I am the parental mafia. Having read Judy Blumes "Forever" aged 12 and inadvertently handed over a batch of books about a boy named Yuck to my 7 year old which turned out to feature lots of crusty underpants and the feeding of giant bogeys to siblings I'm suffering a bout of paranoia about the things the demonic daughters read and so I'm reading everything that arrives in the house to make sure nothing inappropriate slips through the net again. Having a very insecure 10 year old who is very easily upset and suffers nightmares this is becoming more and more important as time goes on. She has too vivid an imagination and the most obscure things can result in many  Read the complete review

One of my favourite authors as a child was Jacqueline Wilson. One thing I find amazing about her work is that, no matter how old you are, there is a book for you. As I grew up, I could always find a book of hers to cater for my likes and age. One of her books which I feel is targeted at young teens (though makes a good light read for more mature readers) is Dustbin Baby. In Dustbin Baby, April was left in a bin as a baby, and now she is much older, her birthday sparks off some curiosity about her birth mother. She goes in search of her, ready to dig up her family past, but can she track her mum down, and if so, will she like what she sees? This is a ...  Read the complete review

I often have fond nostalgic memories of my childhood, where many only-child moments were spent reading – Mallory Towers, Ballet Shoes, Judy Blume. As an adult, we seem restricted. Although grown ups are ‘allowed’ to be seen in public reading Harry Potter or maybe a Philip Pullman, it is not ‘the done thing’ to be reading children’s books if you are a solitary adult of a certain age. Even J. K. Rowling’s work now appears in an ‘adult’ version, with different covers – as a kind of defence mechanism to prove it’s not really a kids’ book after all. It’s rather sad really. Being a mother ...  Read the complete review