Review: The Taming of the Tights by Louise Rennison.

The Taming of the Tights by Louise Rennison (July 2013, HarperCollins Children's Books, ISBN: 0007323921)

The Taming of the Tights is the third book in the Tallulah Casey series. Tallulah, Irish, is now fifteen and is back at Yorkshire's Dother Hall for a third term of learning the craft of performance. She has her own band of friends – the Tree Sisters – and a couple of suitors, sort of. Plus she has a crush on the brother of her friend Ruby.

The storyline in the series has become increasingly about boys rather than performing, with the Tree Sisters all having or obtaining boyfriends with Tallulah increasingly confused by the intentions of Charlie, who apparently has a girlfriend back home and the bad-boy of the moor, Cain.

Tallulah has to suffer the hatred of Dother Hall's head and the embarrassment of acting as the back-end of a horse and the very odd but affectionate replacement family she boards with. As Tallulah invents her own Lulu-Luuuve List she has to decide who and what she ultimately wants.

The Taming of the Tights is a romp and is very funny. I raced through it straight after reading A Midsummer Tight's Dream and hope that there will be more in the series. I love the setting, the banter between the girls, the down-to-earth young Ruby and of course the elusive Cain (with his hidden depths...) and Tallulah is a great narrator and a good and loyal friend. The series covers things that teenage girls might worry about – especially the art of kissing!

The two previous books are reviewed: #1 Withering Tights (by me) and #2 A Midsummer Tights Dream (by Milly).

Review: A Midsummer Tights Dream by Louise Rennison

A Midsummer Tights Dream by Louise Rennison (February 2012, HarperCollinsChildren'sBooks, ISBN: 0007156847)

Notes: The following review is written by Milly aged eleven, she is the daughter of one of my Euro Crime reviewers. You can read more of Milly's reviews here.

Review: A Midsummer Tights Dream is very good. It's about this child actress called Tallulah Casey. She goes back to Grimbottom, to revisit Dother Hall, her old acting college.

She sees her friends again and has a really good time. Unfortunately, it also means she sees old enemies like the Bottomley sisters and Cain the Bad.

This is a very gripping book. You can't put it down. It's one of my favourite books. My favourite part is when Tallulah throws the tambourine in the air and it hits mean Doctor Lightowler on the head!

Don't worry if you haven’t read the first book, Withering Tights*, because you can still follow the storyline.

I recommend this book for young adults and teenage audiences.

Milly aged 11

*see my review of Withering Tights.

Cover: A Midsummer Tights Dream

Great news, here's the cover and blurb for A Midsummer Tights Dream, the sequel to Withering Tights by Louise Rennison. Published 2 February (earlier than I was expecting) myself and the members of my reading group will be delighted to read this. There was much disappointment when the group read it as part of a Wuthering Heights themed selection that the sequel wasn't available there and then.

It's the hotly anticipated sequel to the winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, WITHERING TIGHTS -- laugh your tights off as Tallulah Casey and her bonkers mates return for a new term at Dother Hall performing arts college. Boys, snogging and bad acting guaranteed! Yaroooo! Tallulah's triumphant Heathcliff in 'Wuthering Heights' the comedy musical was enough to secure her place at Dother Hall performing arts college for another term. She can't wait to see her pals again, Charlie and the boys from Woolfe Academy and maybe even bad boy Cain! Could the bright lights of Broadway be calling? And for who? Find out in the next Misadventures of Tallulah Casey.

Louise Rennison's New Short Story

For World Book Day, Louise Rennison has written a special short story, How to Make Any Twit Fall in Love With You, featuring her heroines Georgia and Tallulah, and which is being released exclusively online in ten parts. The first five are now available to read at lovetwit.co.uk.

Withering Tights is now available in paperback (this cover is so cheerful!) and I reviewed the hardback last year.

The official Louise Rennison facebook site is at http://www.facebook.com/LouiseRennisonOfficialUK and her website is georgia-nicolson.co.uk/.

The sequel to Withering Tights is listed as being published on 9 June on amazon.

Withering Tights wins Roald Dahl Funny Prize

Louise Rennison's Withering Tights has won the Roald Dahl Funny Prize in the category: The Funniest Book for Children Aged Seven to Fourteen. Here is the full shortlist:

The Clumsies Make a Mess by Sorrel Anderson, illustrated by Nicola Slater
Einstein's Underpants and How They Saved the World by Anthony McGowan
The Incredible Luck of Alfie Pluck by Jamie Rix, illustrated by Craig Shuttlewood
Mr Stink by David Walliams, illustrated by Quentin Blake
The Ogre of Oglefort by Eva Ibbotson
Withering Tights by Louise Rennison

Read more about the Prize and the books at the Booktrust website.

My review of Withering Tights is here.

Review: Withering Tights by Louise Rennison

Withering Tights by Louise Rennison (July 2010, HarperCollins Children's Books, ISBN: 9780007156832)

First Lines:

Wow. This is it. This is me growing up.

Review: Being a recent convert to the YA genre I've missed out on Louise Rennison's Georgia Nicolson series so I thought I'd jump in at the beginning of her new series featuring Tallulah Casey. (Tallulah is apparently a cousin of Georgia.)

Tallulah is fourteen and a half and has super-long legs (with knobbly knees) and no chest to speak of yet. These things depress her. She has decided she wants to be a performance artist and gets permission from her absentee parents to spend the six weeks' holiday at Dother Hall, a performing arts college on the Yorkshire Moors. Because she is late applying she is not boarding at the school but staying with a local family, the Dobbins - mum, dad and two starey-eyed twin boys.

Tallulah soon makes friends - Vaisey who is staying at the local pub, Ruby a precocious ten year old who lives at the pub, plus a group of girls at the school. The story covers some of the classes at the school and the girls meets with some of the residents from a neighbouring boys only school, Woolfe Academy. Tallulah also has a hate-hate relationship with local ruffian, Cain Hinchcliff and a crush on Ruby's older brother Alex.

There's plenty keeping Tallulah busy but she may not be cut-out for the stage. Can she convince the headmistress to let her come back for the next school year?

Withering Tights is extremely funny. It had me laughing aloud a lot, not something books usually make me do! Tallulah is someone you're rooting for and you want her to reveal a hidden talent - other than being very tall. The main characters are all very likeable and young Ruby is priceless. It's a sweet read, with no spiteful characters and the Dobbins family take Tallulah to their bosom and give her a taste of conventional family-life, very unlike her own. I flew through this book and can't wait to see what the next instalment will bring. (According to Louise Rennison's website there are to be two more books about Tallulah.)