Reviews

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Wolves of Londinium by Kate Cunningham

A huge ‘thank you’ to Random Things Tours for sending us this copy of Wolves of Londinium by Kate Cunningham.

This review is by my friendly neighbourhood 11 year old, who volunteered to write about how he found the wonderful adventure story.
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The Wolves of Londinium is a choose your own adventure story where you get to learn more and more about the characters as you go on. Your character is heavily hinted to be from a middle class family of sculptors , but your father died at a young age so your mother is left to raise you.

I really enjoyed the way that the main character is on one mission: to deliver the emerald. Depending on what path you choose you get more context as to why you need to deliver the emerald. To sum it up, you need to get the emerald from a cruisers boat(which you have ordered) before delivering it to your mother because if you don’t, you will lose all your money and possibly starve!

I would whole heartedly recommend for any young readers who might want to jump into an ancient city full of wholesome magic and in some cases peril! I would recommend for any readers from age 8-14 or above as this was a superb read all ages would most likely enjoy or as a good read for children and their parents before bed as a cosy adventure story where YOU choose what happens and what decision you make and where the book goes! Remember: no matter what happens there is always going to be a different outcome and you can always try again!

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This book kept us busy on a long car ride, and because of the re-readability of it, it meant we only needed to take one book with us – a huge plus if you’re travelling with children this October!

As an archaeologist, I absolutely loved the premise of this book. You can tell it’s well researched but also, it isn’t too heavy-handed with the history – a perfect balance. I also really liked the fact that its published in Open Dyslexic font (my personal favourite) so it’s incredibly easy to read. As someone in a household of multiple learning differences, I can very much say that something as simple as choosing an accessible font really does really help.

The blurb is as follows:

You are the main character of this story as you make your own history in this Choose a Timeline story.

It is the year 122

Emperor Hadrian is visiting Britannia, and the Governor is determined to make it memorable. Your mother is an aurifix, a skilled goldsmith, and her statue of a gold wolf will be the centrepiece of the celebrations at the amphitheatre in Londinium.

All you need to do is collect the emeralds that have been shipped from Egypt in time for them to be added to the sculpture.

What could possibly go wrong?

Twenty possible endings – but only one is successful. Will you find it and avoid being thrown into prison or eaten by a tiger?

Author biography

When she was young Kate promised she would never go out with a boy called Sean (too naughty), study history (too boring) or be a teacher (too hard) but she dreamt of writing books.

Luckily dreams can come true and promises are made to be broken.

She now writes books inspired by fascinating stories from history, visits schools using her ten years of teaching experience, and is married to historian Sean Cunningham.

After all life would be very boring if you knew how it was going to turn out.

Kate works with her eldest son, illustrator Sam Cunningham, who creates the wonderful hand-drawn pictures in all the Reading Riddle children’s books.

http://www.readingriddle.co.uk

Social media links

Instagram: https://instagram.com/reading_riddle

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@readingriddle

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/readingriddle

Substack: https://readingriddle.substack.com

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Why not check out what some other amazing reviewers had to say about this book – you can see other stops on this tour here:

I’ve set up a ‘bookshop’ of sorts, over on Bookshop.org, so that I can point you to somewhere to buy that isn’t Amazon. I get a small commission for any sales made there. This helps to support me running this blog. If you’d like to get your copy of Wolves of Londinium this way, please just click here. If you’d like to support me without buying a book, you can do so here. Thank you

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Shorelines by Ruth Ennis 

It’s been a while since I accepted a book to review – life has been incredibly busy over the last year! – but I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to dive into Shorelines by Ruth Ennis.

The lovely people at TheWriteReads described this book as a reimagining of HC Andersen’s ‘The Little Mermaid’.

This YA fantasy novel in verse follows Muireann’s story.

Between a dying ocean and a divided world, a mermaid must choose between the sea that made her and the surface that might break her – in this stunning novel in-verse.

