Chicklish

REMINDER: Book Giveaway

Remember to enter our book giveaway!!! Full details here.

Short details: send us an email with your address in the main bit and Camouflage Giveaway in the subject line!

FOOBS: Pink World

Here's another post in our semi-regular Focus On Other Book Sites series. This time, a site that's about much more than books - it's a whole lifestyle thing.

Pink World is run by Lola Love, who's ready to share her pink-tinted, go-getting and super-cool view of the world. Read the wonderful Think Pink book by the equally fabulous Lisa Clark for more details.

Pink World has an excellent section on books and reading, and is currently running a competition where five lucky people can win a copy of Karen McCombie's An Urgent Message of Wowness (and the Pink Ladies have even interviewed her, just like us!). Other featured authors in the Read-O-Rama include Jill Marshall, Liane Bonin, Rowan Coleman and Jenny Valentine.

Check it out! And in the meantime, have you seen the gorgeous cover for Beauty*licious? (It's out on June 4th!)

The Perfect Lie? Winners of the Guardian/Piccadilly short story competition

A while ago Piccadilly Press and The Guardian newspaper ran a writing competition for teenagers. The brief was to write a story about a lie. The competition was judged by DBC Pierre, Joanna Carey and Lynda Waterhouse and the result is this book of short stories: The Perfect Lie?

I found the foreword by DBC Pierre entertaining but kind of bizarre. ("What possessed these young minds to deploy themselves in the service of literature, when surely there was miscreance and chaos awaiting their attention on the streets?") It inspired me to look up this article about the judging process, also featuring fun quotes by DBC Pierre.

The stories are thoroughly enjoyable and the subject matter is broad - there's a story set in an old people's home, a wartime tale, school-based stories and a character study of a would-be businessman. Two of the stories, Innocent Deceit by Rebecca Pedelty and Seamlessly Fake by Kathryn Dennis-Smither, sent shivers down my spine. The Lie-Like-Life by Saranja Sivachelvan stood out for its original style, and I found Departure by Rosie Khorshidian utterly gripping. The book as a whole is a great, varied read.

The teenaged authors are Emma Dawson, Kathryn Dennis-Smither, Rachael Flaherty, Emilie Jones, Rosie Khorshidian, Rebecca Pedelty, Alison Ritchie, Jasmine Singh, Saranja Sivachelvam, and Conrad Steel. Look out for them in the future!

This Way To Paradise (Cinnamon Girl) by Cathy Hopkins

Oh la la!  Poor 14-year-old India Jane. Her parents have kept moving countries her whole life, each time dragging the whole family with them. Now she finds herself in London.

This time, India Jane is desperate to stay put and settle in to a ‘normal’ life with a normal family.  And hurrah, she quickly meets a cute boy…um…over a bottle of shampoo that turns out to be for head lice (cringe). But after that things can’t really get worse can they?  Well...

No sooner as she unpacked her clothes and done a tour of the neighbourhood, fate strikes again. Her parents have to spend the summer in Europe, so she’s packed off to stay at her Aunt’s health club in Greece.   

Even the fact that her cool older cousin is going too, and that the cute boy she met, Joe, will be working there, doesn’t cheer her up anymore. Why do her parents keep moving, and why don’t they care what it’s like for her?  Why is life so complicated?

India Jane feels lost in Greece. Her cousin parties more than she can handle, Joe seems distant and she’s sure he thinks she’s really weird. She doesn’t want to hang out on her own for a month - but where else is she supposed to belong? Maybe it’s with Liam and the meditation group? Maybe that’s where happiness lies?

So where does she find herself? I’ll let you find out...

By the way India Jane’s nickname, and the book title, Cinnamon Girl, is inspired by the words of a song, which when you read them show it’s quite a nice nickname to have.

Review by Alexandra, with huge thanks from Chicklish!

This Way to Paradise is the start of a fab new series by Cathy Hopkins. For more information, read an interview with Cathy Hopkins, watch her talk about Cinnamon Girl, or join Cathy's Club.

Camouflage GIVEAWAY!!!

If you read our review of the fabulous Does Glitter Count as Camouflage? by Helen Salter, you'll know what a wonderful offer this is. We're giving away a copy of the book, complete with a gorgeous matching bookmark!

All you have to do is send us a message with "Camouflage Giveaway" as the subject and your name and address in the body of the mail (just so that we can send you the book if you're the lucky winner - we don't keep your details or use them for any other reason). The closing date is 7th May 2007 - hurry hurry hurry!

In the meantime, though, we have a pressing question. Does glitter count as camouflage? Over to Helen Salter... "I couldn't find any eminent glitter experts so I am going to guess that no, it doesn't. Unless you are trying to hide in a glitter shop.  Of course, the title is not meant to be taken literally. It refers to the makeovers that take place in the book - Poppy puts up a physical facade and Holly puts up an emotional facade. And they both learn that their facades are not necessarily the best thing..."

Thanks a lot, Helen Salter! Check out our full interview with her here. But don't forget to come back and send us that email!

   

P.S. Can you see the book in the top photo? No? It was camouflaged, you see. The bad photo quality is deliberate, of course... (Sssh!)

Does Glitter Count as Camouflage? by Helen Salter

At last! At last! This book is out! I've been waiting for it ever since reading the fabulous adventures of Holly in Does Snogging Count as Exercise?

So Holly and Luke have kissed at last... what could possibly go wrong in Holly's life now? Well, plenty. For a start, Holly's going on holiday with Poppy - will Luke wait for her? The holiday itself isn't what Holly had in mind anyway, and neither is moving into Ivy's bedroom when she gets back. In fact, everything seems to be disguised as something it's not... and everyone, too.

