Leona Lewis is probably my favourite singer. To me , she stands out from the rest because she is real ; she is a 'popstar' because she has the voice , and not just the looks like some artists who are good looking but can't sing! I am really excited , because yesterday , I booked tickets to see Leona on her tour next year! I cannot wait.

Leona Louise Lewis was born on April 3rd 1985 (she is currently twenty four years old) in Islington , London. She is a 'past-pupil' at the Sylvia Young Theatre School , Italia Coni Academy and The Brit School. In 2006 , Leona auditioned for the British television programme ' The X Factor' , which sets out to 'find the next biggest star' ; popular throughout the show , Leona went on to win the series. To date Leona has eight singles (A Moment Like This , Bleeding Love , Better In Time/Footprints In The Sand , Forgive Me , Run , I Will Be , Happy and I Got You) and two albums (Spirit (which went to number one in over ten countries , and Echo which reached number one in the United Kingdom).She is now a world-wide artist and is currently said to be worth £10 million!
On October 16th this year , Leona released a book called Dreams. The book is an illustrated autobiography, published by Hodder and Soughton General and contains three hundred and four pages. The photography was done by Dean Freeman. Dreams is available to buy from play.com for £11.99 which I think is quite reasonable.

When I first heard Leona was realeasing this book , I was sooo excited , and as soon as it was released , I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy. I absolutely love Leona , I am her biggest fam , but felt that the asking price of £17.99 , which it was been sold for in WH Smith , was a little too much and decided to wait a couple of weeks , to see if I could get it cheaper . A couple of weeks later , it was still at the 'expensive' price , and so I decided to look on the internet. To my delight , play.com were selling it at a price of £11.99 , I immediately clicked on the 'add to basket button!'
I was so excited when received my copy of Dreams! (how old am I?!?!!) The book is very attractive ; I have the hard back version. The cover features Leona in a pink dress with the title 'Dreams' printed across the cover in large pink capitals. On the back , there is a 'normal' photograph of Leona applying lip gloss , with her surname 'Lewis' written in a flashy pinky purlple font.

The first half of the book is written , and the second part is all photographs. When I first heard about this autobiography , I thought that it would be her life story , to which I was suprised and thought 'that's a bit soon', but as I was reading the book , it turns out that this isn't an autobiography , but the story of her dreams , from when she realised she could sing , right to the moment where she is in her career now. The book is the autobiography of her dream!
In a way , I am glad that it wasn't a proper 'life story' book , as it means , that hopefully there will be another Leona book to look forward to in the future , which will be an actual autobiography. Although this book didn't really talk much about Leona's 'out of music' life in depth , only her 'when she was singing/performing/on the X Factor life , I certainly learnt a lot about the singer , things which I had no idea about before. I found it interesting to see how her dream began and how it progressed until it eventually came true. It certainly gives hope to others with dreams , that if you work hard enough , your dream will come true.

There are some great photographs in this book ; most of them taken from behind the scenes , as well as some 'normal' ones , which I found interesting. I hadn't seen any of the photos before and so I enjoyed looking at them. I know I always end up comparing autobiographies I read , to Katie Prices (sorry!) , but with hers , her photos are always ones you've already seen in magazines before , but with Leona's book ,( maybe because she is such a private person and doesn't really get many non-work related photos printed in magazines) , I hadn't seen any of the photos before ,and it was nice to see non professional ones , as well as professional ones.
The photos are of excellent quality , however , one thing that annoyed me was that with a lot of them it didn't say where they were taken , or what event , or who else is in the photo. Some of them did have a little 'writing' with them , but a lot of the time , it was a few pages before the actual photo and so when it showed two different photos of Leona at two different events and it just said for example 'on the x factor' (it didn't say those words exactly...) it was confusing to know which one was 'one the x factor'....if you get what I mean. Another thing that spoilt the photos , were that some of them were big and took over two pages , and a few times the part of the photo with Leona on was in the centre of the page , and because the book doesn't open fully , you don't get to see the photo properly.

Usually when 'big stars' write autobiographies , they only write about the big events which we know about already , and so when Leona describes what it was like to perform at the Beijiing olymics , what she says is mostly what happened behind the scenes and what the journey to the venue was like , rather than talking just about what fans could see for themselves when they watched her perform on the television. I found it really interesting to hear from Leona herself , what it feels like to be a contestant on The X Factor (as well as what it feels like to go on to win the show) , instead of viewers at home just having their views from watching the show , I really didn't think it would be as hard as she says it is!
Leona has always been described as a 'nice girl' , and so when reading the book , I could really tell what kind of person she is just by reading the pages ; her gentle and sweet personality really comes to life in the writing. I could hear her voice telling me the story as I was reading the book. She's so passionate about what she does and you can tell that she's genuinely all about the music , and not the fame at all.

As you can tell , Leona obviously knows a lot about singing and music , as you can see by how she performs and so on , although I was suprised to discover , that she knows more about music and singing , than I originally thought she did. By what she says in the book , and how she goes into such great depth to musically describe making her album and her performances on the X Factor. Being a singer myself , I found it interesting to see what she had to say ; I even picked up loads of useful tips from Leona , so in that respect I found the book to be very helpful.
The book itself is of excellent quality , and I didn't even want to read mine in the beginning in case I 'ruined' it. The book is well worth the price I paid for it ; and should last many many years providing that you take good care of it.It's definetely a fan must-have! I enjoyed reading about how Leona's dreams came true , and I would certainly be up for reading the book again.

I really enjoyed this book ; I couldn't put it down , and would have read it all in one go if I'd have had the time! There are some interesting stories in this book , and fans will learn a lot about Leona in this book. I think it's good when celebrities don't get too much 'media coverage' of their personal lives , as it means that when they do come to do autobiographies and interviews and so on , they are much more interesting because they talk about things that we had no idea happened. It certainly , for me , makes the book better value in money!
I would definetely recommend this book , whether your a fan of Leona's or not. I think everyone will like this book , children and adults alike. Although the 'writing part' may be too informative for children under the age of eleven to enjoy , although adults with like it. Children will especially enjoy looking at all the cool photographs. This book will make a perfect gift for Christmas!

Thanks For Reading!
22nd January 2010
xd-o-n-z-x (also posted on ciao under xdonzx)