Butterfly Child Book Clubl

Swallowed a button face

Hi Guys! Really quick blog post – I was trying to get it completed and posted the other day but I had a minor issue and had to rush to A&E. Monkey swallowed a button, and although I thought he would be fine to just wait for it to pass, he said his throat and chest hurt so I thought it was best to get him checked! He was desperate for an Xray but it was a plastic button, you probably wouldn’t have been able to see it, but it didn’t stop him asking for one. He’s absolutely fine now, but children can really make you go fro being a little annoyed to worried to blissfully happy all within the blink of two seconds.

Anywho, onto other matters – so I’ve always loved to read for as long as I can remember. My mum loves to read, my brother and sister have always loved to read and now my children are growing up with my shared passion for reading which is wonderful. But what I have always wanted, is to join a book club but in an area you don’t have much choice to choose from, the Library runs one but its in the middle of the day, when I work and it wouldn’t work for me. Secondly, there are some ran by likeminded people, but trying to get lots of grown ups (especially parents) in the same room at the same time, is near on impossible. So my brilliant brain wave – use the internet. I have a love/hate relationship with the internet/social media etc, but I can always see its positives.

I have recently set up my own facebook page – yes I am moving on up in the blogging world! I like it and I have added a group – Butterfly Child Book club. A place where everyone can talk about books/reading and discuss and share with the freedom of knowing that you can join in as and when you want, you can comment whenever and will get a reply at some point but we don’t all need to be in a room together to enjoy a good story together and discuss it. The internet is a wonderful place, where we can have a bit of freedom and time to do what we want. I am hoping to encourage more people to read and get more people to share ideas/discussions about books they are reading/ have read or wanted to read. Its only a small group for now, and I am looking for new members but I want to keep it simple and sweet and a bit like a family or a group of friends. A place where everyone can feel at home and read when/what they want, comment when you want to, join in as and when and not even feel the need to join in if they don’t want to. Just using it for inspiration for your next book is fine by me.

As I have just started my club, I have picked the first book – The Outsiders by S.E Hinton. It was a book I read as a teenager and I have always regarded it as one of my favourites, but it sometimes get a bad rap as its quite often a book picked by schools, as its part of the curriculum and often people don’t enjoy something, if they are being forced to take part in it. In this case, reading a book! I wasn’t made to read it, and even if i was; I loved Animal Farm and that was our set book, but I know some people don’t enjoy a book if they are made to read it. However, I have this very romanticised version of the book stored in my head from reading it as a teen, so I really wanted to read it as a grown up and see if I still enjoyed it.

Which brings us to where we are, I have given out some library copies to some friends, and I have loaned my own second copy to my sister (who did read it in school but is going to revisit it too). As a lot of my members are mums /working mums /full time workers – who don’t necessarily have a lot of spare time, even though it is only a short read -lets take the whole of June to read it, and we can start discussion after a couple of weeks, so hopefully avoiding spoilers for anyone still catching up.

If book clubs might be your thing – please find it on facebook or drop me an email at: butterfly.child99@gmail.com and I will keep you updated with books/discussions/polls we are running and sign you up to the online butterfly child book club. If you know anyone you think would like this – sharing is caring! 🙂

I hope to hear from you soon! We will be starting to pick our next book soon!

Are you enjoying my blog? I would love to hear from some of my readers – I am still fairly new to blogging and my aim is to have a bit of a connection with my readers! ☺️

*Book Review* The Burning Maze (The Trials of Apollo, #3)

 The Burning Maze

By Rick Riordan

I was a little late to the Apollo party – I figured I could read them at my own pace, and I would never have to wait for a book to be published. But then I started reading them and I enjoying them and soon enough I had whizzed through the first few books. So I bought the third one, and I promised myself I would be patient and take it slow, and read at a slower pace, because I knew I would have to wait for next instalment like everyone else. Unfortunately/Fortunately, however you want to see it, I really, really enjoyed the book again, and read it over two days! Two days, which means I have to wait for the next book, just like everyone else and I cannot wait!!!!! 🙂

I still LOVE Apollo! Even though, you can see him growing and his humanity is making him a better person, he still has enough of his attitude and character to make him amusing and almost hopeless. I hope he remembers some of the lessons he has learnt, when he becomes a God again, but then again I kind of like when he is narcissistic and selfish.

As much as I am loving the story, a few parts have bothered me a little, I understand Gods have treated demigods appallingly for centuries, and I know Apollo has sometimes been terrible, but generally, Rick Riordan has shown demigods to be caring, altruistic and generally forgiving; but in this case, Apollo is trying; he is trying to fix things, even going as far as to put himself in danger for his friends. But they a lot of the characters are still blaming him for some of the bad things happening and I don’t believe it is all his fault. I think he started the cascade of bad omens/oracles, but Demigods get swept up in prophecies all the time. I think Apollo got a hard rap in this book, and didn’t necessarily deserve all of it.

