Review: The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow | The Bangzo Bookworm

Title: The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow Paperback by Katherine Woodfine 
Publisher: Egmont
Publication Date: June 4th 2015
Number Of Pages: 336
Genre: Mystery, Young Adult (YA), Middle Grade,Thriller, Action, Fantasy.
Format: Kindle
Synopsis: You are cordially invited to attend the Grand Opening of Sinclair's department store! Enter a world of bonbons, hats, perfumes and Mysteries around every corner. Wonder at the daring theft of the priceless Clockwork Sparrow! Tremble as the most Dastardly criminals in London enact their wicked plans! GASP as our bold heroines, Miss Sophie Taylor and Miss Lilian Rose, Crack Codes, Devour Iced Buns and vow to bring the villians to justice...The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow is the first book in a sumptuous mystery-series for 9+ readers, full of vivid Edwardian period detail. 

Review: The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow is a fun engaging adventure story following heroine Sophie Taylor who has recently been employed to work in the Millinery Department of the soon to be opened Sinclair’s department store. The highlight of the grand opening is the beautiful Clockwork Sparrow display, but when the Sparrow is stolen the night before Sinclair’s opens its doors, suspicion immediately falls on Sophie. In order to clear her name, Sophie teams up with local homeless lad Joe, bootboy Billy and glamorous Lil to solve the mystery and find the Sparrow before it falls into the wrong hands.

This book is packed full of description and beautifully sets the story scene which takes place on the Edwardian streets of London. The characters each have a very distinct personality and as the book develops, so do the characters traits and involvement in the story. From the beginning, the Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow easily draws in the reader with its attention to detail and added extras, such as the realistic images of codes, notes and newspaper cuttings the characters discover along the way. This isn’t a difficult or long read and it easily teaches younger readers about an unfamiliar era in history without being boring or repetitive.

If you love mystery, suspense and like to keep guessing "whodunnit" until the last page, this book is for you!

Have you read this book? What did you think?

<< Previous post: 5 YA Books that I have yet to (and never will) read

  facebook | twitter | youtube | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

5 YA Books that I have yet to (and never will) read

The Broke and the Bookish recently posted another Top Ten Tuesday post called "Top Ten Hyped Books We've Never Read" and once I read it, I knew I had to post my own. This is a similar post because I have only chosen 5 books for the post, but also because the following are titles I have no intention of picking up. Ever.

I'm sorry in advance if your favourite book / book series is mentioned here (and it is very likely since this post has featured at least two YA fiction giants) but feel free to argue!

And if you like the graphics below, feel free to pin them to your Pinterest board!

*

John Green

 I don’t like to read sad books, especially sad books about cancer.  I managed the first page and credit to John Green who knows how to write a wonderful hooking opening paragraph, but I could tell that I wasn’t going to enjoy the storyline.Besides that, I was planning to read the book around the same time the film came to cinemas and within the first week of release, I was hoping I would never hear the term "TFIOS" again.

 Sarah J. Maas

I was going to read Throne of Glass also, but I was persuaded otherwise by numerous reviews online. They criticised the main character Caelena  who doesn't display her deadly nature because most of her heroine encounters happen outside of the book who encounters more action outside of the book, and anything worth knowing in the book itself  is told in summary. This gives me the impression that the book plot is pretty flat and that there is little room for Caelena's character to develop.

Stephenie Meyer

In my opinion, the Twilight series has more or less faded out of book discussion since the films ended a couple of years ago and I feel as though everyone has moved on to hype other fantasy novels since. I have never really been a fan of Twilight and although this is probably because I couldn't stand the films and the never ending hype around them, I won’t be picking up the novels for a read.

Jodi Picoult

Again, another tragic story about a child suffering from cancer.  I know what happens at the end of this novel because the plot was purposely spoiled for me by a friend; therefore, I can imagine it to be an extremely uncomfortable and tragic read, so I cannot bring myself to even give the first page a try.

 J.K Rowling

Out of the five, this choice is the one I regret saying the most. These books have been a mainstay in children’s literature since I was still at school and they were the only books that could get an entire classroom of children who don’t care about reading or literature to give reading a go. Saying that, they just aren’t for me because fantasy isn’t my favourite book genre, especially if it involves elements of magic and wizardry. However I feel as though I know the books to a reasonable standard thanks to their success in the entertainment industry, so I don’t feel too bad about choosing to give them a miss.

