Smorgasbord Children’s Reading Room – #TeddyBear Sue Wickstead, #Historical Antoinette Truglio Martin, #Traveladventure Darlene Foster

Welcome to the Children’s Reading Room with books for ages up to twelve years old.

The first author today is Sue Wickstead with a recent review for Barty Barton: The Bear That Was Loved Too Much

About the book

‘What happens when you outgrow your teddy bear? Will you let it go?Barty was a special teddy bear. He was soft, cuddly and always made you smile.All the loving cuddles had flattened him over time, his nose bent to one side and his paws needed repairing.But he was too full of memories to be thrown away. Thomas had loved Barty but now he was grown up and going to be a daddy himself. Would he want Barty for his new baby?

A recent review for the book

SMN Oh so sweet… Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2020

What an adorable story! When I was a little girl, I always saw my teddy bears as very, very real, so I can absolutely relate to this story, as does my five-year-old, who, by the way, loves the illustrations….and so do I.

Read the reviews and buy the book: Amazon UK – And: Amazon US

A selection of other books by Sue Wickstead

Read the reviews and buy the books: Amazon UK – And: Amazon US – More reviews: Goodreads – Website/Blog: Sue Wickstead – Facebook: Stories Sue – Facebook: Teacher Page – Twitter: @JayJayBus – LinkedIn: Sue Wickstead

Then next author today is Antoinette Truglio Martin with one of the recent reviews for Daily Bread (Becoming America’s Stories, #1). This is book one in a series of three with the other two due to be published in 2021.

About the book

It is 1911. Crammed into a three-room flat in a Mott Street tenement, the large Taglia family needs all the help they can muster. Spunky songbird Lily wants to help by baking Daily Bread at the bakery like big sister, Margaret. But Margaret says Lily is just a little kid, and there is more to baking Daily Bread than height and an artist’s heart. Lily learns to navigate in a grown-up world when facing bullies, disasters, dotty bakers, and treacherous streets to cross by herself.

One of the recent reviews for the book

Malve von Hassell Profoundly moving and compelling fiction that brings to life the images in Jacob Riis’ photographs

Daily Bread takes you deep into the tenements of the Lower East Side in New York City in the early 1900s. From the first pages the reader is drawn in and quickly comes to love the various characters, from the mother stuck in the old ways, fearful and suspicious of change, the father trying to support his family against all odds, the daughter who can see the big picture and is determined to move beyond the shackles imposed upon her by poverty and lack of education, the bully who lashes out in his desperation and misery, overwhelmed by the cards dealt to him, the kindly and generous Russian speaking immigrants who try to make a living at baking bread while entirely unsuited to this task, and the dreamer who sees music and love wherever she looks.

Truglio Martin offers a wealth of bewitching details. One cannot help but be swept up in the scents and feel of baking bread or the steam from the pot of Pasta e Fagioli on the stove, contrasted with the perennial gnawing hunger and worry about what the next day will bring. Even the disastrous fire at the Shirtwaist Factory is woven into the story line. For anyone interested in urban history in the early 1900s, in the lives of people on the Lower East Side, and in the history of immigration, this is a book not to be missed. Written for middle-grade readers and succeeding eminently at that, the book is also one that would appeal to readers of all ages. Highly recommended

Read the other reviews and buy the book: Amazon US – And: Amazon UK

Also by Antoinette Truglio Martin for children

Read the reviews and buy the books: Amazon US – And: Amazon UK – Read more reviews: Goodreads – Website: Stories Served – Blog: Stories Served Blog – Facebook: Antoinette Truglio Martin – Twitter: @StoriesServed – Linkedin: LinkedIn

The final author today is Darlene Foster with a review for the adventure Amanda in Holland Missing in Action.

About the book

Amanda is in Holland to see the tulips with her best friend, Leah. They travel the canals of Amsterdam, visit Anne Frank House, check out windmills, tour a wooden shoe factory, and take many pictures of the amazing flowers of Keukenhof Gardens. She is keen to find out what happened to her great uncle who never returned from WWII and was declared missing in action. What she doesn’t expect to find and fall in love with is Joey, an abandoned puppy. While trying to find a home for him, she meets Jan, a Dutch boy who offers to help, a suspicious gardener, a strange woman on a bicycle, and an overprotective goose named Gerald.

Follow Amanda around the charming country of Holland, filled with colourful tulips, windmills, and more bicycles than she could have imagined. Once again, intrepid traveller Amanda encounters danger and intrigue as she tries to solve more than one mystery in a foreign country.

A recent review for the book on Goodreads.

Jan 17, 2021 Sue rated it Five Stars it was amazing

Having read Amanda in Holland I feel as though I have been on a whirlwind tour of the Netherlands. Darlene weaves both historical information into her never-a-dull-moment for Amanda and friends mystery. I appreciated the honesty of the reality and suffering of WWII. The book kept me guessing to the final pages.

Read the reviews and buy the book: Amazon US – And: Amazon UK

Also by Darlene Foster

Read the reviews and buy the books: Amazon US – And: Amazon UK – Website/Blog: Darlene Foster WordPress – Goodreads: Goodreads – Twitter: @supermegawoman

Thank you for dropping in today and I hope you will be leaving with some books..thanks Sally.

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