Tag: sixforsunday

S4S -“Me” book

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Hello you gorgeous Sunday lot!

How are you doing on this fine sunny Sunday in Newcastle? What does today have in store for you? I’m probably going to be doing the usual: blogging, working, reading, showering and sleeping! I am SO FUN. I’m SO ROCK AND ROLL. 

Anyway. You’re here for this week’s installment of #SixforSunday. This week, #SixforSunday asks for:

Books people associate with me

Now I’m going for bookish things people associate with me (mainly authors and genres because I’m PREDICTABLE in my tastes!) I asked some friends and the kids at school and all of their responses were TOTALLY what I would expect… so I guess I have a brand and I’m sticking with it! 

  1. Melinda Salisbury
    I don’t think this one will come as a surprise to anyone. If you ask ANYONE on twitter to give you the author they associate with me, Mel would come first. I have an awful lot of pride in being known as #1 Mel fan. If you don’t know her books, please get on that.
  2. Maz Evans
    “Miss, you’re constantly telling us about those books because you love them. It would be unfair if we didn’t say Maz. Does she know how much you love her books?” (said by one of the Y5s I taught last term)
  3. Sara Barnard
    Again, another one that didn’t surprise me when it came up. I love Sara. She’s an amazing person; she’s a wonderful human. Her books make me so bloody happy. I even have a ‘Goodbye Perfect’ mug. So yes, Sara. 
  4. Sprayed edges
    “Miss, you get SO EXCITED when books have sprayed edges. They make you so happy” (they’re not wrong, I love a sprayed edge SO MUCH. The more unusual/gorgeous the better!)
  5. Middle grade fantasy books
    THESE GUYS ARE MY BLOODY JAM. My personal/class library at school is 75% fantasy and 25% contemporary MG books. I am such a sucker for fantasy books. 
  6. Magic
    This was a RESOUNDING answer from the kids I teach, and a lot of the people I asked. “If you could choose your perfect book, there’d be an awful lot of magic” (no shame. Gimme all dem magics)

I must also say, L.D.Lapinski came close to being 6th “because it’s the book you won’t shut up about at the minute miss and I mean that in the very best way. We love how much you talk about books“. 

So yes. I think that list is the most me list in the world. Some YA, some MG, some specific authors. If anyone wants to comment on what they associate with me, go for it! I’d love to know! 

Thank you so much to everyone who has joined in with #SixforSunday this week! 

See you next week! 

S x

S4S – 2019 Favourites

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Hello everyone! 

How are we all? What’s going on this lovely Sunday? I’m hoping it is a sunny Sunday! Sun makes me so happy! 

You’ve popped along today for #SixforSunday I see? Today I’m sharing:

2019 faves

So… I’m going for a range of 6 books. 6 books I loved a lot in 2019. If you’re interested in my Top 10 YA books or my Top 10 MG books of 2019, please click on those posts! There was a lot of deliberation in those posts. 

So here you have it… my 6 2019 faves!

s4s 2019 faves

I’m not sure these choices will surprise any of you! These 6 books have a very special in my heart for all of the different reasons. I’d love to talk to you if you have chosen/read any of these too! 

Massive massive thank you for coming along! 

Remember if you’re joining in the #SixforSunday fun this year, leave your link in the comments for everyone else to check out and use the hashtag on twitter! Thank you so much to everyone who joined in last week: you all made my heart sing! 

See you next week for: Six books people associate with me!

S x 

 

S4S – Bookish resolutions

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Hello hello friends!

Welcome to 2020 #SixforSunday! I can’t wait to see you all joining in, if anyone does at all join in. If no one does, that’s equally fine! I’ll be here flying the #SixforSunday flag forever!

We’re here for the first prompt of 2020 and it’s a biggie:

Six bookish resolutions

Now, I’m not a big resolution kind of gal, but I’ve managed to kind of cobble together 6 “resolutions” for my reading and my blogging life, so hopefully I’ll be able to follow through with them!

