2024-04-22 16:54
The Kingdom by the Sea by Paul Theroux My rating: 4 of 5 stars I finished this and I thought: isn’t it weird that the more things change, the more things stay the same. There are parts… Read More
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Daisy May Johnson Blog
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Daisy May Johnson is an author of children's books. Her blog is all about children's book reviews, writing, and everything in between.
2024-04-21 13:06
A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll My rating: 5 of 5 stars A Kind of Spark centres on neurodivergent Addie and her campaign for a historical memorial in her hometown. The memorial is for the w… Read More
2024-04-12 09:08
Tom Swift and His Megascope Space Prober by Victor Appleton II My rating: 5 of 5 stars The tall, dark-haired reviewer sat down to write her review on the book and considered how to begin. It… Read More
2024-03-29 12:14
Mother Tells You How: Essential Life Skills for Modern Young Women by Unknown My rating: 4 of 5 stars I love these comics very much and devour them whenever I come across them. They’re… Read More
2024-03-27 13:57
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus My rating: 3 of 5 stars It’s an interesting one this because I did like it and I did enjoy it but also I found some strange stickiness about certa… Read More
2024-03-24 15:34
The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’m very fond of what E. Nesbit does because she does it very well. She has a deep understanding of the messy, vibrant rhythm… Read More
2024-03-14 10:35
Excitements at the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer My rating: 4 of 5 stars I am slowly working my way through the last few Chalet School books I’m yet to review and picked up Exc… Read More
2024-03-01 17:12
Max Kowalski Didn’t Mean It by Susie Day My rating: 5 of 5 stars A while ago, I had a very particular need to read some Susie Day. I have adored her work for a long time and I think th… Read More
2024-02-11 15:26
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… Read More
2024-02-04 12:21
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 boo… Read More
2024-02-03 13:11
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… Read More
2024-01-31 17:26
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… Read More
2024-01-14 15:31
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 n… Read More
2024-01-01 18:21
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 th… Read More
2023-12-31 09:00
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… Read More
2023-12-24 09:00
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… Read More
2023-11-25 12:36
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 wh… Read More
2023-11-24 09:44
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… Read More
2023-10-29 16:44
Earlier this week I managed to watch Enid (2009). It’s a film which has been on my radar for a while because it tells the story of Enid Blyton and, if you’ve been reading this bl… Read More
2023-10-20 16:13
Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson My rating: 5 of 5 stars When the sky is blue and the air is sharp, the world calls for Moominland Midwinter. I read it outside until the light began to f… Read More
2023-10-19 15:29
Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have just tried to start this review several times but I’ve never been quite able to figure it out. So let’… Read More
2023-10-06 21:58
The Brumby by Mary Elwyn Patchett My rating: 4 of 5 stars When I began this, I had two problems. The first was that I kept confusing it with The Silver Brumby, a series I adore with a fierce… Read More
2023-10-02 13:08
An Introduction to Children’s Literature by Peter Hunt My rating: 4 of 5 stars I recently picked up a fair few of the older children’s literature theory books, the ones that I&rs&hell…Read More
2023-08-22 21:52
Spare by Prince Harry My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’ve been struggling to figure out how to review this but then, I think, that’s what reviews are for. Working out how you think abou… Read More
2023-08-17 17:36
Point of Departure: Experiment in Biography by James Cameron My rating: 4 of 5 stars There was a table in the bookshop, right at the back of the room, with several piles of books on it. The… Read More
2023-08-14 09:19
Pollyanna / Pollyanna Grows Up by Eleanor H. Porter My rating: 4 of 5 stars I have been aware of Pollyanna for a long while, mainly because “Pollyanna” has been used as a kind of… Read More
2023-08-06 14:46
The Wrath of the Woolington Wyrm by Karen Foxlee My rating: 5 of 5 stars (A few preliminary notes. It’s important for me to tell you that I share a publisher with Foxlee and received t… Read More
2023-07-16 08:00
Children Who Stayed Behind by Bruce Carter My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’m always interested in those moments when you pick up a book without knowing anything about it at all. For me, The… Read More
2023-07-09 16:14
Snow Spider Trilogy by Jenny Nimmo My rating: 5 of 5 stars I think what is really interesting in books is where they start to get away from you. I know that makes no sense so let’s wor… Read More
2023-06-28 14:51
Jummy at the River School by Sabine Adeyinka My rating: 4 of 5 stars I have had Jummy At The River School on my radar for a while; it’s the first of a series of school stories detailin… Read More
2023-06-12 22:00
