Title: Skellig
Author: David Almond
Genre:  children’s
Published: UK, 1998
Pages: 170

My first encounter with Skellig was at secondary school - but not while I was a student there.
I was a teaching assistant on my Career Development Module, in my old secondary school, helping out in an English classroom and the book that the class happened to be ( Read more... )

Title: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
Author: Roald Dahl
Genre:  children’s, fantasy
Published: UK, 1973
Pages: 240 (large print edition)

Directly after finishing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I moved on to its sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. For years I didn’t even know there was a sequel! After picking this up at the ( Read more... )

Title: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Author: Roald Dahl
Genre:  children’s, fantasy
Published: US, 1964. UK 1967
Pages: 237 (large print edition)

Amazingly, I have never, until now, read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
( I know. Shocking, isn't it? )

Title: The Story of Tracy Beaker
Author: Jacqueline Wilson
Genre:  children’s
Published: UK, 1991
Pages: 158

This was another one of those books where everyone seems to have read it, but me.  I missed the Jacqueline Wilson phase growing up. I knew people who had read every book. I do believe a teacher began reading The Suitcase Kid to us in ( Read more... )

Title: Carmilla
Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Genre:  Gothic / Novella
Published: UK, 1872
Pages: 103

This novella was said to be the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) and it is certainly one of the best vampire stories I have read.  That said, I have not read Dracula yet, so its standing in my ‘League of Vampire Stories’ may change ( Read more... )

Title: Chart Throb
Author: Ben Elton
Genre:  Satire/Comedy
Published: UK, 2006
Pages: 464

This book is essential reading for everyone in the world who has ever watched and enjoyed a reality television ‘talent’ show.

( Seriously. )

Title: The Little Prince
Original Title: Le Petit Prince
Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Genre: Children's / Fantasy
First Published: France, 1943. Great Britain, 1945
Translator: Katherine Woods
Pages: 89

The Little Prince is a book I had heard of but never read. It was one of those titles mentioned whenever children's books were brought up in ( Read more... )