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Reason for Reading: I have had a lifelong fascination with the Titanic and am participating in a Titanic Reading Challenge as the 100th anniversary of the sinking is remembered this year.

This book is a reprint this year of a previously published "novelty 3D pop-up book". The gadgets have been removed and we are presented here with the text and illustrations of the original book. Unlike the majority of children's non-fiction books these days, the book is not divided up into 2-page spreads but rather reads straight through as one continuous narrative without chapter breaks. However, the text is divided into subheadings which consist of blocks of text anywhere from one to several paragraphs long. The font is quite large, the pages are colourful, and often white has been used to show up on a black background. The illustrations are a combination of actual contemporary photographs, illustrations and diagrams. The diagrams are a particular feature of this book that makes it different from others of the same ilk. Rather than just explaining something with words, the very many diagrams throughout really help one to visual what is being talked about. I enjoyed this aspect of the book particularly.

The book is also quite heavy on the before story of the Titanic, explaining just why the Titanic and it's sister ships (Olympic & Gigantic, later renamed) were built, when, and how they were. It talks of the social atmosphere at the time, the reasons for sailing in these grandiose ships, the mindset of the people and the ship designers. All this information is not usually gone into such detail in a children's book before the actually sailing begins. We are even presented with a list of food items and linens brought aboard! Once the boat sets sail the book takes on a narrative tone and nicely tells the story of the voyage in quite some detail taking right up to page 22 out of 31before getting to the iceberg hit. What then follows is an easy to understand account of what probably happened minute by minute, then hour by hour and then the book finally ends briefly with the inquiry and Ballard's finding of the ship.

An enjoyable little book for a quick dip into the fatal voyage but more for those wanting the facts about the ship, its building, how it worked, was supposed to work, and the whys and wherefores of how it sank as opposed to those looking for something more personal. The book is probably a lot more fun in its novelty presentation, however this one is only a fraction of the price of the one with all the bells & whistles.

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Reason for Reading: I enjoy this publisher.

Basic easy reader with detailed information for the minimal text that is provided. Wonderful quality realistic illustrations are delightful and add understanding to the factual text. A simple graphic interface with four frames per two page spread, narrative text between frames, but since this book's topic is highly scientific there are not many people speaking, therefore very few speech bubbles within the book at all. The detail in this book does go quite in depth, much more so than one would expect for such a short book at this reading level. I've found this to be true of all the non-fiction titles I've read in the "First Graphics" series. The reading level is at the higher end of the given spread (K-3) and this would also be perfect for little ones who are reading ahead of age level.

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Reason for Reading: I enjoy this publisher.

Basic easy reader with detailed information for the minimal text that is provided. Wonderful quality realistic illustrations are delightful and add understanding to the factual text. A simple graphic interface with four frames per two page spread, narrative text between frames, but since this book's topic is highly scientific there are not many people speaking, therefore very few speech bubbles within the book at all. The detail in this book does go quite in depth, much more so than one would expect for such a short book at this reading level. I've found this to be true of all the non-fiction titles I've read in the "First Graphics" series. The reading level is at the higher end of the given spread (K-3) and this would also be perfect for little ones who are reading ahead of age level.

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Reason for Reading: I received this book unsolicited and don't have young children any more but have read this Canadian author before and personally enjoy a good picture book.

This is a bedtime story, showing the nighttime frolics of two cats while their respective child owners sleep. It is also a variant on the city vs country lifestyles as one lives in the city and one in the country. The paintings by Tanaka are beautiful, realistic and yet full of a dreamtime quality. The cat's eyes have a sleepy, sly look to them. Important to the story are the endpages which I didn't fully realize until the middle of the book. The front endpages show us the setting of the story (though we don't realize it yet) in the moonlight and the back endpages show us the same scene as sun is dawning. As we watch each cat frolic and play it is the centre page which brings it all together as the endpage scene is repeated and we see one cat on top of the bridge and the other under the bridge. They live close to each other! One in the town, the other in the nearby farm country. A great delight as one slowly awakens to this realization. Godwin's text is sparse and written for the very young. Word choices are short and descriptive. Sentences follow none/verb and noun/verb/object structure mostly. What this amounts to is a deceptively simply, yet delightful picture book that will capture the heart of any cat lover.

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Reason for Reading: The author has become one of my favourite Canadian juvenile authors.

