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!