Pay It Forward: School Holiday Programme

The term 3 school holidays are in full swing here in New Zealand, and to the relief of many parents, the local library has been hosting a range of events to help keep the kids entertained.

I eagerly took my two youngest daughters, and an extra friend along to todays event: Sketch and Scratch! Meet and have fun with illustrator Heather Hunt and Todd Hamilton from Whangarei Heads Backyard Kiwi project.

The library soon filled up with children and parents, who sat nicely and listened intently as librarian Sue, read the book Kiwi: The Real Story

This was followed by a very interesting and informative talk given by Backyard Kiwi project manager Todd Hamilton about Kiwi's and what really goes on in their world.

Todd 'tracking' Kiwi

Todd with Kiwi

This really great, child friendly discussion included a show and tell segment with stuffed Kiwi and Stoats (one of their many predators), an example of tagging and using radio frequencies to track the Kiwi's movements and sleep patterns, and listening to the differing calls of the male and female birds.
The children were well engaged, and during a question and answer section participated with an already impressive knowledge of this special NZ icon.

We were then treated to a demonstration from the illustrator, on how she likes to get into character and draw her beautifully expressive, and cute Kiwi's before she happily made the rounds of the room, talking with, and helping the children to draw their own Kiwi's.

Demo from illustrator Heather Hunt

Kiwi in motion

Kids drawing their own Kiwi's

Young illustrator in the making!

This was a really great chance to learn more about one of our more secretive, and beloved native birds, as well as meeting the illustrator of this beautiful book.

Kiwi: The Real Story
by Annemarie Florian, Heather Hunt

While the kiwi is often depicted as an endangered national symbol in need of our protection, this book takes a dramatically different route. Kiwi: the real story invites the reader into the secret night world of the North Island brown kiwi, illuminating the facts about its habitat, diet, courting, and parenting. Beautiful illustrations accompany a story that can be read on two levels: for young children a bold rhythmic verse describes kiwi in action in the bush, while the non-fiction narrative provides older readers with added insight into kiwi biology and behaviour. The combination of verse, factual text and bold expressive pictures harmonise in a new and intriguing view of a bird we feel we know so well, yet have much still to learn about. A collaboration between bookseller and librarian Annemarie Florian and artist Heather Hunt, Kiwi: the real story offers a memorable reading experience for readers of all ages.

Annemarie Florian is owner of STORYTIME : Award-Winning Books and Toys, www.storytime.net.nz.
An Education Librarian in a previous life, she has convened the Russell Clark Award and was a judge for the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards 2012. Other publications include Time to Sleep and Books for Babies. Heather Hunt is an illustrator, graphic designer, artist and photographer. She recently worked with Backyard Kiwi, a local Landcare Whangarei initiative, to design a distinctive and unique kiwi character, which has now been portrayed in a range of art prints.

BOOK GUILT :(

Do you ever feel book guilt?

Guilt for that never ending, ever increasing TBR pile?

Do you feel guilty for not LOVING the latest it book like everyone else does?

Are you guilty of borrowing a book and still not having read it weeks, if not months later?


I can answer a very loud, and very not proud yes to all of those questions and more...

Read me NOW!

Both my Kindle and Kobo are filled with an array of impulse purchases and freebies, and I am always buying books that then sit on my bookshelf unread, calling my name, 'Read me Cath, read me now!'      

I get asked to review books and I almost always say yes, and then feel sick with guilt when I still haven't had a chance to read them months later.

I've tried lists, scheduling, saying no - my laundry is usually a mile high, dinner on the table late...but somehow I still end up behind, forever playing catch up; forever feeling guilty :(

Surely I'm not the only one crazy enough to feel this guilt, am I?

 
I am a people pleaser...

I have yes disease...


I like to keep everyone happy, and suffer tremendous guilt when I can't fulfill a commitment whether real or imagined.


Do I think I can be cured?

Can I shrug it off and get over it?

Will I ever change, and do I really want to?
Honest answer, probably not - no!
                                                      
Will I continue to buy books?

Will I keep accepting review books?

Well, duh!!

Self abuse and examination of book guilt over, I'd better hit that TBR pile and read something!!!

Do you suffer from book guilt?
Are you a people pleaser too?
Please don't let me be alone - LOL!!