This book is a companion to 2010's Stolen Child. Each book tells the fate of two Ukrainian sisters as they are separated in the middle of WWII. The books need not be read in any particular order. Making Bombs for Hitler details what happens to the eldest sister, Lida. The first couple of pages describe her parting from the younger sister, which is told in much more detail in Stolen Child. Lida is then sent to a Nazi slave labour camp where many Ukrainians were herded and sent to for the duration of the war. Since the Ukraine, at the time was part of Russian territory, the Nazi's labeled all Ukraines as Russians and thus as enemies at this time in the war. The Ukrainians (Russians) were the lowest of the low in prison camps and treated the worst of the worst.

Skrypuch tells a compelling story that pulls no punches. While keeping the book tame enough for the intended audience she manages to still tell of the horrors that went on in these camps. The starvation, enforced labour under extremely dangerous conditions, the beatings and rough treatment and the "experiments" that went on at the hospital. It is a brutal story of reality, yet as mentioned age appropriate, though not recommended for especially sensitive children. Marsha is an author who writes as if she actually knew her characters and they become real as life to the reader. This is a haunting story of how the Nazi's treated prisoner enemy children, and especially of the plight of the Ukrainians as an ethnic group during WWII as they were a people without a home, being divided between two enemies, the Nazis and the Soviets. Excellent book, highly recommended, especially in conjunction with its companion, Stolen Child.

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Reason for Reading: I love fairytales/folklore and this one appealed to me first because Langton is a favourite author and I didn't know she had done a picture book and secondly, I was attracted to both the unique setting and subject, Latvia and a hedgehog boy.

This is a picture book that is written with full pages of text and opposing page illustrations, with occasional half-pages of text & illustration. Since it is so textual, it may not hold the attention of a toddler and the publisher's recommended age is 5-8 which seems appropriate to me.

This tale has some common folklore elements such as an elderly couple being gifted a infant in their old age, the child ends up being unusual, here the boy has the skin and hair of a hedgehog. The child is good-mannered, helpful to his parents and well-loved. Then one day he meets a princess, saves her from a small but life-threatening accident and then convinces to marry her. Upon marrying him, her disgust turns to love and he turns into a real man.

Not so common traits are that the Hedgehog boy works to get what he wants, putting the king through a bad situation until he must agree to let him marry the princess thus Hedgehog gets what he wants. The tables are turned around on him when the princess pulls the same trick on him by burning his hedgehog suit, thus getting the man she wants. I'd say the moral of the story was "What goes around, comes around."

Ms. Plume's illustrations are realistic and very connected with the Latvian art style both in colour choices and in incorporating borders and designs into her illustrations. Overall, an interesting fairytale which was new to me.

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Reason for Reading: The book is this year's (2012) Newbery Medal winner and I always read each new winner as I'm working my way through the entire list. I had never read this author before.

Having never read Jack Gantos before, honestly I've never looked past the titles of the others, I didn't know what to expect from this award winning novel. I was very pleasantly pleased. While set in Pennsylvania (in the existing town of Norvelt) the book is written with a typical Southern flare including a cast of eccentric characters. The book is suitable for those tween years (10-14) and made for a very engaging read. Since the boy in the book is named Jack Gantos and the author bio on the back cover tells us Jack actually grew up in a town called Norvelt we can probably surmise that this tale contains some biographical elements of the author's own childhood.

A coming of age story, this book focuses on the summer a boy turns twelve, he has been grounded for a serious mishap for the entire summer. The motley cast of characters include his neighbour to whom his mother hires him out to help write the obituary's for the town's original settlers, Mrs. Volker is crippled with arthritis of the hands and has lived an exciting life which she shares with Jackie both through conversation and the obits. There is crazy old man Spizz, who is like the town's by-line enforcer and he rides around town on a giant adult tricycle. Jack's best friend, Bunny, a girl his age who is half his size and is meaner and tougher than almost any guy around is ticked off that Jack can't play at all this summer. With being grounded to his room, Jack spends a great deal of his time reading, having an old set of Landmark History books, he quickly reads through those and imparts what he's read and thought cool back to the reader. This really endeared him to me as I went through a period in my life in which I read all those books too.

