Book-sell blurbs for YA

I have recently been trying to think of ways I can help overworked, time-poor, teacher librarians (TLs), particularly those with smaller teams or working by themselves. In a conversation with one of my TL colleagues, she got me thinking about how time-consuming and difficult it is for one person to read ALL THE BOOKS (not…

Book review: See you on Venus

I visited my old workplace recently and I got to talking with my lovely library ladies about new books that had come in over the past year. I didn’t realise how much I missed buying for a school library collection! So, I have decided to help them out a little by reading some of the…

Reviewing and rating books: A deeply personal act

The following Tweet popped up in my Twitter feed the other day and it got me thinking… There are a couple of issues within this tweet, including the concept of authors trying to influence reviews/ratings of their books, but the one I want to focus on is the act of rating and reviewing books, and…

Reviews of Rainbow Reads

I’ve been reading a bit of LGBTQIA+ fiction lately and thought I’d do some quick reviews! Clearly I’ve been reading lots of MLM (man loves man) fiction and need to discover some other reads – suggestions welcome in the comments please! Young Adult Fiction Heartstopper is an oldy but a goody and is widely acknowledged…

Click’d – Stone

We recently purchased “Click’d” by Tamara Ireland Stone for the iCentre at Mount Alvernia College, and it has sat in my #tbr (to be read) pile since then. I finally got around to reading it this past week and I really enjoyed it. Synopsis: Allie loves to code. She attended CodeGirls Summer Camp over the…

The Belles – Clayton

The Belles was rather popular on Instagram earlier this year; I suspect this was because of the beautiful cover. Due to its popularity, I was intrigued enough to give it a go and I’m really glad I did. Since then I have recommended it to a few students in year 9 and they too, have…

Fuzzy Mud – Sachar

When I first started at Mount Alvernia College in 2016, I was asked to take over the Readers Cup team. One of the books that year was Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar. Since reading it, I have recommended it to countless students and it is rarely on our shelves. I thought it was about time…

Murder Most Unladylike – Stevens

I read Murder Most Unladylike because we’ve had an increasing number of students in years 7 and 8 asking for “murder mysteries.” I have no real idea as to why these types of stories are becoming popular again, but as an avid reader of Agatha Christie in my early teens, I cannot complain! And so,…

Nyxia – Reintgen

I recently read a book that made me realise just how much I appreciate a really good SciFi, and very real male protagonist: Nyxia by Scott Reintgen. A colleague who doesn’t usually read SciFi recommended this to me and it did not disappoint – so much so that I even went and bought my own…

Looking back at 2017’s reads

This year I have managed to read 61 books, surpassing my goal of 52. It was no where near as many as I read in 2016, I think I managed over 120, but I have certainly not spent anywhere near as much time reading this year. 2017, among other things, has been the year of…