Author: Schizanthus Nerd

Noble Volume 1: God Shots – Brandon Thomas

Illustrations – Roger Robinson

Colours – Juan Fernández

The blurb for this graphic novel sounded like a mash up of lots of movies I’ve enjoyed and while it’s not an especially original concept, it sounded like it would be fun. We have astronauts on a suicide mission to save Earth from an asteroid (Hi, Armageddon, etc). Somehow while saving the world one of the astronauts learns a new trick. David now has telekinesis (Hello, Carrie and Matilda).

For some reason David can’t remember much of anything at all (Hiya, Dory). There’s a villain (Hey, every action film ever!) and a wife that’s fighting to get her husband back (take your pick!). Astrid, David’s wife, is a real badass and I would’ve liked to have seen her in action some more because she had potential to wreak havoc.

Unfortunately there was so much jumping around that if I hadn’t already read the blurb I would have been completely lost and even with that information I still couldn’t really connect the dots with any consistency until around the halfway mark. There were so many time shifts, back and forth to different time periods both before and after the ‘event’.

The main character has no idea who they are so they’re no help to the reader but they do get flashbacks, oftentimes in the middle of a fight scene. There’s a lot of action, with people fighting all over the place as David’s powers continue to grow stronger for some reason.

Had there been smoother transitions and some more information early on to help readers get into the story and get to know the characters this could have been a winner. As it stands I really struggled to make it to the point where the story was starting to make sense and I never really connected to the characters.

While the story will be continuing I won’t be following along, which is a shame because the illustrations were really well done and the story itself had a lot of potential. There are some explanations given along the way but not enough to balance out the frustration I felt at the frenetic time shifts.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Lion Forge and Diamond Book Distributors for the opportunity to read this graphic novel.

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Astronaut David Powell was one of the team of five astronauts who took on the suicide mission of destroying the Icarus2 asteroid before it could collide with Earth and annihilate all life on the planet. The team succeeded, but as a result of the explosion, David gained the ability of telekinesis, the means of moving matter with one’s mind. David also lost his memories.

Now, back on Earth, David is travelling throughout the world, taking on different identities and jobs, helping people while his powers grow. Fighting to stay alive and out of the reach of the Foresight Corporation and its CEO, Lorena Payan. Hoping to one day remember his life, his name, and the mysterious woman and young boy in his memory flashes. His wife and son.

David’s wife, Astrid Allen-Powell, has been receiving secret messages from an informant within Foresight, confirming David is alive and his movements. Astrid is now on a mission: to get her husband back. To put her family back together. Astrid Allen-Powell is much more than most people realise, and she will use every skill and weapon in her arsenal to get back the man she loves. 

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Everyday Gratitude: Inspiration for Living Life as a Gift – A Network for Grateful Living

Everyday Gratitude is a collection of quotes from authors, spiritual leaders including monks and rabbis, and other well known people from history along with some I’d never heard of. Intended to make you think about your own life, each quote is accompanied by a question that encourages you in one or more of the following:

“1. STOP: Pause and awaken.

2. LOOK: Become aware of the gifts and opportunities around you.

3. GO: Take action based on gratefulness and great-fulness.”

This book used watercolours extensively. Looking at the backgrounds I remembered playing with watercolours in preschool; how the colours would blend together on the page and there’d be splotches of more intense colour amongst the watered down areas. That’s the feeling the backgrounds gave me, although unlike my works of ‘art’ these looked like they had purpose. Some were lines of colour, some were circles and others were more abstract.

“Though you may not change it, you can handle an ugly situation beautifully.”

Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Personally I wasn’t a fan of the questions put to the reader under each quote. While some did make me think, the majority seemed to either be simply rewording the statement of the quote into a question or didn’t appear overly related to the quote at all. I expect some readers will appreciate the questions as a tool for introspection as they mine the quote for meaning. I prefer to ponder quotes without guidance, deciding what they mean to me at this time in my life or applying them to a specific circumstance.