Another thing about Jack, which some readers may find odd, but also endeared me to him right away is that he has numerous nosebleeds. His seem to come on whenever he gets uptight, nervous or scared. Then his nose blows a gaskets and bleeds everywhere. Medically the capillaries are too close to the surface in his nose and need to be cauterized but his poor family has to save up, very slowly, for this. I too had constant nose bleeds as a child and right up into my mid-twenties, for the exact same reason! Mine were brought on by climate changes. Hot/sunny one day, chilly/damp the next and I was sure to have a nose bleed. They occurred where ever I was: on the bus, in the movies, walking down the street, etc. I was told about the operation but my bleeds just gradually stopped when I moved to a much higher altitude and they've never returned even though I've returned to the low altitude.

This was my type of book, along with the quirky characters, add in a running theme of death, wry humour, a possible murder going on, strange events going on in his Dad's workshop, and you have an exciting, never dull story of a boy coming of age, of a town trying not to die, a family that loves one another and a place where neighbours still care for each other. A good read. I'm enticed to at least take look at Ganto's other books, now.

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Reason for Reading: I am fond of these beginning readers.

This series of readers is for beginning readers. This one is at a RL of 1.0. The first couple of pages show how to read a graphic novel showing the direction the panels are read and then showing the direction text and balloons should by read. A book that is graphically well-designed for optimum reading experience and a story which is both interesting and applicable to young children's lives. Harpster's illustrations are bold and realistic.

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Reason for Reading: I've read Joe Cooper's "The Case of the Cottingley Fairies" and have since been fascinated with this story and with Doyle's involvement. This book for juveniles sounded like it would present the story from the girls' point of view and I was eager to read it.

This is a wonderful little biography, complete with all the "fairy" photographs and others of Frances and Elsie at the time, which tells the story of how the cousins came to be together in England at Cottingly, Yorkshire. When they first saw fairies and how the pictures came to be and how ultimately their worldwide sensation came around. The story focuses mostly on the girls themselves and the story of how they came across the fairies and decided to take pictures to "prove" themselves, is incredibly interesting and takes up a good portion of the book. We get a real feel for the girls and their innocence, even though they created one of the biggest hoaxes of the early twentieth century that fooled such eminent figures as Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle.

One gets a sense for a lonely Frances, moved from bustling South Africa to dreary England to wait while her father volunteers to fight in the Great War. Did she really see fairies and gnomes or was it just the daydreams of a lonely little girl? One also senses Elsie's otherwise mundane life as a young school-leaver, working in a factory, trying to protect her young cousin and coming up with what at first seems an innocent ploy to stop the grown-ups pestering them. Little did they know the world they lived in was chock full of spiritualism and the existence of fairies and other little people were on the minds of many such spiritualists of the day. Once their pictures are seen outside the family, a flood of interest descends upon them which they cannot stop. The two girls, turn into women and their frolic with fairies will forever haunt them.

I'd love to read Frances' autobiography in which she does continue to affirm that she did see some fairies in the beck behind her cousin's house but it is unfortunately not in print at this time. The story is very compelling to me though, that I've decided to go a step further and have purchased the Kindle edition of Doyle's 1922 study entitled "The Coming of the Fairies".

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Reason for Reading: Next in the series.

Wow! I hardly know what to say about the 9th Harry Hole book. It is dark, gritty and goes to depths of unbelievable character with the main character in this series. The story is action-packed, full of twists, and shocker upon shocker, one of which will leave you numb; it is so unexpected and incredible. This book is equal parts personal story and the actual mystery case. They are so intertwined that it's impossible to separate the two. DO NOT read this book, if you have not read any other Harry Hole books. These books are recommended to be read in order as Harry develops as a character and his life is part of a continuing story that runs through the books. That said I haven't read two of the earlier books, or the two not yet released in English, The Bat is coming in Oct 2012 to the UK (which means Canada, too!) but my recommendation is that at least "The Snowman" onwards must be read in order or you'll miss a great connection between the storylines.

This book is just absolutely fantastic. At just over 450 pgs, I had the book read in 2 days because I just could not put the thing down. If you are a Harry Hole fan, get yourself caught up with the series and READ THIS BOOK! Tremendous! Very dark throughout with a dark ending but this is what Harry Hole fans expect.

Looking at Nesbo's website, he doesn't have any new titles in the works at the moment but fortunately, I have a few back titles left still to read and he has a few other books that have not been translated into English yet either including a short children's novel, a non-fiction title, and a short story collection (yes!). Can we have these too please, Mr & Mrs Publishers?!