An Adorable Graphic Novel // REVIEW: Uncool: Fights. Camera. Action by Jane De Suza

Title: Uncool: Fights. Camera. Action!
Author: Jane De Souza
Publication Date: June 15th 2018
Publisher: HarperCollins India
Part of a Series?: Yes, Book 1 of the Uncool series
I Got A Copy Through: HarperCollins India (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Infibeam || Flipkart

Blurb Description: So, I’m DD and I’m going to be rich and famous because I’m making a film on (hold the phone still, will ya?) high school life. All the secrets, fights, crazy exam pressure, brainiacs and show offs (not you, not you!). Only, everyone wants to be the star (hey you, get out off the frame!). It’s got drama and hysterics, historics, sorry, histrionics. And my mom’s got Mr Horns. And I still haven’t got a boyfriend or a dog. And then, the lurker appears. And it all gets super scary. And he’s coming closer – so I’ve gotta run. Fast. Bye! See ya inside! The first book of the bitingly funny UNCOOL series – a rib-tickling tackling of teen issues!

THINGS I LOVED ABOUT THIS BOOK AT FIRST SIGHT:

A)     A BROWN GIRL ON THE COVER

B)      AN AMBITIOUS, HILARIOUS, BROWN TEENAGER ON THE COVER

C)      THE FACT THAT UNDER THE COVER, INSIDE THIS BOOK, THERE WERE GOING TO BE A TON OF ILLUSTRATIONS

D)     CAN WE PLEASE JUST APPRECIATE THAT WE HAVE BROWN PEOPLE ON COVERS? THANK YOU.

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT THIS BOOK AFTER READING IT:

A)     DD: DD is an absolutely amazing main character. At thirteen, and at the start to her teens, I loved the drama, her slight naivety, her clear and slightly snarky way of looking at the world and the fact that she was so self-confident and ambitious. She was a hilarious narrator, especially as she spoke about her sister and mother and I honestly wish I had her spunk and talent when I was her age.

B)      THE ILLUSTRATIONS: The illustrations in this book really brought it all together! I LOVED the Holiday Checklist, the Comparison of Heels and A Guide to Silly Ramp Walks. They all made me smile, and just the small touches to each page by Tasneem Amiruddin were so well thought out and executed!

And that’s it, you know. I don’t want to bore you by droning on for forever, but this book was a quick, cute, diverse read that made me smile and shake my head in adoration.

Definitely a recommended read for the Indian pre-teen to teen age group! 4.5 stars. 

Jane De Suza is a leading humour writer and columnist. Her books, which have a habit of hitting bestseller charts, include the SuperZero series for kids, Happily Never After and The Spy who lost her Head. She is a management grad, storyteller, advertising Creative Director and now lives between India and Singapore, which is definitely uncool (being 1 degree North of the Equator).

What are some of your favourite graphic novels?

Have you been seeing more representation on book covers in recent years? What #DiverseBook cover are you most in love with?!

 

Adorably Illustrated // REVIEW: Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani

Title: Pashmina
Author: Nidhi Chanani
Publication Date: April 2018
Publisher: HarperCollins India
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: HarperCollins India (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Barnes and Noble || Wordery || Infibeam || Foyles || Waterstones || WHSmith || Books A Million || Chapters Indigo || Google Books

Blurb Description: Priyanka Das has so many unanswered questions: Why did her mother abandon her home in India years ago? What was it like there? And most importantly, who is her father, and why did her mom leave him behind? But Pri's mom avoids these questions--the topic of India is permanently closed.
For Pri, her mother's homeland can only exist in her imagination. That is, until she find a mysterious pashmina tucked away in a forgotten suitcase. When she wraps herself in it, she is transported to a place more vivid and colorful than any guidebook or Bollywood film. But is this the real India? And what is that shadow lurking in the background? To learn the truth, Pri must travel farther than she's ever dared and find the family she never knew.
In this heartwarming graphic novel debut, Nidhi Chanani weaves a tale about the hardship and self-discovery that is born from juggling two cultures and two worlds.

A graphic novel about a magical Pashmina that takes an Indian American teenager home to the country she’s always wanted to see? HECK YES.

The fact that this was a graphic novel only made me want to read it more, and when a lovely book fairy from HarperCollins sent out an email asking if I would like to read it, I JUMPED. I LOVE diverse books, and I especially LOVE diverse books with brown protagonists. (and on the cover, no less!)

I read the entirety of Pashmina in under an hour and I quite loved it.

