Top Ten Favourite Children's Books 2017 by Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books - Post One

Hello readers. Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books is wrapping up another year of reading and blogging.  I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a great festive time and a happy New Year. 

This is the first listing that I have produced sharing my favourite children's books of 2017. Unfortunately, I have not had a very productive year in my reading endeavors, due to work commitments etc, and the blogging has been somewhat erratic. However, I have tried to end the year much stronger. Please find the first five books, with a brief outline about each of them. You can always search the full book reviews on the site. Thank you for reading and I will hopefully see you for the next part. 

Abi Elphinstone - The Night Spinner - Published by Simon & Schuster Children's UK (23 Feb. 2017)

It will eat your soul up in a piano chord of witches tinkling full of malice whilst shaking the cobwebs of your mind. You will journey upon a Kraken that will awake from slumber by an evil presence and the mountain gods who will roar and shake the senses in this non-stop action flight of fantasy.

Jack Cheng - See You in the Cosmos - Published by Puffin (2 Mar. 2017)

The skies will certainly move and the stars will shine brightly with every page turned. It's an uplifting and poignant story which is told with passion. It has been written from deep within the author's heart. As you skip your way through the book, following 11-year-old Alex Petroski (space-obsessed boy) through a moving landscape of emotions, his distinctive voice will pull you through a turbulent narrative that is one of the best that I have read for some time. Other people will make comparisons to other books but, in my opinion, that is not really fair. This book and its plot is a unique reading gem and one that I would definitely recommend for you to read. 

Christopher Edge - The Jamie Drake Equation - Published Nosy Crow Ltd (2 Mar. 2017)

As soon as you turn the first page, you will suddenly find yourself being transported into a gravitational time dilation. The real world will slow down, as the fantasy universe kicks in, and powers you on into outer space and beyond. The very first page will hook you into a cracking story about a young boy, called Jamie Drake, and his famous astronaut father, who recently left earth. He is flying through space on a mission to send small probes to the further reaches of space, hoping to find proof of extraterrestrial life, but what will they find?

Kenneth Oppel - Every Hidden Thing - Published by David Fickling Books (2 Mar. 2017)

What would it be like to be the first person to dig up a massive dinosaur bone? One of the first recorded fossil finds was here in England in 1676. According to the history books, a huge thigh bone (femur) was found by Reverend Plot. It was thought that the bone belonged to a "giant," but was probably from a dinosaur. Kenneth Oppel uses this as a basis for his story which takes us on a fantastic ride. With his wild imagination, he writes a brilliant story that will take the reader back in time to the 1800's - a period of discovery within the ever-evolving America landscape. 

David Solomons & Laura Ellen Anderson - My Evil Twin is a Supervillain - Published by Nosy Crow Ltd (29 Jun. 2017)

The reader is heading for a galactic showdown like no other. This is a fantastic narrative full of action and crazy mayhem. It will sock you in the sci-fi world as you follow the young superheroes and/or villains trying to save the multi-universe from self-destruction. Nevermind Gorgon the World-Eater, but who does he think he is?