Clearful and the Queen

Once upon a time (well, not that long ago) a real little girl who goes by the name of Lali, invented a new word.

In the story of Clearful and the Queen, Lali and Abba, her big sister, decided that they should tell the Queen the story of the new word so they embarked on an amazing adventure, assisted by their speical pet cat, called Smokey.

After they invented their new word, "Clearful" they thought it best to tell the Queen that they had invented a new word.

So they wrote a letter to the Queen explaining all about the new word, which they had invented during a visit to their grandparents' house.

Much to their delight and surprise, the Queen writes back to them and even more spectacular, the Queen decides to invite them to tea!

They set out on a simply stunning adventure to travel from their house to Buckingham Palace to accept their invitation.

This is a charming and exceptionally well illustrated book written by  M J Exon (who in her day job is the Managing Director of BBH, a leading creative agency) and illustrated by Sid Russell, who is a highly talented artist and designer who is head of BBH's Design Department.

The book costs a remarkably reasonable £6.99 and will delight both parents, grandparents and children.

It is published by Matador and is available via the The That's Books and Entertainment book shop, which you will find to the right of this review.

The Conjurer's Mouse

The Conjurer's Mouse is a clever and light collection of rhyming short stories and other bits of random fun that are designed to keep all children and adults amused and entertained.

Authored an illustrated by Ann and Fred Onymouse (who have decided to tick the 'no publicity box' of life!).

The book is an amiable and delightful little diversion which is chock full of a wild melange of stories from a frightened rodent cafe owner, the benefits of humming, what happens at the alien's party night, a guitar playing kitty, a young rat with a problem, what monsters watch on their T.V. News.

What happens when a mongrel wants to enter a village dog show, what happens when you have a dinosaur for a brother and what happened to poor Ned Willow with his absolutely dreadful new pillow!

The book is published by Matador at £6.99 and is available from the that's Books and Entertainment bookshop, which is to be found at the right hand side of this book review.

Highlanders' Revenge

Highlanders' Revenge is a novel by a writing team made up of Uncle and Niece Paul and Victoria Richman in their debut novel under the pen name of Paul Tors.

Highlanders' Revenge tells the story of a Mash Man, the name of an outsider with a group of Highland soldiers.

This Mas Man is an Englishman, already marked by the loss of the love of his life by a murder and by the retreat before the advancing Nazi hordes of the Blitzkrieg.

His fellow soldiers are wary of this sullen and secretive outsider as they find themselves in Egypt where they find themselves battling an enemy ad natural conditions that test them to the very limits of their physical and metal endurance.
  
They find themselves caught up in one of the largest and most vicious battles of the entire Second World War, El Alamein.

The novel combines truth with fiction as it retells the exploits of the 5th Camerons, an amazing military unit as it saw action in most of the decisive and major battles of not  only the North African theatre of war but also of Western Europe.

Our two authors skillfully interweave the fictional life of Mash with the factual history of the 5th Camerons.

At only £9.99 this is a gripping military novel and, with its meticulous research, will be an ideal book for lovers of this genre.

It's available from the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, just to the right of this review.

The Cow That Jumped Over the Moon

The Cow That Jumped Over the Moon is a new retelling of a classic tale.

Jooks, who is eight years old, has taken her favourite nursery rhyme, Hey Diddle Diddle, and re-imagined  it as a stunning new and very captivating story of what the cow who jumped over the moon did next.

Bored with his everyday life of continually leaping over the moon the cow seeks out new experiences and new adventures in a host of new environments and locations.

The cow journeys to the Earth where it jumps over Antarctica, leaps over a rainbow (with hilarious consequences!) bounds about over Ice Cream Land and eventually he decides that he has had more than enough mad jumping about adventures for one day.

But the cow discovers that he isn't quite the cow that he used to be!

To find out how the cow and why has changed, and how thrilled he is, you will have to buy this wonderful and highly charming book.

It costs a remarkably pocket money friendly £3.99 and with the highly colourful and delightful illustrations by Anna Kubaszewska, this new book will be a must buy for any child from 0 to 5 or so.

It is published by Studionesh Limited and is printed and published in Wales.

Jooks (who hails from Cardiff in south Wales) was inspired to write the book when she was singing nursery rhymes to her little sister, after she started to make up some new stories for her, Jooks decided to write her favourite one down and thus The Cow Who Jumped Over the Moon was born.

Ideal for children, their parents and grandparents this is a must buy book.

It is available from the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop which is to be found to the right of this book review.

The Water Babes

The Water Babes is a first novel by retired successful text book author and editor Norman Whitney.

It's set in the perhaps unlikely milieu of a water aerobics class.

