GIVEAWAY – Be Your Best Self by Danielle Brown and Nathan Kai

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As we near the end of National Non-Fiction November, it’s a huge pleasure to welcome Danielle Brown MBE to the blog today with a guest post about the fantastic non-fiction book she co-authored with Nathan Kai, Be Your Best Self – Life Skills for Unstoppable Kids (read my recent review here). Danielle is a double Paralympic gold medalist and Nathan is the youngest self-development published author, and a member of MENSA. The story behind the book is inspiring – read on to find out more!

Be Your Best Self

“Have you written a book for children about how they can be the best they can be?”

Danielle was asked this question by seven-year-old Nathan Kai at an event she was speaking at. Nathan explained that he’d been looking for a book to help him become the very best he could be, but after months of searching he couldn’t find anything out there.

“No,” Danielle said. “But that’s a really good idea.”

And it was. There are thousands of self-improvement books for adults, each one offering a different perspective on how to maximise our capabilities and live more fulfilling lives. However, there wasn’t anything out there to help children build solid foundations for success, happiness and esteem. Nathan then suggested that we wrote the book together.

This had the potential to have a HUGE positive impact and two years later we are very excited that Be Your Best Self has hit the shelves. Writing this book has been an incredibly fun journey, bringing together our unique perspectives and skillsets to create innovative and exciting guidance that children can really relate to, and empowering them to become their best selves. It’s a very unusual combination but we make a fantastic team. We see the world in different ways and our joined experiences and knowledge base has allowed us to create something that is designed for young people.

We believe that every young person is capable of achieving extraordinary things with the right mindset and support structures in place, and Be Your Best Self helps them to do this. Be Your Best Self is a comprehensive framework that encourages children to raise their aspirations and turn exciting dreams into a reality. It’s a thought provoking career tool, a vital people skills asset, a modern day confidence builder, an engaging life-hack, and it empowers children to make the most of – and create – opportunities to lead bright and successful futures.

Above all it lets children know that they are special and unique, valuable and important, and that they can achieve their dreams. We can all be BRILLIANT if we work hard and develop our strengths and weaknesses.

And this is something that applies to ALL children.

Nobody is born successful, but it is something we can all learn to achieve with the right support, guidance and skillset. We want to help children from all backgrounds and abilities build strong foundations for successful futures and recognise that they have the capacity to achieve great things. Getting this book published is only the start of our very exciting journey. We are looking forward to bringing the contents to life through inspiring workshops and presentations designed to make a lasting impact with children. We believe that the future is built by education and children deserve to be equipped with the right tools and strategies to help them maximise their potential.

Want to know a little more about the authors?

Nathan Kai is nine years old and very determined to achieve his goals – one of which has been to become a published author. Nathan is a member of MENSA and his intelligence shows. He is a prize winning linguist, grade 4 pianist, bronze UK and European medallist in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He’s educated otherwise. He swims like a fish and thoroughly enjoys the challenges of writing. He’s thrilled that his hard work is paying off and he is looking forward to helping other children feel happier, more secure and confident and in achieving their goals too.

Danielle Brown MBE started archery on her fifteenth birthday and three years later she was on the Great Britain team, jumping in as World Number 1 and hanging onto that position for the rest of her career. Danielle won gold at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games and retained her title in London 2012, as well as winning 5 World Championship Titles. She became the first disabled person to represent England at the Commonwealth Games (and win gold) as an able-bodied athlete. Danielle works as a keynote speaker, trainer and coach.

Find out more at www.beyourbestself.global and head over to Twitter for a fantastic opportunity to win one of FIVE copies of Be Your Best Self!

Review & Giveaway! Moon and Me: The Little Seed by Andrew Davenport illustrated by Mariko Umeda

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For this of you with little ones who like to watch CBeebies, you’ll probably know Moon and Me and have met Moon Baby, Pepi Nana and friends. Well now their charming adventures have been brought to life in a traditional storybook, Moon and Me: The Little Seed by Andrew Davenport and illustrated by Mariko Umeda, perfect for reading at bedtime. I’m very pleased to share this new book on the blog today and be running a giveaway for one lucky reader to win set of Moon and Me books!

Moon and Me was created by Andrew Davenport, the man behind Teletubbies and In the Night Garden, and inspired by tales of toys coming to life when no-one is looking (possibly one of the things I wished would happen most when I was little!) My eldest son, now 22, absolutely loved the Teletubbies and I can imagine were he still young he’d be a huge fan of Moon and Me too. TV character-led fiction can be a great way to engage children with books, and Moon and Me: The Little Seed is a sweet story that tells how Pepi Nana and Moon Baby first became friends.

As the moon comes out at night, little toy Pepi Nana comes to life and sends an invitation to the Moon to come and share a story with her in her doll’s house, little realisng her invitation will be read by Moon Baby who lives there. Moon Baby arrives and wakes up all the other toys, and together they have some lovely adventures. The gentle storytelling, with a magical feel will capture the imagination of little ones as they join these charming characters and hear they became friends. Delightfully illustrated, this is a great story to read at bedtime, especially as the tale ends with all the toys saying goodnight and drifting off to sleep. The moon has never seemed so magical!

Find out more at www.scholastic.co.uk and enter the giveaway on Twitter! With thanks to Scholastic for sending me this book to review and offering a giveaway to win these three titles: