Well. If you, like me - and Lucy Mangan - are a bookworm, prepare to clasp this book to your heart...
In a delightful mix of book reviews, memory and memoir, Lucy revisits some of her childhood favourites, lightly sketches the history of publishing for children, reminds you of cherished books you loved as a child and introduces you to ones you wish you had read, and now will.

Insightful and snort-inducingly funny, this is the book for you if you:

Loved SVH
Look for Secret Gardens
Are Forever fans of Ralph
Check the backs of old wardrobes

Love love love...

A nostalgic memoir about childhood reading in the 70’s and 80’s. As I grew up at a similar time I did find many of the books I had read in here so it was a trip down memory lane.

A lovely book reminding you about the power of reading especially at a young age and the importance of imagination.

I would have liked to have read more - such as reading in adulthood now but perhaps a second book about this will follow? I did find some of the lengthy plot
Descriptions a bit unnecessarily but I guess important in case people hadn’t read the books.

Overall a nostalgic and interesting read.

I absolutely loved the first half of this book! It's such a trip down memory lane. It all starts with The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the details the author has researched about this book and many of the others mentioned, are fascinating. Then there are Milly Molly Mandy, The Famous Five, The Secret Seven and I started to think 'I bet The Borrowers and Stig of the Dump won't get a mention' but they do! Every book that I remember being important to me during my childhood is in here.

The second half was a little different as what I read and what the author read were different. It was still very interesting to read about the books the author featured, but they were largely books I knew nothing about.

The thing that made this a four star rather than a five star read for me were the reference notes which appear throughout the text. In a paperback or hardback these would probably be presented in smaller text at the bottom of the page. But in the e version, they are asterisked and then the note appear within the main text, sometimes in the middle of a sentence. Sometimes it was tricky to see where the note ended and the main text began again. This spoiled the readability a little bit, but I guess it is something the publishers may refine in the final published version. That aside, it was a lovely read and a book I have talked about to many of my family and friends.

Thank you to Netgally for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The life of a child entangled with the books she read, unluckily as I'm Italian, not all the titles were known or famous for me, still and enjoyable reading.

La vita di una bambina intrecciata con le sue letture, purtroppo il fatto di essere italiana significa che non tutti i titoli mi dicessero qualcosa, comunque mi sono divertita a leggere il libro.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

I think that I am of a very similar age to Mangan and so many of her experiences and book memories are the same as mine, from titles we read to how our families treated the reader. This book jogged my memory in so many ways that I now have a huge list of books to rediscover in 2018.