Lois Lowry - 'Anastasia At This Address'

After reading 'Anastasia Absolutely', I just had to re-read at least one more of the Anastasia books! This one I had read before.

Anastasia decides to renounce "chasing boys" at the same time as she decides to answer an advertisement from a personal column. Clearly Single White Male (SWM) doesn't know Anastasia is a 13 year old. Anastasia, being Anastasia, is of course very careful to not lie to SWM. But will true compatibility conquer the age gap? In amongst all that Anastasia has to deal with the every day events and life of being a teen aged girl. All done in a very funny way.

Once again, highly recommended and I think I will have to look on the shelves and see if there are any more there!

Lois Lowry 'Anastasia, Absolutely'

I have just put new bookshelves into the girls' playroom so we are reorganising all their books. During the process I came across this book which is one I haven't read before. I loved the 'Anastasia' books when I was younger and must have picked this one up for the girls and didn't read it at the time!

Funny and yet at the same time this book deals with serious issues in true Anastasia style! Anastasia has to deal with "Values" as a school topic at the same time that she is having to make some serious moral choices of her own thanks to her dog, an early morning walk and a serious mix up.

Highly recommend this book for any confident young reader.

Ann M. Martin "Kristy's Big News"

One of the good things about having children is a having an excuse (a reminder?) to revisit books from my childhood. I loved the Baby-Sitters Club, but there are so many more books now then there was when I stopped reading them.

"Kristy's Big News" is part of the BSC: Friends Forever series, a separate series to the main BSC series. The four main character are there: Kristy, Mary-Anne, Claudia and Stacey. Dawn has gone to live with her dad in California. I am not exactly sure what happened to Jessi and Mal and I presume that chronologically it is before Abbey appears.

While it is a little hard to tell where this series fits in relation to the main series it doesn't change the fact that these are still great kids books. Ann M. Martin's style is the same, but what this series does is looks at the "other side" to the baby-sitters. The focus is on the baby-sitters and other areas of their lives not on baby-sitting. In "Kristy's Big News" there is no baby-sitting at all!

In this book, Kristy's father reappears and asks her to go to his wedding along with her two older brothers. It has been years since he walked out on them and the contact since then has been limited and not consistent by any stretch of the imagination. This book deals with the emotional experience that Kristy, Sam and Charlie go through in seeing their biological father again and where he now fits in relation to their "new", crazy, blended family.

The writing in some ways is a little more sophisticated then the original BSC books, but a great book for middle-primary school aged children and for lovers of the original series.

Sienna Mercer "My Sister the Vampire: Fangtastic"

This is a book my ten year old has had her eye on for a while. She was ecstatic when my 12 year old was given it for her birthday from one of my friends.

All three of us have read it now and all three of us have enjoyed it. It is the second book (I think it is the second one anyway) in a series of twin girls who were separated at birth at meet in high school. Ivy is a vampire and Olivia is human. They are firm friends and thrilled to have discovered each other but only one other person knows they are related. Their parents don't know. No-one at their school knows. And the secret community of vampires in the area don't know. Olivia is the only human to know about the existence of the vampire community. In this story, this quiet existence comes under threat when a ditzy reporter called Serena Star is determined to prove that vampires are living there!

"Fangtastic" has lots of references to the vampires we all know and love. Garlic, death by stake, coffins, sparkles (as being a distasteful thing! Sorry Twilight fans) and there is even an 'interview with a vampire'. A fun, age appropriate way for younger readers to join in on the vampire craze. Plus who doesn't love long lost twin sisters?! Recommended for 9 plus, although the story is more then appropriate for younger confident readers. We are looking forward to finding the rest of the series!

The Void

I have been reading, just not blogging about it! My train reading is fairly complex and I am loving the story but it takes concentration so I am reading it slower then I normally do. My home reading has been all over the place. I have read a few Cathy Cassidy books that the girls have given to me. The big two are loving them and if the girls love a book they give it to me because I just have to read it too! They are good :) Plus I have been re-reading a number of the Abbey Girl books after doing the last review. I haven't reviewed all these. I will at some point, but I read them every year, often two or three times so that can wait! I have also been reading a new adult book that I am not finding very absorbing so I am just taking my time. Stay tuned for new reviews!

Elsie J. Oxenham "The Abbey Girls Play Up"

I have to start this post by saying how much I love the Abbey Girl books. Although, I am aware they are very much for a select audience. They are now collectibles although I am by no means an expert on what is considered rare or valuable. My own collection has been obtained through ebay and secondhand shopping and all have been less then $25 (Australian) and in most cases a lot less! The books show all the classic stereotypes of their times as is to be expected. If you are going to try them, this is simply a product of the genre.

If you have not come across them before, the Abbey Girl books are a series written for girls set around a restored abbey in the set of a manor house in England during the twenties and thirties. The early books rotate around three girls. Cousins, Joan and Joy and their friend Jen. Later Rosamund, Maidlin and Mary-Dorothy are added as key figures. As the series progress, they grow up, their circle of friends is extended and they all have children. Later still, their children become the key figures in many of the books. The Hamlet Club, their school's folk dancing group, and the role they all play as Queens play a key part in the series. Alongside helping others and the "Abbey's" spirit of adoption.

"The Abbey Girls Play Up" chronologically is set around the middle period of the series. Joan, Joy and Jen are all married with young families. This particular story is one of the books that is a little different in the sense that it focuses on a friend rather then one of the main "family". Cecily Brown is an orphan who loves music. Through a series of events Cecily comes in contact with Abbey family and they make her dreams come true, in ways she never could have hoped for.

This book is highly recommended for anyone who likes Elsie J. Oxenham's other books or books by Dorita Bruce, Elinor M. Brent-Dyer, Enid Blyton's school stories and others by that type. I have been reading these since I was about 8, although if you were looking for one to introduce to a younger reader, I would suggest going with one of the earlier books. I would also suggest that it would have to be a girl (at the risk of stereotyping) who was already fairly well read. My own girls (12, 10 and 8) have yet to "get" these books although they have all had a go at reading them at some point. At this point in my house they are still my books!