The Viking Saga: Viking’s Dawn / The Road to Miklagard / Viking’s Sunset by Henry Treece My rating: 4 of 5 stars I wasn’t surprised to discover that this trilogy was first… Read More
2023-06-03 17:45
Biggles Defends The Desert by W.E. Johns My rating: 3 of 5 stars Biggles Defends The Desert is the story of a shindig in the desert. We go attack them, they attack us, people are trapped, pe… Read More
2023-05-16 08:45
[A brief content warning prior to this book. I am always in favour of content warnings because I am always in favour of making deliberate, conscious decisions about the books you read and en… Read More
2023-05-05 09:04
Happy Fat: Taking Up Space in a World That Wants to Shrink You by Sofie Hagen My rating: 4 of 5 stars Being fat is a process of daily reclamation of your body from a world that wants to clai… Read More
2023-04-26 15:02
Educated by Tara Westover My rating: 5 of 5 stars Genuinely remarkable and reading smooth as silk, there’s nothing about this book that doesn’t take your breath away. I have had… Read More
2023-04-23 11:20
Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce My rating: 4 of 5 stars When I mentioned that I was reading this online, I got nothing but positive responses. And they were not wrong: Dear Mrs Bird is charmin… Read More
2023-04-13 09:51
Worrals Carries On by W.E. Johns My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have been thinking a lot about the idea of “outlandishness” in literature, that is to say the notion of people doing th… Read More
2023-04-10 11:12
The King Who Had To Go: Edward VIII, Mrs Simpson and the Hidden Politics of the Abdication Crisis by Adrian Phillips My rating: 4 of 5 stars I really found this fascinating but it is a book… Read More
2023-03-31 12:25
Cogheart by Peter Bunzl My rating: 4 of 5 stars Cogheart is a punky, sparky adventure with hints of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and I enjoyed it very much. Lily and her friends have to fi… Read More
2023-03-24 14:43
Game On, Super Rabbit Boy! by Thomas Flintham My rating: 4 of 5 stars I really enjoyed this. It’s the first of a series of highly illustrated early readers which centre on the playing… Read More
2023-03-20 15:33
Jill and the Perfect Pony by Ruby Ferguson My rating: 4 of 5 stars The Jill series is responsible for many things in my childhood, not in the least the solid belief that ponies should just s… Read More
2023-03-10 15:07
My Life on Fire by Cath Howe My rating: 4 of 5 stars I am always interested in what Nosy Crow do and even more so when it involves an author that I have a lot of time for. My Life On Fire by… Read More
2023-02-27 12:18
Small Fires: An Epic in the Kitchen by Rebecca May Johnson My rating: 4 of 5 stars I wasn’t sure for a while about Small Fires but then, all of a sudden, I realised that I got it. I wa… Read More
2023-02-17 18:15
Never Forget You by Jamila Gavin My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have always had a lot of time for Jamila Gavin. Her writing is always very classy stuff and I admire it intently. She has this skil… Read More
2023-02-01 17:56
The Complete Borrowers by Mary Norton My rating: 5 of 5 stars I had been wanting to reread the Borrowers for a while and then, all of a sudden, started to find it in every bookshop I went in… Read More
2023-01-28 12:06
Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald My rating: 2 of 5 stars Sometimes it’s interesting to come in at the end. This is the first book I’ve read by Fitzgerald and the last n… Read More
2023-01-23 18:54
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry My rating: 3 of 5 stars I was thinking about how to review this and indeed, if reviewing was even going to be a productive act fo… Read More
2023-01-16 10:05
A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond My rating: 5 of 5 stars It’s difficult to write any review of this gentle and elegant classic without simply repeating the word “perfect… Read More
2022-12-31 09:00
How did you do? Lions, tigers and bears, oh my! People Doing Things A little bit of everything Read More
2022-12-29 13:35
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann My rating: 4 of 5 stars I first came to this story through the film of the same name which was something I watched… Read More
2022-12-28 09:01
One of the things I like about Goodreads is that, at the end of the year, you get a fairly nifty round up of your reading. Admittedly you do have to remember to put the ‘read date&rsqu&hell…Read More
2022-12-24 09:00
Hello! It’s that time of year again where I get to enter my final form as a bookish Pokemon and set you all a Quite Niche Christmas Quiz. If you are going “wait, what?” the… Read More
2022-12-17 17:50
Eventing Trilogy by Caroline Akrill My rating: 5 of 5 stars I think that when you were a pony girl, there will always be a little part of you that will remain a pony girl. She’ll make… Read More
2022-11-28 11:02
Hotel Splendide by Ludwig Bemelmans My rating: 4 of 5 stars Perhaps best known for the eternally joyful Madeline, Hotel Splendide allows Ludwig Bemelmans to showcase another side of his pers… Read More
2022-11-22 15:36
Putin’s Russia: The Rise of a Dictator by Darryl Cunningham My rating: 4 of 5 stars My goodness, this is a heck of a book. I finished it and had to make a mixture of ‘wait, what… Read More
2022-10-30 13:35
I have a list of the books I want to reread and one of the constants on it for the last few months has been a reread of the Hunger Games books by Suzanne Collins. If you don’t know of… Read More
