Picture Book Review : Picture Day Perfection

Picture Day Perfection – Deborah Dieson

The boy telling this story is planning for his version of the best school photo ever!  He doesn’t want a nice photo like his mum wants, and this story shows how he plans to achieve that.  He goes to extremes to make sure that he looks terrible.

He finally thinks he has worked out how to make it the best ever ‘worst’ school photo – but it doesn’t quite work out how he imagines! 

You can read this book or you can watch it on – Read Aloud Story for Kids on YouTube.

Note: Don’t let any boys who are about to have school photos done read this book – they do like a challenge, and some of his techniques are even better than just crossing your eyes.

Picture Book Review: There's a Lion in my Cornflakes

There’s a lion in my cornflakes – Michelle Robinson

A fantastic story about two brothers who are saving up coupons from their cornflake packets to get a free Lion! 

Things don’t go quite so well.  They have to save 100 coupons, which means they have to buy 100 packets of cornflakes using their pocket money– and of course mum says they must eat every last crunchy flake.

Mum gets a bit grumpy about it all, and the boys get very grumpy when the cornflake company runs out of lions and send a substitute!

It’s a really funny book, good humour and great illustrations by Jim Field.  Kids and adults will love it.  

YA Review: Deadly Beautiful

"A long time ago we used to believe that people were made up of two things- the body and the soul. When the body died, the soul lived on and was cleansed and reborn into someone new."

I will start off by just saying awesome! This is one of those series that captures the imagination and leaves you wanting more.

After Renèe Winters discovers her parents dead, in what seems to be a strange double murder, her grandfather sends her off to Gottfried Academy, a remote and mysterious school dedicated to philosophy, crude sciences and Latin; the language of the dead. Its here she meets Dante, a dark and elusive student to whom she is inexplicably drawn.

No, I wont be giving spoilers! There are some real twists and turns in this book that leave you wanting more and if I tell you what to expect then why would you read it? This is a great new take on the whole urban fantasy genre and a nice change from the usual vamps, wolves and fairies. Would you risk your life for eternal love?

YA Manga Review: Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon. The manga that popularized a genre. 

This is where many of the magic girl tropes was established. Even if you haven’t read it before you will probably recognize the characters. This book is funny, dramatic, and at times heartwarming. The artwork is beautiful.

Usagi is a 14 year old girl who, on her way to school finds a cat with a crescent moon on its forehead. Turns out this cat is called Luna and she can talk! Luna tells Usagi she is the legendary Sailor Moon, a powerful warrior with the mission of finding her fellow Sailors and to find the Moon Princess. But Usagi is a crybaby and not ready to lead a team, let along fight evil. But with the help of her new friends and a mysterious and handsome masked man, she might learn to be brave.

Naoko Takeuchi used her science background as well as her love of astronomy and geology in writing her epic story. The aesthetic is very 90s and some on the references are a bit dated, but as with the cultural references, those dated ones are explained at the back of these editions.

Review by: Holly