50 Great Reads - 48 and counting down

Baby Wombat's Week by Jackie French, illustrated by Bruce Whatley

This book follows on from Diary of a Wombat also from the talented duo listed above. Mothball has had a baby and like any new baby he is proving to be a bit of a handful. In a similar format to Diary of a Wombat, we follow baby through his week as he discovers the garden and then a human baby and they both go of to have adventures together. The text is very simple and the joy of these books lies in the illustrations by Bruce Whatley. I have long been a fan of his work which includes Looking for Crabs, The Ugliest Dog in the World and Clinton Gregory's Secret. I always feel the adults can get as much enjoyment if not more from these books, especially spending time looking at the illustrations and the looks on Mother's face as she copes with her offspring.
Mothball is back this year for Christmas, with Christmas Wombat and if you have wondered who eats the carrots you leave out for Santa's reindeer, maybe check for a wombat hole in the garden!
There are now 47 titles left in the 50 great reads list and I am hoping someone else is out there working on their reviews, otherwise I am for a lot of reading between now and December.

Get Reading 2011

This year's Get Reading Campaign is underway and there is a great range of titles to read, so here is the challenge. From now until the end of December 2011, lets see how many of the titles listed in the reading guide, we can 'collectively' read. When you have read one of the books, post your review here on the blog and I will do updates as we tick of the titles on the list. I am offering an incentive - a small surprise of a 'smiggly' nature to anyone who posts a review on the blog.
To kick start the reviews, and I have to admit I did read these prior to the Get Reading Campaign starting here are my reviews of 'When God was a Rabbit' by Sarah Winman and 'Mr Badger and the Big Surprise' by Leigh Hobbs

When God was a Rabbit is the first novel by author Sarah Winman and this is delightful read about a sister and her brother, their parents and friends. I really enjoyed this book and it has some interesting twists and turns. There are some wonderful characters who wander into the family's life and the rabbit's is really named God. The novel is set in modern times, including the the bombing of the twin towers, which I wasn't sure really worked but this was not enough to put me off the book. My favourite opening to a chapter in the book was 'I'll have two gin and tonics and a water for the fish', how could not read a book with a line like that!

Mr Badger and the Big Surprise introduces a new series by Leigh Hobbs, creator of the 'Old Tom' books and 'Mr Chicken goes to Paris'. Mr Badger is the special events manager of Boubles Grand Hotel in London. Mr Badger is actually a badger, not something you expect to see as special events manager in a grand London hotel but he does his job with a dedication to duty which makes you want to go and stay at Boubles Grand Hotel. These books are light easy read chapter book, excellent as a bedtime story. I have read all four books in the series and look forward to further adventures with Mr Badger at Boubles.

So, two down and only 48 to go - Get Reading!

Benediction - Edward Abbey

Please find Benediction by Edward Abbey, he reads it in a deep bass profundo Orson Welles voice. It makes me laugh - hope it appeals to you. Reading his book 'The Monkeywrench Gang' at the moment:

"Benedicto: May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets' towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you­beyond the next turning of the canyon walls."