Some of the quotes in this book are ones I’d expect to see on a poster in a pokey little store that sells tie dye clothes, Buddha figurines, smells of incense, and most likely also sells this book. While there were some quotes that I expect will stay with me for a long time there were others that made me question whether they belonged in this book.

“Life does not accommodate you, it shatters you … every seed destroys its container or else there would be no fruition.”

Florida Scott-Maxwell

I can see Everyday Gratitude as a lovely gift or coffee table book. I wouldn’t have the discipline to use it as recommended, by reading a quote and its question each morning and then thinking about it throughout the day, but there will be those who have that discipline and I expect they’ll get a lot out of it.

I doubt anyone could overdose on gratitude and am sure the world would be a more positive place to be if more people spent more of their time focusing on what they’re thankful for.

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go out and do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Howard Thurman

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Storey Publishing, LLC for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Experience and science say that daily practices and motiving reminders help us to be the people we want to be and to live the lives we want to live. This inspiring collection of 365 sayings and reflections comes from the Network of Grateful Living, founded by David Steindl-Rast. Quotes from A.A. Milne, Anne Frank, Thomas Merton, Maya Angelou, and more are paired with related questions and practices to help you notice the gifts you receive – both large and small – every day.

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Savage Island – Bryony Pearce

OUTSMART * OUTRUN * OUTLIVE

Wait! What? Outlive?! You won’t see Jeff Probst’s cheeky smile or hear his cheerful jibes at contestants in this game of Survivor! In this game the stakes are high and so are the potential rewards.

10 teams!
5 people per team!
3 days!
£1 million each to the winning team!

When Lizzie finds details online about Iron Teen, hosted by multibillionaire Marcus Gold, founder of Gold Foundation, she eagerly tells her friends Ben, Grady, Carmen and Will about this exciting opportunity. The five have previously completed the Duke of Edinburgh together so they’re confident they have a good chance of winning Iron Teen and taking home the cash.

On the verge of adulthood and with dreams of university, starting a business or helping out their struggling family at the forefront of their minds, the five friends decide that this opportunity is too good to miss.

Furnished with their initial instructions and backpacks filled to the brim with supplies (I’m looking at you here, Grady), they think they have everything they need to complete the unknown challenges awaiting them on Aikenhead, Gold’s private island. They’re confident that between them they have the brains, brawn and endurance required to succeed.

In this game teams need to race around the island to find locked boxes that contain the coordinates to the next location, clues to solve the puzzle that will grant them access to the next locked box and a geocache box. They will need to take whatever is in each geocache box and replace it with something “of equal or greater value at each checkpoint.”

The winning team will be the ones with the quickest time who bring all of their collected items with them to the final checkpoint. Lizzie’s team are excited for a challenging but fun adventure that has the potential to set them up financially so they can live their dreams.

Once on the island our five adventurers learn that the game is not what they expected. The terrain can be treacherous and there’s no one to help them other than their teammates. Oh, and the other teams are hunting their fellow competitors for body parts. There will be no escape until the game is over because the crossing between the island and the safety of the real world is only raised every three days.

The characters, action, pacing, gore and backstories combined made for a book I didn’t want to put down. While there was plenty of action and at times I felt breathless when I realised I’d held my breath during a scene, there were also times of connection between the teammates as well as suspense as the characters and myself waited for the next horror to unfold. I’ve read plenty of books with gore in them so the descriptions here were certainly not the most graphic or gross that I’ve come across, but in terms of a young adult book it would rate quite high on the ‘Eww!’ meter.

The characters’ personalities and voices were distinct and memorable. I loved Grady’s wacky conspiracy theories. I enjoyed Car’s sassy remarks and Lizzie’s enthusiasm. Ben’s sensitivity was so sweet, as was his not so secret love for Lizzie. Will’s character was particularly interesting and while Grady was my favourite character, Will came a close second.

