Nixie: Wonky Winter Wonderland by Cas Lester and Ali Pye

Book review: "Bumblebees' Bottoms!" Nixie is back.

I read "Nixie the Bad, Bad Fairy", the first in this series with my 9-year-old daughter. She likes it because it is a little bit like the Rainbow Magic Fairy books but is different because it features a mischievous fairy as the main character, Nixie. This is the second book in the series.

Nixie is the Fairy who'd rather have snowball battles and sleigh rides than go about her chores ahead of the Midwinter Midnight Feast. And her playing normally ends up with her rival Adorabella, the Goody-goody Fairy getting "smothered in freezing cold snow", rather by accident of course. This story seems a little episodic with a number of separate stories weaved together with the Midwinter Midnight Feast being the main focus of the book (and a little clock at the beginning of each chapter indicating the time in the day that the chapter is taking place in). 

The book is aimed at 5+ year-olds and all the trouble Nixie causes is innocent enough. The chapters are short and there are a few black and white illustrations along the way. Some of the text is bolded too to and put into different fonts to make it even more exciting. The words used are not as dumbed down as the Rainbow Magic books which is as it should be. And interestingly the extract at the back for the next Nixie book is for "Splashy Summer Swim" so it seems Nixie is on a bit of a seasonal journey in these two books.

This is a decent enough book for early readers.

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Publication date: 5 Nov 2015

Star on Stormy Mountain (Puppy Academy) by Gill Lewis

Book review: "Star on Stormy Mountain" is the story of a young collie pup called Star who goes to the Sausage Dreams Puppy Academy where she is training to be a sheepdog. Her mum was a star sheepdog before so there are huge expectations on her, which, together with her over-excitable nature leads to problems. Perhaps she wasn't cut out to be a sheepdog after all?

This is an early reader book suitable for readers around the ages of 6-8 moving on from picture books to a slightly longer read. It had lots of quality black-and-white illustrations throughout, little funny pics, like for example a picture of two sheep wearing glasses sitting on hay bales knitting.

My nearly-9-year-old thought it was really good.

Published: 1 October 2015

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Olga da Polga by Michael Bond

Book review: Olga da Polga is a 13-chapter book about a guinea-pig called Olga. The chapters tell the tale of life from a guinea-pig's point of view, from moving to a new home from the pet shop, to meeting the family pets and neighbourhood animals when there, to winning a rosette at a show, to getting lost from her hutch and so on. 

But the best bits are where she holds the other animals in awe as they gather around and listen to her tall tales. whether that be her souping up of her rather mundane adventures, or her telling the stories of the history of the guinea-pig. Plus this being a book by Michael Bond, author of Paddington Bear, there is mention of Peru where Paddington also hailed from.

This edition is a gift edition and as such is rather lavish. Along the way are watercolour and spray painted images of Olga and the other animals. Also it comes with a hard-cover and a dust-jacket with shiny writing on. So it certainly looks the part.

Overall a well-produced book a much loved author.

This edition published: 1 Oct 2015

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Articles of Faith by Russell Brand

Book review: “Articles of Faith” is a book by Russell Brand about football. Don’t be getting it though if you want a companion to his Booky Wook books or his DVD shows unless you like football.

Basically the book is a “collection of columns” that Brand wrote for the Guardian newspaper during the 2007-08 season. There is a smidgeon of added value with some extras that you wouldn’t have originally got with your newspaper, these mainly being the cover “in which I am inadvisedly posing as Christ”, and three interviews with famous football fans – a humorous discussion of the football songs “Three Lions” and “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” with David Baddiel, a rushed interview with James Corden about West Ham, and a chat about Manchester City becoming the richest club in the world with Noel Gallagher.

The “rattishly indulged” articles “focus chiefly on Brand’s reaction to the phenomena of football culture” rather than focusing on the football itself, and are done in the Russell Brand style with plenty of poetic and fruity language, lots of analogies, e.g. “like a knicker thief suddenly made manager of a laundrette”, and many a “wacky, sideways” view, e.g. “I enjoyed his scissor-kick somersault celebration although I’d be the first to condemn him if he did it in a refuge for battered women.”

The presentation is lavish with colour illustrations relating to the text throughout, such as one of “former Blades boss Neil Warnock poised in a circle of stone, stinking of chicken’s blood, spewing white-eyed incantations and clutching a buckled dolly of West Ham player Julien Faubert”, but never actual photos of any of the football or footballers, the only photos being promo shots of Brand, pencil in hand (for example).

As for the football this was the season when Steve McClaren’s England “smashed to bits” the “beautiful distraction of Euro 2008”, and where “poor unlovable Avram’s” Chelsea and Manchester United contested the Champions League final. As there is no context presented between articles a basic knowledge of what went on in the football world at this time, as well as the characters, is advisable.

Overall then what you have here is a funny, episodic read about the 2007-08 English football season, with a slight West Ham bias (Brand being a West Ham supporter). His last words are “Football does not make sense” so ultimately this book probably doesn’t make sense, but I thought it was a good read anyway.

Published: 15 Oct 2008

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