Happy Release Day: Fathom by Merrie Destefano

*Happy Release Day*

Fathom
by
Merrie Destefano

Blurb:

Everything is changing . . .

Turning sixteen can be hell, especially if everyone in town thinks your mother killed herself and your sister. All Kira Callahan wants to do is swim, hang out with her best friend, Sean, and ignore the kids who torment her at school. That is, until one day when she gets invited to a party. For three minutes her life is wonderful—she even kisses Sean in the driveway. Then somebody spikes her drink at the party and some girls from out of town lure her into the ocean and hold her underwater.

Kira soon discovers that the group of wild teenagers who have come to visit Crescent Moon Bay are not as innocent as they seem. In fact, nothing is as it seems—not the mysterious deaths of her sister and mother, not her heritage, not even her best friend. And everything seems to hinge on the ancient Celtic legends that her mother used to tell her as a child.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was lucky enough to get an e-ARC of Fathom, and you can read
my review here.
For a chance to win copies of Fathom, interviews and more, check out the
Blog Tour schedule.

Available for purchase at Amazon

Book Review: Gods and Warriors by Michelle Paver

Title: Gods And Warriors (Gods And Warriors #1)
Author: Michelle Paver
Release Date: 28th August 2012
Publisher: Penguin
Imprint: Puffin
Source: Received from the publisher via Booksellers NZ
 

In the turbulent world of the Mediterranean Bronze Age, long before the Greek myths, a boy and a girl battle for survival. With the help of three animal allies - a dolphin, a falcon and a lion cub - they defeat the forces of tyranny and withstand the elemental powers of the gods of land and sea.

My Thoughts

On the run from the war hungry Crows, Hylas is afraid for more than just his own life, but the life of his missing sister Issi also.

In his haste to find Issi, tension and excitement ensues when Hylas is helped by his friend Telamon, crosses paths with young bride-to-be Pirra, gets saved by a mischievous dolphin and ends up stranded on an almost deserted Island with more questions than answers.
 
Fighting for their lives, Hylas and Pirra slowly piece together the mystery that has thrown so many different players together in this battle of strength and wits against fearsome foes and unsettled Gods.

From the very first page, Gods and Warriors is full of action, mystery and intrigue; capturing my attention and making it a very hard book to put down. It has been beautifully written with adventure on every page.
Great characters, each with their own individual story that is then cleverly and intricately woven together into what will no doubt become an epic story of growth and self discovery.
Full of mystical creatures, magic, and beliefs of old, this is a story that will appeal to readers of all ages.

This first installment has whet my appetite for author Michelle Paver's wondrously rich world of an ancient civilization, and I cant wait to read more.
A fantastical 4 Star read ;]

Book Review: Beautiful Disaster by Jamie MacGuire

Title: Beautiful Disaster (Beautiful #1)
Author: Jamie McGuire
Release Date: August 14, 2012 (originally released May 26th 2011)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc. (originally self published)
Imprint: Atria
Source: Received from the publisher via NetGalley

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate percentage of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance between her and the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University's Walking One-Night Stand.

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs—and wants—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

My Thoughts

I thought it got off to a rough start, the writing was a bit disjointed and rather jumpy to begin with and I almost gave up on it, but it did settle down enough that I wasn't completely frustrated by it.
 
The story was okay, however I was very distracted by the constant to and fro-ing between Abby and Travis and wondered if I should take a Prozac to settle my nerves; it seriously was a train wreck relationship.
But I have to confess, some of it was rather appealing, Travis did try to woo Abby after all.
At one time or another, I think we've all had, or wanted to have, someone to be so in love with us that they literally cant survive without us; a true co-dependent existence. But that kind of relationship is often destructive and unhealthy, and there were moments in this book that it went too far.
I lived with a boyfriend for a year in my late teens and suffered both mental and physical abuse before I finally left, and Abby and Travis's relationship was very reminiscent of that time for me. Travis never actually hits Abby, but at the end of the day, it's sometimes the emotional bruises that are far harder to heal.

