Well, it’s been an up-and-down few days. First, The Shop on Peculiar Hill didn’t make the finals of The Wishing Shelf Book Awards. So everyone here was disappointed for a while. But that didn’t last very long because we won a Red Ribbon award and the feedback we received on the book from the 17 kids who judged it was really good. Take a look:
Star Rating: 4 Stars
Of the 17 readers:
14 would read another book by this author.
12 thought the cover was good or excellent.
17 felt it was easy to follow.
15 would recommend this book to another reader to try.
Of all the readers, 7 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘plotting a story’.
Of all the readers, 5 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘developing the characters’.
Of all the readers, 5 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘writing style’.
16 felt the pacing was good or excellent.
14 thought the author understood the readership and what they wanted.
Readers’ Comments:
“This author has the best name ever!” Boy, aged 8
“I liked this book a lot. I thought the plot was a bit crazy and lots of crazy things kept happening. It was like a rollercoaster!” Boy, aged 12
“Scary animals in the Vale of Strange. Exciting book. I liked the characters. They were sort of larger than life. I thought the cover was a bit messy, but the story’s good.’ Boy, aged 11
“Sort of scary but sort of funny too. I think this writer has an exciting imagination and knows how to write a good story for kids. The best character was Peter. I also like the shop too.” Girl, aged 9 with a little help from her teacher
“Amanda’s cool. She’s the character I would want to be. I laughed a lot when reading this book. I thought it was slow in the beginning but the second half’s a blast. Kids aged 10 – 13 will find this a fun book.” Girl, aged 12
To sum it up:
‘A fun, whimsical adventure, excellent for 9 – 12 year olds. A RED RIBBON WINNER and highly recommended.’ The Wishing Shelf Book Awards
According to the Award’s scoring system, the book got 30 points out of 40. We needed 31 or more to make the finals so we just missed out! So, we’ll be submitting Stranger Days on Peculiar Hill for their next contest – and keeping our fingers crossed…
We’ll have to have a word with Pete about that messy cover though…
Grimly Darkwood 