L.H. Johnson's Blog, page 7

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, artwork by Emily Carroll

Speak: The Graphic Novel by Laurie Halse Anderson My rating: 5 of 5 stars I found this remarkable and have been taking some time to quite figure out how to review it and what to say about it. I am unfamiliar with Laurie Halse Anderson’s original text so was coming to this fresh. I hadContinue reading "Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, artwork by Emily Carroll"

Donut Feed The Squirrels by Mika Song

Donut Feed the Squirrels by Mika Song My rating: 5 of 5 stars (Please note that I was offered a copy of this to review from my publisher. This hasn’t impacted my feelings about the book nor the content of this review). This is infinitely, infinitely, infinitely charming stuff. I loved every inch of it.Continue reading "Donut Feed The Squirrels by Mika Song"

Manga Shakespeare Romeo And Juliet

Manga Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet by Richard Appignanesi, artwork by Sonia Leong My rating: 4 of 5 stars Adapting Shakespeare and then adapting Romeo and Juliet is not the easiest of tasks to set yourself. Not only do you have to wrestle with an incredibly familiar text that everybody knows (and even if they don’t,Continue reading "Manga Shakespeare Romeo And Juliet"

Normal People by Sally Rooney

Normal People by Sally Rooney My rating: 4 of 5 stars I read this, my first Sally Rooney over Christmas and the New Year. I was quite determinedly ill at the time, hurtling from one virus to another and then another in that breathless, desperate way that people can do when there’s nothing on theContinue reading "Normal People by Sally Rooney"

Linda In Lucerne by Winifred Donald

Linda in Lucerne by Winifred Donald My rating: 5 of 5 stars I thoroughly enjoyed every inch of Linda In Lucerne though I must caution you that it is not, perhaps, the highest of literature nor is it perhaps the most believable. It is not the best writing I have ever come across nor isContinue reading "Linda In Lucerne by Winifred Donald"

H Is For Hawk by Helen Macdonald

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald My rating: 5 of 5 stars And so, the end of the year and the start of a new one. Christmas and then the bit beyond. A time when the world gets a little bit thin and unsure of itself. December slides from all purpose and helter-skelter intentContinue reading "H Is For Hawk by Helen Macdonald"

The Answers to the Fourth Quite Niche Children’s Literature Quiz

Answers! Answers! Get your answers! Who’s that Chalet School Girl? Name that Head (some of them have more than one…) Am I a character from an EJO book or am I a vegetable? Five by Five Bonus round! Name five ….

The Fourth Ever Quite Niche Children’s Literature Quiz

Deck the halls with boughs of holly and clear out your bookshelves: it’s time for the Fourth Ever Quite Niche Children’s Literature Quiz! If you’re new to this, then let me explain: it is a terribly specific quiz on very niche aspects of children’s literature. I share the questions with you on Christmas Eve andContinue reading "The Fourth Ever Quite Niche Children’s Literature Quiz"

The Nicest Girl In The School by Angela Brazil

The Nicest Girl in the School by Angela Brazil My rating: 4 of 5 stars It’s unsurprising that certain themes reoccur in Brazil’s work. She was immensely prolific and an author who, for the most, stuck to a particular age group and genre. She knew what she could do and she did it very well.Continue reading "The Nicest Girl In The School by Angela Brazil"

The Madcap of the School by Christine Chaundler

The Madcap of the School by Christine Chaundler My rating: 5 of 5 stars There was a point in reading this where I thought about how disappointed the average schoolgirl in the 1930s or 1940s might have been when her school didn’t burn down, nobody fell down a pit and needed rescuing, the school’s honourContinue reading "The Madcap of the School by Christine Chaundler"