Mates, Dates and Sleepover Secrets by Cathy Hopkins

Advantages: Great characters, good story, you can read it over and over and not get bored of it, easy to read
Disadvantages: -

...Mates, Dates and Sleepover Secrets Cathy Hopkins The book was published in 2002 by Piccadilly Press Ltd. A bit about the author Cathy Hopkins was born in Manchester but grew up in Kenya from the ages five to eleven. She started writing teenage fiction in the year 2000. (To find out more visit www.cathyhopkins.com) When/ Why did I buy the book? I bought the book a good few years ago, I'd say about five, when I was about ten years old. I actually bought the book from a car boot sale, I think it was about 10p!! Which is an absolute bargain as the book is fantastic and I still read it now. I'm not really sure why I bought it, it obviously must have just caught my eye through all the usual junk you find at a car boot sale. They say don't judge a book by its cover, well everyone does don't they. I think I judged...

Ruby.xo 28.06.2009 (23.07.2009) · Read review
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Review of Mates Dates and Sleepover Secrets - Cathy Hopkins

Damaged - Cathy Glass

Advantages: Insight into what some foster carers have to endure
Disadvantages: Sad story made even more moving because it is true

...This book had me gripped from the start. It is a true story about a foster carer called Cathy Glass and her experience with a very troubled 8 year old girl named Jodie. Cathy has been a foster carer for over 20 years and looked after more than 50 children. What struck me about this book was the sheer frankness of Cathy. It is a heartwrenching story that goes into quite a lot of detail. Jodie had been through numerous carers before she was taken in by Cathy. Cathy knew this and was made aware in a crisis meeting that Jodie would be taken into a residential care home which would of meant she didn't get the one-on-one care that she so badly needed. The antics Jodie gets up to are disturbing to say the least, from wiping her own excrement on herself to cutting her own wrists, extreme aggression and sexual behaviour. Multiple...

victorialush 29.05.2007 · Read review
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Review of Damaged - Cathy Glass

Hidden by Cathy Glass

Advantages: a fantastic insight into a small childs life
Disadvantages: none that i can think of

...From the author of Number One bestseller 'Damaged' comes the poignant and shocking memoir of Cathy's recent relationship with Tayo, a young boy she fosters whose good behaviour and polite manners hide a terrible past. From start to finish this book had me gripped and I really couldn't put it down. It is really hard to believe that even now in the 21st century children are still being subjected to horrific abuse and neglect when they should be enjoying their childhood. However thanks to people like Cathy Glass these children can be provided with a little bit of stabiity and an idea of what a childhood should be like. It is just a shame that there are not more people like her in this world because if there were this world would be a better place. I highly recommend this book for it is not only a story if a child who suffers...

kellys_eye 21.06.2008 · Read review
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Review of Hidden - Cathy Glass

Damaged by Cathy Glass - Heartbreaking

Advantages: Gives a true insight into the damage emotional and physical child abuse causes
Disadvantages: The truth hurts and this book can be upsetting at parts.

...Well I originally had this bought for me as a present from my husband out of the blue as he knows I like to read "those kind of books". I was taken in by the beautiful looking little girl on the front and started reading it straight away. I could not help but become engrossed in the story straight away, the first conversation that takes place in the book gives an insight into the termoil and upset that would be brought to Cathy's family and left me eager to turn the pages and discover what happens next. The book itself is written beautifully, the story holds no punches and is honest and admirable to the last. It shows that the society we live in has a long way to go in protecting the most vunerable children in our "developed" country. I will not go into detail about the opinions this book provokes or the story detail...

Sarah_2002_84 13.09.2007 (12.09.2007) · Read review
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Review of Damaged - Cathy Glass

(BOOK REVIEW!) Will their Past Secret's come out in the end!

Advantages: A lovely heart warming story with belivable characters!
Disadvantages: Took a little longer than it should have done to read, not the best book ever read!

... Cathy Kelly- Past Secrets About Cathy Kelly I have never read a book by Cathy Kelly before, and this book was passed onto me by my mum. I got the book from her a few months ago now, but I have only just had the chance to read it after having lots of other books to read too! I kept on putting the book off thinking it was going to be a much older book than the books I normally read, this was a bad case of ?reading a book by the cover?, as the cover doesn?t make the book look very appealing at all. With a plain white background and a simple outside fascia of a white café with blue shutters on the windows with a couple sitting outside. It makes the book look like a romance book for the older reader if I?m honest, but I eventually picked it up and decided to give it a go. I was quite impressed with the book...

stephbond89 12.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Past Secrets - Cathy Kelly

Every Country in the World?and Some More!

