#FridayReads 29-04

Happy weekend all!
This weekend I'll be reading several books. At the moment I'm still reading 'The Heir' by Keira Cass but I also want to start Princess in the Middle by Meg Cabot and also Vader en Dochter door Michael Dudok de Wit. So yep, my list is long!
So far I'm loving the heir, it's kinda different than I had expected but I just love to be in the Maxon and America world, and now their daughter's as well. The final book 'The Crown' will be released on May 19th so I want to finish 'The Heir' before :)

I also can't wait to get the 3rd and final book from the 'Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children' series by Ransom Riggs in the mail. I ordered it on Sunday so I hope this weekend it will come in the mail or else coming week :)

I shall spend my weekend doing schoolwork, coloring and reading of course!

Which books will you be reading?

Coloring book Review: Enchanted forest by Johanna Basford

It's time for another review, but this time I posted a review of a coloring book! This is my 1st coloring book review :)

I recently bought this coloring book by Johanna Basford on thebookdepository.com for 12 Euros. I got this in the mail 2 weeks ago now and I have to say I'm loving it. Her coloring books are very popular and I just had to try out her newest one.

This book takes you into this magical world with castles, animals and beautiful mythical patterns to color. I just love it so much because the drawings inside are breathtaking!
When you look to the outside of the book it looks stunning as well. The outside has black and white on it with golden accents. Also the material of the book is really good. The paper is really heavy so you can color extra accurate on it and also the quality of it in general is amazing.

I can't wait to color more of the drawings! so far I've colored 2 of them :) The fox and the Castle you see I love most of all! They look so magical!

The YalFest 2016 disappointment...

You probably are wondering at the moment why I made this blogpost with this pretty harsh title. Well you're going to find out now!

Yesterday was YalFest 2016 in Utrecht (The Netherlands). This was a young adult literature festival organised by the Best of YA team. Of course I went there with pretty high expectations because the publisher who publishes like most of the young adult novels in our country organised this! 400 tickets were sold and oh yea.... those 400 people didn't go unnoticed.

When I arrived in Utrecht we walked to the Winkel van Sinkel, where the event would be held. Literally all 400 people showed up and waited outside. It was really lovely to talk to so many people with the same interests while standing in the line.

11:00 a.m, the doors opened and everyone rushed in! The first thing I noticed.. 400 people were going to this event and there barely were 200 chairs for the 1st activity. Conclusion: half of the people had to stand for 2 hours, during the author discussion talk. I however was very lucky to have a chair. The author talk started at 11:30. Everyone was so excited because the authors who came to this event were pretty big. All authors were seated on couches in front of the audience, and they had to answer questions about themselves and about the other authors. The questions however didn't came from the fans in the audience but were made by the Best of YA team.. The authors who were at the festival were: Ransom Riggs, Tahereh Mafi, Stephanie Perkins, Arwen Elys Dayton, Becky Albertalli, Tom Ellen & Lucy Ivison.

Then at 13:00 there was lunch which we could pick up upstairs. The lunch was okayish, however we only got milk to drink in the bag and actually many people don't like milk.. so they had nothing to drink. Also there were 2 sandwiches and an apple in the bag. They were okay. 

At 14:00 group 1 had their workshop and group 2 (Me!) had the photo moment with the authors. When I came back down the row was immense long but went really quickly. However, I kinda was sad to see you couldn't go on a picture with all authors seperately.. noooooo, all others were seated on the same couches and you had to sit in between them.. We weren't allowed to talk to the authors and also we weren't allowed to let a book signed. AKA there were no signings and also no contact with any of them... By the end of the photo moment there was half an hour of time left before the other group would come, so yay small talk to authors! but no.... the authors had quickly to go away to a special area and weren't allowed to have any interaction with fans.. like 0! I really really was sad because for this event I paid huge money and we couldn't even have our 'moment' with the authors...

At 15:30 groups were being switched, group 2 would get their workshop (me!) and group 1 had the photo moment.. I had workshop C, vlogging. Sanne from the youtube channel BooksAndQuills would do the workshop. We came into the room and guess what, after 10 mins of trying they came to the conclusion the wifi connection wasn't working and our workshop got cancelled... So yep, no vlogging workshop. Suddenly they sent in a Dutch authors who no one knew and he had to answer questions from us about himself or his book. This really was annoying because everyone came to listen to Sanne and not to this author. He was nice though and I did listen to the things he had to say, unlike many others I thought it to be interesting but not anything I had learned from him.

16:30, YalFest was over... You had a chance to stay till 17:00 to buy some stuff and talk to others they said but they already started cleaning everything at 16:30. They also placed everything back and all 'stands' who were there selling stuff closed and started packing. I thought to would have had a chance to buy some books or so but no that wasn't possible.

Conclusion to this all, I really really am disappointed on the way they handled this event. Every author was in Utrecht for 3 days, having spent time with the Best of YA team and publisher. Signed tons of books for them, had hours and hours of talking with everyone selected to be part of that team (like 20 people). But the team made sure none of the authors had time on the day itself to talk to fans or sign books. This really makes me angry because 400 people paid 40 euros (55 dollars) for almost nothing. We had to create the fun time ourselves with everyone around us because it certainly wasn't possible during the workshop or the author photo moment. 

Next year they will organise the event again, but after having had this experience I will not go again and also will tell about this bad experience.

I did however buy some goodies this day because I didn't want to go home empty handed! :)

As you can see I bought 6 pins related to books etc and also I bought a book related mug! :)

At the festival we also got a goodiebag with goodies and stickers in, on these stickers all authors wrote their autograph. I still am happy to have these, but an autograph in a book would have been a dream!

Hope you enjoyed the article! also, Did any of you go to YalFest and what's you opinion on it? :) I'd love to know!