Let’s break it down:

IDEA:

I WAS SO SOLD ON WHAT THIS BOOK WAS BASED ON. I absolutely love travelling my own country and coming across these hidden jewels of places and the FOOD here is ABSOLUTELY delicious. This book combined the complicatedness of a mother-daughter relationship, with the understanding of one’s identity and home and all it the form of adorable graphics and I LOVED IT!

WRITING AND ILLUSTRATIONS:

Both of these were absolutely spectacular, the illustrations in particular. I feel like graphic novels are SO SO underrated and this book, with its adorable Indian food, the elephant, the peacock and the female power was all kinds of brilliant. There wasn’t much writing, and I focused more on the illustrations, though.

PLOT:

Here’s where it got a little trick for me, and the reason I’m not rating this book with 5 stars: THE TIMELINES WERE VAGUE. I don’t mean that this book wasn’t told in a non-linear style, because it WAS, it’s just that things in the book kept JUMPING AHEAD WITH NO WARNING. Or flashing back with no warning.

    -          The novel, in the beginning kept jumping between days and occasions with NO WARNING. It would be the end of one day and with no “A few days later,” or “A few months later,” it jumped between Diwali, the birth of a baby, submitting and winning a contest and I WAS CONFUSED.

    -          I also feel like the conclusion about the Pashmina and the Goddess Shakthi were also vague (or too complicated) and it could definitely have been done in a better, clearer fashion.

CONCLUSION:

Pashmina, and especially the illustrations inside were ultra-cute (YES for diverse books with lots of food in them) and I would definitely recommend it. I just wish there were certain plot points that were explained in a clearer manner. 4 stars.

Nidhi Chanani is an artist and author and the owner of Everyday Love Art. Her debut graphic novel, Pashmina, releases in October 2017. She recently illustrated Misty – The Proud Cloud, a children’s book by Hugh Howey.

Nidhi was born in Calcutta and raised in suburban southern California. She creates because it makes her happy – with the hope that it can make others happy, too. In April of 2012 she was honored by the Obama Administration as a Champion of Change.

Her media appearances include CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 and BBC Radio. Her work has been featured on the Huffington Post, My Modern Met, Bored Panda, and India Times. Nidhi has worked with Disney, Paramount Pictures, ABC, Microsoft, State Farm Insurance and a variety of other clients. Everyday Love Art products are sold in retail shops across the country, including the San Francisco International Airport, Books Inc., and Therapy stores.

Nidhi dreams and draws every day with her husband, daughter and their two cats in the San Francisco Bay Area.

What are some of your FAVOURITE Graphic novels? 

I don't read NEARLY enough of them and I'd love to change that!

Book Blitz: This is Not a Werewolf Story By Sandra Evans - Excerpt + Giveaway

On Tour with Prism Book Tours.

Book Blitz for

This is Not a Werewolf Story By Sandra Evans

This Middle Grade Fantasy is perfect for Halloween! Full of fun and mystery, and set at a boarding school where everything isn't quite as it seems. Read the excerpt and enter the giveaway below...

Title: This is Not a Werewolf Story
Author: Sandra Evans
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Publication Date: July 26th 2016
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Description: This is the story of Raul, a boy of few words, fewer friends, and almost no family. He is a loner—but he isn’t lonely. All week long he looks after the younger boys at One Of Our Kind Boarding School while dodging the barbs of terrible Tuffman, the jerk of a gym teacher. 
Like every other kid in the world, he longs for Fridays, but not for the usual reasons. As soon as the other students go home for the weekend, Raul makes his way to a lighthouse deep in the heart of the woods. There he waits for sunset—and the mysterious, marvelous phenomenon that allows him to go home, too. But the woods have secrets . . . and so does Raul. When a new kid arrives at school, they may not stay secret for long.

Goodreads│Amazon│Barnes & Noble│Book Depository

Excerpt

Chapter 1

This is the chapter where the new kid runs so fast, Raul decides to talk 

New kid. New kid. The words fly around the showers and sinks. I can almost see them, flying up like chickadees startled from the holly tree in the woods.

All the boys are in the big bathroom on the second floor, washing up before breakfast. The littlest kids stand on tiptoe to peek out the windows that look onto the circle driveway.

I pick Sparrow up and hold him so he can see. He’s the littlest of the littles but the kid is dense--like a ton of bricks.

I can’t believe my eyes. No kid has ever come to the school on the back of a Harley. Not in all the years I’ve been here, and I’ve been here longer than anyone. The driver spins the back wheel and a bunch of gravel flies up.