I particularly loved the exploration of the relationship between the two brothers, Ben and Will. The flashback scenes of their childhood experiences added a depth to a story that could easily have simply become a gore-fest. I didn’t expect the sensitivity of the portrayal of the mental illness within their family.

Through flashbacks and their current circumstances the dynamics of this family is examined. We not only get to witness the effects that mental illness has on each individual; we also see its impact on the relationships between family members. I definitely understood and empathised with the protector role.

What delighted me above all was that I was surprised by both characters and events at the end. I was surprised by certain actions of two characters and the actions of a third, while I saw it coming, had me rethinking whether I still liked them or not. Usually young adult books, while entertaining, are generally fairly predictable. I had some ideas of where the plot was heading but I not only didn’t guess the end, it was also better than anything I’d come up with myself.

Another unexpected bonus was that this story got me to thinking about what I’d do if I was in any one of the character’s places. Black and white moral questions greyed for some characters and in most situations I could understand where they were coming from. I loved the questions this book made me consider for myself:

  • What would I be willing to do to win £1 million?
  • What sacrifices would I be willing to make?
  • How much is my integrity worth to me?
  • Would £1 million cover the therapy bills I’d need to pay if I compromised my morals enough that I did what I had to in order to win?
  • Is there a point of no return where the end justifies the means and what type of person is willing to cross this line?
  • If you hurt me, does that then entitle me to take revenge on you?

I had just one unanswered question at the end of this book and while it’s possible I missed the explanation, it is bugging me. Why was team 10 disqualified?

I need to go find some more of Bryony Pearce’s novels. If this novel is any indication of her talent her back catalogue is going to be making its way to my Kindle fairly soon.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Stripes Publishing, an imprint of Little Tiger Group, for the opportunity to read this book. I knew from having already read Charlotte Says that I was interested in reading more Red Eye books. Now I’m convinced I need to read them all!

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

When reclusive millionaire Marcus Gold announces that he’s going to be staging an “Iron Teen” competition on his private island in the Outer Hebrides, teenagers Ben, Lizzie, Will, Grady and Carmen sign up – the prize is £1 million pounds … each. But when the competition begins, the group begin to regret their decision. Other teams are hunting their competitors and attacking them for body parts. Can the friends stick together under such extreme pressure to survive? When lives are at stake, you find out who you can really trust …

A Red Eye horror novel for teens, this gripping YA thriller story is full of fast-paced action. 

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Stinky Cecil #3: Stinky Cecil in Mudslide Mayhem! – Paige Braddock

Nesbit the chameleon grew up in a pet store so he doesn’t know what rain is. Cecil the toad is annoyed by Nesbit’s innocence about the way life works outdoors but Jeremy the earthworm has empathy for Nesbit. Usually the spring rain doesn’t cause any problems for the habitat but this year Cecil’s pond floods.

While Cecil always wanted a waterfront property he didn’t want his home to be under the water. Jeff the hamster arrives in a speedboat to help his friends. He’s seen something from his treehouse that may be causing the flood. The friends work together and with their new beaver friends, Bud and Patricia, to solve the problem as a team.

The importance of helping friends is demonstrated when Evelyn the caterpillar helps Nesbit early in the story and when Nesbit later helps Evelyn. Empathy is encouraged and solving problems by making sure that both sides are happy with the solution is explored.

Along the way young readers will learn facts about the different animals in the story and there are additional facts after the story about beavers and the lifecycle of a monarch butterfly. The illustrations are sweet and the colours are bright and cheerful.

I really liked Nesbit’s adorable naivety. A character with wide eyed awe at all of the new things they’re experiencing was a lovely addition to the story.

Favourite bit:

“Pardon me. I thought you were lunch, but you’re a friend.”

Nesbit to Evelyn

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the opportunity to read this graphic novel.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

It’s springtime at Cecil’s Pond and everything is coming alive: the flowers, grasses, insects, and butterflies. The marsh around the pond is all in bloom. Poor Nesbit (the chameleon) is overwhelmed by it all. He sees all the change as unsettling chaos!