Character Development is a huge part of reading a book for me, I like to get to know a character and move along the story with them. This instalment has really moved the characters on and I have really gotten attached to them. I have always loved Percy Jackson, Grover and Annabeth, but it took a little longer for the second set of heroes to grow on me. But Apollo and Meg are like old friends I have reconnected with, and as I read it, I’ve cried and rejoiced with them, screamed at them and with them. Apollo may be one of my favourite characters!

As for the story, it kicks off as always just after the end of the previous book, and all the characters are still suffering from the things they learnt or did in the previous books, and they all have a lot of baggage to carry around with them. Meg is still suffering from PTSD from her sad upbringing, Apollo is starting to understand that humans/demigods should not just be used just for the Gods own purposes or like pigs to the slaughter, and although he hasn’t quite fully learnt this, you can see his personality changing and adjusting the longer he stays mortal.

Again, the main storyline behind the book, is Apollo and company seeking out another Oracle to save from on the Triumvirate and facing an endless assortment of baddies and traps. In this section we visit Piper and Jason, whom appear to be having some trouble with their personal lives as well as demigod lives, and this some how ties in with Apollos adventures. Whilst Grover acts as their guide, they have to stop the Burning Maze, save the many plants and Dryads and find and save the oracle, all whilst trying to figure out the different prophecies they have heard on their journey. The crux of the book is always the same kind of format – find somewhere nearby to locate the oracle, face a few baddies, somehow manage to come out mostly unscathed, defeat but not completely defeat the big bad guy and save the Oracle, receive another clue/prophecy and find out they know someone who can help. I love the story and enjoy it for what it is, but the style makes it quite predictable, not in a way that makes it really easy to guess every little detail but to sort of know where the story is heading.

I loved the new characters introduced and it was wonderful catching up with Grover, although I miss Percy and Grover antics, it was good seeing how he has been getting on as a Lord of the Wild. It was nice and surprising seeing Piper and Jason again,  although they weren’t my favourite characters from the older series, I quite like Frank and Hazel, so I cannot wait for the next book!

I don’t want to go into too much detail as I am not a fan of spoilers but I really enjoyed the third book, and it has made me eager for the next instalment. I think it would be a really good book for children, or anyone like me who loves the classics, Ancient Rome and Greek myths or just an adventure book.

Overall, I was happy with this book and would happily recommend it to anyone, and if you enjoy an easy uncomplicated read, that makes you feel like you know the characters, this is a good book to start with.

Rating: ★⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5 stars) Loses a star because sometimes the tried and tested/same old same old could wear a little thin.

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First Family Sunset

I had a scary thought just the other day, at 32 years old – I don’t think I have ever seen a genuine sunset. I have seen the sun disappear behind the buildings, but I have never seen in real life the sun setting into the horizon or the sea or anything where you get the beautiful colours and effect of a real sunset. This may seem crazy, but before I moved to Somerset I probably did see a sunset but I didn’t stop and appreciate it, and since being here I have had children and we don’t leave the house at sunset! 🙂 So it felt like I had never experienced one. What makes this sadder, is that I love to draw and paint and I have painted a sunset, I made this incredible picture from memory, but realised this must have been a memory from television or something, and I just had to correct this!

The weather has been beautiful here and a few weekends ago, I decided it was about time I saw a real life sunset and the children have never seen one either, so it was a good time to have a family day to the seaside, stay late and see the sunset in all its glorious beauty! Did it live up to expectations?

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Oh my goodness! It was incredible! I must apologise to the handful of other people at Portland who came to witness this stunning and beautiful display. Me and the kids were very excited and a little bit noisy in our excitement. Especially to the young couple who I think came for a romantic date to watch the sun set and has us as neighbours enjoying our first sunset! I hope our excitement was contagious and made you smile rather than annoy you! I am sorry in that sorry/not sorry way! ☺️ We had an incredible evening, and it was beautiful and incredible and I don’t think I have words to express it. So, yes we got a bit loud and excited and the kids climbed all over the statue but it was a wonderful experience for our first sunset.

We picked a beautiful spot overlooking Chesil Beach at Portland. The water was perfectly still, making the reflection of the sun stunningly beautiful. We talked about Greek Gods and how the Ancient Greeks believed Apollo pulled the sun around, we talked about Christianity and God and how he made the world beautiful! We talked about Science, planets, and how the moon was out at the same time as the sun! It was an amazingly beautiful and funnily enough educational evening.

Religion is often a hard discussion in our house, I have faith but I struggle with religion sometimes, as I don’t know quite where I fall, or what I believe. The children go to a faith school and are being taught all about God and Christianity, and even though Mr BC is an Atheist, he likes they are being taught good morals and values, but when discussing how the world was created, it can get a bit contentious. But not on this day, we all agreed it doesn’t matter what you believe; the setting sun is a beautiful, magical and wondrous thing to behold and that we should all work hard to keep our planet beautiful and appreciate all the lovely and beautiful things in it.