Hello hello and welcome or welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet. We are now in December, meaning I am well within my rights to talk about Christmas, and Christmas present buying especially. And what better for anyone than a book?
As always, I’ve got a guide for all age brackets, from tiny ones up to the grown ups of the friends and family, who will be as happy as the bouncing babes with some of these suggestions. And, of course, if none of these work for you, don’t forget I provide a personal book picking service for the price of a cup of coffee.
For Under Fives
Peter Rabbit: The Christmas Present Hunt
Hoppy Christmas! Help Peter Rabbit find some missing presents in this Christmas lift-the-flap adventure.
Peter Rabbit is very excited about Christmas – the tree is decorated and Mrs Rabbit has made mince pies. But where are his sisters’s presents? Peter hid them so they would be safe but he can’t remember where they are.
With lots of flaps to lift, you can help Peter find the missing gifts and celebrate Christmas with the Rabbit family in this festive new story.
One Snowy Night: A Percy the Park Keeper Story
Percy the park keeper always feeds the animals in the park where he lives. But one cold winter’s night Percy discovers that his little friends need more than food and he must find a way to help them.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s Night Before Christmas
On an icy Christmas Eve, beneath a setting sun,
a group of penguins huddle . . .
. . . goodnight, little one!
It’s Christmas Eve and The Very Hungry Caterpillar is exploring a magical snowy landscape. Join him as he says goodnight to some baby animal friends before the magic can begin . . .
The Grumpus: And His Dastardly, Dreadful Christmas Plan
Do you know about The Grumpus?
And his Dastardly, Dreadful Christmas Plan? And about the Awful Thing that happened at the North Pole on Christmas Eve?
Perhaps I should tell you about it …
This heartwarming story follows the adventures of an unlikely hero as he journeys to the North Pole, unwittingly and somewhat reluctantly making lots of new friends along the way.
A beautiful hardback with a festively foiled cover and beautiful artwork from the author, it is the perfect Christmas gift, destined to become a modern Christmas classic that adults and children alike return to year after year.
For Middle Grade Readers
The Vanishing of Aveline Jones
(Note: Although this is the third book in the series, it involves a Christmas market, and can be read as a standalone or before the other two)
Aveline is determined to discover the truth behind her uncle’s mysterious disappearance when she travels to his home with Mum and Aunt Lilian. After years of hoping Aveline’s uncle would return, they have finally decided to sell his house – but Aveline and Harold have other plans.
Sneaking into her uncle’s study, Aveline discovers he had been researching possible supernatural activity around an ancient burial mound – and linked this with the unexplained disappearances of other local villagers. Dark, magical forces are at work, and they’ll do anything to remain hidden, as Aveline and Harold soon learn…
The Very Merry Murder Club
Sleuthing through the snow, on a merry mysterious day, in disguise we go, investigating all the way . . .
This gorgeous wintery collection brings together thirteen bestselling, award-winning and exciting debut authors: Abiola Bello, Annabelle Sami, Benjamin Dean, E.L. Norry, Elle McNicoll, Dominique Valente, Joanna Williams, Maisie Chan, Nizrana Farook, Patrice Lawrence, Roopa Farooki, Serena Patel and Sharna Jackson. With stunning illustrations by Harry Woodgate.
Join them as part of the Very Merry Murder Club as they lead you on a snow-covered wintery journey of festive foul play and murderously magnificent mysteries!
The Miraculous Sweetmakers: The Frost Fair
It’s a cold winter during the Great Frost of 1683. Thomasina and Anne are the best of friends, one running her father’s sweet shop and the other the apprentice at the family apothecary – together they sell their goods on the frozen River Thames. When a family tragedy turns Thomasina’s world upside down, she is drawn to a mysterious conjuror and the enchanted frost fair.
But soon the world of Father Winter threatens to claim everything she holds dear. Will they be able to solve the magical mysteries that surround them . . . ?
The Ministry of Unladylike Activity
1940. Britain is at war, and a secret arm of the British government called the Ministry of Unladylike Activity is training up spies.
Enter May Wong: courageous, stubborn, and desperate to help end the war so that she can go home to Hong Kong (and leave her annoying school, Deepdean, behind forever). May knows that she would make the perfect spy. After all, grown-ups always underestimate children like her.
When May and her friend Eric are turned away by the Ministry, they take matters into their own hands. Masquerading as evacuees, they travel to Elysium Hall, home to the wealthy Verey family – including snobby, dramatic Nuala. They suspect that one of the Vereys is passing information to Germany. If they can prove it, the Ministry will have to take them on.
But there are more secrets at Elysium Hall than May or Eric could ever have imagined.
And then someone is murdered…
For Young Adult / New Adult Readers
Sixteen Souls
Someone is stripping Europe’s most haunted city of its spirits. When self-destructive, 16-year-old seer, Charlie Frith, realises that one of his own ghostly friends has gone missing, he must put aside his own safety – and reclusive existence – if he is to find them.
Charlie reluctantly teams up with Sam Harrow – the new seer in town – and a rag-tag group of ghosts, to save their friends from a fate literally worse than death.
But there is a dark purpose behind these disappearances – more sinister than Charlie could ever have imagined. And, as he slowly comes to terms with his romantic feelings for Sam, the stakes become even higher as time quickly runs out!
