Six For Sunday – Books and holidays, a match made in heaven: Yellow books

Some how we’ve already reached the final August prompt! Logically I know summer is coming to an end, the Scottish schools have already been back for two weeks but I’m still not enjoying seeing the nights begin to draw in again and now another reminder August is nearly over! So I’m going to enjoy the final week of August and then get ready to start on the back to school prompts next Sunday!

Six for Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by the lovely Steph at ALITTLEBUTALOT. You can find a list of prompts from July to December 2019 here

Yellow Books

Today’s prompt is all about yellow books. Yellow a colour that reminds us of the sun – something that appears to have been missing in action these last few weeks in Scotland! I scoured by shelves for yellow books and I actually don’t own that many, I’m not sure if that’s because they don’t print as many books with yellow covers, or I just don’t pick them up in shops! I did eventually manage to find six though!

Lightning Girl – Alesha Dixon

About The Book

The first book in a laugh-out-loud, high-voltage, action-packed adventure series for 8+ readers from hugely popular TV personality, Alesha Dixon, written in collaboration with Katy Birchall. 10-year-old Aurora Beam lives at home with her utterly unremarkable family… until the day she sees her little sister being picked on in the playground and suddenly beams of light shoot out of her fingers! It’s time for her parents to drop a life-changing bombshell. Mum is a secret superhero, fighting crime across the globe while Dad looks after the kids at home. As Aurora’s own powers come into play, will she be able to balance her new super skills training with school? Will she be able to keep it all a secret from her friends? And when her mum’s evil twin pops up, will Aurora think that being a super VILLAIN might be more fun…?

This is a book I picked up a little while ago after spotting a later book in the series on a table in Waterstones, it’s not completely yellow but I think there’s enough yellow for it to count, also what you can’t see from the cover attached is the beautiful gold foiling that covers it! I’m still to read this but I have the feeling this is a series I would have loved to have read when I was a ten year old, there weren’t many books with a main character that looked like me around!

And Then I Turned Into A Mermaid – Laura Kirkpatrick

About The Book

Molly Seabrook’s dull seaside life is turned upside down when she turns 13 and is let in on the family secret: she’s PART-MERMAID! While this does explain why her bonkers Mum is always skinny-dipping, Molly isn’t exactly thrilled. She already has to dress as a haddock to promote the family fish ’n’ chip shop, and now this? Growing up is hard enough without sprouting a fish tail in Double Maths, or disguising your gills from the cute boy at the ice cream kiosk.

Join Molly as she navigates the stormy sea of social awkwardness, best friend fallouts and the World’s Most Embarrassing Family – all while attempting to hide her (Very Weird) new double identity. Will she sink or swim? You’ll have to wait and SEA . . .

The first in a hilarious new series about family, friendship and one BIG fishy secret.

Laura will be well known to YA fans as Laura Steven, the author behind the fantastic Izzy O’Neill books. I’ve been sitting on this one for too long, and it’s a situation I need to rectify before too long!

Big Bones – Laura Dockrill

About The Book

The heartwarming new novel from the sparkling Laura Dockrill, introducing Bluebelle, and her moving, hilarious take on food, body image and how we look after ourselves and others.

It’s a food diary. I have to tell the truth. That’s the point.

Bluebelle, aka BB, aka Big Bones – is a sixteen-year-old girl encouraged to tackle her weight even though she’s perfectly happy, thank you, and getting on with her life and in love with food. 

Then a tragedy in the family forces BB to find a new relationship with her body and herself. . .

Tuck in for best mates, belly laughs, boys and the best Bakewell tart.

Big Bones was one of the novels nominated for the YA Book Prize this year, which was eventually won by Sara Barnard and Goodbye, Perfect. I’m so looking forward to getting stuck in to this one, it’s published under the title My Ideal Boyfriend Is A Croissant in the States, something that really confused me when I spotted it mentioned in a Barnes & Nobel blog post and thought it was a sequel!

A Bad Boy Stole My Bra – Lauren Price

About The Book

Imagine waking up in the dead of night to find your hot new neighbour dangling out of your window. What’s more, he’s clutching your tattiest bra in his hand.

What. The. Actual. Fudge.

When bad boy Alec Wilde moves in next door to Riley, sparks fly. After their ‘unconventional’ introduction, Riley is determined to get her own back. A nemesis is just the distraction she needs: inside, she’s barely holding it together. It’s game on.

But behind the banter, there’s a side to Alec that Riley actually likes. How can she get through to the real him when she can’t even take herself seriously?

This one was gifted to me in a swap box and to be honest I’d forgotten what it was about until I picked it up to include it in this post, now I’m wondering why I haven’t read it yet, it sounds great!

Parsnips, Buttered – Joe Lycett

About The Book

Dear Reader, 

Life is hard. We are a bombarded generation: Facebook, billboards, Twitter, Instagram, taxes, newspapers, watches monitoring our sleep, apps that read our pulse, terrorism. There’s such an onslaught to the senses these days it’s a marvel any of us manage to get out of bed. I love bed. 

While we are overwhelmed and confused by the miasmic cloud of information, there are those that seek to take advantage: there are parking fines, hate Tweets, Nigerian email scams and Christmas newsletters from old school friends about their ugly kids. And just as we’re getting round to doing something about it, we’re distracted again. 

I, Joe Lycett, comedian, wordsmith, and professional complainer, am here to help. During my short life of doing largely nothing I’ve discovered solutions to many of life’s problems, which I impart to you, dear Reader. Containing a centurion of complaint letters to unsuspecting celebrities, companies and anyone brave enough to clog up my phone, as well as illustrations, one-liners , jokes and life hacks, this little gem offers you a collection of tips and advice* for all manner of modern woe. By the time you have finished reading this book you will have learnt how to:

– Reverse a parking fine 
– Manipulate the tabloid press 
– Navigate social media 
– Respond to hate mail 
– Out-weird internet trolls 
– Contest a so-called ripe avocado 
– Send the perfect Christmas newsletter 
– Defeat ISIS 
– Take down multi-national companies 
AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!

Joe Lycett x

* If you are looking for guidance with taxes, quitting smoking, moving house, love, divorce, education, healthcare or anything actually important may I recommend speaking to friends or family members and not consulting a book by a comedian who eats halloumi at least twice a day.

Honestly this book is hillarious – I’ve not yet finished it but it’s perfect for picking up now and then and reading about another of Joe’s exploits – How To Behave In The Office is one of my favourite chapters so far!

Our Stop – Laura Jane Williams

About The Book

Nadia gets the 7.30 train every morning without fail. Well, except if she oversleeps or wakes up at her friend Emma’s after too much wine.

Daniel really does get the 7.30 train every morning, which is easy because he hasn’t been able to sleep properly since his dad died.

One morning, Nadia’s eye catches sight of a post in the daily paper:

To the cute girl with the coffee stains on her dress. I’m the guy who’s always standing near the doors… Drink sometime?

So begins a not-quite-romance of near-misses, true love, and the power of the written word.

This sounds like the perfect summer read, I picked it up just last week and I’m aware I’m rapidly running out of summer to read it in! There are just too many books, I can’t read them all!

They were my #SixforSunday! If you’ve taken part leave a link to your post below and I’ll be sure to check it out!