Another good Blog!

Visit this blog for some good book revies and great book recommendations.

myfavouritebooks

Our Next Meeting

Our next meeting will be held on Friday 6th January at 4pm

We will be reading 'Hush, hush' by Beccca Fitzpatrick

Another good blog...

The Book Zone

check out this blog

Book Review - Spirit Walker

The Reading Groups Books last read was Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver.  Unfortunately not many of the girls managed to get into it although Jack did enjoy it.  Ironically Amy didn't start it but did read the book that follows on from it Spirit Walker.

This is what Amy has to say about Spirit Walker:

Spirit Walker is the second book in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series.  It is about a boy called Torak who is living with the Raven Clan but was originally Wolf Clan.  A very good read!

Book Review - Skulduggery Plesant

A Review by Jack Judge

I give this book five stars out of five.  It's excellent because it is mysterious and scary. 

There are six books in the series to read and I recommend them all.

Our Next Meeting

Our next meeting will be held on Friday the 2nd December at 4pm.

We will be reading 'The Forbidden Games' By L.J. Smith

Book Review - The Hunger Games

A Review by Lizzie Hill

I give this book five stars our of five. It was a little slow to start but if you stick with it it gets full of action!  It's an amazing book that you need to read.

The film comes out in March and I can't wait - but read the book before the film!!

Wolf Brother - Current Read

Hopefully all the Reading Group now have their noses deep in our current read for this month:

Becky in particular is loving the character Wolf and thought you might be interested to read how the author Michelle got into the mind set of a wolf.

 Read more about her interaction with wolves here

Blog Tour

In August Mark Walden went on a blog tour to promote his new book - Aftershock. To check out his tour and learn more about one of our favourite authors check out this link -

Blog Tour

Book Review

Death Bringer: Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

Reviewed by Julia Newton

"I give this book 5 out of 5.  It is a really good book, gripping from the first page  You just can't put it down!"

Our Next Meeting

Our next reading group will be held on the 4th November at 4pm.

We will be reading - The Spiderwick Chronicles: The field Guide by Holly Black

Introducing the Fectious Fiction Group

The readers of the Fectious Fiction Book Group thought it was about time they introduced themselves.  Below you can read a little bit about each of them:

"I'm Lizzie and I've been going to book club since it started four years ago when it was still called Reading Rescuers.  My favourite colour is black and I like heavy metal and rock music.  I've always loved reading, since I have been able to read.  I'm weird and loud!"

"Hi, I'm Amy.  I joined book club 4 years ago when it first started.  I go St Anne's and I am 12, almost 13!  My favourite colours are purple and light blue and black.  I like to read books about magic, mystery and action."

"Hi! I',m Julia and I joined the book club because I thought it was a good chance to meet new people and READ more!  I love cream soda and me and my best friend Chloe once drank a litre each!"

"Hi, my name is Chloe!  I love the reading club because, I LOVE READING! and cream soda; once I drank a whole litre with my BFFL Julia!"

"My name is Phoebe and the reason that I am at the library book club is........I LIKE READING!   I also love football, art, and maths."

"My name is Izzy I joined a book club because I only read Harry Potter before!  I love Harry Potter!"

"My name is Jack and I come to Fectious Fiction because I like reading and I want to keep up with the latest books."

Chatterbooks

Chatterbooks is a national network of reading groups for children, coordinated by The Reading Agency.

Have a look at there blog - chatterbooks blog

SOOOOOOOOOO EXCITING!!!

If you are a crazed fan of the hunger games series then you will be eagerly anticipating the release of the film in 2012. Well we now have a release date for the film!!! March 2012. If that still seems ages away and your impatience is taking over here is a sneak peak to keep you going till then.

Check out this site to see the actors and actresses they have cast for the film. What do you think of them? Who would have you liked to play Katniss, Peeta and Gale?

Competition

Want to win tickets to the celebrity screening of "The Hunger Games?"

Click on this link to enter - the hunger games competition

Blog Tour

In August Mark Walden embarked on a blog tour to promote his new book - Aftershock.

Visit THE BOOK ZONE blog to read an interview with Mark Walden.

Interview with Mark Walden



Author Signing

Darren Shan is visiting Waterstone's in Southampton on Monday 3rd October at 5pm Click here for more details. He will be promoting his book Palace of the damned. So, if you like horror books and enjoy a good scare this is one book and event you don't want to miss!

