Nikki

Holocaust Memorial Day

I’ve been rather quiet for a while now. My reading has been up and down, lots more time spent playing on my phone. However, a few books have been read and over the past few weeks I have been focussed on reading children’s books about the holocaust and the subsequent genocides the world has experienced. A colleague and I decided we would like to review books on this topic in a video to be posted by our library service. As it turns out, due to workloads and unexpected illness, we’ve had to postpone this but luckily I can still share the books on my blog so others can discover them. Most of these books are about the holocaust; there are fewer titles available that cover the events in places such as Cambodia, Darfur, Sudan and Rwanda.

Picture Books

It may seem strange to include picture books in my selection but when it comes to refugees, there are more than a few excellent books around that broach the topic and allow you to introduce the theme to your youngsters. It is always a good idea to have a read of them yourself before sharing them with your child so you can anticipate any questions they may have, and so you can screen the book to make sure if is appropriate for your child.

**The Suitcase** by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros

**My Name is not Refugee** by Kate Milner

**The Colour of Home** by Mary Hoffman and Karin Littlewood

Chapter Books

Of these, I read Number the Stars by Lois Lowry as a child but the rest have been published more recently. Writing this makes me realise how different they are, set in different countries, showing the experiences of very different people. Three of them are graphic novels, proving that a picture really can be worth a thousand words.

**The Search** by Eric Heuvel, Ruud van der Rol and Lies Schippers

**When Stars Are Scattered** by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

**The Mozart Question** by Michael Morpurgo

**The Children of Willesden Lane** by Mona Golabek and Lee Cohen

Non-fiction

A small selection of books including The Missing by Michael Rosen, detailing his search for the members of his family that disappeared during WWII.

**Erika’s Story** by Ruth Vander Zee and Roberto Innocenti

**The Magician of Auschwitz** by Kathy Kacer and Gillian Newland

**Survivors of the Holocaust** by Kath Shackleton

Sunny afternoon

Last Sunday was sat curled up in a chair with the sun streaming, reading graphic novels. I was particularly taken with these.

The true story of Omar Mohamed’s time in a refugee camp in Kenya, Victoria Jamieson’s beautiful illustrations work brilliantly to convey what he and his brother experienced, along with thousands of others.

This book is based on the juvenalia of the Brontes, focussing mainly on the world developed by Charlotte Bronte.

A fantastic children’s book about a boy of mixed heritage moving to private school where most of the teachers and students are white (and rich). This made me think about how I treat people and the ways I may accidentally discriminate against others.

A book about the Polish Resistance during World War 2.

**I Survived the Nazi Invasion, 1944** by Lauren Tarshis and Alvaro Sarraseca

Past Experiences

This was a great insight into life of a child during the London Blitz. This would be a good book to use in a classroom.

Sight Loss

I discovered this book by chance when researching titles that feature characters with disabilities. The protagonist is a teenage girl who has a severe visual impairment. I have now borrowed the other titles written by the author as I enjoyed this one so much.

**Things the Eye Can’t See** by Penny Joelson

Mixed Bag

I can’t believe it has been 3 months since I last added to the blog, and I am ashamed to realise how little I have been reading. However, I did read some really great books and they were from a wide range of genres, hence the title of the post.

A few months back a friend, who has recently emigrated to Canada, presented our book group with five books by Canadian authors to choose from. She very deliberately ignored the most famous authors that we would probably know and love. We opted for this one and I now have a new author to read more from.

A Complicated Kindness by [Miriam Toews] — **A Comlicated Kindness** by Miriam Toews

This one has received a lot of press so you probably have it on your radar. If you have a hardback copy you’ll realise (once you’ve read a bit of the book) that the design of the cover under the dust jacket is a hidden easter egg.

My first W. Somerset Maugham title yet not my last!

**The Razor’s Edge** by W. Somerset Maugham

‘Folk Horror’ is a term I have seen and heard a few times recently and this falls under that umbrella. I have to admit to being hooked in by the cover but if that means someone reads a book they would not have considered otherwise, surely that is not something to sneer at.