Nesbit grew up in a pet store before moving to the pond. He has no idea what it’s like to live in the wild or where he fits in the chain of life. Cecil and his pond pals will have to help Nesbit along on his journey of self-discovery.

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Trampoline Boy – Nan Forler

Illustrations – Marion Arbona

Trampoline Boy is a lovely picture book about friendship, acceptance and perspective. Trampoline Boy spends all of his time jumping up and down on his trampoline. The other children think he’s weird. Peaches stops one day and watches Trampoline Boy bouncing up and down. Each day she watches Trampoline Boy until one day when she whispers,

“Trampoline Boy, I wish I could see what you see up there in that blue, blue sky.”

Trampoline Boy stops bouncing for the first time. Taking Peaches by the hand, Trampoline Boy allows her to join him and together they bounce. Peaches finds out what the world looks like from up high and together they see what all of the people on the ground are missing out on.

The illustrations are colourful and interesting. I loved that Trampoline Boy doesn’t allow the kids who think he’s weird stop him from being himself and doing what he enjoys.

I loves Peaches’ interest in what Trampoline Boy is doing and how she quietly observes him before asking to see what he sees.

This book works as both a story about a boy who loves bouncing on his trampoline and as a deeper story about the value of friendship, accepting and seeking to understand other peoples differences, and how seeing things from a different perspective can show you points of view that you’ve never imagined seeing.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tundra Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

A lyrical picture book about the joy of jumping – and a springboard for discussion about unique perspectives.

Through the eyes of a character we only know as Trampoline Boy, we are invited to understand how he sees the world. His favourite thing to do is jump up and down, up and down on his trampoline. Kids walk by and tease him, but he remains steadfast and calm. One day, a quietly exuberant girl, Peaches, is fascinated by his jumping. Trampoline Boy wordlessly invites her to jump with him, and by spending this time with him, Peaches and readers get to see how important and valuable different perspectives are. 

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Eternal Victim – Dexter Morgenstern

Game Name: Eternal Victim

Creator: Dexter Morgenstern

Player 1: The Witness

Instruction Manual: Missing. Please work it out as you go along.

Level Bosses:

  • Level 1 – The Whistler
  • Level 2 – The Constrictor
  • Level 3 – The Director
  • Level 4 – The Father

PRESS START

The most important thing you need to know going into this novella is that you only know what the Witness knows, which in the beginning is very little indeed. This made for a serious amount of confusion on my part and significant helpings of “What the hell did I sign up for?!”

If this story is of interest to you please don’t give up when you get the feeling you’re hallucinating; when every time you think you know where you are the scene changes on you and you don’t know how you got there. Your patience and attempt to retain your sanity will be rewarded if you stick with it. Know that things will fall into place. I graduated from confusion to intrigue and then to fascination and compulsion. I had to know what was coming next and how it would all come together in the end.

Dexter Morgenstern writes at the start of the novella that he wants to write stories for games and as I read I could see this story translating into the gaming world quite easily. I viewed the story much like a game as I progressed and ultimately came to see the story as having four main levels, each with a level boss to face at the end. While there was a cyclical nature to what the player needs to accomplish within the level, each level takes place in a different time period and with different characters.

During each level the Witness gains information, mostly fairly cryptic at the time, which they hope will eventually help them make sense of who they are and what their connection is to the characters they encounter within the game. The characters that remain consistent throughout the levels (besides the Witness) are the girl in the mirror and the Preta, which is translated from Sanskrit as ‘hungry ghost’.

Because characters come and go you get to know their stories but I didn’t find I had the time to connect emotionally with them. Having said that, there’s so much action and running around that it’s not as though any of the characters have time to sit down and have a chat over a cuppa with you anyway. If it helps you to put all of this into context, Dexter describes it himself as a “chaotic trifecta of Buddhism, history, and ghost-zombies”. Intriguing, huh?!