It brings together people of widely or wildly differing backgrounds, classes, races and religious.

Readers who are looking for a warm, humorous novel in which there is absolutely no violence or murders, will love this debut novel.

You'll witness smiles, laughter and some tears, and a variety of incidents events and accidents some funny, some not all that funny.

But this is a special day, for it's the last of their lessons and to mark this momentous event, they are going to hold a party in the evening,

Food and drink are shared in friendship, then as the night progresses, something more than mere nourishment is shared. Secrets are revealed, confessions made, some of which are mildly amusing, others which are, to be quite frank, a bit of a shock.

But there is also something else., too. The novel explores how, apparently totally different people are perhaps not as different as one might think.

In fact the levels of connectedness might be deeper than one might expect.

The book is also nicely illustrated, too.

This is a heartwarming debut novel and it is published by Matador at £9.99.

You can purchase it now at the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, which you will find to the right hand side of this book review.

Day of Reckoning

Day of Reckoning is the latest crime novel by Keith Wainman.

It is set against a contemporary backdrop of the new age of terrorist outrages.

The story begins in the 1950s when a Muslim Brotherhood organiser has to flee from his homeland, Egypt, after a failed assassination attempt on the Prime Minister of Egypt.

Kamal and his family settle in Canada. One of his sons, Mo, marries an American woman called Kathleen Bush and he decides to take her name, becoming known as Mo Bush.

They have three sons, the last of these, Nathan, grows to maturity under the shadow of his older siblings who help run the farm.

In 1992, Mo asks Nathan to accompany grandfather Kamal on a trip back to the Middle East, which Nathan accepts.

He spends time with Kamal in Egypt and Jordan, learning of the struggles of his grandfather as a member of the Muslim brotherhood and he hears stories of the occupation from an Arab perspective.

When he returns home he decides to become a Marine, serving in Afghanistan.

 Some years later he makes a return trip to the Middle East with Kamal and he becomes involved with the "armed struggle" to the extend that he becomes involved in armed attacks on American troops in Iraq.

Eventually he is approached by one of the leaders. Would he be willing to participate in a major terrorist attack on Britain?

An attack that would bring about the day of reckoning.

However, for whom would the day of reckoning come? And for what reasons?

And what would happen if someone, somewhere, decided that they did not like Nathan's plan and decided upon a different course of action?

It's a fast paced and exciting novel that has the ring of plausibility in all of its 262 pages.

It is published by Matador at £8.99 and is available from the That's Books and entertainment bookshop, just to the right of this review.

The Ghost of Bowness

The Ghost of Bowness is another novel by author M J Evans that features police officer turned Private Eye Jordan Lewis and her friend and confidante, professor of Criminology, Jarvis Moon.

Jordon was enjoying a break from work doing what she loves best, just aimlessly wandering around in the beautiful English Lake District.

Ten years ago, a local girl had simply vanished and although the police suspected foul play, the body of Tara Marshall was never discovered and no leads in the case were discovered.

However, now Tara's friends are convinced that they keep seeing her in and around the area. How can this be? If she has come back, why has she come back? And why has she not contacted her old friends?

And who are the two women who keep meeting each other in the town?

Tara's friends decide to hire Jordan Lewis to get to the bottom of the mystery of Tara's disappearance and her apparent reappearance,  a decade later.

But then a series of murders and bizarre kidnappings begin to happen in the normally quiet Lake District.

Are they connected to the case? Whose is the skeleton that is discovered? And what is the meaning of the ghostly apparition that seems to be haunting the proceedings?

Why are other people running their own investigations? Who is following Jordan Lewis? And why?

And why does someone keep sending her their own copious files on the case?

And are all of Tara's friends quite what they appear to be? If they are involved in the mysterious events, why would they hire a Private Investigator?

Who is the mysterious figure who is controlling events from a distance? Are they involved in the murders?

I sat down in the sun early one afternoon to read this book and was immediately captured by it. In fact I only finished reading to novel after my wife insisted, several times, that I topped up my sun block!

It's rare that I feel compelled to finish a book in one sitting, but this book was one of those. It truly is a gripping thriller.

The pace of the novel is very fast and you will be gripped by the author's story telling abilities.

I could quite easily see Jordan Lewis Investigates, set in the beautiful Lake District and Lancashire, transferring to the television.

The book is published by The Book Guild in paperback and costs £8.99, it belongs on the shelf of every mystery reader.

You can purchase it -and M J Evans' other books, The Corpse that Danced and To Dig Up Murder, both of which feature Jordan Lewis and Jarvis Moon- at the That's Books and Entertainment Book Shop, which you will find to the right hand side of this review.

They will make excellent presents for someone you love or even a great gift to yourself!