When I first heard about this book, I had high hopes for it, as I have a daughter with high-functioning Asperger's. Though admittedly Kathy Lette's novels have never really interested me much - not my sort of reading choice. I wish I had followed my first impression of her work rather than give this a chance, unfortunately.

The story follows Cassandra, the single mother of Asperboy Merlin. It traces their abandonment by Merlin's natural father and Cassandra's exploits, or should I say 'sexploits' in her attempts to get back into the dating game, spurred on crudely by her globe-trotting widowed mother and her sister. The aim is no doubt to show the trials of raising a child on the autism spectrum, and the particular difficulties of being a single parent, and Lette uses humour to keep the subject matter getting a little too deep and depressing.

However, this is part of the weakness of this book. I like humour but Lette writes this as if she's composing a stand-up routine. There are similes, metaphors, wisecracks and sarcasm thrown into every paragraph, to the point that it stops the reader being able to identify or sympathise with Cassandra and Merlin. This is a shame because I think a subject matter like this does require some gravity or pathos and not just cheap attempts at humour. I increasingly disliked everyone in this entire novel except poor Merlin. Anyone would have lost the plot living with them.

Additionally, if Cassandra is meant to be portrayed as a sympathetic character, Lette has failed miserably. She talks constantly of how much she loves her son but doesn't properly inform her army of lovers of his difficulties and when he puts his foot in it and talks inappropriately she just feels embarrassed rather than protecting him. I have a child who at times blurts out things that are best left unsaid and try to gently steer her away from a topic of conversation if it is inappropriate. What we see with Cassandra is her just sitting there and indulging her own embarrassment rather than shielding her son. How on earth people can accuse her of being overprotective of her son is beyond me.

I am sure a lot of people will like this book, particularly fans of Lette's, but as a sympathetic portrayal of living with autism it just doesn't cut the mustard, which is surprising as Lette's son has Asperger's. Perhaps the subject matter was too close to heart for her to write with any sincerity and meaning.

Finding a book that explains Asperger's Syndrome to a pre-teen child is worse than finding a needle in a haystack, so I was pleased to come across this book on Amazon. My nine-year-old daughter has been given a diagnosis fairly recently, although she is borderline so some of the statements didn't quite ring true to her. However, the author's explanations about sensory disturbances particularly were helpful and she could see herself in them. The cartoons were good and gave a more lighthearted feel to the subject matter. I felt the book was useful in conveying the basics to my daughter but there were a couple of items that weren't great. It seems that many 'Aspies' will refer to themselves as being from another planet or alien-like, perhaps in the hope that they will convey how out of place they feel. However, for my daughter, it caused distress as she didn't want to think of herself as vastly different to others. I dislike these comparisons and she was in tears so I'd like to find a book that just addresses the main traits of Asperger's without emphasising this particular aspect.

This book was down as a required read for my MA in Children's Literature and I think is usually classified as an older child's/young adult read. However, as an adult I found it enthralling and would recommend it to any reader.

It is the story of a woman and her two children (not sure on ages - they seemed to be more in their teen years than younger) who decide to rent a derelict cottage on the marshes near Cley-next-the Sea, in Norfolk. Apparently the cottage has been deserted for years, but it seems that the previous inhabitant - Yaxley - has only just died. The state of the inside suggests that the man left it in a hurry, or at least unexpectedly, but no one reports mysterious disappearances. The three agree to rent the house for a week to see if they like it, with the idea of extending the rent for longer if all turns out well. However, as soon as they move into the house, they become the object of the local villagers' often unfriendly interest, and are also haunted by a strange cat who appears every evening to howl outside. In little time, the villagers become openly hostile to the new tenants, the cat gets into the house and starts acting bizarrely, and warnings soon come their way to vacate the property or else face danger.

This is quite a short story - I read it in one day - and is unputdownable. Unusually for a teen/child book, the main protagonist is an adult - the mother - than the children and she does grate a little with her neurotic ways but this doesn't detract from the strength of the story and the tension which Westall creates from the start. A fantastic read - highly recommended.

I bought this based on the strength of the reviews. I think it probably was just a dud that I received as others have praised it for being good and well worth the money. However, the product I received was not well made, and the keys towards the right side of the keyboard were sticking and not properly aligned. Amazon as usual has been excellent with returns so apart from the inconvenience of waiting for the product and then having to return it, it was no big deal, just a shame that it didn't work. I will look for another product instead now, as I don't want to risk this one again.

I came to this film really wanting to enjoy it. I'd heard such good things about the way it had been directed, the brilliant story line and superb acting. But I am afraid it left me as cold as the snow that enveloped the town in which it was set.

The premise of a socially isolated and bullied boy and a young female vampire becoming friends had lots of potential - and perhaps in the book this was realised. Here in the film, I felt the director or screenwriter had failed to make the boy in any way likeable. Yes, it was awful the way he is picked on in school but it was hard to empathise with him. The girl vampire was more moving in ways than he was - perhaps this was the film's intention. I don't know. It all seemed rather clinical and lacking in emotion and for a story like this to work, it needs to pack an emotional punch. I found at the end I didn't care what happened to them all.