Muireann is a mermaid – fierce, curious, and proud of the body that keeps her warm beneath the waves. But life in the ocean is becoming impossible. The merfolk are at war with climate change that has ravaged the sea: food is scarce, and her twin sister was killed in a mass-fishing net. With her mother lost in grief and her world falling apart, Muireann dreams of escaping to the surface.

But the human world isn’t the haven she hoped for. It’s colder, crueler – and here, her large body is seen not as strength, but as something to be ashamed of. Muireann must find her voice and decide where she belongs –  beneath the waves, or above them.

Firstly, I love that Muireann is fat; that all the merfolk are. It feels so incredibly logical, given the survival mechanisms of marine mammals. I also love how strong her voice is – when I read novels in verse, I often find that if they’re told in first person, the poetry sort of overrides the sense of the character. That doesn’t happen at all here.

I love the layout of the poetry – the way that words and shapes interact. Here are a couple of examples that I thought were especially wonderful;

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In particular, this following poem really stood out to me. The alignment of the paragraphs to portray a conversation is so clever! No need for quotation marks, disrupting the very clean aesthetic of the verse that’s upheld throughout.

That said, the layout can get a little challenging at times. I found the following segment took a few reads before I figured out how it was intended to be read (i.e. bottom to top… I think). I wouldn’t necessarily want to change the format – I think it works so well as part of the metaphor of Muireann rising to the surface – but I might have liked an illustration that led the eye on this page, or at least something as a visual clue for where to start.

I think in general, that would be my main criticism of the book – the illustrations are beautiful and fit the tone fantastically, but I think there could have been a little more cohesion in how they were used.

It’s a minor point though, and it’s really all I’ve flagged as I read the book. I would still – and have already – recommend this to friends and family. As ever, I don’t really believe that children’s books should be confined to being read by children only, so I’ve sent links to this to numerous adult friends. It really is a spectacular offering in the ‘fairytale retellings’ genre. Along with Cinder House by Freya Marske (Cinderella), it’s possibly my absolute favourite.

A note on the ending: This book follows the HC Andersen version of The Little Mermaid, not the Disney one. It does so beautifully, I might add, and as someone who spent a lot of time at university studying Andersen, there’s a sense of ‘Finally!’ to this ending for me. I do understand, though, that not everyone is a lover of the bitter-sweet, so I do think it needs saying.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the different endings to The Little Mermaid, and I would love to hear of any other particularly good fairytale retellings you know of! Comments are always lovely, and it’d be great to chat books with people! Alternatively, you can find me over on Bluesky 🙂

Much love!

Fran xx

I’ve set up a ‘bookshop’ of sorts, over on Bookshop.org, so that I can point you to somewhere to buy that isn’t Amazon. I get a small commission for any sales made there. This helps to support me running this blog. If you’d like to get your copy of Shorelines this way, please just click here. If you’d like to support the running costs of this website without buying a book, you can do so here. Thank you.

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Kickflip by LD Lapinski and Logan Hanning

We’re now into July, meaning that Pride Month is over. But I still have more amazing LGBTQIA+ books to talk about.

Soooooo, we’re going to start with the amazing comic that is Kickflip, by LD Lapinski.

Like Jamie – another of Lapinski’s books – this amazing graphic novel highlights the experiences of a non-binary young person as they learn to navigate an increasingly binary world.

Bullied for not conforming at their girls’ school, and presumed male on account of their hobbies, Elliot finds that neither label properly describes them. After some beautiful conversations with a very supportive mum, Elliot eventually finds the courage to talk about their identity to their closest friends.

Whilst the writing of this book is obviously superb (as is the case with all of Lapinski’s work), Hanning’s artwork in this one really takes it to the next level. The warmth, humour, and subtle storytelling in these comics really is a joy to engage with, and though I’ve only had the book for a few weeks, I’ve returned to it multiple times already, finding something new to love each time.

I’ve spoken before about how amazing the children’s comics scene is becoming, and Kickflip is definitely one to add to the canon.