Because I seem to be fairly immune to feeling fear while reading, I wasn’t scared reading Eternal Victim. I was unsettled by it though and for me, feeling unsettled over a period of time is more uncomfortable to sit with than scary moments that come and go. I haven’t been this unsettled by a book in a long time so I was suitably impressed by that.

If you’re squeamish and/or the content warnings apply to you then you may want to skip this book or at least approach it with caution. If you can handle graphic details of tortuous murders committed by deranged serial killer types you should be okay, but you’d be forgiven if you cringe at certain points as your already overactive imagination works overtime. If you can eat while watching a Saw movie you should be fine too.

This novella is certainly not going to be for everyone as it truly is one of the strangest books I’ve read, but it happily transformed for me from being close to ditching it for the first 10% to being glad I persevered fairly soon after. I’d like to reread Eternal Victim to see how the reading experience changes now that I know how it all fits together. I’m definitely interested in reading more books by this author.

Beware the fog!

GAME OVER

Credits: Thank you so much to NetGalley, Dexter Morgenstern and BookBuzz.net for the opportunity to read this novella.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Follow the Witness as she travels through a perpetual series of nightmares, haunted by a mixture of pernicious serial killers and their imprisoned, undead victims, known as preta. As she wanders through time and memories shared by the killers and their victims, she fights to solve the puzzle of their connection to each other and to herself. Her only hope of salvation lies in connecting key victims to the souls who can rescue them, thus waking her from the nightmare, but one killer follows the next, bringing forth a new set of victims, a new score of preta, and immediately landing her in a new terror.

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My Life in Smiley: It’s All Good – Anne Kalicky

I love 💕 books 📚 written in diary form! I especially love 💕 books 📚 written in diary form that are illustrated! I love 💕 emojis 😃😍😋🤪😎! Unfortunately I didn’t love 💕this book 📖. Maybe I’m comparing it too much to others I’ve read like Dork Diaries but I found this book 📖 bordering on boring 💤.

There’s a dire warning ⚠️ about not reading this book 📖 until 2126 with the threat of such cool 😎 stuff as hundreds of tarantulas 🕷 jumping out of massive black blisters on your hands 🤚. I read the warning ⚠️ page and got my hopes up but it turned out that this was the only page that really showed the kind of personality I’ve come to expect in diary format kid’s books 📚.

It’s not like nothing happened. We follow Max, who’s 11, through his first year at middle school. Max lives in France 🇫🇷 with his parents and sisters Marion, who’s 14 and super annoying and Lisa, who’s 8 and the favourite child. He’s best friends with Tom, a skinny nerd 🤓. Together they play Zombieland 🧟‍♀️ 🧟‍♂️ on Xbox 🎮 and they have their own chicken 🐔 nugget eating record. Max has a crush on Naïs who is consistently described as pretty.

At school there is assigned seating and of course Max has been assigned to sit next to his arch nemesis, Raoul. Max recounts gym dramas and other classes he attends. There’s a field trip to the retirement home, exchange students visit from England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 and there’s a field trip to the Eiffel Tower. There are also visits to Max’s grandparents, skiing ⛷ and parties 🎈to plan and attend. During the school year there is an ongoing mystery of who is responsible for the graffiti on the wall on the way to school and how the artist knows so much about Max.

So, with all of this happening why wasn’t this a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ book 📖? There wasn’t the humour I expected. The main character barely had a personality. There were cute illustrations and emoji overload, but I’m not desperately needing to read the second book 📖 in this series. Perhaps this one was just setting the groundwork for future incredible stories. Maybe some of the humour got lost in the translation.

What it boiled down to for me was that this book 📖 was just okay 👌. I’m not jumping up and down excited 😆 about my new discovery but I also made it to the end so it didn’t completely suck either. I may relent and try the second book 📖 (maybe) but it won’t have the honour of going straight to the top of the TBR pile.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the opportunity to read this book 📖.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Follow the middle school misadventures of Max, as recorded in his hilarious Diary of a Wimpy Kid–style journal that is unconventionally illustrated with the internationally recognised emoticons of the SmileyWorld brand.

