Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices Book 1) By Cassandra Clare

Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 498 KB
Print Length: 448 pages
Publisher: Walker (September 6, 2009)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B0046EDMZ6

First Sentence:"The demon exploded in a shower of ichor and guts."

Ok I LOVED this book. I was hooked pretty much from the moment I started. Why was I resisting this author for so long? Oh probably because I am weary now of "hyped" authors that everyone in the blogging world raves about. Clare's series the Mortal Instruments has certainly generated some positive reviews around the blogging world.

This is set in the same "world" as the Mortal Instruments series but is a prequel to the series. Set in Victoria London (1878). This series follows Tessa, a sixteen year old girl who travels to London to live with her brother. Upon her arrival she is kidnapped by the Dark Sisters and forced to discover her unique ability. She is rescued by the Shadow Hunters and provided protection by them. However it is soon discovered she is pivotal to a plot to over throw the Shadow Hunters and upset the balance between the different supernatural beings factions.

There is some wonderful action and great pacing. Clare has a good balance between action, humour, and information. The story moved smoothly. This could be because Clare has already created this world and knows it inside out, so was able to explain it properly.

The love triangle is more like a love pentagon. With all the teenagers in this book in love with the other, who doesn't seem to return the love and is unaware of the adoration's of the other characters. I can see this getting messy in the books to come and create some teen angst and conflict Victorian style. Happily in this book it doesn't over power the story but it does get a little confusing.

Will is the bad boy with a heart. Gem is the sick but gentle best friend. Both were enjoyable characters who didn't quite fall into the cliche. Both would make good partnerships with Tessa. Tessa is brave and strong, but conflicted. For the first time I actually enjoyed the bad boy in the book.

You don't need to have read the mortal instruments series to read this series or vise versa. The author on her blog says neither gives away plot spoilers though names and characters do crop up in each series.

A good start to the series. I will definitely be reading the rest of the prequel trilogy and starting the Mortal Instruments series.

Writing Workshop by Jackie French

On Saturday 12 March I had the opportunity to attend a writing work shop with beloved Australian children's author Jackie French. This had been scheduled for February originally however due to a little thing called Cyclone Carlos the event was cancelled.

Jackie took us through the basics of writing a novel. There was nothing revealed here that you couldn't learn through researching the net. But it was good hearing it again, and she presented it by getting the group to make up a story using the tips she gave.

What was valuable, were her insights into the publishing industry and her own personal processes for writing. She admitted her advice will be different from another authors. She also recommended for future writing classes only do ones provided by senior editors and successful authors.

She read from her books Matilda and Diary of a Wombat. Jackie has a wonderful reading voice and the stories leapt from the page. I almost wanted her to just keep reading and forget about the course.

I enjoyed her stories and experiences as a struggling author and as a published successful author. One particular story I found hilarious was the censorship in the United States of her book Diary of a Wombat. In the copy released every where else in the world, there is a line that says "humans are dumb". This is because the wombat is a little bit on the cranky side. However when released in America the line was removed as the publishers decided a wombat cant be a cranky wombat, and it certainly can't call humans dumb.

She also had a cute story about Diary of a Wombat in Palestine being called Diary of a Not Kangaroo because in the Palestinian language there is no word for Wombat.

The main points I took away from Jackie's workshop were:

• Thinking about your book is most important.
• The first chapter is the most important part of the book, and hardest to write.
• Writers block is just your brain's way of saying you haven't thought about your story enough, or it isn't working.
• You have to be disciplined about writing.
• How your book starts, may not be how it finishes. For instance you might have a protagonist who will be a hero and by the time you are finished the protagonist is now the comedy relief.
• Be open to changes, criticism and changes to your story.
• Dump rubbish from your story.
• Completely immerse yourself in the world you are writing about.

It was a wonderful workshop and a great opportunity to be exposed to an international best selling author. Her workshop was only two hours so as you would expect it is not super detailed, however it was still valuable. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and would attend another by her.

Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French

Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Reading level: Ages 3-7
Boardbook: 32 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd
Language: English
ISBN-10: 073228662X
ISBN-13: 9780732286620

I only know of Jackie French through this picture book. She has written a tonne of other stuff in young adult and historical genres, but to date, this is the only book of hers I have read.

Diary of a Wombat is a tale about a little wombat whose only goal in life is to eat, sleep, dig, and sleep some more. All the while trying to train those pesky humans she lives with into better pets.

The story by its self is mostly pretty boring and pointless. But combined with the wonderful art work it takes on a whole different dimension. Bruce Whatley has done an amazing job making the little wombat come alive. He infuses so much character into the little wombat that the images almost tell the tale with out the words.

The story becomes charming and funny. There are two pages in particular that never fail to raise a chuckle. Unfortunately I believe in the American edition of this book, one of these sections has been removed.

The book has won a heap of awards. In Australia it has gotten The Children's Book Council of Australia Honour Book award, Booksellers Choice Award, and Kids Reading Oz Choice (KROC) Award.

However I think this book is best for older children. While younger kids will get a kick out of the illustrations the story doesn't interest my son while at a year old. He prefers books that rhyme and have a rhythm. I am sure though as this is such a popular book, when he is older he will get far more out of it.

The story of the real wombat (Mothball) who inspired Diary of a Wombat can be found here.

I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

Rating: 4 out of 5

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 500 KB
Print Length: 368 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 141330864
Publisher: ePenguin (August 26, 2010)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B003YUC0MY

Age: Teen

First Sentence: "The door starts shaking."

John Smith is just your average teenager. Average as long as you don't notice the fact he is actually an alien. John is from the planet Lorien, which he fled as a child with nine other children, as it was being destroyed by another alien race called the Mogadorians. John with his keeper Henri now live a life on the run, constantly hiding, always running, waiting for the day his powers will arrive. Then they can fight back.

The first three of the nine children are dead, and now the Mogadorians are after John who is number four. The numbers and their order are important but I wont reveal why here. This eventually leads to John having to fight for his life, and some great action scenes.

I was confused though as to why the Mogadorians were so gun-ho on killing the children? they destroyed the planet, and killed their race off. Are nine children and their keepers really such a big threat? But perhaps all will be revealed in the next books.

There is a thread of romance which is not over powering to the story. I have some suspicions about the girl John is in love with, after what was said in the book but I wont give anything away. On love, there is a strong bond between John and Henri which is more like father and son, it is not surprising as Henri has raised John from when he was a young boy.

The book is surprisingly emotional. Edge of your seat action one minute, touching and tender moment the next. I was expecting the action but the tender moments that made me almost shed a tear.

The "world" created is an interesting one. The author puts a lot of thought and detail into Lorien society. However I find the contrasts interesting (as well as the message of the book). Lorien is a world that was nearly destroyed by pollution, war, and progress but changed their lifestyle. They renounced and gave up their wicked ways becoming a harmonious and peaceful race. The Mogadorians however kept going on their wicked ways and destroyed their planet. They then moved on to Lorien and destroyed it.

Now this to me is where the message (maybe I am reading to much into it?) gets confusing on one hand the book says war, pollution modern ways are BAD. The Mogadorians who still do it and don't care are evil. But then the Lorien get their butts kicked and are annihilated by the Mogadorians because they were too peaceful and didn't see it coming. So war is good? because then you can kick baddy alien butt?

Clearly this book is the start of a series so there were a few loose ends left at the end of the book. I saw somewhere there are six books planned. Not sure how true that is but I am going to guess each book will follow the remaining aliens and their quest to survive.

The author of the book is a character from the book. The actual author is Jobie Hughs who wrote it in collaboration with James Frey.

Overall this was a great book. I look forward to the other books in the series.