Have you managed to get hold of this yet? What are your favourite children’s comics? As ever, I would love recommendations!

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I’ve set up a ‘bookshop’ of sorts, over on Bookshop.org, so that I can point you to somewhere to buy that isn’t Amazon. I get a small commission for any sales made there. This helps to support me running this blog. If you’d like to get your copy of Kickflip this way, please just click here. If you’d like to support me without buying a book, you can do so here. Thank you.

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Allies: Real Talk About Showing Up, Screwing Up, And Trying Again by Shakirah Bourne and Dana Alison Levy

I’ve spent the last month highlighting books about LGBTQIA+ issues and/or by LGBTQIA+ authors:

The Secret Sunshine Project
Jamie
Glitterboy
Boy Like Me
Cottonopolis
Bloom

And while all of these books are AMAZING, I wanted to close out the month with an action – something that people could do in the face of the increasing demonisation of – specifically the trans community but also in general all – LGBTQIA+ people.

I first came across Allies: Real Talk About Showing Up, Screwing Up, And Trying Again by Shakirah Bourne and Dana Alison Levy in a shorter format, as one of the £1 World Book Day books. The title of the book generally explains what it does – it speaks about the need to sit with discomfort and let it move us to change, rather than to anger.

So often, so much of the discord we see in the world comes from peoples’ own discomfort at being wrong, where instead of listening and saying ‘sorry, I made a mistake’, they double-down on their previous assertions. This book teaches young people how to move past those feelings, and how to decentre themselves and their hurt in these conversations.

So, now that Pride month is over, what are we going to do going forward?

If you read no other books that I’ve recommended over June, I’d love it if you’d read this one – or even the £1 World Book Day abridged copy. In times like these, allyship is vital – especially for the trans community.

As for me, I’m going to continue seeking out books by LGBTQIA+ authors, so that I can continue to highlight them throughout the coming 12 months. If you’re an author or a publisher, and you have a book with queer themes for children and teens that you’d like me to review, please get in touch – especially books past their first flush of youth – I know how important sustained publicity is.

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I’ve set up a ‘bookshop‘ of sorts, over on Bookshop.org, so that I can point you to somewhere to buy that isn’t Amazon. I get a small commission for any sales made there. This helps to support me running this blog. If you’d like to get your copy of Allies this way, please just click here. If you’d like to support me without buying a book, you can do so here. Thank you.

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Bloom by Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau

Bloom by Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau is an absolutely gorgeous book. It reminded me a little of Heartstopper by Alice Oseman, both in terms of character design and artwork, which – since I loved Heartstopper – was a very good thing.

The story follows Ari, who wants to move away from his family bakery to play in a band with his friends. When baking-enthusiast Hector gets hired to help out after Ari is gone, Ari finds himself with a new reason to stay.

This is such a sweet romance – pun intended – and I loved the soft palette of grey-blue used throughout. I thought it really added to the mood. There were some moments where I wished that certain toxic friendships had been dealt with more instructively, but I do get that this is a representation of real-life struggles amongst teens/young-adults rather than a manual for How To Life. And I wish that there had been some more conversation about what happened following a certain altercation towards the end – Hector deserved better damnit – but overall, I thought that all the conflict was wrapped up nicely by the end.

This is another book for older readers, much like Boy Like Me, where it’s super easy to read alongside your child – the graphic novel format makes it quick, and it’s a breezy delight compared to the real world. Goodness knows I appreciated the happy place it provided for a few hours. And now I get to chat about lovely books with my eldest kiddo, which should keep the world at bay for a little longer.

Do you have any favourite graphic novels? Have you read Bloom, or Global, or The Power of Welcome? I would love to hear your thoughts and recommendations!


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I’ve set up a ‘bookshop‘ of sorts, over on Bookshop.org, so that I can point you to somewhere to buy that isn’t Amazon. I get a small commission for any sales made there. This helps to support me running this blog. If you’d like to get your copy of Bloom this way, please just click here. If you’d like to support me without buying a book, you can do so here. Thank you.