I am sorry not to write a more positive review but I just couldn't praise this film. Additionally, if you're squeamish like me, the 15 certificate seems a little low. I'd have said it was more of an 18, unless 15-year-olds these days can cope with lots of blood!

I bought this with great anticipation as I had read all the positive reviews on here - much more positive than for most Wii games. At first I totally agreed and would have given this game 5 stars but a few issues for me make it less enjoyable.

As others have noted, there is a serious lack of instructions on the dances. The tutorials aren't easy to follow as there's not much in the way of advice on them and the way they are shown (glowing) makes them hard to follow. I decided to go straight in for the classes as I know some Latin dance and I really enjoyed my first lesson (beginners). However, there is NO instruction to tell you even what move is coming up next. I don't like games with too much talking but there should be a better balance struck between having someone rabbit on all the time and a silent tutor, who occasionally squeaks 'Look at you go!'.

Also, I have bad knees and the amount of twisting in this has proved to be too much for them. My knees haven't been too bad recently but as soon as I try to do the Intermediate lessons or above on this I get very bad inner tendon pain on my right knee, to the point where I am limping for several days. Obviously I realise that this is a personal problem and is not a fault of the workout but I think anyone with dodgy knees should be carefuly when doing some of the 'twist' workouts.

So I am in two minds. It's fun - definitely - and the music mainly is good (a few annoying tracks). The movement detector is far superior that on the Wii Dance Fitness and it's much better not having to hold a console all the time. It's a great way to get fit without noticing it but there are issues with the lack of instruction and excessive twisting it's one that should be done with caution.

I received two of these at Christmas, after placing them on my Xmas Wishlist thinking they would be perfect because of favourable reviews. I don't know if I received two dud ones but the sound quality on them has been shocking. We have to turn the volume up high to get any reasonable volume and then there's hissing and whining. We have tried to move the iPod away from the unit in case of interference but that had no effect whatsoever. There seems to be a lot of vibration going on, hissing, whining and muffled sound. We will be buying another model to replace these - I only hope we won't get the same problem.

My daughter likes playing with these cards and they are a bright and colourful way to learn Spanish words (though the choice of them seems rather random at times). However, as another reviewer noted they use South American Spanish which is sometimes different from Castillian. For example, the Castillian word for car is 'coche' but here they give 'carro'. And banana in Castillian is platano, whereas these cards have 'banana'. Having accidentally used the latter in Spain before I can guarantee you'll get confused looks!

The Spanish words are spelt phonetically too which is a great idea but again the pronunciations are South American. This really isn't a problem unless you want your child to learn Castillian Spanish which I do so I am having to adjust things a little.

Nice idea - but perhaps the publishers could release a Castillian version for Europe?

I came across this book on an amazon search into literacy, as a parent who is getting involved with literacy activities at my daughter's school. I thought its premise sounded interesting and the favourable reviews prompted me to read it. I was not disappointed ... and devoured it in two sittings.

Quite simply, this is a book that all parents should read about reading. And children too. Why not? I am about to start a reading club in my daughter's primary school and Pennac's 10 Rights about reading, which he humorously likens to the 10 Commandments, will become the focus of our weekly discussions. Show a child the first one - the right not to read - and they will be horrified. Not read? When they are forced to swallow such turgid offerings as The Oxford Learning Tree's titles week after week to meet basic standards? Shocking. My daughter was stunned... But as a parent I felt liberated.

Pennac talks about why reading becomes so difficult to encourage in many children - because it becomes an obligation rather than a pleasure. (Think of all the mums who lock themselves in the loo with a book secreted away in a clothes hamper so they have some precious reading time, or children with flashlights under the duvet, or the thousands of commuters delving into the latest bestsellers on the Tube.) By making reading into something that authors never intended - something to be studied, analysed to death and pulled apart, seam from seam - we are sucking all the joy out of the act of reading for reading's sake.

Pennac's solutions are simple and obvious - let people enjoy what they want to read when they want to do so. Read aloud to them. Don't prohibit anything you think is a bad book and don't try to force feed them the good stuff. His descriptions of parental and scholastic neuroses of reading and literacy are spot on, hilarious and so very true. Pennac is also very moving in his descriptions of why young children value bedtime stories so very much - providing as they do an intimate opportunity for bonding between parent and child no matter how well or badly the day went beforehand.

This is one of the best books I have ever read - fiction or non-fiction - and I have been recommending it to all my friends. Dig in and enjoy!

I bought this book with high hopes of it helping my 7-year-old daughter who has suffered from sometimes debilitating anxiety from a very young age. I thought the exercises looked helpful and would be a gentle way for her to explore her worries. Unfortunately the envisioning of things like a seedling (representing worry) growing into a large plant threw her into a complete panic as she thought that one was growing in her stomach! Perhaps she is too young to understand metaphor - even though I carefully explained it - but we had to stop reading this and she has refused to return to it. This might be just her reaction to it so I wouldn't want to discourage parents from looking at it or using it as it might work for them and their families, as seen in the number of very positive reviews here. I would just suggest being prepared for potential confusion about some of the activities.