Do you agree/ disagree with my choices? Let me know in the comments section

Thank you for reading, please don't forget to follow this blog on Bloglovin'

<< Previous post: Best 7 YA Fiction Opening Lines

  facebook | twitter | youtube | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

Types of People in the Library | The BangzoBookWorm

Libraries are funny places. 

Most people use libraries to find some bookish inspiration, study in the zen of the “you can hear a needle drop” peace or mill about from copier machine to printer and then back again, rattling their change- but at least they are actually there to do SOMETHING.

On the other hand, some people use libraries for very different reasons.

Which one of these personalities’ best reflects your own?

a)

First of all, libraries are no-nibble zones, period.
But this person doesn’t understand that if you ARE going to eat in a library, you definitely CAN reduce the volume of munching. They always seem to choose the noisiest snack to consume and do so without a care in the world, leaving a mess of cheese crisp fingerprints in the very book you happen to need. They slurp, gulp, crunch, chew, smack, burp and gurgle their way through a mountain of food  when you’ve just about had enough, they shuffle out leaving a  trail of breadcrumbs à la Hansel and Gretel as they go.

b)

You know the ones. They ARE doing their work, but somehow at the same time, they manage to shout to their friend (and everyone else) how X did this to Y and when X explained why, Y made X her ex. They have no clue how to work the book reference guide, the printer, fax machine or the photocopier ("do I need money for this?")  or grasp the concept of the self-checkout desks, but can broadcast people’s problems, mistakes, failures and shortcomings to anyone who will listen; this is NEVER anyone at a library. And if they are not talking, the inconstant clicking-tapping noise from their phone indicates their preference to learn as much as they can from Facebook rather than from, well, any book.

c)

This library visitor is more like a permanent resident, because even if you stumble into the library every Saturday, Sunday, Bank Holiday, Christmas, Queen’s birthday and World Book Day, you can guarantee to trip over this person somewhere along your way. And by trip, I do mean trip- literally. These library users like to make shelters out of encyclopedias and world maps and stupidly hang their feet over the edge of their fortress, waiting for an unfortunate preoccupied student with his/her face deep in a book to come by.

d)

This person makes a point to sigh loudly every time the minute hand on the clock hits 12, clearly hinting that they have NOT been stood up by their study group or have nothing useful to do until lunchtime. Their favourite pastime involves constructing disrespectful Eiffel Towers out of classic hardbacks, throwing paper planes across the book aisles and swinging from the ceiling lamps- not literally of course.  The worst thing about this person is that their behaviour is extremely contagious, especially during Finals season. Beware of the Procrastinator.

e)

Red bloodshot eyes. Check.
 Half a dozen cans of Red Bull. Check.
A sea of screwed up paper balls on the floor. Check.
Piles of books that have not been opened. Check.
Piles of books that have been opened (evident by the wedges of Post-It notes hanging out from the edge). Check… do I need to go on?

f)

And then there are those who come to the library bright and early and can sit for hours on end in the same spot, the one by the window. They won’t disturb or annoy anyone because they barely move, only to flick a page from right to left or whisper bookish thoughts to themselves such as “What the hell just happened?” or " What are you DOING?"

 They occasionally shriek in horror or laugh out loud and usually by the end of their library session, look like they have just been through a break-up. For your information, that would be a book-breakup, in which the person and the novel reached their final chapter together and the last words they exchanged were just too much to bear. Hence the book now lying abandoned on the floor and the reader starting up another read almost instantly.

 *

If you answered f), congratulations! You have found this blog somewhere on the internet and I can guarantee that you will love the fun content will be coming up soon!

Let me know which one of these personalities best reflects your own in the comments and also let me know if you have witnessed any other types of people on one of your trips to your local library!

<< Previous post: Best 7 YA Fiction Opening Lines

  facebook | twitter | youtube | pinterest | google+ | bloglovin

The BEST 7 YA Fiction Opening Lines | The Bangzo BookWorm

You should never judge a book by its front cover but that doesn't mean you can't take a cautious look at its opening paragraph.

Personally, even if  the book starts with a bang (and some blood) or hits me full on with the feels, if the first couple of sentences are not gripping enough, it is extremely likely that the poor work of fiction will find itself back on the bookshelf.

Here are my favourite opening lines from seven fantastic well known YA fiction books ( if you were wondering, I did finish all of these books!)

Let me know what other amazing YA Opening lines you can think of by leaving them as comments to this post? Did you finish the book?

Also if you have managed to find this blog while surfing the web, you can subscribe to the blog feed to be notified when I upload next.

Until next time,

YouTube | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | Google+