Friday 29 January 2016

Mr. Baboomski and the Wonder Goat by Richard Joyce and Freya Hartas



Book review: Schoolboy Tom Watkins is forced to move to “somewhere in the depths of Cornwall,” Trefuggle Bay to be precise, famed for the scubbly (a type of fish) found in its bay.

So Tom doesn't like his new school, St. Scubbly's, and he has no friends until he finds a goat, which he then promptly kills – “it was lying at my feet, eyes staring, tongue lolling out, legs sticking up like flag poles" – accidental of course. This is when he meets the goat’s owner Mr. Baboomski, “a crazy looking nutcake with a bonkers moustache”, originally from Escorvia where he was in charge of a circus but now in England.

The goat turns out not to be dead and the three of them go on an adventure bringing to justice a pair of crooks in the town.

The book is full of comedy. Whether that be bad goat puns, wordplay with Mr. Baboomski’s bad English – “My circus days is all in my behind now” – or blues lyrics from “dad’s favourite singer” Throaty Malone.

Mr. Baboomski’s deliberately bad English occasionally makes the book a little harder to read, but in the end you’ll get used to it and probably be speaking like him, saying “is” instead of “am” and “are” for example. And you might even learn some new words – patoof, crazlepops, patonkleberries, skaboonky!

There are some black and white drawings along the way too to add to the text, plus the odd recipe inserted too.

This is a funny book ideal for confident readers or to be read to those younger.

Publication date: 7 Jan 2016

Tuesday 19 January 2016

Electrigirl by Jo Cotterill and Cathy Brett


Book review: I got this book for my 9-year-old daughter (the book is aimed at 9+ but the material is suitable to read to younger children). I read the first couple of chapters to her and stopped for the day to read some more the next day. She obviously liked the story and wanted more so took the book off me and read the rest of it all in one sitting (probably takes 2-hours or so). She was really absorbed in it and even exclaimed audibly "Whoah!" at one point. What this means is she loved the book and as a consequence the book deserves a five-star rating.

I read it too. The main character is Holly Sparkes, a normal schoolgirl, who is approaching her 12th birthday. She is the narrator and sounds as you'd expect a smart girl of that age to sound like. But she gains magical electrical powers when she gets electrified. Her comic-loving younger brother loves her new superpowers and immediately installs himself as her mentor.

Meanwhile Holly's best friend disappears (the Whoah moment for my daughter) and Electrigirl, aka Holly, goes on a mission to find her, coming up against her "evil nemesis" Professor MacAvity along the way.

A proper adventure for girls (although boys would probably think it is cool too). It is part comic too with the dramatic scenes being drawn out comic-style. What better way to read about Holly getting hit by "weird green lightning" than by seeing it in comic form. This works well. And the characters are mainly female too - this book has some true girl power!


Publication date: 4 Feb 2016

Friday 8 January 2016

Non-League Supporters' Guide & Yearbook 2016 by John Robinson



Book review: I use this book as a quick reference guide for info on the 68 National League clubs. These are the most interesting pages in the book. The other pages contain fixtures for the season, and the results for the previous season including all FA Vase and FA Trophy results.

There are some good things about this book:
  • It is lightweight so can be carried around easily if you are travelling to the stadiums for matches.
  • It was interesting to look at the pictures of the stadiums of the National League clubs and see how small some looked and how big others looked.
  • The back cover lists the other books Soccer Books publish and some of those look interesting.

But I had some disappointments too:
  • Only National League clubs are profiled, so not all non-league clubs are covered, although the small-print on the cover does hint at this.
  • For some teams the record attendance statistic only shows a figure with a date, yet no opponent, e.g. Nuneaton Town: 3,111 (2nd May 2009). I'd like to know the opponent and for some teams this info is given, which is inconsistent.
  • The record attendance given for Nuneaton Town above is wrong, it is actually 3,480 v Luton Town on Feb 22nd 2014. This is easily found out online so I am surprised that this hasn't been updated, especially considering this book has annual updates.
  • Other inconsistencies I found in the book include the founded date given for clubs. For Nuneaton Town their founded date is given as "1937 (Reformed 2008)" but this overlooks the fact that the 1937 club was itself reformed from an earlier Nuneaton formed in 1889. And if you include reformed dates why are AFC Telford United given a founded date as 2004 when they are a reformed club too?

Back cover
So you can see I found data inconsistencies and inaccuracies without even having to delve too deeply. Hopefully the other info in the book is correct, especially the travelling info, otherwise fans might end up in the wrong place, just like my mate and I when he set his Sat Nav to take us to MK Dons and we ended up at the National Hockey stadium although they had moved to stadium:MK by then. We were late for that match.

Other things I would have liked - colour pics instead of black and white ones and full stadium pics (maybe aerial, or panoramic) rather than just of one stand like most of these are. As it is the contents in this book can be found on the internet, with the internet contained more information, which is probably more accurate and more up-to-date too (e.g. for re-arranged fixtures). So use the internet is my advice.

Publication date: 5 August 2015