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Review of Merlin's Apprentice

gonnabe — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:08:06 +0000

Merlin's Apprentice - Tanya Landman

Illustrated by Thomas Taylor

Published by Walker Books in 2006

On her birthday Katrina Picket is shocked to discover her life is in danger!

Thankfully Merlin comes to her aide but can she learn the secrets of her craft in time to protect herself and battle the most evil sorceress of all time?

Another humorous tale from Tanya Landman, who brings these fantastic characters of mythical history to life again in the sequel to Waking Merlin.

A Novel for fluent readers / approximately 8-12 years

Star Rating ***

Guardian longlist 2008

bookwitch — Sun, 25 May 2008 10:27:27 +0000

Luckily Daughter insisted we buy the Guardian yesterday as we boarded our plane, which means I can now let you know the longlist for the Guardian children's fiction prize, rather than having to concentrate on Daughter's artistic rearranging of sickbag into flower, while bored on the flight. I think it may have been her way of sorting out Mother's Day, which is only my second one this year.

Anthony McGowan, The Knife That Killed Me

Frank Cottrell Boyce, Cosmic

Jenny Downham, Before I Die

Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

Rhiannon Lassiter, Bad Blood

Siobhan Dowd, Bog Child

Tanya Landman, The Goldsmith's Daughter

Good list, but unfortunately one where I have yet again failed to read enough of the books to know what's what. I'll go home and catch up as best I can. It's definitely a list of knives and death, which when you think about it is not very "child friendly". As for my famous predictions, I can only see one outcome, and that's for Bog Child to win. The shortlist will feature books 3, 4, 6 and 7.

2008 Carnegie shortlist

bookwitch — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:22:51 +0000

Here, briefly, is the shortlist for the Carnegie, announced today. It looks very respectable, but I'll have to start reading quickly. One of them has been lying around in the piles for ages, so this will have to be the spur.

KEVIN CROSSLEY-HOLLAND: GATTY’S TALE Orion (Age range: 10+)

LINZI GLASS: RUBY RED Penguin (Age range: 12+)

ELIZABETH LAIRD: CRUSADE Macmillan (Age range: 10+)

TANYA LANDMAN: APACHE Walker (Age range: 12+)

PHILIP REEVE: HERE LIES ARTHUR Scholastic (Age range: 12+)

MEG ROSOFF: WHAT I WAS Penguin (Age range: 12+)

JENNY VALENTINE: FINDING VIOLET PARK HarperCollins (Age range: 12+)

What do people think?