2022-10-23 13:05
I got some very special post this week, namely my author copies of the US edition of How To Be True. I wanted to share it with you because pretty books are always a good thing to share, righ… Read More
2022-10-14 20:55
The Complete Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne My rating: 5 of 5 stars I had a sort of sudden realisation the other day (driven, might I add, by the discovery of an excellent boxed set in the ch… Read More
2022-10-02 11:10
Felicity’s Fortune by Bessie Marchant My rating: 3 of 5 stars A very late stage Bessie Marchant novel, Felicity’s Fortune is also a rather interesting thing. It begins with Felic… Read More
2022-09-30 10:00
Further Adventures of the Family from One End Street by Eve Garnett My rating: 5 of 5 stars There was a moment, about a quarter of the way through reading, that I realised something very pre… Read More
2022-09-22 11:00
Today’s post is an interview with Sarah Todd Taylor and Jo Clarke and I am super excited to share it with you! When I was thinking about it, my idea was basically ‘Paris Middle G… Read More
2022-09-20 10:10
The Guardians of the House by Lucy M. Boston My rating: 4 of 5 stars After many years of not understanding her work, I am increasingly obsessed with Lucy M. Boston. I found The Sea Egg a rem… Read More
2022-09-11 10:36
Managing Expectations: A Memoir in Essays by Minnie Driver My rating: 4 of 5 stars A “memoir in essays” is an interesting thing because it’s always going to be more selecti… Read More
2022-08-29 09:17
A Small Person Far Away by Judith Kerr My rating: 4 of 5 stars A Small Person Far Away is the third of Kerr’s thinly veiled autobiographies. It begins with When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbi… Read More
2022-08-24 15:55
Always, Clementine by Carlie Sorosiak My rating: 5 of 5 stars When I finished reading Always, Clementine for the first time, all I could think of was if I was nominating a book for the Carne… Read More
2022-08-20 15:56
Cherry Tree Perch by Josephine Elder My rating: 4 of 5 stars Cherry Tree Perch is the second in a series and sometimes it feels it: you are launched into the premise with very little preambl… Read More
2022-08-15 16:27
The Family From One End Street by Eve Garnett My rating: 4 of 5 stars There are times, I think, when the world sends you the right book for the right moment. We’ve all dealt with piles… Read More
2022-08-12 08:54
Kristy’s Great Idea by Raina Telgemeier My rating: 5 of 5 stars I recently found the first five of the graphic novel Baby-Sitters Club books in a local charity shop and reader, I screa… Read More
2022-07-27 11:00
The Sea Egg by Lucy M. Boston My rating: 5 of 5 stars I hadn’t ever heard of The Sea Egg until a few days ago; I knew of Lucy M. Boston, of course, and although I rather loved the stra… Read More
2022-07-26 09:32
Hello! I have one of those ‘news in brief’ posts to share with you today so let’s get down to it. 😊 How To Be True is the Sunday Times Children’s Book of the… Read More
2022-07-18 17:40
Carbonel: The King of the Cats by Barbara Sleigh My rating: 4 of 5 stars When it is a hot day, we turn to the shadows and we read the books. I had prepared for this day with a visit to the l… Read More
2022-07-07 08:32
My new book is out! How To Be True is the story of Edie Berger and how she became the brilliant little revolutionary that she is today. You’ll discover all about her family and her his… Read More
2022-07-05 13:43
Writes of Passage: Words to read before you turn 13 by Nicolette Jones My rating: 5 of 5 stars I was pleasantly surprised by this collection because, if I’m honest, I expected somethin… Read More
2022-06-22 13:35
The Chalet School and the Lintons by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer My rating: 4 of 5 stars The first thing to say about The Chalet School and the Lintons is that it’s a much better hardback tha… Read More
2022-06-18 13:01
The Chalet School and Rosalie & The Mystery at the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer My rating: 3 of 5 stars Two books in one which can be basically summed up as “girls: mean&r&hell…Read More
2022-06-16 20:29
The New House at the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer My rating: 5 of 5 stars Today was a day for New House. The weather was thick and hot and dense; that still, heavy air that is just… Read More
2022-06-13 16:56
The Girls by Emma Cline My rating: 3 of 5 stars I had tried to read The Girls before and it hadn’t quite worked out. I had been put off by the first few chapters because they were tigh… Read More
2022-05-31 11:00
It’s vintage book acquisition o’clock! I recently picked up a couple of annuals from a local charity shop and was pleased to find them rather interesting things. Annuals aren&rsq&hell…Read More
2022-05-26 11:00
I am so happy to be able to share this guest post with you today from the lovely Rebecca Mills. As you may know, I have a great love for the early Chalet School characters and so this was ri… Read More
2022-05-12 16:12
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh My rating: 4 of 5 stars Sometimes I think thar you can get to books too soon. I first read Brideshead Revisited when I was at school, somewhere around my… Read More
2022-05-11 10:00
The Secret Garden on 81st Street: A Modern Retelling of the Secret Garden by Ivy Noelle Weir My rating: 5 of 5 stars It’s difficult to tell you how much I loved this book without just… Read More
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