Puffin has had a big year for books: 2015 saw the release of the second Girl Online novel, the conclusion of Charlie Higson’s The Enemy series, and a striking black edition of the #1 bestselling The Fault in Our Stars, to name just a few. Even though it’s a difficult task, we’ve put together a selection of eight can’t-miss titles for your reading and gifting pleasure. Stop what you’re doing, these are our must-reads!
This February we’re celebrating Dynamic Double acts. There are plenty to
choose from: Hank and John Green have just finished their phenomenal tour (more
later), Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Marget Stohl is out in cinemas tomorrow (hold your breath) and the Dragon Frontier
boys have written us a very special post on fictional pairings (watch this
space).
But never mind the authors, no siree! Terrible Twos-Day is all about the characters and
because its Shrove Tuesday, we thought who better to focus on then our
favourite troublemaking Finnish pancake eaters – The Moomins!
Moomintroll and Sniff
‘Moomin and the New Friend’by Tove Jansson
Moomintroll and Sniff star in
Tove Jansson’s brilliant series ‘The Moomins’. In case you haven’t seen the
Moomims before, they are these white, blobby hippo-like creatures who live in Moominvalley
and like to eat and sleep A LOT. There are also some other creatures on the
island who you get to meet throughout the books, like Sniff.
Sniff looks a bit like a
mouse or a baby kangaroo and lives with his best friend,
Moomintroll.
Tove Jansson loves to follow these two rascals on various adventures and
they are always getting into trouble!
In ‘Moomin and the New
Friend’, Moomintroll and Sniff find a bottle washed up on shore with a
message inside from someone who needs help. The pair bravely decide to
set sail and find the mysterious person but end up getting caught in one whale
of a storm almost immediately. What becomes of these two silly
whippersnappers? Well, you’ll have to read the book if you want to find out.
Lauren Watson, Penguin
Children’s Work Experience
Who’s your favourite troublesome duo? Let us know and send your ideas for
future blog posts to puffinblog@uk.penguingroup.com
This week’s ’52 Puffins’ nomination comes from Natasha, one of our sparkling Marketing Team – and it sounds like Tiny Cooper is more than ready to take centre stage!
What is 52 Puffins? Well, although we love our main characters, in 2013 we think its time to celebrate the supporting cast: the extras with the witty one-liners, the dastardly villains and the best freind every hero would be lost without. Who’s your favourite?
Download 52 Puffins – Questions – Download me!and send your answers to puffinblog@uk.penguingroup.com
1. Name: Tiny Cooper (from Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan)
2. Famous Friends?
Both Will
Graysons (but especially Will Grayson). Will didn’t
exactly CHOOSE to be friends with Tiny Cooper, but they ended up thick as
thieves anyway. Will says, “We’ve been friends too long to pick, but if I could
pick, I’d pick you”… which gets taken to another level when he actually, literally has to pick Tiny’s nose for him! Ewww!
3. Hero or villain?
MASSIVE
hero! And a legend in his own lunchtime!
4. Why you love him?
Because Tiny
Cooper is, hilariously, very UN-tiny… in fact, he’s ginormous! Will is constantly impressed that Tiny
manages to defy the laws of physics and squeeze behind one of those titchy
American-style school desks every day – he calls it “the miracle of Tiny Cooper
and the desk”.
Secondly,
unlike Will Grayson, Tiny Cooper is NOT afraid to fall completely, madly,
utterly in love. He’s a total romantic!
Thirdly, he is
an AMAZING football player.
And last but
not least, he gets funding for, writes, produces and directs a school musical
ABOUT HIS OWN LIFE! That’s how awesome
he is! (He even writes Will Grayson into
the musical, in the cunning guise of the fictional character ‘Phil Wrayson’…)
5. What’s his catchphrase?
Hmmm… I’m not
sure he has one! But there is a
catchphrase ABOUT Tiny Cooper, which is (repeat after me!): “I appreciate you, Tiny Cooper!”
It seems we’re not the only ones excited about The Fault in Our Stars by John Green –
you are too!
Last Tuesday we found out that it had won Best Young Adult Fiction in The Goodreads.com Choice Award.
What makes this award so special is that it’s chosen by readers like you guys. Over
90,000 votes were cast and almost 40,000 were for TFIOS.
Everyone in the office was really happy for John
but because he lives in America
we thought we should wait a few hours before we congratulated him (it was about
3AM over in the states). We hadn’t even picked up the phone when there was yet
more good news . . .
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