Adam Maxwell

The Lost Bookshop - The Mystery of the Missing Monkey was a fabulous read! This book is so well-written that I felt like I was running through the stacks of books with Nina and Ivy. I could smell the old books as they darted in and out of rooms and hallways filled with them. Following Nina, Ivy, and Oswald through their magical adventure was a real treat.

My little one and I thought we had figured out the Mystery of the Missing Monkey but it kept us guessing until the very end! She loved the show more circus characters, especially Sadie the Bearded Lady! I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves magical adventures. This is a great read for children! show less

This book does an excellent job of taking an old cliche (writing prompts) and making them both interesting and useful. Ideas on how to use them lean toward opening your creativity in that area as well as breaking through any writer's block you may have. This can be fun simply as a periodic exercise even without writer's block.

Read: March 2016
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

There are twenty stories in just over 100 pages so each story is very short and this book is a nice, quick read. The stories themselves are all well written but some suffer from being so very short that it is hard to really get into them. I definitely prefer the slightly longer, more surreal tales included here.

The individual ratings for each story are:

Happiness is a Warm Gun - 2.5/5 stars
Shooting Jelly with a Shotgun- 3/5 stars
Jim Morrison's Leg - 3.5/5 show more stars
I Almost Spanked a Monkey - 3.5/5 stars
The Holy Face of Gary Barlow -4/5 stars FAVOURITE
The Beginning - 2.5/5 stars
Sherry For Breakfast - 4.5/5 stars FAVOURITE
Sprouts- 3/5 stars
Rudolph Redux - 3/5 stars
Special K and the Yorkshire Terrier - 2/5 stars
A Stroll Along the Prom, Prom, Prom - 3/5 stars
Sandwiches -2/5 stars
Self Assembly - 2/5 stars
Is That To Go? - 3/5 stars
It Happens - 3/5 stars
To Let: Ground Floor Flat - 2.5/5 stars
The Dangers of eBay - 3/5 stars
The Things We Said Today -2/5 stars
Noise Abatement - 3.5/5 stars
The Cock ain't Gonna Like That - 3.5/5 stars show less