Creeping Jenny by [Jeff Noon] — **Creeping Jenny** by Jeff Noon

Dystopian fiction has become a bit of a recurring theme for me and this one is probably the touchstone for many writers. Utterly brilliant.

**The Day of the Triffids** by John Wyndham

Another author I will be reading more of is Rebecca Stead. This is an extraordinary children’s/teen book.

A fun fantasy adventure for children from 1935. Ideally one to read just before Christmas to fully appreciate the setting of the book.

**The Box of Delights** by John Masefield

The new Stephanie Plum book by Janet Evanovich was devoured in one sitting. It is very rare for me to laugh aloud but most books in this series have managed it.

**Fortune and Glory** by Janet Evanovich

Now I plan to sit in my living room, sunshine flooding in, attacking the huge pile of library books I have that gets added to almost daily but seems to never diminish!

Wishing you all some fantastic books to read. If you don’t enjoy it, give yourself permission to abandon it. Life is short and there are more books than you can ever get through.

Sea Sickness

Did you watch the BBC2 series ‘Between the Covers’, a seven part book group hosted by Sara Cox? If not, all episodes are currently available on iPlayer. I enjoyed these greatly and now have another list of books I want to read. This one was the group book for the last episode in the series. I whizzed through it, staying up late into the night. It was compelling and I was desperate to know the conclusion.

Due to lockdown 2.0 customers are not currently able to place reservations on our library books, which was the sole reason for the book being in stock in the branch I work in. Had we been open fully to customers, rather than only for ‘Select & Collect’ I suspect I would have been waiting months to get my hands on a copy! I have already noticed that books featured on the show have begun to garner large reservation lists.

**The Devil and the Dark Water** by Stuart Turton

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit

Jasper Fforde has released another of his bonkers novels, and I mean that in a good way. I raced through this one, forcing myself to put it down as I had to sleep. My mind seems so limited when I read his plots – they are beyond anything I could ever imagine and I love them.

**The Constant Rabbit** by Jasper Fforde

Hello again

Not only have I been lax at posting, I’ve been lax when it comes to reading. Perhaps it is all the uncertainty of the current situation, perhaps I am just lazy! I have only finished 3 books over the past 2 months. Luckily I enjoyed them throughly.

The first was written by Rachel Joyce, the author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, another book I loved. I found myself listening to the pieces of music described by the main character while reading the book.

My next book moved me more than I can describe. The writing is exquisite. I have been recommending it to my friends at every opportunity. It is a short read but no less perfect for being so.

**The Return of the Soldier** by Rebecca West

Lastly, this week I raced through the latest Bryant and May installment by Christopher Fowler. As always the case of quirky characters, the absurdly brilliant plot and the historical nuggets had me hooked. You don’t have to read the books in order so grab whichever one your library has available to lend you and dive in.

**Oranges and Lemons** by Christopher Fowler

Story Gifters

I write this blog because I love to read. I utterly adore it. Reading to me is like breathing. Seeing children come into the library, fired up with enthusiasm about the books they have read and the books they are about to find on the shelves makes me happy. The conversations I have with those children about the books can change my day completely. That is why it is so heartbreaking to hear that there are children in the UK who don’t have any books at home, who don’t get read to, who aren’t given a chance to develop a love of stories. There are lots of reasons that this happens and I am not about to point fingers or apportion blame.

Luckily some people are trying to change this situation and put books into the hands of those children that need them the most. One of them is my friend Laura. She is in the process of setting up a charity called The Story Gifters that will give new and pre-loved books to children in Plymouth, UK, where we live. Since putting out the first posts she has received so many donations, both of books no longer needed and of new books using a wish list on amazon.co.uk. She has now set up a Go Fund Me page to raise the money needed to get the charity off the ground. If you feel able to give anything to help please visit the page here. At the moment the charity webpage is being developed but you can follow the charity on Facebook and Instagram.

Educate Yourself

I am white. I live in a very white city and almost everyone I know is white. Therefore when the Black Lives Matter protests began, first in the USA then across the world, I wanted to know more about the experience of non-white people in the UK. This short book, which can be read in next to no time, shows that however much we think that racism is not part of our society, we are sadly mistaken.