The Distance Between Me and the Cherry Tree by Paola Peretti

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Pages: 256

Publisher: Hot Key Books 

Released: 9th of August 2018 

Mafalda is a nine-year-old girl who knows one thing: some time in the next six months her sight will fail completely. Can Mafalda find a way through a seemingly dark future and still go to school, play football and look after her beloved cat? With the help of her family, and her friends, Mafalda needs to discover the things that will be important to her when her sight has failed. 

What I Have to Say 

This is a beautiful heart-wrenching story about a girl slowly losing her sight. The way that Mafalda thought about things, her bond with the stories she read and her friendship with the people around her made up for a beautiful unique voice of a young girl. 

The story progresses through Mafalda's life as she slowly loses her eyesight, showing her life in the last six months before her world goes dark. It shows her parents trying to cope with it, moving house, getting everything sorted so that they can provide for her. The friendships she has at school, the long standing one with a janitor who tells her stories of amazon warriors, and new ones beginning to form. There are so many threads to this story that weave together through a young girl's perspective to show a snapshot in her life in such a beautiful way. 

Woven through it all this this beautiful character who loves stories and her cat. She's passionate, brave but most of all scared. And it was that fear and how she coped with it, her transition from a sighted world to one without was such an amazing story to read. 

A perfect book for someone who wants something short, beautiful and truly moving. 

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

Boy Underwater by Adam Baron

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 256

Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books 

Released: 1st of June 2018 

Cymbeline (yes, really!) has never been swimming – not ever, not once – so he’s a bit nervous at the prospect of his first school swimming lesson ever. But how hard could it be? He’s Googled front crawl and he’s found his dad’s old pair of trunks. He’s totally ready for this.

But he’s not ready for an accident at the pool to reveal a family mystery that turns his life completely upside down. Only Cym and his friends can solve it because, as usual, the grown-ups aren’t telling them anything.

For the answers you really need, sometimes you have to go deep..

What I Have to Say 

This was so much better than it sounded from the blurb. I'd been hearing a lot of how great it was, so I thought it was worth a read and I'm so, so happy that I went for it because despite the stupid name and the ridiculous attempted to try and learn how to swim from the internet (I mean seriously, he just seemed to be way too dumb for his age). But they had a really super smart girl to contrast him, showing how kids can be smart and maybe it's just that there's a range of different intelligence. 

The mystery part was amazing. With his mother disappearing, his dad out of the picture and this mysterious connection to swimming and water that no one will ever talk about. Add in Cym and his friends and it makes a nice crack team of child investigators ready to solve this mystery. 

The conclusion was brilliant. I loved how it all came together and how dramatic it was. A fantastic mystery with great characters for any fan of children's books. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Harper Collins  for providing me with this copy for review. 

Lily and the Christmas Wish by Keris Stainton

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 160 

Publisher: Piccadilly Press
Released: 5th of November 2015

When a town's Christmas wishes get mixed-up, can one little girl and her dog put them right? 

The little town of Pinewood can't wait for Christmas this year. They're going to celebrate by putting up a giant Christmas tree in the town square, and asking all the townspeople to hang a Christmas wish on its branches. Everyone is feeling very festive, including nine-year-old Lily - although she's not sure she believes in wishes. Then a very strange storm blows in, scattering all the wishes...and Lily wakes up the next morning to a bit of a surprise. Bug, her adorable pug puppy, can talk! It's magic - and a wish come true! But it's not Lily's wish...

Lily and her little brother James soon discover that something must have happened during the storm - the town's wishes have been granted, but to all the wrong people! Lily, James and Bug must work out which wish belongs to who, and sort everything out before Christmas Eve - otherwise no one will get what they want for Christmas. 

What I Have to Say 

This was such a cute story and was a really good read for the holiday season. It may be a little late for the Christmas season, but it'll still be great to curl up and read in front of the fire, especially if we get snow. 

Set against the backdrop of a struggling marriage, Lily and her family see a wide range of quirky wishes, from "I wish my dog could talk" to "I wish I didn't have to go to school". It's fun to see what kinds of wishes people have made and who they belong to, as Lily, her brother and her dog reunite the owners with their wishes. 

This book was a little young for me, but I think that's part of the reason I enjoyed it so much. It's nice to kick back and read a story about a girl and her talking dog, full of Christmas spirit. It still covers serious issues, but it does that in a more positive light than in a lot of older books. It was a very relaxing read. 

Even though Christmas is over, I still strongly recommend it for a cosy winter mood. 

The Bear by Claire Cameron

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

Synopsis (from official press release + Goodreads)

Pages: 280

Publisher: Vintage (Random House)  

Released: 6th of November 2014

Mummy never yells. Mostly not ever. Except sometimes.

Anna is five. Her little brother, Stick, is almost three. They are camping with their parents in Algonquin Park, in three thousand square miles of wilderness. It's the perfect family trip. But then Anna awakes in the night to the sound of something moving in the shadows. Her father is terrified. Her mother is screaming. Then, silence.

Alone in the woods, it is Anna who has to look after Stick, battling hunger and the elements to stay alive. Narrated by Anna, this is white-knuckle storytelling that captures the fear, wonder and bewilderment of our worst nightmares – and the power of one girl’s enduring love for her family.

What I Have to Say 

This book read like it was trying far to hard to be My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece. What the author was trying to do was fair enough, but I don't think it worked. I'm not convinced that a five-year-old wouldn't know what pins and needles felt like. I'm sure she would have experienced that before and her mother would have told her what it was. But no. Apparently not. 

Also, it was really, really annoying when she went off on a tangent, more accurate for a five year old, but not so much fun for the reader who is having to read through a story that's already been told a few times. Maybe five is too young to be a 1st person narrator. It would at least have to be better written than this to work. 

The only good thing I can really say about this book was the way it portrayed Anna's trauma. It's only in the final bit of the book, but it really shows how trauma, especially in one so young can be hidden beyond the knowledge of the person and only show in outside signs. 

I don't really recommend this book, but if you are interested in trauma in children then it might be interesting in that respect.