Warning: Do not read before 2126! My Life in Smiley: It’s All Good is meant strictly for people of the future, chronicling the life and times of Max, an average eleven-year-old. Annoying siblings, stage fright, love at first sight – can you believe what kids in the 21st century had to deal with? Follow his illustrated diary as has embarks on a great journey – the first year of middle school in France. Max’s journal entries, humorous drawings and colourful smileys recount his adventures in making new friends, dealing with bullies, and surviving a ruthless P.E. teacher. Along the way, Max starts to figure out how to interact with his peers, and he realizes that at the end of the day, no matter what life throws at him, it’s all good!

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FRNK #1: The Beginning Begins – Olivier Bocquet

Illustrations – Brice Cossu

Ths cmc bk bcm qt hrd t rd n sm sctns!

Did you get that?

After being exchanged by three previous families Frank is due for an appointment with a fourth potential family, Mr and Mrs Fugly (I kid you not! 😆). He “drops in” to the meeting with the director of the orphanage, who accidentally admits she doesn’t know what happened to his parents. Deciding to run away (again!) Frank is caught by the gardener who tells Frank the truth, that he found Frank when he was about a year old. The gardener shows Frank a map of where he found him then sends him on his way.

After a journey on foot to find his parents, complete with some pretty funny falls, directionally challenged Frank finds himself sucked through a portal of sorts and winds up in prehistoric times. There is no phone service, no internet and apparently vowels haven’t been invented yet, so the locals tlk lk ths (talk like this). It does take a bit to get used to the way they talk and because of this, FRNK may not be the best comic book for reluctant readers. There’s one swear word in this book but your kid most likely already knows it anyway and its use is really funny.

This is the first comic in a series of three so there’s the inevitable ending just when you’re really getting into it. I’ve read this comic book twice now. The first time I was so frustrated by the lack of vowels in the prehistoric world that it took my attention away from the story. Having said that, after a break and coming into it knowing about the vowel situation, I really enjoyed reading this the second time.

There’s a fair amount of humour I missed the first time around and this time I really focused on the awesome job Brice Cossu has done with the illustrations. The expressions in both present and past add to the humour of the text and the details in the landscape, plants and animals are wonderful.

The vowel situation will be off putting for some readers, although it’s only for a portion of the book. If you can get past this, you’ll find a series that has a lot of potential. Besides the humour and time travel, there’s action and fight scenes, along with the mysteries of where Frank’s parents are (if they’re still alive) and whether Frank will go home in the end. I suspect he may find home in prehistoric times but I haven’t read past the first comic so that’s only my gut feeling.

What this comic proves to me is that if you’re not entirely sure what you think of a story it’s completely fine to cleanse your reading palate with other books before you attempt a reread. Had I reviewed this book straight after I read it for the first time you’d be reading a very different review. I’m definitely interested in getting my hands on the rest of this series.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Europe Comics for the opportunity to read this comic.

P.S. That first sentence? If you didn’t get it, it reads “This comic book became quite hard to read in some sections!”, but I’m sure you already knew that! 😜

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

When a 13-year-old orphan sets out to find his parents and ends up in prehistoric times, he realises he’s got a lot of work to do: so many things haven’t been invented yet, like fire, soap … and vowels! Not to mention all the terrifying creatures and knuckledragging cavemen he has to deal with!

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I’m Not Your Sweet Babboo! – Charles M. Schulz

I grew up with the Peanuts gang. I read the comics and knew all of the TV specials by heart. I loved It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and watched A Charlie Brown Christmas every year. I have a Peanuts book with black and white comics that I read to death as a kid. While its pages are yellow with age, they’re thankfully all intact. I know I’ll never part with it.

One of the first stuffed toys I ever received was Snoopy and I have photos of me sitting holding it before I was a year old. I still have that Snoopy, although he kind of doesn’t have a nose anymore. It wasn’t me! 😇 Oh, who am I kidding? I’m sure it was me. It’s not like I have any siblings to blame. I even completed a cross stitch as an adult of Lucy sitting at her psychiatry booth, which is as cute and funny as it sounds.

