#ReadItMD13 - "Brilliant Book Bloggers" Day 5 Part 1

I’m Anne-Marie blogging as Child-Led Chaos. Mum to two small girl monsters and hoarder of books. http://childledchaos.me.uk/


ReadItDaddy: How long have you been blogging (book or otherwise) for?

I’ve been properly blogging for two years this July, that’s when I signed up with Twitter, met a wonderful community of people and started writing regularly. I started a personal blog in 2009 but never kept it up. Then there were the websites back in the 90’s that are best left unmentioned!


ReadItDaddy: What's on your book stack this week (childrens / grown up books count)?

Which stack?! I started using Goodreads this year to keep track of my reading (http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5682683) The shelves labelled 2013 tell some of the story.

At the moment we have 22 picture books out from the library which I tend to read from most nights, plus fourteen review copies that we’re still testing out (translation: that I haven’t written reviews for yet!) So far this year we’ve read over 200 different picture books, most of which we own… http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5682683?shelf=2013-300-picture-books-challenge

According to Goodreads I’m in the middle of reading eight books, but seriously I’m currently reading three. These are:

Storyteller: The Authorised Biography of Roald Dahl by Donald Sturrock. This is an enormous hardback tome and although fascinating I’m not a huge non-fiction reader so it takes me a long time to get through any non-fiction.

Strangeness and Charm by Mike Shevdon. This is the third in a series that I bought the first from on recommendation from my local bookshop (Mostly Books, Abingdon) and is an actual grown up novel. About fairies.

A Life Drawing by Shirley Hughes. Another non-fiction book. I bought this when I saw Shirley Hughes speak at the Soho Lit Fest in September but didn’t start reading until recently.

Mighty-Girl (six) and Destructo-Girl (almost four) tend to choose a pile of books for reading before bedtime. One night this week we ended up reading three different versions of Hansel and Gretel as that’s what Destructo-Girl chose; for the last two nights we’ve been reading Clara Vulliamy’s Martha and the Bunny Brothers books on repeat. Fortunately they never get boring!


ReadItDaddy: Give a very brief summary of why you think books are important to children...

Books give a child control in a world where they have very little. Words are powerful, and books give children that power. Books can take overwhelming experiences and feelings and trap them into a safe space. They can take you on amazing journeys. They can let you escape. They can introduce you to new friends.


ReadItDaddy: If you had to name one booky person as your complete and utter book-idol (Writer, Illustrator, Publisher etc) who would it be and why?

I thought for ages about this question, thinking of favourite authors and book bloggers and what I used to read, what I read now, who has inspired me, what novels have surprised me, made me laugh, made me cry. But I can’t choose any of these booky people because my complete and utter book-idol is my mum. I remember when I was young and if I was ill, a surprise new book would be brought out of a hidden corner of a cupboard as a treat (I still have many of those special books). 

My mum is the person who realised that I loved science fiction before I did! She’d photocopy pages of The Bookseller and bring them back from where she worked, picking out the authors she knew I loved or articles she thought I’d like. She steered me to try adult books when I was at that frustrating early/mid teen age when there only seemed to be books for young children or Sweet Valley High novels that I had no interest in. 

I could mention how I used to avidly read the author comments at the end of Piers Anthony and Stephen King novels; how I was a fan of Neil Gaiman before I even realised because of his biography of Douglas Adams; how Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels got me through university, and no-one else has ever made me laugh as much; how Iain Banks’ Wasp Factory and Use of Weapons stunned me with their endings; how meeting David Melling and Clara Vulliamy inspired me so much and made me feel like a part of the picture book world; how Zoe and Melanie (of Playing by the Book and Library Mice respectively) urged me to join my local children’s book group. All of these people and more have been inspirations, but I’d not even be a reader without my mum.


ReadItDaddy: Name 5 books you think everyone should have in their book case (childrens OR adult book, or a mix if you like!)

Five is not enough! This list will change every second but right now I’ll choose: 

• Dogger by Shirley Hughes
• The Ordinary Princess by M M Kaye
• The Pit Dragon Trilogy by Jane Yolen
• The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper
• The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O’Shea. 

Two of those are cheats as I can’t remember the individual books in the series well enough to distinguish a favourite! Whether everyone should have these books is debateable, but I definitely should.

Wow, and thank you Anne-Marie for such an interesting post. Coming up very shortly is Catherine from Story Snug. 

Stay tuned!