Sunday, May 12, 2024

Avaruuden rajalla - Satu Leisko #gift


 STORY : Teenager Visa lives with his engineer father. His mother, also an engineer, is in a coma in the hospital, after an accident on a space station. One afternoon, his father's boss asks him to come work on the same space station where Visa's mother was injured. A new spaceship is there and they want his father to work on it. The work could be very dangerous. 


LANGUAGE :  This is a sci-fi book, set it the future with technology not yet available in our world. Because of this world building, it requires some vocabulary to explain to the reader how things work. The book is less than 100 pages and has black and white full page illustrations throughout. 

Because of this slight learning curve, I would recommend this to B1+ readers. 


WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK : This is a good book for someone new to the sci-fi genre. There is no hard science or formulas in here, just a different time and setting.  It's great that selkokirjat are seeing more genre books, so give this one a try if you are looking for something a bit different.


Thank you to Opike for allowing me to be a beta tester reader of the book before it was published and allowing me to be a part of the publishing process. Thank you for a copy of the published book as a review.

HAPPY READING!


Sunday, January 28, 2024

GIVEAWAY

 Thank you for reading my blog posts about selkokirjat. I hope you have found some useful information and some good books to add to your TBR. Thanks to your comments for sharing if you have read them or own them. It's great to hear from everyone, especially around the world!

I just posted about Tarhapäivä by Eve Hietamies / Hanna Männikkölahti. I happen to have two copies of the book. I'd like to give away my extra copy (a 30€ value, in mint condition) to someone who'd like to read it or share it with a selkokirja reader.

To participate in the giveaway, 

1) leave a comment under this post, stating in what country you live

2) send an email to selkokirjatinreview@gmail.com with the heading TARHAPÄIVÄ GIVEAWAY and a short message about selkokirjat - why you would like to win, what selkokirjat you have read, why do you like selkokirjat, etc.


I'll keep this giveaway open until MARCH 31, 2024.


Terms and Conditions: You must be 18 years old or older to enter. One entry per person. If your email to me does not match the requirements in section two, it will be deleted and disqualified. If your email contains attachments, it will be deleted and disqualified.  I will choose a winner randomly and contact them via e-mail in April. If you live in the Helsinki-Espoo-Vantaa, I'd be happy to drop the book off in person at a public location. If you live outside the tri-city area, I will mail the book to you by post. This giveaway is open internationally, I will post the book if you live outside of Finland.  If I have not heard from a winner by May, I will donate the book to a library or school. 

Thank you and happy reading!

Tarhapäivä (#2) - Eve HIetamies / Hanna Männikkölahti

Tarhapäivä #2 - Eve Hietamies / Hanna Männikkölahti

STORY: Father Antti Pasanen is back at work and little Paavo is now five years old! Paavo is now in daycare, and Enni and Terttu remain good friends with the boys. They even go over vacation together to Cyprus. 

This is the second book in the series, the first being Yösyöttö (read my review here). While it is a sequel and involves many of the same characters, this book can be read also as a standalone. The first couple of chapters provides a summary of the first book.


LANGUAGE: Set in Helsinki in the near present, mostly told from father Antti's perspective. This book is 178 pages long, but the chapters remain short at only a couple of pages or so. There are black and white illustrations throughout. If you have read Yösyöttö or other full length adult selkokirjat, then you should be comfortable reading this book also. 

I rated Yösyöttö a B1+ language level recommendation and I suggest the same for this book.


CHARACTERS: Antti is a 45 year old single father. Pia, Paavo's mother, lives on her own, but is unable to take care of herself due to mental health issues. Paavo is 5, but seems to be developing slower than his good friend Terttu. Enni is a single mother who we met in book one and her daughter is Terttu. We also see familiar characters from book one, such as Antti's family and meet new characters.

A character list is provided in the front of the book.


WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK: If you are like me and read the first book, you'll want to get your paws on this second book. It's just as good as the first book, if not better in certain ways, now that the children are older. If you haven't read the first book, I recommend you pick it up. If it's not available, the definitely read this one. The trials and tribulations of a single father are often hilarious and many things the kids say belong on one of those ,Out of the Mouths of Babes, television shows. And what happens when two five year olds are brought together? I really enjoyed this book and hope you do too!