Lovereading4kids Reader Review Panel Have Their Say

It's strange, this thing of posting reviews of a book that hasn't come out yet, but hey - June's the month that happens and it's almost ALMOST here!  (I am deliberately not using any sort of I'M-CRAZY-EXCITED!!! font because dignity at all times, right?)

So, calmly and with complete professional poise, here is the book ...

... and here are snippets from the reviews by members of the Lovereading4kids Reader Review Panel.  To read their full reviews, click here.  (Go on - click it - they're great!)

• Llew Harrison, age 10 - 'A dramatic adventure involving fake identities, crazy ladies, faith, riding in the Aubergine and seas splitting open... Star rating:*****'
• Miyah Smith, age 11 - 'This is an excellent book, well written and sometimes quite moving. I would recommend it to most people my age.'    
• Harsh Budhdeo, age 10 - 'Interesting and really liked reading it.'
• Bella, age 10 - 'When the story got going it was really really good.  I loved the journey and the friendship, then ending was really exiting and good too.'
• Seren Daly, age 10 - 'The Walking Mountain was exiting, adventurous, tense, and sad. You won't regret reading it.'
• Rose Hopkins - 'When I say I love this book I really mean it – it’s now my favourite book and I’m looking out for other books by this author.'
• Emma, age 11 - 'I found this book very hard to get into but if you have a good imagination then it will be easier to understand.'

Many thanks to Llew, Miyah, Harsh, Bella, Seren, Rose and Emma - and ROLL ON JUNE!!!!!

Bali Cliffs and Carvings

A few final images from Bali, the last being a fair depiction of me coping with the heat ...

Bali's Exotic Botany

I've come back to a Scotland in its early summer colours, and it's beautiful and familiar.  Looking at the Bali photos, I remember just how unfamiliar its beauty was/is.  Another world.  So far away. 

Balinese Birding

Birds of Bali I met: the Javan Munia (a kind of finch), the Javan Pond Heron (in, I'm pretty sure, mating plummage), the Sacred Kingfisher (female, I think), an Egret with a yellow bill (which might be a juvenile?) and a bevy of Egrets with black bills.  (We won't mention all the species that didn't sit still long enough to be photographed.)  With the exception of the wee Munia, I took all these from the porch of the place we stayed at in Ubud.  Birdwatching while sitting down - bliss. 

Reflections of Bali

I'm back in Scotland physically, but still in Indonesia, as Eddie Izzard says, "in my mind".  So the double world of reflections seems like a good place to start ...

While I'm gone (3) ...

And, on the day I return, bleary-eyed and travel-bemused, some primroses and, um, pink things on a rock ...

While I'm gone (2) ...

And now, perhaps, some bluebells -

While I'm gone (1) ...

While I'm in Indonesia, I thought I'd leave you a trail of spring flowers -