We’re eating our way through the books these days! Here are this week’s picks…

Nicola is, shockingly, NOT reading a picture book this week! She was seduced by the pretty, pretty cover of Finding Violet Park by Jenny Valentine and is loving it! Told in the first person in the utterly believable and endearing voice of 15 year old Lucas, it tells the story of how he finds the ashes of an old lady, Violet Park, in an urn on a shelf in a taxi office and sets out to discover more about her, all the while dealing with big issues his own family are facing. The language and tone of Jenny Valentine’s writing is really original and engaging, making for a truly great read!

Aoife is getting stuck into The Inferior by Peadar Ó Guilín – check out her photo illustrating the theme of STRENGTH GRRRR! Aoife can’t resist a good dystopian tale, and this is a great one all about a tribal masculine society struggling for survival. Only the strongest tribesmen will make it in a world full of rival species who want nothing more than to eat them…oo-er! For Stopmouth, the main character, the future’s not looking too good…until a mysterious woman falls from the sky and changes everything.

This week Jenny is reading two books again, she can’t get enough! The first is Losing Lila by Sarah Alderson. This is the follow-up to Hunting Lila and picks up where the first book left off. It’s a fast-paced read, with a dash of romance thrown in for good measure!  Jenny’s second book is the much-hyped What’s Left of Me by Kat Zhang. This book, which will be released in September, tells the story of Eva and Addie, who are two souls living in one body. They live in a world in which everyone is born with two souls, one of which usually dies off in childhood. For some, however, the souls don’t “settle” and continue to co-exist, and these unfortunate anomalies are widely feared and despised. Eva and Addie have managed to keep their secret all their life, until they realise they’re not the only ones.

There was much buzz last week about A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness when it became the first book ever to win both the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals, a fantastic achievement and a decision we heartily approve of here in CBI. Beautifully illustrated by Jim Kay and magnificently written by Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls tells the tale of Conor, a young boy dealing with his mother’s illness, who is visited in the night by a strange and terrible monster. Taylor has just discovered this wonder of a book and is finding it deeply moving and beautiful in every way.

Mags isn’t reading at all this week.

Just kidding! She is reading, just not in the traditional sense! Mags’ new obsession is the New Yorker fiction podcast, in which stories from the New Yorker archives are selected and read by a famous author. Mags’ favourite, and the one which turned her on to the podcast in the first place, is Dave Eggers reading Roddy Doyle’s Bullfighting. Mags thinks everybody should give this treasure trove a go, so make sure you check it out!

Here’s this week’s special guest, the lovely Nessa O’Mahony, Laureate na nÓg coordinator and superwoman! Nessa’s book of choice this week is Wiggly Woo agus a Chairde from Kid’s Own Publishing Partnership, who publish great books written and illustrated by actual children. What a great idea!

And that’s it for us this week!