I love this trilogy so much that I have to share with you my review of it from The Scotsman last month:

Ishmael and the Hoops of Steel (Templar £6.99) is the concluding book in Michael Gerard Bauer’s trilogy revolving around Ishmael and his friends. It had me by turns hysterical with laughter, deep in thought and in floods of tears. When I finished it I was devastated because I knew there was no more. Readers who don’t know Ishmael will want to start at the beginning (Don’t Call Me Ishmael and Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs) in order to get to know the boys and live with them as they progress through high school in Australia. Bauer’s writing is deceptively simple, easy to read and dialogue driven. He meets difficult issues head on and allows his characters to deal with them. The characterisation is truly outstanding: even the fringe characters leap off the page as they interact, grow and develop. The plot twists and turns entirely believably, creating a world that even your fortysomething female reviewer would like to inhabit. Be a part of Ishmael’s world.

Please go and find these books and read them and pass them on to teenagers you know. And don’t judge them by their covers. I was very nearly put off by them. Now I’m so glad that I opened the first book and started reading.

I always have a huge pile of books at home waiting to be read but, at the moment, I have two!  They’re a random mixture of children’s books I might review, teenage ones I either like the look of or think might be popular (usually two entirely separate categories!), adult novels and books I’ve bought to add to my collection.  I’m working my way through them very slowly, not helped by the fact that I’ve spent a lot of time rereading old favourites lately.

However, today I have read a whole book.  It’s been on the pile for a while and it might fit into three categories.  The Boy From France by Hilary Freeman is probably aimed at girls from a mature ten to about thirteen so I might well include it in my next lot of reviews for The Scotsman.  It counts as a teenage novel that (i) I like and (ii) might be popular!

It’s set in contemporary London (Camden, to be exact) and is superficially a romance between a local girl and her school exchange guest – the boy from France.  As a romance, however, it’s pretty slight and, were it no more, wouldn’t merit a mention.  Refreshingly, the heroine Vix lives with both her parents, who’re married to each other and have been since before she was born.  (Sometimes reading fiction for young people you’d think that no-one lived in such a family these days!).  They love each other and she loves both of them.  But her Mum has MS, rapidly progressing and Vix’s life is different because of that.

Hilary Freeman handles Vix well.  We see her conflicted feelings, the subtle, but real, pressure on her, her relationships with her parents and her two best friends and the knowledge bubbling under that someday soon something will have to give.  And it is Xavier, the boy from France, who is the catalyst.

The Boy From France isn’t a long book and it isn’t deeply meaningful.  It is, however, well-written, easy to read and enjoyable.  Vix, her family and friends are well defined individuals who interact believably.  And the book has just enough substance to make it thought-provoking for young girls, regardless of their circumstances.

I’ve been having trouble posting to my blog but it all seems to be working now. So I can let you know that my Christmas reviews will be in Saturday’s Scotsman. Don’t miss them now!

The other day I was clearing out all the books I’ve received from publishers this year. Don’t worry; they all went to good homes. I dealt with the books for primary children first, as they were being given as prizes, and the picture books had already gone. So I was left with the teenage titles. One of my colleagues took them to pass on to a local organisation which is collecting gifts for young people who might not otherwise receive anything. Hopefully there will be lots of happy teenagers in Moray this Christmas.

But they’ll pretty much only be happy if they like dystopian novels or the paranormal/supernatural. Fairies, vampires, zombies, angels, werewolves and dark spirits of all kinds were clustered on my shelves. And I hate them all! I’ve never met one that I could enjoy reading about. I’m sure some of them are good books. In fact, I know they are. Take a bow, Joss Stirling. But I can’t get interested. Part of my problem is that I’m irritated by publishers jumping on the bandwagon and giving us more of the same – even when it’s badly written, plotted and populated. The dystopian novels aren’t quite as bad but I do think that they’re going the same way as authors run out of anything new to say. But Ally Condie’s Matched trilogy was interesting and I thought that Slated by Teri Terry was a great concept.

Once these genres were off my shelves, I was left with very little. Fortunately some of it was very good. Sophie McKenzie’s Missing trilogy was represented and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Similarly, I am loving Anne Cassidy’s Murder Notebooks. I’m surprised by both of these as I don’t particularly enjoy thrillers. But these are gripping without being a ridiculous strain on the nerves. More to my general taste were the historical novels by the likes of Mary Hoffman, Rosemary Sutcliff, Paul Dowswell and Marie-Louise Jensen, who is rapidly becoming a favourite of mine. And my small Australian collection: Garth Nix, Michael Gerard Bauer and Morris Gleitzman. I met the first two at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this year and they were as lovely as their books. (I’ve met Morris Gleitzman previously and he is too!)

Clearly there are other brilliant books out there and I do understand that publishing is a business and it needs to be commercially viable. But my wish for 2013 is that more publishers will be brave and take risks – and that they’ll keep sending me their books!

In a surprising development (It certainly took me by surprise!) my next batch of reviews will be published in  The Scotsman the week before the schools break up.  So that’ll be Saturday 23. June.  They were written pretty quickly but I had a great selection of titles to choose from so I hope they’ll be worth reading.  The books certainly were.

This is Elizabeth Laird’s latest novel and it’s excellent as you would expect.  The story is based on actual events in Abyssinia and England and tells of Alamayu whose father dies in a battle with British troops.  The young prince is taken to England where he is befriended by Queen Victoria and sent to Rugby.  The events are seen through Alamayu’s eyes as he lies in bed in the school sickbay. 

Interestingly there are no chapter divisions, something I thought I was going to be annoyed by.  The book is split into sections and I think this has the effect of keeping the reader going on.  The sections are generally quite short and I, at least, kept thinking that I would read just one more until I realised I was almost at the end of the book!  Much of the action is seen in retrospect which allows for comment on events.

I’m not specially interested in African history and I probably wouldn’t have read this had it not been written by Elizabeth Laird.  And that would have been a mistake as this is an engrossing, poignant story.

I know, I know.  I haven’t blogged for ages.  And now it’s just to say that my reviews will be in The Scotsman next Saturday.

My Christmas reviews will be published in The Scotsman on Saturday 10. December.  At least, I hope they will.  After last time, I’m a little nervous about being too certain!  I am very excited about some of the books, though.  I wonder if you’re able to tell which books I love the most…

My much-delayed review were published in The Scotsman on Saturday.

I am reliably informed that this will appear in The Scotsman on Saturday 22. October 2011.  Watch out for it; there are some great books included!