So, that was a long winded way of saying that it basically feels like the Peanuts gang grew up down the road from me, so reading I’m Not Your Sweet Babboo! felt like I was catching up with my childhood friends. I knew a lot of the stories already so they felt like the gang and I were reminiscing about the good ol’ days. I was also excited to find some comic strips I’d never encountered before (I guess I wasn’t home those days and they had adventures without me).

”If life were a camera, I’d have the lens cap on.”

Charlie Brown

Charles M. Schulz created such a wonderful cast of characters. There are just so many smiles in this book. Peppermint Patty is excited that she doesn’t have to go to school anymore because she’s just graduated. Snoopy is her attorney when the public school wants evidence of her graduation. She has graduated – from dog obedience training. Peppermint Patty and Marcie learn how competitive golf can be when they become caddies at the Country Club. Marcie calls Peppermint Patty ‘sir’ all of the time, as usual.

Snoopy and Woodstock have some talks with ‘World War II’, the mean cat next door, who doesn’t talk so much as bowl Snoopy over every chance it gets. Snoopy also meets the beagle of his dreams, plans his wedding and invites his brother Spike to be his best man.

Charlie Brown waits by the mailbox for Valentines, chats to the kite-eating tree and learns why you can’t trust 3’s. Sally welcomes the new school building.

Schroeder plays the piano and Lucy fawns over him, and naturally, Linus and his blanket hang out. I would have liked Franklin and Pig-Pen to show up but I’m sure they’ll make appearances in other collections.

“No, ma’am, I wasn’t daydreaming … I was conceptualising!”

Peppermint Patty

I adored this book, particularly the comic strips that were new to me. Having mostly read black and white Peanuts comics I loved that this collection was in colour. Because these kids were a significant part of my childhood, nostalgia will always play a huge role in how I look at any of the characters but from my point of view Mr Schulz’s characters have stood the test of time.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for this wonderful trip down memory lane.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Pick up a glass of milk, curl up with your security blanket, and enjoy the timeless brilliance of Peanuts in this new collection of comic strips!

Everyone’s favorite classic characters are back: Peppermint Patty enrolls in a private school to end her academic troubles – only to discover she’s just graduated from obedience school. Linus finds himself entangled in a love triangle (and stuck on top of a snow-covered roof). And Charlie Brown runs away from the law and becomes a vagrant baseball coach.

The Peanuts crew is lovable, popular, and charming, but please whatever you do, don’t call Linus “My Sweet Babboo!”

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On the Front Line with the Women Who Fight Back – Stacey Dooley

I’ve followed Stacey’s career from fashion loving teen travelling to India through to the professional journalist she is today, watching and rewatching every documentary each time they’ve aired on television. When I first heard she was releasing a book I was so keen to get my hands on it ASAP. I read the blurb and immediately thought of DVD Special Features. I imagined Stacey’s book as a combination of Deleted Scenes and Director’s Commentary, but it was so much more.

What I love about Stacey’s work with social issues women face around the world is that she gives you information about emotionally loaded topics in a thoughtful and respectful way. You don’t just get to hear her opinion; you learn about people whose lives that issue directly effects as a victim, their family and friends, along with any officials in the area or perpetrators that are willing to be interviewed.

Stacey and her team focus on some locations and issues that I was vaguely familiar with and others that sadly I had practically no knowledge of. In this book Stacey delves into issues relating to prison, immigration, drugs, child abuse, femicide, high-end to low-end prostitution, trans prostitution, abortion, child sexualisation, murder, war and survival. Your heart will be broken and warmed by the womens’ stories. For women who have had to survive such horrendous circumstances in their past and oftentimes present as well, their courage and resilience are extraordinary and inspirational. It’s up to you as the reader to form your own opinions about what’s presented to you and whether that will change your mind or not, but you cannot walk away uninformed. I hope you also walk away with your empathy enlarged.

