Another month down, another round up up of what I read in the month just gone. I managed 19 books in November, which was a lot in a busy month, and also passed my goal of matching last year’s total – with a month still to go.  Not that it’s all about numbers – it’s great to read a lot of books, but it’s even better to read books that I enjoy, or learn from.  Anyway, here’s what I’ve been reading.

Books for Children

1. The Courage of Magnolia Moon, by Edwina Wyatt (Walker Books, 2022). This is the third book featuring Magnolia, and it is as enchanting as its predecessors. Magnolia is an everyday child with everyday worries – but she tackles them with heart. Each chapter stands alone as little vignette of a situation where Magnolia has to find her inner courage, but also builds to a whole. Just lovely – and I had to celebrate with a blackout poem on Instagram.
2. The Book That No One Wanted to Read, by Richard Ayoade, illustrated by Tor Freeman (Walker Books, 2022).  This is clever, told by the book itself and sure to have young readers laughing out loud, but would also make an excellent classroom book, with loads of ways to use it a mentor text, or to inspire book discussion, or reading, or lots of things.
3. Heidi, by Johanna Spyri (first published 1881). Continuing my recent trend of rediscovering old favourites, I listed to this on audio, and found it was till beautiful and moving, which is a relief. There is always a danger of reading the books you once loved and realising they haven’t aged well. As with, I suspect, most classics, there are some aspects which need critical consideration if sharing with young readers, but the writing is lovely and Heidi is a caring, quirky and loveable character. Again, I had to get out my hard copy and write a found poem.  Oh, here’s a thing that annoys me – but not in the book itself. The copy I have shows a cover image of Heidi with short, curly dark hair. That is how she is described in the book. So why, across the many editions of this book published over the year are there so many depictions of her with straight blonde hair, blue eyes or pigtails?  Look at Google images here and you will see what I mean.
4. The Honest Truth, by Dan Gemeinhart (Chicken House, 2015). This one has been in my tbr pile for 7 years, first coming as an unsolicited review copy. I’m glad it finally caught my eye, and wish I’d read it sooner. Mark is on the run – from home, but, more importantly, from facing the truth that his cancer has returned. He’s going to fulfil a dying wish, and climb a mountain. Back home, his best friend struggles with knowing that she alone knows where he might be, but that telling would break her promise to Mark.
5. Things on Corners, by Ruth Park (Puffin, 1989). There are two mysteries about this book – one is how I did not know that Ruth Park wrote this little collection of short stories, which I really enjoyed. The other, entirely unrelated to the content of the book, is how I came to own it – it is a library discard from a school in Brisbane. Which is a long way from me.  My to-read pile is very very big, so sometimes a book will sit in for a very very long time – and this one caught my eye, but did leave me wondering how and when I acquired it. I will probably never know. But for now, I really enjoyed these quirky takes, and the book is now shelved in my collection.
6. Fairytales Gone Bad: Creeping Beauty, by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Freya Hartas (Walker Books, 2022).  As the title suggests, this is not your standard fairytale. Lots of fun – and it’s written as a verse novel, so I loved it.
7. Clash, by Kayla Miller (Walker Books, 2022). I’m enjoying this series of graphic novels, which can each stand alone. In this one Olive deals with  the changes brought by a new girl arriving at school.
8. Crunch, by Kayla Miller (Walker Books, 2022). And another in this series. This one about how Olive tries to manage way too many commitments.
9. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, by Kate Douglas Wiggin (this version Blackstone Audio, 2007).  Another classic book, downloaded and listened to in the car. I  thought I had read this as a child and parts of it were familiar, but not as familiar as Heidi and The Secret Garden. I’m not sure why. I enjoyed it but didn’t have those same tingles of rightness and reconnection.
10. Toodle the Cavoodle Sniffle Snuffle, by Richard Tulloch, illustrated by Heidi Cooper Smith (Big Sky Publishing, 2022). This was received as a review copy and, being newly the owner f a cavoodle, I had to read it straight away. A realty cute story about a dog, a family, and a bit of a message about littering, too. Lots of onomatopoeia in the playful text, which I think my grandlings will enjoy.
11. A Walk in the Dark, by Jane Godwin (Lothian, 2022). Five teenagers are grouped for a night-hike organised by their less than conventional teacher. Butt hey are trained and should be back at school by midnight. In a night where everything that could go wrong does, they have to learn from and support each other.  I really enjoyed this and wrote another black out poem on Instagram here.

Books for Adults

1. The Road Trip, by Beth O’Leary (Quercus, 2022). I  downloaded this one on Audio, thinking it would be a rom-com, and needing something light. It was less light than I thought – but a wonderful blend of humour, pathos and difficult stuff as a road trip to a wedding  goes from a fun adventure to a series of misfortunes, and Addie and Dylan, who had a difficult break up a year ago, work through what happened and why.

2. Nganga, by Aunty Fay Muir & Sue Lawson (Walker Books, 2020).  This book has been in my reading pile for a little while, and I wish I had read it sooner. It isn’t a long read – I read it in one evening – but it is important. Unpacking the meaning of usage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander words that are part of everyday usage, as well as words used  about these people – including the word Aboriginal itself – it is really accessible but also the kind of book everyone who lives on this wonderful land should read.

3. Home Before Night, by J. P. Pomare (Audible Originals, 2022). This is an Audible original. I like to listen to some of these as they are usually short and allow me to dip into different genres and authors. This one was absorbing – a missing son, who, in the midst of a snap lockdown goes missing. Only his mother is sure he is missing – but she is right, and readers are kept guessing for a long time as to where he is and why. Clever.

4. The Guy Who Decides, by Jimmy Rees (Affirm Press, 2022). I am a big fan of Jimmy Rees – like a lot of people, his videos on Facebook hit home in a way that makes me laugh, even when it’s at myself. So I had to buy the book, which was fun – though I must confess, because I have watched the videos I kind of wanted to just watch them again, and hear him do the voices.  Reading on the page was maybe not as good – which is a big call from me.

5. ADHD 2.0, by Edward M. Hallowell MD & John J. Ratey MD (Ballantine Books, 2022). I really needed to read this book. A really clear, practical guide to living with ADHD, written by doctors who have it and treat it. I really recommend this for anyone who has ADHD, or who wants to understand it better.

6. The Comeback, by Lily Chu (Audible, 2022). Until recently I’d forgotten that I quite like the romance genre. This is an Audible original, and listening to it in the car was a pleasure. Ariadne is a career-focussed lawyer, and has no time for romance, or much at outside of work.  But Jihoon, her housemate’s mysterious cousin from Korea, seems to get under her skin. Yes it’s romance but the story also explores themes of racism, family expectation  and even fandom in the k-pop scene.

7. Cast Away: Poems for Our Time, by Naomi Shihab Nye (Greenwillow,2019). I gave myself this book of poems for Christmas last year, and then forgot about it, probably in the midst of holiday stuff. I am glad I rediscovered it and read it. This collection is themed around the topic of ‘trash’ – castoffs in a range of places, including on highways and beaches. The poems are sometimes funny, sometimes really serious, but always wonderfully wrought. I’ll be dipping into this again.

8. Just One Thing, by Dr Michael Mosley (Hachette, 2022). I picked this up because it has the same title as a (quite different) manuscript I’ve been working on for a while, but also because I like Michael Mosley’s practical, simple way of exploring issues relating to health and lifestyle. This is a series of simple things  you could do to make quite big impacts on your life – and health. And, by the time I’d finished it, I had already started implementing some of the ideas.

This brings my total for the year to 161 – last year’s total was 153. And there’ll be a  few more in December. I’d love to hear what you’ve been reading!