Phew! The month of May was a busy one for us here in CBI, what with the Book of the Year Awards and the Annual Conference! While we did have SO much fun, we have to be honest, it’s nice to finally be able to kick back and relax with a good book! Check out what we’re reading this week in CBI…

First up this week is Miss Aoife, with the debut novel from Chris Colfer, aka Kurt Hummel from Glee! The Land of Stories tells the tale of two children who fall into a book and find themselves in a magical land where fairytales are true. Aoife is geeking – sorry, gleeking – out over this story which takes a fresh look at fairytales we all love from childhood. This book is due for publication at the end of July, so keep an eye out for it in the shops!

Last week Jenny threw Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos at Mags and told her to read it. While we don’t condone the use of books as missiles, Mags was grateful for the recommendation and is thoroughly enjoying the book. It’s about a teenager who befriends a crazy woman who writes obituaries for local newspaper, and Mags says it’s quirky and kind of dark. Sounds awesome!

Nicola was very excited to get her hands on the new picture book by Nadia Shireen, Hey Presto, and retreated into a corner to read it and do snorty-laughing which was very distracting for the rest of the team, who were trying to get some work done. This is a hilarious book about Presto and Monty, who are best of buds until Monty’s ego starts to get a little out of hand. Nadia Shireen’s super-fun illustrations and cheeky sense of humour had Nicola in stitches!

Here is our brand new intern, Taylor, who joined us today and got stuck into cataloguing books for the Laureate International Library. He came across this beautiful and unusual picture book, Duck, Death and the Tulip by German author/illustrator Wolf Erlbruch. It’s always good fun to browse through kids’ books from faraway lands, you’re guaranteed to come across something that’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen before! Try it!

This week we have an extra-bonus-super-special guest reader, the lovely Carrie from Waterstone’s in Belfast who paid us a visit today. Here she is being terrorised by Wimpy Kid and showing off her book, The Magnificent Moon Hare by Sue Monroe, a story about a spoiled princess who gets carted off on an adventure by the Moon Hare. Sounds like fun!

Tell us what you’re reading this week in the comments below!