                                                       Find out about Darren on his website



Our next Meeting

Our next reading group meeting will be on Friday the 7th October at 4pm. As everyone was busy in the holidays there wasn't a book that we will be discussing at the next meeting but I've got some fun things lined up for us to do.

                                            The book we will be reading for October is -

What a great Blog!

Mark Walden's Blog

Mark is one of our groups favourite authors with his fast spaced adventure stories about a global league of villains. Check out his blog and see what news he has...

                                                                     Mark Walden's Blog

Percy Jackson Games

Here are some fun online games you can play to do with the series of book by Rick Riordan. - Fun Percy Jackson games

Cool picture

Want a cool picture for your desktop? here is a great picture of Stephanie Edgley.

Skulduggery News!

Skulduggery Pleasant: Death Bringer
The sixth book in the Skulduggery series is due for release on the 1st September!

 

The sixth instalment in the historic, hysterical and horrific Skulduggery Pleasant series. Think you’ve seen anything yet? You haven’t. Because the Death Bringer is about to rise…

The Necromancers no longer need Valkyrie to be their Death Bringer, and that’s a Good Thing.

There’s just one catch. There’s a reason the Necromancers don’t need her any more. And that’s because they’ve found their Death Bringer already, the person who will dissolve the doors between life and death.

And that’s a very, very Bad Thing…

If you can't wait till then to read the book here is a sample for your enjoyement....Skulduggery sample

Pre-Order

Our Next Group

Our next reading group meeting will be on Friday the 5th August at 4pm.

For August we will be reading -

The Sisterhood of the traveling Pants by Ann Brashares

Book Review

How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell

                                                        How to train your dragon website


In the beginning, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was the most put upon Viking you'd ever seen. Not loud enough to make himself heard at dinner with his father, Stoick the Vast; not hard enough to beat his chief rival, Snotlout, at Bashyball, the number one school sport and CERTAINLY not stupid enough to go into a cave full of dragons to find a pet...

This is a great book for boys around the age of 8-10 years.  The characters are really great, especially Toothless the dragon. This is a really good adventure book that will hold your attention from beginning to end and make you laugh throughout!

5 out of 5 stars!

Book Review

The Shapeshifter Series:

These books are about a boy called Dax Jones who can turn into an animal. He gets found by a man called Owen Hind who works for the Government and Dax is taken from his horrible life with his step-mother, to the beauty of Cornwall and the COLA club (Children Of Limitless Ability). As Dax gets further into his life with his new freinds, he faces much danger and many trials. Dax, his best freind Gideon (a telekanetic), and his friends Mia (a healer) and Lisa (a pshychic, a dowser and she gets messages from the dead!) are thrown into a world of adventure as the government comes down hard. There is always the threat of the government hiding the children away somewhere "safe". If you LOVE adventure books; this is really a series of books you should think about reading!

Our difinitive list!

Top 10 of 2010

Visit the Fectious Fiction Website our full top ten list.

What type of reader are you?

Find out what type of reader you are, take the quiz and see how you rank....

Reading Quiz

Book Review

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

Meet Skulduggery Pleasant. Sure, he may lose his head now and again (in fact, he won his current skull in a poker match), but he is much more than he appears to be—which is good, considering that he is, basically, a skeleton. Skulduggery may be long dead, but he is also a mage who dodged the grave so that he could save the world from an ancient evil. But to defeat it, he'll need the help of a new partner: a not so innocent twelve-year-old girl named Stephanie. That's right, they're the heroes.

Stephanie and Skulduggery are quickly caught up in a battle to stop evil forces from acquiring her recently deceased uncle's most prized possession—the Sceptre of the Ancients. The Ancients were the good guys, an extinct race of uber-magicians from the early days of the earth, and the scepter is their most dangerous weapon, one capable of killing anyone and destroying anything. Back in the day, they used it to banish the bad guys, the evil Faceless Ones. Unfortunately, in the way of bad guys everywhere, the Faceless Ones are staging a comeback and no one besides our two heroes believes in the Faceless Ones, or even that the Sceptre is real.

So Stephanie and Skulduggery set off to find the Sceptre, fend off the minions of the bad guys, beat down vampires and the undead, prove the existence of the Ancients and the Faceless Ones, all while trading snappy, snippy banter worthy of the best screwball comedies.