I didn't particularly like Abby all that much to be honest, I just found her to be a bit stuck up and standoffish. Travis wasn't much better either. In fact, I had problems with all the characters. They were all a very mismatched, shallow bunch of people that annoyed me.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone under the age of 18 and even though I thought their relationship was abusive (depending on your definition) it is something that happens, and therefore I'm not going to condemn the author for it. But I am a little disappointed that this kind of behavior was romanticized, which may lead a younger reader to think that this kind of relationship is healthy and okay; and its not (IMO)

An okay read, but definitely not for everyone.
Just a 2 Star read :|

*note*

Walking Disaster (Beautiful #2) is the same story but written from Travis's POV and is set for a release date in April 2013.
If you visit the author's website you can read an excerpt, and I must say I actually liked what I read more than I did Abby's POV.

Book Review: Fathom by Merrie Destefano

Title: Fathom
Author: Merrie Destefano
Release Date: October 1st 2012 (expected)
Publisher: Self published
Source: Received from the author for an honest review

Everything is changing . . .

Turning sixteen can be hell, especially if everyone in town thinks your mother killed herself and your sister. All Kira Callahan wants to do is swim, hang out with her best friend, Sean, and ignore the kids who torment her at school. That is, until one day when she gets invited to a party. For three minutes her life is wonderful—she even kisses Sean in the driveway. Then somebody spikes her drink at the party and some girls from out of town lure her into the ocean and hold her underwater.

Kira soon discovers that the group of wild teenagers who have come to visit Crescent Moon Bay are not as innocent as they seem. In fact, nothing is as it seems—not the mysterious deaths of her sister and mother, not her heritage, not even her best friend. And everything seems to hinge on the ancient Celtic legends that her mother used to tell her as a child.

My Thoughts

Fathom is a story steeped in mystery, legends, and the ghosts of a tragic past. And although it has been written with a YA audience in mind, I have fallen in love with with beautiful and charismatic tale.

I fell in love with Kira straight off the bat.
Kira is a great girl, her determination and love for those around her is an attribute both admirable and foolish, no more so when faced with a choice between her own happiness, or fulfilling the happiness of others. 
She has very deep-set ideals that are not often found in your average teenager; she's a fighter, and once her mind is set on something, no amount of persuasion will move her from it.

Haunted by the ghosts of her past, the unwanted rumors about her that never die down, combined with the new and strange feelings for her cute best friend, Kira's life just gets even more complicated by some strangely intriguing attention from the mysterious new kids in town. 
Watched like a hawk by her overprotective family, whispering and waiting anxiously for something to happen to her, for her to turn out like her mother, Kira has to battle more than just her own demons.

Fathom is a story shrouded in secrets; and this new and improved version of Selkie's and their Celtic Legend is fantastic.
They are an adventurous, sexy, messed up group, on a quest of self discovery that has been predestined in the ongoing legends that this old and secret race live by. They are chaotic, erratic, and their emotions are almost always in turmoil, making them unpredictable and exciting. The author has morphed this legend into a unique and captivating version that is completely her own.

I just couldn't put Fathom down. 
Its not just Kira's story, it's a story that encompasses a whole family, the legends of old that they live by and their small seaside town. 
There are so many elements and threads to Fathom that there really isn't a moment to catch your breath. Its entirely absorbing, and I lost myself in it's pages; I especially loved the brief passages of undersea life and I hungered for more of this fascinating world.
Beautifully written and very evocative, Fathom is a fantastic story full of excitement, mystery, love and grief.

A fantastic 5 Star read ;]


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COVER REVEAL!!

I have just finished reading an e-ARC of this amazing book and while its far too early to post a review, I thought I'd share the cover with you all :)

Betwixt by Melissa Pearl
Release Date: November 5th 2012

here's the blurb:

Beautiful, wild-child Nicole Tepper is hit by a car and left for dead. But when she wakes the next morning, Nicole finds herself in bed without a scratch. Perhaps she was more intoxicated than usual, as her mother is giving her the silent treatment and her friends are ignoring her as well. 

Things take a turn for the weird when Nicole soon discovers she is actually hovering between life and death. Her body is lying in the forest while her spirit is searching for anyone who can hear her. Unfortunately the only person who can is Dale Finnigan, the guy she publicly humiliated with a sharp-tongued insult that has left him branded.

Desperate, Nicole has no choice but to haunt Dale and convince the freaked-out senior to help her. Will he find her body before it's too late? Or will the guy who tried to kill her with his car, beat him there and finish her off before anyone finds out?

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