Advantages: Great photos, a must for travel or photography fans
Disadvantages: Some poor maps

...I first saw this book in a book shop where I had flicked through it, but first got a proper look at it when a friend bought it as a gift for a mutual friend. Then I knew I had to have it. I described it to another friend as featuring ?Every country in the world, and some others?. She was, understandably, rather confused by my statement about what these other countries actually were! Whilst the book is a travel book (rather than a reference book or atlas) and does indeed feature every (known) country in the world it has added soem other s under the guise of artistic license. For example, various Caribbean islands and groups which are actually dependencies of other countries are featured. Hong Kong and Macau have both been returned to China, but get their own entries, as does Taiwan. Neither the UK (nor Great Britain) gets...

Essexgirl2006 15.07.2007 · Read review
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Review of The Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country - Roz Hopkins

Oscar Wilde's obsession with books

Advantages: Full of fascinating information about Wilde's life and love of books
Disadvantages: None really, except maybe best enjoyed by those with some prior knowledge of Wilde

...The controversial Victorian playwright and poet Oscar Wilde, so the introduction to this book tells us, ?devoured and luxuriated in books?. He had a lifelong thirst for reading, so it?s not surprising to find that his house in Chelsea was packed with them. Not only was he an avid collector, but he was also an accomplished speed reader with a remarkable ? and to some extent photographic ? memory which helped him to absorb and recall instantly vast amounts of prose and verse. As a reviewer for the Pall Mall Gazette, he could master a book's content, plot or argument in minutes. (If only ciao had been around in those days as well). Maybe it is only fair to get the one major chink in his armour out of the way quickly. Once, when he was preparing a lecture on the poet Chatterton, most of his notes were made up of entire pages and paragraphs...

JOHNV 24.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Oscar's Books - Thomas Wright

A Book Lover

Advantages: Well-drawn characters. Creative use of words.
Disadvantages: A little difficult to adjust to the changing style of writing

...The Book Thief written by Australian author Marcus Zusak was published in Australia in 2005 as an adult novel and in America in 2006 as a children?s novel. It finally came to the UK in 2007 published by Doubleday and Black Swan in both adult and teen-age versions. Though I have to admit, I do not know what the differences between the two versions are! My copy and the one I am reviewing is the adult version. The novel proved to be a triumphant success greeted by glowing accolades from a wide range of literary reviewers ? excerpts of which can be found in the book. The most apt from The Irish Examiner, ?A peculiar tale, whose deceptively plain language and cryptic style describe the most profound of human emotions and the most hideous of human actions . . . an unusual and compelling novel? Set in Nazi Germany during the Second World...

MAFARRIMOND 03.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

Start packing.......

Advantages: Big bold and beautiful pictures, interesting, informative and funny.
Disadvantages: I can't afford to go to all these places!!!

...One of my favourite Christmas presents this year was The Lonely Planet Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the World put together by Roz Hopkins with a lot of help from the lonely planet ?team? in respect to pictures and extracts. I am a big fan of Lonely Planet, I love their travel guides and I have found them immensely helpful in my travels around the globe. When I spotted this on display in Waterstones I was very excited and I was thrilled to receive it for Christmas. This book contains information on ALL of the countries in the world in alphabetical order, 230 entries in total. This list of countries comes from the United Nations list of defined countries and does not generally include the foreign dependencies of these countries, whether self-governing or Crown colony. However as they wanted to include some...

nickyturnill 07.03.2005 · Read review
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Review of The Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country - Roz Hopkins

Tweenies Book

Advantages: children will enjoy it
Disadvantages: none unless your child wants you to read it about 10 times a day

...I got this book from a book club for my eldest and now my youngest likes to look at it. It's a hard back book with each page inside being double thin card so that the pull out pictures are fitted in the middle of them. The book is called 'Come Back Colours' because Doodles (The red dog) has lost its colour and so have all the Tweenies toys. The front cover has a picture of the youngest Tweenie Jake and the colourless Doodles, when you open the book you see a picture of the other Tweenies (Milo, Bella and Fizz) on the opposite page is Jake with his special cape opening his arms to the colourless Doodles. The story starts ' One day, Jake put on his special coloured cape.' His job was to look after the colours but where have Doodles colours gone? Jake comes to the rescue waves his arms and says 'Colours come and colours go...

rojm 26.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Tweenies: Come Back Colours - BBC Books