"The Spirit of Loughmoe Abbey" by Megan Wynne Plot Gwen is supposed to be home-schooled but her mum's mental health problems mean she isn't receiving any schooling. When it is clear that her mum needs hospital treatment to recover, Gwen is sent to an unusual boarding school where students are helped to communicate with spirits. While there, she is confronted with an unsettling truth about her past. Review I read this book in a day, so that is always a good sign! I really enjoyed the mix of normal and supernatural that happens in the book, and how it weaves together so seamlessly. There is an air of mystery around the staff at the school, in particular the principal, which I would love to be developed. I found Gwen thoroughly annoying at first. She had every trait I dislike in "home-schooled" children - I was home-schooled myself and get annoyed when people equate home-schooling to no-schooling or random trips to educational establishments. Maths is important...
For more than a decade, Derek Philpott and his son, Dave, have been writing to pop stars from the 1960s to the 90s to take issue with the lyrics of some of their best-known songs. But then, to their great surprise, the pop stars started writing back... Dear Mr Pop Star contains 100 of Derek and Dave's greatest hits, including correspondence with Katrina and the Waves, Tears for Fears, Squeeze, The Housemartins, Suzi Quatro, Devo, Deep Purple, Nik Kershaw, T Pau, Human League, Eurythmics, Wang Chung, EMF, Mott the Hoople, Heaven 17, Jesus Jones, Johnny Hates Jazz, Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, Chesney Hawkes and many, many more. When I agreed to review this book and be part of the blog tour for the launch, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. This book's subject and way of writing is most unusual...but it works! What a great hobby to write to celebrities, and greater still that some of them would reply, often matching the cheek and wit that was init...