I can’t believe that we’re celebrating Story Snug’s 9th Birthday!
I haven’t blogged as much as I did before the pandemic but Story Snug is still a big part of my life. Over the last year we’ve read lots of wonderful books, old and new, including a wide range of picture books, fiction and non fiction, chapter books and middle grade. We would love to blog about so many more but sadly there is just not enough time to shout out about every wonderful book that we read.
Happy 9th birthday Story Snug!
One of our favourite books this year was The Book Of Hopes edited by Katherine Rundell, a sturdy hardback book of stories and poems from children’s writers which was compiled to give readers hope and support throughout the pandemic.
Thank you
There are LOTS of people that I would like to thank for supporting Story Snug!
A huge THANK YOU to my husband, who is Story Snug’s technical wizard, and our daughter, who has always been an avid bookworm!
A huge THANK YOU to all of Story Snug’s followers and especially to all of you who leave such lovely comments on the blogposts. Your visits and comments are very much appreciated. Thank you for visiting!
And THANK YOU to the blogging community for supporting Story Snug and especially to our special book blogging friends who are listed on our blogroll.
A big THANK YOU to my followers on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest and to everybody who shares our blogposts on social media.
THANK YOU to all the publishers and PR representatives who send us fantastic books to read and recommend. We are truly grateful to you and only wish we had the time to write about every single one of those that we love.
Special THANK YOUs to all the authors and illustrators who have written guest posts for Story Snug. Thank you for answering our interview questions and for giving us a fantastic insight into your work and creative processes. Thank you also to those of you who have invited us to be part of your blog tours.
Blog tours
We’ve taken part in several blog tours for very different books. Monstrous Devices by Damien Love was very different to anything we’ve read before, we loved Jane Austen Investigates: The Abbey Mystery by Julia Golding and How To Be Brave by Daisy May Johnson took me back to the days when I loved reading boarding school stories. As new pet owners Rita’s Rabbit by Laura Mucha & Hannah Peck really made us
We were delighted to host several authors and illustrators who wrote fabulous posts for their blogtour stops. Michelle Harrison talked about ‘The Perks of Befriending a Broomstick’ on her Midnight Magic Blogtour, Karl Newson wrote a very powerful post for his and Clara Anganuzzi’s How To Mend a Friend Blogtour and Paul Morton talked about the role that SCBWI played in the publication of Bug Belly Froggy Rescue. Charlotte Caswell showed us how she created some of the illustrations in her Finney’s Story Blogtour blogpost.
Author guest posts
It’s always really interesting to hear authors and illustrators talk about the inspiration for their books and it was interesting to hear author Fiona Barker talk about Setsuko and the Song of the Sea, Elizabeth Gilbert Bedia talk about depression and Arthur Wants a Balloon and Lauren Kerstein talk about the inspiration for Home for A While, a story about fostering.
Picture books
Picture books that we really enjoyed reading over the last year include The Hospital Dog by Julia Donaldson and Sara Ogilvie, Rain Before Rainbows by Smriti Halls & David Litchfield, Story Soup by Abie Longstaff & Nila Aye, This book is PANTS! by John Kane, TOO MUCH STUFF! by Emily Gravett and King Of The Swampby Catherine Emmett & Ben Mantle, The Magic Crayon by Amy Sparkes and Ali Bye and The Bear and her Book by Frances Tosdevin and Sophia O’Connor.
Chapter books
We enjoyed a variety of early chapter books including Winter Wishes: A Magical Collection of Animal Talesillustrated by Alison Edgson, Freddie’s Amazing Bakery: The Great Raspberry Mix Up by Harriet Whitehorn & Alex G Griffiths, Jasper & Scruff: The Great Cat Cake-Off by Nicola Colton and The Book Cat by Polly Faber and Clara Vulliamy.
MIDDLE GRADE
Thank you to the publishers who sent us some fantastic middle grade this year. Bauble, Me and the Family Tree by Jenny Moore & Kirsten Eagan, The House At The Edge of Magic by Amy Sparkes & Ben Mantle, The Perfect Parent Project by Stewart Foster. We also loved the very amusing Uma And The Answer To Absolutely Everything by Sam Copeland & Sarah Horne.
NON FICTION
Non fiction that we enjoyed included Climate Action – The Future Is In Our Hands by Georgina Stevens & Katie Rewse, Climate Emergency Atlas by Dan Hooke, Great Lives In Graphics: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart / Jane Austen / Nikola Tesla / Frida Kahlo and KIDS KNIT by Kerry Kimber.
MOST VIEWED POSTS
The five most viewed blogposts on Story Snug over the last nine years have been the same for two years running – they’re all classic picture books that many of us read as children – Learning with Elmer, Learning with Eric Carle and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Funnybones, Learning With Room on the Broom and On The Way Home. Sadly Eric Carle and Jill Murphy passed away this year, we have several of their books on our bookshelves and I read many of their picture books to my first reception / year one classes.
You can see most of Story Snug’s posts on our Pinterest Board which was started later than Story Snug so there are still a few missing!
I would also like to say a big THANK YOU to my SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) friends who inspired me to create Story Snug at my very first meeting. Thank you for your continued support with my writing. Also thank you to the authors and illustrators who have given me so much encouragement for my own writing, especially those who have helped me this year as I take a new direction into chapter book writing.
I still find it unbelievable that we’re celebrating Story Snug’s 9th Birthday, something that I had never even considered when I started blogging! Thank you again to all of you for your support and I look forward to seeing what the next year of blogging will bring!
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