#SixforSunday – Rainbow Books
Welcome back to another week of #SixforSunday
#SixforSunday is created by Steph from A Little But a Lot.
The theme for this week is rainbow books. I started browsing my bookshelves for books with rainbow-coloured covers…but it was surprisingly difficult to find enough!
Here’s what I came up with…
The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven
Izzy O’Neill is an aspiring comic, an impoverished orphan, and a Slut Extraordinaire. Or at least, that’s what the malicious website flying round the school says. Izzy can try all she wants to laugh it off – after all, her sex life, her terms – but when pictures emerge of her doing the dirty with a politician’s son, her life suddenly becomes the centre of a national scandal. Izzy’s never been ashamed of herself before, and she’s not going to start now. But keeping her head up will take everything she has…
This has (deservedly!) featured in #SixforSunday before. Not only does it have a beautiful, colourful cover, but this book has a snarky, sarcastic protagonist who refuses to sit back and take it whenever she is slut-shamed online. If you haven’t read this already, you need to!
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind–she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.
I can’t believe that this book hasn’t featured before in #SixforSunday because I love it! I read it earlier this year and was completely transported to the wild, snowy north of Russia. It draws on lots of Russian folklore and I loved Vailisa, Morozko and Solovey. One of my top reads this year so highly recommended!
Warcross by Marie Lu
For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game – it’s a way of life. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. When Emika hacks into the game illegally, she’s convinced she’ll be arrested, and is shocked when she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job.
This was the first book I thought off when given the prompt for a ‘rainbow’ cover, especially as the main character, Emika, also has rainbow-coloured hair. I really enjoyed this and, if you like Ready Player One or the idea of a virtual gaming world, you will too. Book 2, Wildcard, is due out soon!
Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones
When Andrew Hope’s magician grandfather dies, he leaves his house and field-of-care to his grandson who spent much of his childhood at the house. Into this mix comes young Aidan Cain, who turns up from the orphanage asking for safety. Who he is and why he’s there is unclear, but a strong connection between the two becomes apparent.
There is a certain generation who grew up with Diana Wynne Jones – Howl’s Moving Castle, Chrestomanci, etc – and she is an absolute master (mistress?) of magic, awe and wonder. I don’t know how her books aren’t more popular than they are. If you haven’t already read them, please don’t miss out!
The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers
Poor Duncan just wants to color. But when he opens his box of crayons, he finds only letters, all saying the same thing: We quit!
Beige is tired of playing second fiddle to Brown. Blue needs a break from coloring all that water, while Pink just wants to be used. Green has no complaints, but Orange and Yellow are no longer speaking to each other.
What is Duncan to do?
This is a hilarious book about a box of crayons quitting because of unequal treatment by their owner – each crayon writes a letter to explain why they are leaving! Oliver Jeffer‘s wonderful illustrations fill this book with charm and character. I have seen this being used in lots of classrooms to great effect – even better, adapt it and have something else in your classroom quit because of poor treatment!
The Glass Swallow by Julia Golding
Living above her father’s workshop, Rain secretly designs stained glass but when she is discovered she must go to the strange new land of Magharna. Bandits roam the lonely roads and when Rain is ambushed she knows that she cannot win the fight. That is until a boy with a falcon saves her and an adventure of a lifetime begins.
This story is based around a young girl challenging gender stereotypes and travelling to a far-away country to find her fortune. Despite some parts not aging very well (E.g. Peri’s over-protective behaviour comes across as more controlling than cute!), this is still a slid and fun fantasy novel. It is actually a sequel to Dragonfly, but can be read as a stand-alone as it is simply set in the same world and has a cameo appearance of characters from the first book (I read them the wrong way around and it didn’t impact on my understanding at all).
Check out some of my previous weeks of #SixforSunday here:
Books I would like to see as movies
Book characters I would like to stuck in a lift with
Animal companions in children’s books
Book characters I would like to be friends with
Favourite books of 2018 so far
Favourite snacks to eat while reading
Favourite books that nobody has heard of
What did you think of my choices this week?
Do you have any books with multi-coloured covers on your shelves?
Have you read any of the books I mentioned or would you like to?
Let me know in the comments
Find me on Twitter , Goodreads or Instagram
Thanks for reading!
I loved The Exact Opposite of Okay (as you’ll already know if you own a finished copy 😉), and have Warcross on my TBR pile. I really must get to it 🙈
I love the sound of Enchanted Glass, but just checked my library’s site and their copy was stolen :(. Shall keep an eye out for it!
Amy x
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Warcross was better than I had expected – due to all the hype I had seen some disappointed reviews. The Exact Opposite of Okay should be required reading – you should frame where you were quoted too! I think that any Diana Wynne Jones would definitely be your cup of tea! If the library’s copy has been stolen they might order in another one for you? My library did that for me when a book I wanted had disappeared!
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Gorgeous covers, aren;t they.
I’ve read so many good things about The Exact Opposite of Okay… I should really get it.
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Yes! You won’t regret it!
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Beautiful covers! “The Day the Crayons Quit” sounds hilariously adorable, and deeper than it seems!
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It is brilliant! There is also a sequel, The Day The Crayons Came Home which is equally brilliant!
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Ooo! I’ll have to add both to my list! 👍💖
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Hope you enjoy them!
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S and I absolutely LOVED The Day the Crayons Quit. Have you read the sequel The Day the Crayons Came Home? Also a brilliant read.
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Yes! I love it too! I am a massive fan of Oliver Jeffers so have read pretty much anything he has written or illustrated. I like how The Day the Crayons Quit can be used with almost any age – our Year 6s did some great writing based on it!
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I LOVED The Bear and the Nightingale! Have you read the sequel? It’s quite different but totally brilliant. I haven’t read Warcross but I loved Ready Player One so I’m hoping that I’ll like it 😊❤️💜💙🖤💛💚
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I loved The Bear and the Nightingale! I pre-prdered the second book but haven’t actually read it yet – isn’t that terrible? Every time I go to pick it up someone interrupts me so I am planning it for a day when nobody will talk to me, lol. I had been worried that Warcross was over-hyped, but I did really like it. Hope you enjoy it too!
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I held on to my copy until the weather got really cold and I’d finished off all the other books I was reading! They really are novels to savour so I don’t blame you. Although you might be waiting for quite a long time for the atmospheric conditions to synchronise, lol.
I hope I like Warcross too! 😊
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Who knows with the weather at the moment – but it would be a perfect read for a cold or snowy day when curled up under a fluffy blanket!
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That’s exactly how I read it – also in a nice hot bubble bath when it was snowing outside. Luckily the book is so absorbing that you won’t notice the sunshine!
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I’ve just bought The Exact Opposite or Okay and can’t wait to start reading it!
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It is brilliant! Let me know what you think!
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