Saffy's Angel by Hilary Mc Kay

The four Casson children, whose mother, Eve, is a fine-arts painter, have all been given the names of paint colors. Cadmium (Caddy), is the eldest; then Saffron (Saffy); Indigo, the only boy; and Rose, the youngest. When Saffy discovers quite by accident that she has been adopted, she is deeply upset, though the others assure her that it makes no difference at all. Saffy is the daughter of Eve's twin sister, who lived in Siena, Italy, and died in a car crash. Grandad brought Saffy, as a very small child, back from Siena.
At Grandad's death he leaves something to each of the children. To Saffy, it is "her angel," although no one knows its identity. How Saffy discovers what her angel is, with the help of an energetic new friend, lies at the heart of this enchanting story. Unforgettable characters come alive in often deeply humorous and always absorbing events to be treasured for a long, long time.

Saffy has always felt a bit left out, her name is missing from the paint chart and she figures out that she is adopted.  Saffy's angel is all that is left form her old life when she was very little and lived in Sienna and herself and her  new friend Sarah set out to track the angel down.


This is a really great story about a totally chaotic family, I think a lot of our group enjoyed. We had a great discussion about book and characters. Saffy's name comes from Saffron the spice, we found out all about it and even had a look at some




Did you know it's made from the crocus flower. It is the worlds most expensive spice and takes 75,000 crocus blossoms to make a pound of saffron. Irene brought in some saffron for everyone to have a look at

If you want to follow more of their adventures there are other books in the Casson family series Indigo's star, Permanent Rose, Caddy ever after, forever Rose and Caddy's world

The Snow Merchant by Sam Gayton

 

 

Lettie Peppercorn lives in a house on stilts near the wind-swept coast of Albion. Nothing incredible has ever happened to her, until one winter's night.
The night the Snow Merchant comes.
He claims to be an alchemist - the greatest that ever lived - and in a mahogany suitcase, he carries his newest invention.
It is an invention that will change Lettie's life - and the world - forever.
It is an invention called snow.

 

 

This book is magical. Lettie Peppercorn cannot leave her house on stilts, she has been warned never to set foot outside her home. When the snow merchant arrives at the White Horse Inn which Lettie lives in and runs, everything is turned upside down. Then Noah appears, a boy with a stalk growing out of his shoulder. This book is very fast paced and unpredictable. Once Lettie sets foot outside, the most unexpected things start to happen leading to her finding out about her mother who disappeared when she was small. I don't want to give too much away as this was a really great read!

 

It reminded us a bit of Philip Pullman's books, the illustrations by Chris Riddell are great too when you come accross them

 

 

This was a popular book with our group although I think some people got a bit confused as there were so many things happening in the storyline and it moved very fast. It had just been snowing between our meetings too so that was nice. It's a very unusual zany story, perfect if you want to read something a bit different

 

Sam Gayton has a website where he talks about about how he got inspiration for this book and you can also see the early version of the start of this story

For anyone wanting to read more of Sam Gayton's books he has also written "Lilliput" and "Hercufleas"

 

Run Swift Run Free by Tom Mc Caughran

 

 

 

 

 

Summer has avvived and the fox cubs are growing up, life is very exciting but it's also hard- the cubs have to learn the ways of the wild, how to stand up to other hunters and how to defeat their enemy the trapper

 

The final book in the award winning trilogy "Run with the wind", "Run to the Earth", "Run Swift Run Free" is a coming of age adventure as the young foxes learn to survive- but how will they be able to fens for themselves adn run swift, run free

 

 

If you like stories about animals you will probabally like this book! I read this when I was in school and I still loved it reading it this time around. It's also won lots of awards like Bisto book of the Decade! The story follows three fox cubs as they grow up, learn to hunt and face lots of dangerous things like hunters, traps and other animals  The story is very exciting and you are never sure if all the cubs are going to survive, you also find out a lot of interesting things about foxes. This is the last book in the trilogy but you don't have to have read the first two to enjoy it.
 

Lots of our book club really liked this book and went on to read other books by Tom Mc Caughran.There is also "Run to the Ark" "Run to the Wild Woods" and "Run for Cover"


 "Run Swift Run Free is quite difficult to find in the shops but we do have copies in the library along with Tom's other books  ! We did a quiz about foxes and we also listened to sounds a fox makes online  Did you know that foxes have over 40 different calls and sounds, some to warn of danger some just to say hi and some for when they are fighting.



 

We also looked at a really great book called "My first book of Irish animals" by Juanita Browne and found all kinds of great facts about foxes,  worth checking out to find out more about animals in Ireland, good for projects!

Mr Gum and the Biscuit Billionaire by Andy Stanton

Mr Gum is horrid—in fact, absolutely grimsters. But this book's not just about him, it's also about a gingerbread man named Alan Taylor who has electric muscles! Plus, all our favorite characters are back: the little girl called Polly, the evil butcher called Billy William The Third, and the very wise man, Friday O'Leary. And, who could forget loveable Jake the dog, or the angry fairy who lives in Mr Gum's bathtub and whacks him on the head with a frying-pan? This book will have you crying with laughter!