  1. Continue to read whatever I am in the mood for. 
    In 2019, I didn’t make TBR lists because I’m SO MUCH of a mood reader. I would HATE to have a TBR and then not stick to it. So I am pledging to sticking to being a “mood reader” in 2020!
  2. Don’t put pressure on myself.
    Whether that’s to read what everyone else is reading, or to do what ever everyone else is doing, I’m just gonna do me and that’s how I’m going to be happiest I think!
  3. Try and be better at Instagramming my books! 
    I go through periods where I’m great at Instagramming the books I get/am reading, and then I go through periods where I am just plain shocking. I do enjoy Instagram. It’s my second fave after Twitter. I have the same username on both platforms (@eenalol) if you want to follow me!
  4. Get better at recommending.
    I see people looking for recommendations all over Twitter and I’m not the kind of eprson to just interject myself into their conversation. I will openly give recommendations if you come to me, but if people are just asking on Twitter, I’m likely to stay quiet. I know books, they’re my thing, I should deem my knowledge as worthy enough to share it!
  5. Unhaul/pass on books more readily! 
    I’m a bit of a hoarder of books to be honest. I’m great at passing books on to friends when I see them and I’ll get round to taking books into school every few weeks, but in a few weeks a lot of books tend to pile up! I wanna be better at getting books into school so that I’m not having to put loads of books on the library system at once!
  6. Not getting caught in “hype”.
    I do this pretty well, but I just want to keep it up to be honest. I’m not a big fan of hype (see my STILL unready copy of THUG and my reading SoC years after it was released) so I try and just appreciate all of the people reading the book/watching the thing and then when it’s all died down, I swoop in. That’s just how I roll.

The prompts for January – March are live on my blog now, so don’t forget to bookmark those if you are wanting to join in #SixforSunday over the next few months!

Below are the banners that I’m going to be using for this month’s prompts if you want to use them! I’ll put the banners for the month ahead on the first prompt of the month (if I remember! If I forget then just shout at me!) You don’t need to use them at all, but I’m happy for you to use them!

S4S Jan 2019 week 1S4S Jan 2020 week 2S4S Jan 2020 week 3S4S Jan 2020 week 4

Thank you for joining in! See you next week for more #SixforSunday fun!

S x

#SixforSunday does January, February and March

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Well well well, 

Here we go again. It’s 2020. It’s time for you all to embrace (with somewhat open arms) #SixforSunday for another year. I can’t believe this stupid little thing I started on my blog is actually a thing OTHER PEOPLE do on their blogs. It makes me so so happy. I’m very grateful for each and every one of you who does find the time to join in, even if it’s just every once and a while. I love doing #SixforSunday with all of my heart. It’s a very fun little thing I do once a week (I mean some times it’s not fun because it’s hard) and I LOVE reading your responses! 

For anyone who is new around here and is wondering what #SixforSunday is… it’s really just that. You choose 6 books (normally) that you’d choose to fit whatever the prompt is that week. If we get to a week and you’re not feeling that prompt, there’s a whole host of other prompts you can do from 2019, but equally you can choose your own prompt! Share it using #SixforSunday on twitter and post your link in my post and then ta da! You are an official #SixforSunday‘er. You can join in every week, or just join in when you fancy it! 

Without further ado… here are the prompts for January, February and March. I’ll post the next lot in the middle of February so you always have plenty of thinking time! I would’ve usually have had these up before now, but my brain’s not been in a blogging kinda moos for a few weeks! 

January – Getting to know you

5th – Six bookish resolutions
12th – Six 2019 favourites
19th – Six books people assosciate with you
26th – Six bookish habits

February – Share the love

2nd – Six favourite blogs/booktubers/bookstagrams to follow
9th – Six reasons you love blogging
16th – Six favourite authors to follow 
23rd – Six favourite covers/types of cover

March – Characters ahoy!

1st – Six characters I’d name my kids after
8th – Six characters I’d like to be stranded with
15th – Six characters who would fit right in my family
22nd – Six characters I’d love to go on a date with
29th – Six characters who I’d like to be like

And there you have your prompts for the first quarter of 2020!

If you have any questions or any ideas for prompts for further in the year, let me know! I’d love your input! 

Thank you again for making #SixforSunday one of the things I’m proud of from this little blog. You’re all amazing! 

S x 

S4S – Books to give as gifts

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Hello friends!

It’s week 2 of December does #SixforSunday. Thank you all so much for joining in last week, it was so lush to see you all joining in! 

This week’s prompt sees us taking on something that I LOVE doing:

Books to give as gifts

I LOVE BUYING BOOKS AS PRESENTS OK? I’m going to choose 6 people from my life and gift them a book (which they might actually be getting or not, who knows) and tell you WHY I’m gifting them that! 