Does Glitter Count as Camouflage? is lively, warm and  laugh-out-loud funny. Holly is a wonderful character and I loved reading more about her struggles to fit in with her exercise-mad family and her realistically insecure and unpredictable friends. Fans of the first book and fans of comedy fiction in general will not be disappointed in this. It's worth reading for the French lessons alone, and as with the first book there is a fantastic final scene which will keep you smiling for ages after you close the book.

And watch this space for a special ultra-exclusive Does Glitter Count as Camouflage? giveaway... coming very soon!

Karen McCombie Interview!

Chicklish is thrilled to interview Karen McCombie, author of the Ally's World series, Blissed Out (reviewed here) and many, many other fabulous books - read on to find out more!

Hello Karen! What can you tell us about your latest book?

It's called 'An Urgent Message Of Wowness'. It's about 13-year-old Heather, who thinks of herself as the total freak in her otherwise perfect family. Then her dad drops a bombshell and the whole family explodes, implodes and goes slightly round the bend (in the most interesting of ways). The title of the book came from an e-mail a reader sent to me via my website a couple of years ago - the heading was 'An Urgent Message Of Wowness', and I thought that was too good not to use. She gets a credit at the start of the new book (of course!).

How many books have you written for teenagers, and are they all linked?
There are 14 books, plus 4 specials in my best-known series, 'Ally's World', seven books in the 'Stella Etc' series, plus several one-off novels (check out my website for all the titles). 'My Funny Valentine', 'Blissed Out' and 'Wonderland' are separate novels, but can be seen as a mini-series, since they feature the same three friends. 'My Funny Valentine' and 'Wonderland' have recently had pretty cute new covers added to them, and 'Blissed Out' is about to get the same treatment, with a new look and a slightly different title: it'll be on book shelves with the title 'Bliss...'.

(See left for a look at the new cover - you saw first on Chicklish! Um, maybe...)

   

Do you or any of your characters keep a blog or MySpace?
My website was redesigned and relaunched earlier this year, and I blog on that. It's great to be able to witter on about what I'm writing, answer some reader questions and yak about random stuff. Recently, I wrote about one of my cats up and dying on me (how dare he!) and got the sweetest mails back from my readers.

Chicklish is very sorry to hear about your cat. :(

Did you ever have a summer job like Molly's in Blissed Out?
Oh, yes! One summer holiday - one very WET summer holiday - when I was a student, I worked as a 'milk maid' for the local milk marketing board in Aberdeen, Scotland, making milkshakes and handing out freebies. Everyone at the fairs and highland games that we went to were wearing sensible wet weather clothes, except us. Let me tell you, white jeans, shoes and T-shirts just don't go with mud...

(See above for photographic evidence of Karen McCombie's Molly-like summer job!)

What sort of books did you love as a teenager, and did you have a particular favourite, or a book that influenced you?
I loved the quirkily funny and touchingly sad 'Catcher In the Rye' by JD Salinger, and still re-read it every few years. It might be set way back in the 1950s, but JD Salinger makes his hero - teenager Holden Caulfield - sound so like a teenager, and so real. When I was fifteen I ached to have a friend like the very wonderful Holden.

Thank you very much, Karen McCombie. We're really looking forward to reading An Urgent Message of Wowness, out on 7th May 2007!

All photos © Karen McCombie.

Cathy's Book by Jordan Weisman

Cathy has been dumped by her boyfriend Victor, and when best friend Emma tells her not to go to his house, she decides to ignore her. She starts investigating Victor and soon she's in way over her head, so far that she has to leave a record for Emma: her notebook, complete with a pouch filled with 'evidence': Cathy's Book.

This is a whole reading experience. It really does feel like you have someone's secret notebook in your hands. The text is covered in illustrations and scribbled notes and the spine crackles as you turn the pages. You can pause at various points and pore over pieces of evidence - certificates, napkins, torn photographs, diary pages, business cards with web addresses you can check out - and then put them back in the crinkly envelope and continue reading. Wonderful.

If I had any gripe, it would be that the book was a bit on the short side, with the mystery unravelling very fast.

I glanced briefly at the 'extras' before I read the book straight through, then I looked at the evidence again and it all felt important and meaningful. I looked up a few websites and listened to some messages online (in the USA, you can phone directly, but from the UK you have to go through the website.) It made me linger in the story for a bit longer and think harder about the characters.

I was prepared to dismiss this as gimmicky, and maybe it is... but the gimmick definitely worked for me. This book would make a great present for anyone, including yourself.

Candy by Kevin Brooks

From the minute Joe sees Candy, he is hooked, and after having a coffee with her, even though this meeting ends in a dangerous threat, he can't get her out of his mind. But is he prepared to get pulled into her seedy underworld and fight for his love - at any cost?

Kevin Brooks skilfully shows that there are many types of addiction, and all have their risks. The story is fast-paced and intriguing, and Joe is easy to identify with. If you like thrilling, grittily realistic and well-written fiction, then this is for you.

Writeaway's Giveaway

Remember, not so long ago, we featured the fab book site Writeaway?

Well, next month their Reading Group will be discussing "novels that address issues concerning physical and mental health". The suggested titles are Tabitha Suzuma's  A NOTE OF MADNESS, Tabitha Suzuma's FROM WHERE I STAND; Joanna Kenrick's RED TEARS, Anthony McGowan's HENRY TUMOUR, A. M. Vrettos's SKIN and Judith Fathallah's MONKEY TAMING. And they are giving away copies of these books to lucky winners. All you have to do is follow the instructions on the web site. (Closing date April 24th 2007.)

Meanwhile, check out Chicklish's reviews of Monkey Taming and Red Tears.