The new kid is holding onto the waist of the driver. He must have a pretty good grip because the driver looks over his shoulder and tries to peel the kid’s fingers away one by one. Then the driver takes off his helmet. We all gasp, because it turns out the driver is a lady with long straight black hair.  

Next to me Mean Jack whistles. “What a doll!”

Mean Jack thinks he’s a mobster. A made man, that’s what he calls himself. I call him a numbskull, but not out loud.

About the Author

Sandra Evans is a writer and teacher from the Pacific Northwest. Her forthcoming middle grade novel, This is Not a Werewolf Story (Simon & Schuster July 2016), was inspired by her favorite 12th century French tale, Bisclavret, by Marie de France. Born in Washington state, Sandra spent her childhood on U.S. Navy bases from Florida to Hawaii, and returned to the Northwest as a teenager. Since then, she has lived and traveled in France and Europe, but has never strayed far for long from the Puget Sound region.

Website│Goodreads│Facebook│Twitter

Blitz Giveaway

2 winners will receive a print copy of THIS IS NOT A WEREWOLF STORY plus Swag

Open to UK and US entrants

Ends October 31st

a Rafflecopter giveaway

REVIEW: Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead

Title: Goodbye Stranger

Author: Rebecca Stead
Publication Date: September 3rd 2015
Publisher: Anderson Press // Penguin Random House
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Penguin Random House India (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Amazon US || Amazon UK || Barnes and Noble || The Book Depository || Wordery || Snapdeal || Foyles || Waterstones || WHSmith || Kobo || Books A Million || Chapters Indigo || Google Books

Blurb Description: Bridge has always been a bit of an oddball, but since she recovered from a serious accident, she's found fitting in with her friends increasingly hard. Tab and Em are getting cooler and better and they don't get why she insists on wearing novelty cat ears every day. Bridge just thinks they look good. It's getting harder to keep their promise of no fights, especially when they start keeping secrets from each other.

Sherm wants to get to know Bridge better. But he’s hiding the anger he feels at his grandfather for walking out.

And then there is another girl, who is struggling with an altogether more serious set of friendship troubles...
Told from interlinked points of view, this is a bittersweet story about the trials of friendship and growing up.

The minute I looked at this cover, I got excited for this book. It’s simple, understated and gave off this classy feel to the book and I was SO EXCITED to dive in. Looking at it again just before I flipped open the book brought back that same feeling and I was waiting for what Rebecca Stead had in store for me.

The cover made the couple sitting there look like high schoolers or college goers and I couldn’t wait to see (and hopefully feel) the romance between them and everything else the blurb promised me.

Unfortunately, Goodbye Strangers and just didn’t click. Let’s break it down:

1.       Rebecca Stead’s writing REALLY drew me in in the beginning. It had this quirky, unconventional style of narration as it introduced us to the characters and the world.

2.        Though I liked the beginning, it was also when I realised that Goodbye Stranger was a middle grade book. Almost all of the characters are 12 and in the seventh grade and I honestly think I a) wasn’t in the mind set to read a middle grade book and b) it was very very slow paced for even a middle grade book.

3.       I love that this book handled so many important topics like bullying, harassment, mental health, first love and others. Goodbye Strangers handled all of it really well, but I felt like a lot of the book was a filler and the important topics were handled for only a fraction of the book.

4.        Most of all, I COULD NOT SHAKE THE FEELING THAT I HAD… OUTGROWN THIS BOOK AND BOOKS LIKE THIS. I started reading Middle Grade books by the age of ten and by the age of twelve, I was already into the simpler YA. I’ve been over middle grade books for a while and this book seemed to contain all the things my life used to have and I was… bored.

At the end of the day, I can’t fault a good book because I’m a little grown up for it. Definitely a must read for middle graders or kids entering the precarious preteen stage. 

2.75 stars ~ 3 stars. 

I love books but don't feel like stars capture what I want to say about them. Many of the books on my list are, in my opinion, amazing. Some I didn't like. But I give them all five stars, because stars make people - including me -- happy. Confused? Me too.

If you want to talk about any book I've read, I'm here.

Website: http://www.rebeccasteadbooks.com/

Have you read any of Rebecca Stead's books? What do you think of them? 

Do you buy books purely because their covers are pretty? 

What have some of your favourite covers of the year been?

I'd love to hear from you!