  1. My goddaughters – Pages and Co (1 and 2) by Anna James
    My goddaughters are 8, nearly 9 now, and they have been AVID readers since they were proper little. I’m the auntie that brings them books. I think it’s about time they were introduced to the wonderful world of Tilly and her book wandering adventures. I love these books and I think they will too!
  2. My cousin, Kate – A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
    Kate is a massive reader and a MASSIVE Disney fan. Me and her are quite alike in many ways and I really enjoyed this Beauty and the Beast retelling, so I think she would enjoy it too!
  3. My mam – Scythe by Neal Schusterman
    My mam loves stealing books from my shelves. She’s a big fan of YA books ever since she started stealing my books. We all know I LOVE a bit of Scythe and I think it would be right down my mam’s alley.
  4. My cousin’s husband, Graeme – Frostheart by Jamie Littler
    Graeme is a big reader and I’ve got him into reading kids books (because they’re the best). I devoured Frostheart when I read it and I think Graeme would really enjoy it too. Who doesn’t wanna read an icy adventure?!
  5. My friend, Sally – The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven
    Sally is one of the people I work with who I just adore. She’s recently started reading YA books with her daughter. I think she’d LOVE TEOOO because who doesn’t?!
  6. Anyone who doubts how good kids books are –  Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise by Katherine Rundell.
    Kids books are BRILLIANT and I challenge ANYONE to a duel who argues otherwise.

That was a fun prompt for #SixforSunday! You can bet that if I’m buying you a present for Christmas that there’ll be a book in there/book related thing in there somewhere! 

What are you buying for others?
Which of my gifted books are you most interested in?
What would you buy for me?

See you next week!

S x 

S4S – Books set over Christmas

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S4S DEC 1

Hello friends! It is Sunday again which means only one thing… it’s #SixforSunday time again! 

We are in a new month now… it’s December! A new month means a whole new bunch of prompts!

December: It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
1st: Books set over Christmas
8th: Books you want to give as gifts
15th: Fireside reads
22nd: All I want for Christmas is…
29th: New year, new books

I love a new month of #SixforSunday! I’ll be posting the first half of 2020’s prompts in the next 2 weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for that! 

But anyway, you’re here to see my choices for this week’s #SixforSunday… the one where Steph struggles, but ultimately manages to find 6:

Books set over Christmas

What can I say? Clearly children’s books have a place in my heart here on this blog! 

Also, a shout out to How Winston Delivered Christmas and The Christmas Mystery (not a children’s book) for both being advent books – where you get a chapter a day for every day in Advent. The best kind of books in my opinion! 

I initially found this quite hard, but once I started, I was HERE for 100s of books. Naturally, I could only use 6. 

I’d love to see what you all used for this prompt! Remember to leave your link in the comments so others can check out your #SixforSunday post for this week! 

See you next week for more #SixforSunday December fun!

S x 

S4S – Books to throw in a fire

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Hello there! 

How are you all? What’s goin on this chilly, wet Saturday? Have you been reading anything wonderful lately? I finished 2 books yesterday (the first books I’ve read this month) so I’m thrilled! 

Anyway… you’re here to find out my choices for this week’s #SixforSunday! This week we’re talking about:

Books I’d wanna throw in a fire

WOAH. Controversial choice of prompt Steph. Most unlike you. Well… here we go. Six books I’d wanna chuck in a fire. I’m totally gonna cheat here… I’m going to chuck in the longest books I own/have read so the fire burns for longer! 

  1. Game of Thrones books! (there’s like 7 of them… that’s a whole chunk of warmth for a cold gal like me)
  2. Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (1000 pages of warmth!)
  3. The Harry Potter book that is the longest… it was my least favourite because it just goes on FOREVER. Order of the Phoenix maybe?
  4. The Toll by Neal Shusterman (I loved it, but it’s 630 pages so that’s gonna keep me warm for at least a little while right?)
  5. Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer (not my usual cup of tea, but I really enjoyed this! Again, just chucking it cause it’s a BIG book and therefore lots of warm!)
  6. According to Goodreads, Deathly Hallows is one of the other books that I’ve read that is very long. So that too.

HA. Way to cheat the system Elliott. I’m going to be a warm bean with all those pages! (Ironically The Book Thief is one of the longest books I’ve read, but that felt wrong to chuck into the fire since yknow that’s what happens in the book!)

Has anyone else tried to cheat the system for this week’s #SixforSunday? Now that I’m done, I could have gone a different direction – endings you wanna chuck in the fire anyone!? I have at least 4 that I can think of off the top of my head! 

Anyway! Have a happy Sunday everyone! See you next week for December realness! 

S x 

 

 

 

 

S4S – Books to snuggle with

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Hello there friends!

IT is Sunday once again. How come Sunday comes about so quickly? I hope you are all having a lovely relaxing Sunday! What are you up to? Have you had a lovely week?

Welcome back anyway for another #SixforSunday post! This week, we are sticking with the winter-y theme and we are thinking about:

Books to snuggle up with

I’m going for “books that have filled me with joy and could melt away even the coldest of hearts and weather”. I love a good heartwarming book, so this should be easy (she says…)

Nov 17 1

Unconventional by Maggie Harcourt is a book that is OFTEN on my lists of books that make me feel happy, so it would not be right to miss it out. It made me smile so much when I read it!

