The Switch Up by Katy Cannon

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 320 

Publisher: Stripes Publishing 

Released: 13th of June 2019 

WILLA

Drama queen

Fashion guru

Spontaneous

Looks like Alice

ALICE

Bookworm

Allergic to fashion

Planner

Looks like Willa

LAX Departure Lounge. Two girls board the same flight to London as complete strangers. When the plane touches down, it’s the beginning of the craziest plan ever. Can Willa and Alice really swap lives for the summer?

Things are going to get complicated...

The first in a fun new series, this summer read is The Parent Trap meets Freaky Friday and is perfect for fans of GEEK GIRL and SUPER AWKWARD. 

What I Have to Say 

This might be a new favourite series! I loved the girls so much, how different Alice and Willa were but also the way that became friends so quickly. They have nothing in common except a 

very similar appearance and the fact that they're so desperate to get away from their current plans for the summer, but by switching summers and keeping in contact in order to keep up the ruse, they become proper friends. 

I loved the way it changed the girls too. It pushed them both out of their comfort zones and made them do things differently to the way they have always done. With Alice it's an obvious change. To pretend to be Willa she has to be more outgoing and has to dress completely differently. For Willa, she has to contain her enthusiasm more and think about the people around her more. It was so interesting to see how this effects their personalities as they change and grow over the course of the book. 

Learning it's a sequel is interesting. I don't know where they have to go now, but I'm sure Cannon will come up with more adventures for them. I just hope they involve more hijinks and pretending to be one another! 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Stripes for providing me with this free copy for review. 

Pog by Pádraig Kenny

Synopsis (from Goodreads and Chicken House) 

Pages: 288

Publisher: Chicken House Books 

Released: 4th of April 2019 

David and Penny arrive in a strange new home in a forest. Other creatures live here – magical creatures – like Pog. He’s one of the First Folk, tasked with protecting the boundary between the worlds. But David is drawn into the forest, lured by a darker entity, who tells him there’s a way he can bring his dead mother back …

What I Have to Say 

Pog was a really well written tale, full of deep themes of grief and loss. I enjoyed it a lot, but not as much as Tin, though I felt this a really fun story. I think Pog is a great character who will appeal a lot to the kids reading this book. He's very quite with an interesting way of talking, but he's also got so many other attributes. He's a fierce protector who quickly grows to care for the family living in the house. He also has his own emotions and history which complement the grief felt by the family a lot. 

David and Penny were also great characters. You could really feel love between the family and between the kids and Pog by the end. You could feel the loss of their mother and how much it was driving them into their own forms of grief. 

I really love Kenny's way of bringing such deep personal issues into a magical adventure story and how he brings everything back to the theme without it seeming like he's pushing the issue. 

It's a very authentic story filled with adventure and emotion. 

My thanks go to Chicken House for providing me with this free copy for review. 

The Nearest Far Away Place by Hayley Long

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 320

Publisher: Hot Key Books 

Released: 13th of July 2017 

Griff and Dylan are driving into Manhattan with their parents when the worst happens. There is a terrible car accident and Dylan and Griff¹s parents are killed.

The boys are suddenly orphans with nowhere to go, until a kind aunt and uncle give them a new home in Wales. Now Dylan and Griff have everything they need ­ love, a happy home and a future. But Dylan is worried about Griff: whether he is OK, whether he is coping with his grief. He doesn¹t seem to want to speak about it or really acknowledge the loss of their parents.

But Dylan needs to be even braver than Griff, because there is something very important he needs to face up to before he can move on.

What I Have to Say 

I liked this book a lot better than Sophie Someone. It was easy to read but still with a lot of playfulness surrounding the text. I liked the way that the text got smaller and larger depending on whether someone was talking quietly or loudly. There were other fun uses of format too. It made it really enjoyable to read. Different from a lot of other books around. 

Dylan was an interesting character. I liked the older brother trying to look after the younger one, relationship, though for a while I thought that he should be doing more to help. It soon made sense why he wasn't though. 

The background characters were brilliant as well. I loved Blessing and all the various pets with their different personalities. There were a lot of pets in this book. 

It was sad, but it was an easy to read book with lots of fun elements to detract from the grief of it all. I think this is a great way to deal with grief. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Hot Key Books for providing me with this copy for review.