OK, my break from blogging about books has resulted in me now wanting to write about lots of books but knowing I won’t have time! And everything has been mad enough this week that I think it’s safest to start with some quick thoughts on a very disparate bunch and write more entries (hopefully!) over the next few days.

First up is The Secret Policeman by Kate Thompson. This Irish children’s fantasy novel won the Guardian’s children book prize and the Whitbread Children's prize in 2005 (hey, better to read it a few years late than never). The secret policeman starts by describing a world that is running out of time. Children don’t have time to relax, adults don’t have time to get everything done, even the school bus is always late despite the best efforts of its driver. Soon it becomes apparent that there are faeries involved. I enjoyed the folklore feel of the novel but didn't really feel overly attached to the characters. One unusual touch, that I assume would be even cooler if I were a musician, is pieces of music at the front of each chapter. Overall, I enjoyed it but wouldn’t have been my first pick for the prizes.

And onto a different type of secret in Diana Peterfreund’s Secret Society Girl. This book tells the story of 20 year old Amy, who is unexpectedly tapped for an exclusive secret society of her Ivy League (fictionalised Yale) college and soon faces a range of challenges. The story is fun but not particularly suspenseful in itself - this would be a great holiday read particularly for people who enjoy reading about college experiences as Peterfreund added in lots of background detail. What probably made the book most enjoyable to me was the extreme sarcasm of the main character!

I undestand now why everyone is squeeing about Elizabeth Enright’s The Saturdays and its sequels being in print again. I can see why it became a classic childhood read for so many people. The situation in The Saturdays is something I would have loved as a child: four siblings decide to pool their pocket money so every fourth Saturday one of them will have enough money to go and do something they really want to do. They get to do it alone (this idea alone would have sucked me in, I loved my younger sisters, but a day out without them? So special!) and don’t even have to tell the others what they did. This book was reminiscent of Nesbit without the fantasy, maybe because of the close-knit yet realistic family and the generally old-fashioned feel.

Tags: books, children's, enright, fantasy, peterfreund, thompson