 

An Immersive Tale // ARC Review: My Name Is Victoria by Lucy Worsely

Title: My Name is Victoria
Author: Lucy Worsely
Publication Date: March 9th 2017
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Bloomsbury India (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Amazon US || Amazon UK || The Book Depository || Wordery || Flipkart || Snapdeal || Infibeam || Foyles || Waterstones || WHSmith || Kobo || Google Books

Blurb Description: 'You are my sister now,' Victoria said, quietly and solemnly. 'Never forget it. I love you like a sister, and you are my only friend in all the world.' Miss V. Conroy is good at keeping secrets. She likes to sit as quiet as a mouse, neat and discreet. But when her father sends her to Kensington Palace to become the companion to Princess Victoria, Miss V soon finds that she can no longer remain in the shadows. Miss V's father has devised a strict set of rules for the young princess, which he calls the Kensington System. It governs her behaviour and keeps her locked away from the world. He says it is for the princess's safety, but Victoria herself is convinced that it is to keep her lonely, and unhappy. Torn between loyalty to her father and her growing friendship with the wilful and passionate Victoria, Miss V has a decision to make: to continue in silence, or to speak out. By turns thrilling, dramatic and touching, this is the story of Queen Victoria's childhood as you've never heard it before. 

Short and Sweet: A fun, easy to read take on the young list of Queen Victoria that will have you smiling and desperate for more.

When I got the opportunity to read Lucy Worsely’s debut novel last year from Bloomsbury India, I jumped in joy. While I enjoyed the beginning, and learning all about Tudor court and how it functioned, the latter half of the book dragged a little bit, making me not love the book as much

.

I guess that’s probably why it took me a little while to pick up My Name is Victoria, because of the slow nature of the second half of the previous book and I really needed to get myself in the mood for it.

My Name is Victoria, however, had none of the problems that I faced in Eliza Rose and proved to be an easy to read and immersive middle grade tale about the era. Let’s go more into detail:

PLOT AND IDEA:

The author is a curator at the Kensington Palace where the young Queen Victoria spent her days in . The story flowed really well, starting from the time Miss V. Conroy is taken to be playmate to a young Princess Victoria and ends during Victoria’s ascension to the throne.

seclusion under the control of her mother and her comptroller. While the idea itself was based on the author’s knowledge of the Queen’s life, with one major change to the storyline, it was still a good read

WRITING:

Lucy Worsely managed to capture the era and the mind sets of the world at that time through a girl of ages twelve to eighteen. As Miss V. Conroy and Princess Victoria grew through the book, the writing grew as well. From play time and dogs to boys, marriage and the throne I loved seeing how the future queen and her friend grew.

CHARACTERS:

While I’m talking about the characters is where the reason that this book isn’t a five star read comes out for me.

While the book constantly had the same entertaining pace, it was the narrator, Miss V. Conroy who I had a slight problem with. There was nothing wrong with her but I just found her lacking a strong personality that I associate with teenage girls. She felt no hurt at being called “a bit boring” and “the little mouse.” She felt like she had to do nothing but care for Victoria and didn’t care about herself.

Her sense of duty and responsibility overpowered everything she could have been and she just felt like too good a character with absolutely zero flaws and it made it slightly annoying and unbelievable.

CONCLUSION:

If you’re into middle grade historical novels, there will probably be none more accurate than My Name Is Victoria! An easy flowing, wholly immersive tale. 4 stars.

 I was born in Reading (not great, but it could have been Slough), studied Ancient and Modern History at New College, Oxford, and I've got a PhD in art history from the University of Sussex.

My first job after leaving college was at a crazy but wonderful historic house called Milton Manor in Oxfordshire. Here I would give guided tours, occasionally feed the llamas, and look for important pieces of paper that my boss Anthony had lost. Soon after that I moved to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, in the lovely job for administrator of the Wind and Watermills Section. Here I helped to organise that celebrated media extravaganza, National Mills Day. I departed for English Heritage in 1997, first as an Assistant Inspector and then as an Inspector of Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings; Bolsover Castle, Hardwick Old Hall, and Kirby Hall were my favourite properties there. In 2002 I made a brief excursion to Glasgow Museums before coming down to London as Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces in 2003. Yes, this is a brilliant job, but no, you can’t have it. (Bribes have been offered, and refused.)

You might also catch me presenting history films on the old goggle box, giving the talks on the cruise ship Queen Mary 2, or slurping cocktails. 

 Do you read Historical Fiction? What are some of your favourites? I don't read much in that genre, but I'm looking to remedy that and so I'd love your recommendations!