Our book for our October meeting was "Mr Gum and the biscuit Billionaire".  Some people loved the book and were going to look for more Mr Gum books to read but others weren't so keen on the story and thought it was a bit rude : )    There are lots of  characters and the story moves very fast so it can be a bit confusing but if you are looking for a quick , easy funny read this could be for you.

 Mr Gum has a great website with all kids of stories, games and quizzes, check out the picture of our drawings of Mr Gum. David Tazzyman who illustrates the Mr Gum books has a video on the website of how to draw him and we followed this. We also did a quiz

 

 

 

Book for meeting in May

The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips by Michael Morpurgo

 

 

It’s 1943, and Lily Tregenza lives on a farm, in the idyllic seaside village of Slapton. Her life is scarcely touched by the war until one day Lily and her family, along with all of the other villagers, are told to move out of their homes – lock, stock and barrel.
Soon, the whole area is out of bounds, as the Allied forces practice their landings for D-day, preparing to invade France. But Tips, Lily’s adored cat, has other ideas – barbed wire and keep-out signs mean nothing to her, nor does the danger of guns and bombs. Frantic to find her, Lily decides to cross the wire into the danger zone to look for Tips herself…

The book for our next book club meeting in May  is "The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips" by Michael Morpurgo. Pick up your book at the library desk in Ballyroan  

Wilderness By Roddy Doyle

 

A novel of mothers lost and found. Grainne's Mom disappeared years ago when her parents were divorced, and Mom moved to the U.S. Now, bafflingly, she's reappeared and wants to meet. What could she be up to?
To get out of the way of this mysterious reunion, Grainne's half-brothers, Johnny and Tom, go with their mother, Sandra, on an "adventure holiday" in Finland. But before they're more than a few days into the snowy north, the boys are separated from Sandra, taking impossible risks to save her life. WILDERNESS is part-adventure, part-family drama with a charm that's all Roddy.

 

Our book for April was "Wilderness" by Roddy Doyle, we all had a really good talk about what we liked and thought about the book. Johnny and Tom go on holidays to the Artic Circle in Finland with their mother and become friends with the husky dogs who are going to be pulling their sleighs on their expeditions. Meanwhile their half sister Grainne stays in Dublin to meet her mother. There are two stories in the book really, one set in Finland with the boys and their mother and the other back home in Dublin with Grainne and her mother.

 

Some people felt that the story went a too smoothly as it has a happy ending, others had read some of Roddy Doyle's other books which are quite funny and expected more laughs but "Wilderness"  is a bit more serious. Kalle the man who looks after the huskys was a favourite character. All in all I think we liked the book. We also watched a Wilderness book trailer  and filled in maps of the countries where the boys went and the route they took to the Artic Circle.

Our book for May is on the way! Will let everyone know once it arrives

Great bookclub meeting last Thursday and we even had some new people join in. We discussed our book for the month "The Ghost of Thomas Kempe" by Penelope Lively and watched a spooky book trailer for it!

Ghost of Thomas Kempe Book Trailer

Here are some comments about the book, some people really liked it but others thought it was a bit old fashioned and not scary enough !

"I thought it was interesting , I would not have picked it out myself by the cover but it was really good, I would give it 8 out of 10 because I don't really like old fashioned books"

"I thought it was interesting because I really wanted to see what happened to James"

"The book is interesting, it has posh words, you will keep turning the page"

It was an old fashioned surprising book. It was about 17% scary and ghost was sort of a stalker"

"I thought the book was kind of interesting but I didn't like how the author put the words and that it was too old fashioned for my type but other than that.."

We also talked about books that we have just read recently, two people had just read "Diary of  a Wimpy Kid"
"I thought it was a good book, not too bad, it was good enough. It was interesting enough."

"I like diary of a wimpy kid because I like the way it's actually a diary and writing everyday and it looks like somebody just wrote it and he's telling every bit of his life. Because normally if you read a book it's typed, so that's why I like the books of Diary of a Wimpy Kid  "

Another favourite "Awful Auntie" by David Williams
"Awful Auntie is a very interesting story about a girl called Stella and her family own a place called

 Saxby Hall. Stella's auntie wants Saxby Hall to herself . Stella's parents die in a mysterious car accident and Stella thinks it was her auntie. Stella meets a ghost called soot and he helps her on the way"









and someone had just read "how to be a Viking" by Cresida Cowell

"I read how to be a Viking. It was a really funny book, some of it was a bit scary when they mentioned about the head being chopped off but it was still a good book!!"

Next month we are all reading a different book so we should have a really great meeting finding out about what everyone thinks of their read. We had a look at Children's Books Ireland's recommended reads booklet and everyone picked something to read from it for our next book club! If anyone missed our last meeting we have copies of recommended reads in the library so just come in and pick out a book from it, we have all the books in stock and we can reserve one for you if they are on loan