Whenever someone starts talking politics my brain goes into standby mode so I was really surprised that Stacey could explain political issues to me, including what Obama stood for versus Trump, and I not only heard her but I understood what she was saying. Don’t get me wrong; I’ll never understand American politics. However Stacey explained policies and the way people are affected by them in such a down to earth way that I knew what she was talking about and if she’d done nothing else in this book, she’d deserve a medal for that alone!

Having seen most of the documentaries that Stacey refers to in On the Front Line with the Women Who Fight Back I could picture the people and scenes she was referring to, as well as hearing her voice in my head as I read. I was enjoying reliving some of my favourite documentaries with additional information and insights, yet wondered how well this book would translate to readers who have been living under a TV-less rock and hadn’t seen any Stacey documentaries.

Then I came across a chapter featuring [Shock! Horror!] a documentary I had never seen before! In hindsight I’m pleased about that because not only do I have a documentary to watch in the very near future 😃 but it also gave me another perspective on this book. I found it didn’t matter that I didn’t have previous knowledge of this documentary. The writing sucked me in and in a way I felt like I was watching along as Stacey described what was happening. I understood the need for a documentary on that topic to be made in the first place, the experiences of the people interviewed, information about the political atmosphere at the time in that country and Stacey’s own view.

While watching the documentary prior to reading each chapter is certainly not a prerequisite it is nice to be able to put faces to names. If, like me, you find gaps in your documentary viewing experience I expect that you’ll come away with a viewing list to complement what you’ve read. While there are currently some of Stacey’s documentaries available for viewing on the BBC website I would love to see (if it doesn’t already exist) all of the documentaries mentioned in this book available for viewing at a central location.

I found I liked the same things about Stacey’s approach in her writing that I do when I watch her on television. She’s so down to earth. There’s at once a sweetness and strength to her manner. She knows what she believes but isn’t close minded when she hears opposing opinions; she’ll weigh them against her own to determine if what someone else thinks changes her mind or strengthens her own views. Whether she agrees or disagrees with someone she treats them with respect. She asks the questions you want the answers to but aren’t sure if anyone will have the guts to ask.

She gets to the heart of the issue and the people she’s interviewing. You can tell she has a genuine fondness for the girls she encounters and her friendliness appears to open people up to having real conversations with her about difficult and painful things. Scared or not, she gets on with it. As a viewer and now a reader there’s just something innately likeable and relatable about this woman and when you watch her documentaries it’s easy to think, ‘Yeah, I reckon Stacey and I could be mates if we ever met’.

While you may see the problems presented in this book and feel overwhelmed by their enormity, ultimately this book is a call to action. You are left to consider the power that you have to make a difference. To borrow some of Stacey’s words, what she’s doing in this book and her documentaries is raising awareness and presenting “what’s going on in the world so that people can make up their own minds about how best to fight back.”

Thank you so much to NetGalley, BBC Books and Penguin Random House UK, Ebury Publishing for the opportunity to read this book. I’m left feeling inspired!

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Put yourself in their shoes.

In 2007, Stacey Dooley was a twenty-something working in fashion retail. She was selected to take part in the BBC series Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts which saw her live and work alongside Indian factory workers making clothes for the UK High Street. This sparked her series of hugely popular investigations, establishing her as one of BBC3’s most celebrated presenters.

Through the course of her documentary making, Stacey has covered a variety of topics, from sex trafficking in Cambodia, to Yazidi women fighting back in Syria. At the core of her reporting are incredible women in extraordinary and scarily ordinary circumstances – from sex workers in Russia, to victims of domestic violence in Honduras.

In her first book, On the Front Line with the Women Who Fight Back, Stacey draws on her encounters with these brave and wonderful women, using their experiences as a vehicle to explore issues at the centre of female experience. From gender equality and domestic violence, to sex trafficking and sexual identity, Stacey weaves these global strands together in an exploration of what it is to be women in the world today.

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