The Star Outside My Window by Onjali Q. Rauf is a book I read recently, and while it made me cry, it filled my heart with so much joy and love that it definitely could melt away the cold!

The Day I Was Erased by Lisa Thompson was a book I read to my class last year and we absolutely adored it. It’s funny, charming and poignant. It’s one of those books that we still now talk about (even though they’ve moved on to Year 6!)

Nov 17 2

Boot by Shane Hegarty is a book that I absolutely adored. Boot is the most adorable robot and he wants to just make sure that his human is safe. I loved this story and I can’t wait for the second one to come out!

A second appearance on this list for Lisa Thompson with Owen and the Soldier because this book has an awfully big space in my heart. It’s just so lovely. I wanna read it and read it again. If you haven’t read it yet, please do.

Me Mam. Me Dad. Me by Malcolm Duffy is a bit of a selfish choice here because reading a book that is written in my dialect just warmed my heart so much. It’s so rare to read something set in Newcastle, never mind written how I think and speak, so this book has a very special chunk of my reading identity. I just adored it.

And there you have it! My six books that I wanna snuggle up with. I can not recommend these books enough – they’re all faves for me!

Thank you so much for stopping by for my post for #SixforSunday! Don’t forget to leave your link in the comments so others can check out your post. I’m loving seeing your posts! You guys make me so happy!

S x

 

S4S – Books with blue covers

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Good afternoon friends and foes alike!

How are you on this chilly Sunday day? I hope it is warmer where you are than it is in Newcastle as it is CHILLY. I say that… in the sun it’s warm enough, but in the shade it is CHILLLLLL.

Anyway, enough of my whinging about the cold. You’re here for this week’s #SixforSunday post and I’m loving seeing what you all are sharing! Share your link in the comments for everyone to go and check out! This week’s theme was:

Books with blue covers

Now as I recently realised, I read a lot of books with blue covers, so I literally could have been here for EVER showing you different ones. I’m going to try and share 6 books that I don’t share often in the hopes of recommending something new to everyone! I’ll also share my Goodreads review too so you can see what I thought of the book!

Storm Witch: Storm’s story is brilliantly told and I am very curious about what’s to come. This is perfect for Y5+! Danger, magic and acceptance are encapsulated in this story, with a dash of the importance of being kind. I loved the sense of community life on the island and Storm’s kind, if not a bit stubborn, nature!

Look Both Ways: Just finished this and it’s a proper delight. Jason Reynolds keeps writing absolute winners. This book tells the same walk home from a wonderful mix of characters and I just adored each of them. The friendship, the love, the sense of community in the book gave me such warm vibes. The stories are the perfect length and I think this would make an absolutely wonderful read aloud to a Y5/6 class!

Frostheart: GUYS. This is exceptional. It’s fun, daring, dangerous and cool. I absolutely loved my journey on Frostheart with Ash and the crew. A proper icy cold ride, with a massive heart. The illustrations throughout add so much too. Absolute smasher!

Amelia Fang: I love Amelia Fang stories and they just keep being wonderful! They’re full of fun and gorgeous illustrations!

All The Things We Never Said: Well this is bloody amazing. It made me cry, made me cross and made me happy. I don’t have words right now for this. The power of friendship, but also the power of negative thoughts is discussed in this book.

The Boy Who Steals Houses: Deary me. Sam – what a pickle you find yourself in. This book is just magnificent. I am a crying mess. This book is hard edges and summers days. It’s light and dark. It’s love and hate. It’s everything I needed. The thing that really makes this book is it’s characters. I just adored every single thing.

And there you have it! My 6 books with blue covers!

Don’t forget to share your link in the comments so me and other people can check out your #SixforSunday post!

See you next week!

S x

S4S – Snowy books

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Hello friends

How are you all doing? Welcome to a brand new month here at #SixforSunday where we are taking a new load of prompts! November sees the weather taking a turn for the chilly and therefore our prompts are a little chillier!

Today we are taking on:

Books with snow/ice in the title!

I found this trickier than I should have ha!

I went ALL SNOW. ALL OF THE SNOW ALL OF THE BOOKS. (I hate snow in reality! It’s lush to look at, but if I have to go out and be a human in the snow I am NOT down with that!)

I can’t wait to see if you all struggled with that as much as I did (ha!).

Thank you so much for sticking with me this year! If you have any ideas for prompts for #SixforSunday for 2020 then let me know! I’m going to do some thinking over the next few days and I’ll post the prompts before the end of the month!

You’re all amazing! See you next week for ‘Books with blue covers’ 

S x