Visit Skulduggery's website

The kids in my book group LOVE this series of books and couldn't get enough of them. Skulduggery Pleasant is packed full of adventure, horror and comedy and takes your mind on a rollercoater of a ride! You will love all the characters especially Skullduggery and Stephanie. These books really will appeal to everyone one as they include magic, fantasy, horror, crime, mystery and humour. The books are so good that Warner Bros have the rights to the film, and they are in the process of turning the books into a script.

5 out of 5 stars!

Book Review

The Medusa Project by Sophie McKenzie

Just finished the Medusa project: the set-up. I thought it was an enjoyable story that would appeal to young teens. The characters are likable and kids the same age will relate to them easy. Nico is the main character in the book and narrator of the story. We follow Nico on his journey as he discovers his power and learns how to harness and use it. Overall I found the story line to be predictable and although it was entertaining I wasn't gripped by the obvious plot and thought is was a forgettable read. Some people might think I am being harsh in my critic and they may be right as I am older the the books target audience. However, I read allot of junior fiction and comparing to other books for teens I feel this story played it safe the whole way through in every way. This was the first book in the Medusa series but I wont be rushing out to get the next title.

I give this book 2 1/2 stars.

Book Review

Hunger Games- Catching Fire

Catching fire is the second book in the Hunger Games Series. After surviving the games Katniss and Peeta return home to a whole new way of life. Unknown to them though their antics in the arena have started a wave of rebellions across the districts, and although they are no longer being hunted to death for sport they are in even more danger then ever before.

After finishing the first book of the series I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book! Suzanne Collins done a great job of portraying the confusion and emotion of returning home after such a life altering ordeal and it was interesting to see how there lives changed but still not being any better for it. This story was just as packed full of tension, heart stopping and nail biting moments as the first book. What I loved about this book was it went into the history of the districts more and you started to get more details about each individual district and the people within them. I really enjoy the way Suzanne Collins portrays the wealthy people of the Capitol and shows up their self indulgent shallow world, I think there are some definite parallels to modern society!

This story is a MUST read with so many twists and turn you will be left exhausted! Definitely a book that will appeal to both adults and teenagers.

I give it 5 out of 5 stars!

Book Review

The Hunger Games - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.

After waiting impatiently for the last month for my copy of The Mockingjay to finally arrive at the library (Yes I could have brought it from the book store, but that would be going against all principles of supporting my local library!) I finally got it and found myself doing a little crazy dance and letting out an ecstatic cheer. That was on Friday, and for the next few days I was consumed by my book, neglecting everyone and everything while I was immersed in the world of Panem. I can't say a bad word about this book and although it wasn't the ending I expected this wasn't a bad thing, actually it was quite refreshing that the book didn't have a predictable end and that it kept the plot twists going right into the last chapters never allowing you to guess what was going to happen next.
In this book you are introduced to the lost district, 13. Here the true rebellion and war against the Capitol begins. What I loved about the way Suzanne Collins has written her books is there is nothing cliche or stereotypical about her villains and heroes. Here is district 13 you are left questioning if these people are truly the goods guys, or if there are any good guys in world at all? Also, that dislike and hate you hold against the people of the Capitol melts slightly into pity as you start to see how naive and affected by the Capitol they are. Again like the last two books this story didn't disappoint and kept your heart racing and your mind guessing.
Having finished the series now I'm a little sad, but hey they say you should always leave your audience wanting more, and I defiantly want more of these books!

5 OUT OF 5 STARS!

Top 10 of 2010

So it is the new year which means... lots of new books! But before I get ahead of myself how about we take the opportunity to look back at last years best best fiction for 11- 16 years.

What was your favourite book of the last year? Perhaps you tried a new Author and know can't get enough of their books? Who do you think was the freshest and most brilliant emerging writer of the past year?

In our reading group for January we looked at what our favourite books of 2010 were. Here are a few of the titles that we agreed upon that ranked high in our favour...

• Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
• Twilight: Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer
• H.I.V.E by Mark Walden
• Cherub: The Recruit by Robert Muchamore
• Shapeshifters: Finding the Fox by Ali Sparkes

It would be great if you want to post a comment on what fiction had you firmly fixed to the page and locked into the thickening plot. Just post a comment letting us know your fave reads and I will collate them all and put your choices into a neatly ranked table.