I am on holiday – woohoo!
So for the next week I’ll be unable to blog and you’ll have to put up with a bunch of pre-prepared posts (say that 20 times fast!) but these are things in my world I find inspiring.
Today’s offering is this – a book mark. A few years ago, I got a set of these with a calendar; there was one for use each month. Now I just use whichever one I can find – this was November’s!
The reason I find this inspirational is because it is a brief snapshot of another culture, one I will never experience and can never fully understand – but I can read about it, look at images like this, and imagine it.
It makes it possible, in other words, to escape my reality and make a new one, and what fiction writer doesn’t do that?!
The bookmark has to have a friend, of course – and that brings me on to this week’s challenge Tuesday…
Book 20 – North of Nowhere, by Liz Kessler. First, I will tell you I bought this because I liked the name, and only when I started reading it did I find out it was YA! This is the story of Mia, a 13 year old girl, whose world is thrown into chaos when her grandad disappears. Taken to quiet, boring Porthaven for the week to support her gran, Mia finds herself in the middle of an impossible reality…
So, as I said, this was a YA, and therefore not directed at me. However, I rather enjoyed it. There are three strands of the story – Mia and her missing grandad, her friend Peter, and the mysterious Dee. These are neatly interwoven and although I could pick up the outcome relatively early on, I’m not sure if a younger reader could. Mainly because they might not have seen Terminator…
The style of writing is complex enough to keep me engaged, and I always appreciate YA books written without condescension; there’s nothing I like less than being spoken down to in a book!
Overall, I liked this story – it was descriptive, the characters were well-drawn and the premise worked well.
Happy reading,
EJ
🙂
Becoming a writer 
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