Recensie: De gele olifant door Loes Riphagen

Titel/Auteur: De gele olifant door Loes Riphagen

Jaar gepubliceerd: 2012 door de Fontijn 

Genre: kinderboek, prentenboek
Hoe heb ik dit boek verkregen: bibliotheek

Waarom las ik dit boek: Het boek zag er zeer leuk uit!

Rating: 3.5 van de 5 sterren 

Tekstloos prentenboek over een olifant en een muis. Ze zijn dikke vriendjes, tot olifant opeens fan wordt van de kleur geel. Hij verzamelt alle gele dingen (en dieren) ... Helaas is muis niet geel..

Recensie
Dit boek gaat over een gele olifant. Op een tijdens een ijsje eten in het park ziet de olifant een man voorbij lopen met een gele banaan. Dan besluit de olifant dat hij vanalles wil sparen dat geel is van kleur. Hij spaart dieren, schilderijen, ballonnen, potten, auto's en nog veel meer. Zijn vriend de muis vindt het maar allemaal niks. Op een gegeven moment krijgt de olifant een obsessie met de kleur geel, hij wil zelfs de zon hebben. Als hij die niet kan pakken besluit hij de route de soleil af te gaan om zo de zon uiteindelijk ook aan zijn collectie te kunnen toevoegen.

Dit boek vond ik best leuk. Ik snapte alleen niet precies waar de schrijfster heen wilde met de gedachte achter het boek. Koopverslaafd? verslaafd in het algemeen? verzamelen? Ik vond het niet duidelijk naar voren komen. Wel vond ik de afbeeldingen zeer mooi vormgegeven en het boek had een fijne grootte om vast te houden. Dit boek is een tekstloos prentenboek waardoor ouders een eigen verhaal kunnen verzinnen bij het voorlezen van het boek. Ook jonge kinderen kunnen eindeloos fantaseren over de avonturen van de olifant.
Dit boek vond ik zeer vermakelijk om te lezen, daarom geef ik het 3.5 sterren van de 5!

Yalfest 2016

So, some of you might know this already but next weekend (april 24th) I'm going to YALfest in Utrecht (The Netherlands).  The day excists out of workshops, photo moments with the authors and buying books of course! unfortunately the authors don't sign books and won't have time to talk to you :S
however, I'm so excited because this is the 1st time this event is being organised, and already several famous authors are coming!
Becky Albertalli (Simon vs the world), Arwen Alys Dayton (seeker), Tahereh Mafi (shatter me), Ransom Riggs (Mrs Peregrine's home for peculiar children), Tom Ellen & Lucy Ivison (Lobsters) and not to forget Stephanie Perkins (Anna & The french kiss).
I mean look at that list of authors! It's amazing. Stephanie Perkins, Ransom Riggs and Tahereh Mafi are really in my top 10 favourite authors list. I can't wait to meet them because authors rarely are coming to the Netherlands.

Any of you who are coming as well? It would be amazing to meet!

#FridayReads 08-04

Yay! It's friday again! As you might have noticed I was away for a week. This happened because I had some very heavy tests and exams at school and also I went to paris last weekend. Had no time to write blogposts.

Paris was great though! I went visiting a friend and together we had a great weekend! I went to chateau de Versailles on my own and the day later we did things together. We went to place des vosges, notre dame, sacre coeur, eiffel tower, place de la concorde and to the Cognacq-Jay museum. 

Of course I also went bookshopping at the Shakespeare and Company bookshop next to the Notre Dame. My friend lives a street from the bookshop away! There I bought the book 'Emma'by Jane Austen! :) 

So now I've updated you all it's time to talk about this weekend! I am almost finished  reading the 2nd book in the princess diaries series and also planning on reading a children's book, although I haven't quite looked for reading which one hehe! 

At this very moment I'm watching outlander as well, re-watching it! Just this series is so amazing! 

Voila! evidence picture! 

Have a great weekend! 

Recensie: Feestmaal voor de Koning Door Marlies Verhelst en Linde Faas

Titel/Auteur: Feestmaal voor de Koning door Marlies Verhelst en Linde Faas. 

Jaar gepubliceerd: 2016 door Lemniscaat. 

Genre: kinderboek, prentenboek
Hoe heb ik dit boek verkregen: bibliotheek

Waarom las ik dit boek: Het boek vond ik er mooi uitzien en dieren zijn een geweldig thema. 

Rating: 5 van de 5 sterren 

Dit boek is een boek over dieren. De koning van de Jungle is jarig: de leeuw. Iedereen helpt mee met het bouwen van zijn prachtige vleestaart tot oppeens er stukken weg zijn. De vogelspin gaat op zoek naar wie de dader is. Eerst gaat hij langs gorilla, dan de slang, de giraffe, de olifant, de neushoornvogel, de krokodil, de vleermuis en dan de Leeuw. Wie heeft het gedaan? Dit kun je allemaal lezen in dit leuke prentenboek van Marlies Verhelst en Linde Faas.

De afbeeldingen in dit boek vind ik heel mooi. Ze hebben mooie kleuren en zijn duidelijk en vrolijk getekend. De personages in het boek zijn ook mooi vormgegeven en zien / klinken er super uit!
Het boek is best kort waardoor je er door raast! Dit kan een voordeel of een nadeel zijn. In mijn geval was het een nadeel want vond het boek veel te leuk om te stoppen!

Dit boek is perfect om voor te lezen in groep 1/2 als je een dierenthema, verjaardagsthema of een jungle thema hebt. De kinderen zullen smullen van de mooie afbeeldingen en spannende tekst!
Uiteindelijk geef ik dit boek 5 van de 5 sterren, want vond hem echt super!