Heartstopper
Charlie and Nick are at the same school, but they’ve never met … until one day when they’re made to sit together. They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn’t think he has a chance.
But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is more interested in Charlie than either of them realised.
By Alice Oseman, winner of the YA Book Prize, Heartstopper is about love, friendship, loyalty and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie’s lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.
Nothing More To Tell
Four years ago, Brynn left Saint Ambrose School following the shocking murder of her favourite teacher. The case was never solved, but she’s sure that the three kids who found Mr. Larkin’s body know more than they’re telling, especially her ex-best friend Tripp Talbot. He’s definitely hiding something.
When Brynn gets an internship working on a popular true-crime show, she decides to investigate what really happened that day in the woods. But the further she dives into the past, the more secrets she finds.
Four years ago someone got away with murder. Now it’s time to uncover the truth . . .
Six Crimson Cranes
Shiori’anma, the only princess of Kiata, has a secret. Forbidden magic runs in her veins. And on the morning of her betrothal ceremony, Shiori loses control. At first, her mistake seems like a stroke of luck, forestalling the wedding she never wanted, but it also catches the attention of Raikama, her stepmother.
A sorceress in her own right, Raikama banishes the young princess, turning her brothers into cranes, and warning Shiori that she must speak of it to no one: for with every word that escapes her lips, one of her brothers will die.
Penniless, voiceless, and alone, Shiori searches for her brothers, and uncovers a dark conspiracy to seize the throne. Only Shiori can set the kingdom to rights, but to do so she must place her trust in a paper bird, a mercurial dragon, and the very boy she fought so hard not to marry. And she must embrace the magic she’s been taught all her life to contain – no matter what it costs.
Daughter of Darkness
Deina is trapped. As one of the Soul Severers serving the god Hades on earth, her future is tied to the task of shepherding the dying on from the mortal world – unless she can earn or steal enough to buy her way out.
Then the tyrant ruler Orpheus offers both fortune and freedom to whoever can retrieve his dead wife, Eurydice, from the Underworld. Deina jumps at the chance. But to win, she must enter an uneasy alliance with a group of fellow Severers she neither likes nor trusts.
So begins their perilous journey into the realm of Hades. . . The prize of freedom is before her – but what will it take to reach it?
For Adult Readers
The Twyford Code
Edith Twyford was once a world-famous children’s author, but now her only legacy is the rumoured existence of the Twyford Code: a series of clues hidden in her books leading to… what? No one knows – but that hasn’t stopped the speculation.
Steve Smith can trace nearly all the bad things in his life back to Edith Twyford. As a child he found one of her books, covered in strange symbols. He showed it to his teacher, Miss Iles, who was convinced it held the key to the code. Within weeks Miss Iles had disappeared, and Steve has no idea if she is dead or alive – or if she was right. Now he’s determined to find out.
But the Twyford Code hides secrets some would do anything to possess, and Steve isn’t the only one on its trail. The race is on to solve the mystery of the century. Could you get there first?
Babel
Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.
Oxford, 1836.
The city of dreaming spires.
It is the centre of all knowledge and progress in the world.
And at its centre is Babel, the Royal Institute of Translation. The tower from which all the power of the Empire flows.
Orphaned in Canton and brought to England by a mysterious guardian, Babel seemed like paradise to Robin Swift.
Until it became a prison…
But can a student stand against an empire?
Marple
This collection of twelve original short stories, all featuring Jane Marple, will introduce the character to a whole new generation. Each author reimagines Agatha Christie’s Marple through their own unique perspective while staying true to the hallmarks of a traditional mystery.
· Naomi Alderman
· Leigh Bardugo
· Alyssa Cole
· Lucy Foley
· Elly Griffiths
· Natalie Haynes
· Jean Kwok
· Val McDermid
· Karen M. McManus
· Dreda Say Mitchell
· Kate Mosse
· Ruth Ware
Miss Marple was first introduced to readers in a story Christie wrote for The Royal Magazine in 1927 and made her first appearance in a full-length novel in 1930’s The Murder at the Vicarage. It has been 45 years since Agatha Christie’s last Marple novel, Sleeping Murder, was published posthumously in 1976, and this collection of ingenious new stories by twelve Christie devotees will be a timely reminder why Jane Marple remains the most famous fictional female detective of all time.
Stoneblind
‘So to mortal men, we are monsters. Because of our flight, our strength. They fear us, so they call us monsters.’
Medusa is the sole mortal in a family of gods. Growing up with her Gorgon sisters, she begins to realize that she is the only one who experiences change, the only one who can be hurt. And her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know.
When the sea god Poseidon commits an unforgivable act in the temple of Athene, the goddess takes her revenge where she can – and Medusa is changed forever. Writhing snakes replace her hair, and her gaze now turns any living creature to stone. The power cannot be controlled: Medusa can look at nothing without destroying it. She is condemned to a life of shadows and darkness.
Until Perseus embarks upon a quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon . . .
Thanks for stopping by today for this festive post. I hope it’s of some help, and of course remember I’ll help you out for just a cup of (Christmas brew) coffee if you’ve got anyone tricky to buy for. I do love a challenge, so feel free to set me one.
And On She Reads 