Books with author Amy Hutchings

What would life be like if you could create Happiness for yourself whenever you wanted to, particularly when you feel life is tough. This is an account from a man who did just that, he found a way of creating Happiness at will. After much soul searching and consideration of what he already knew, he found that Happiness was not something he previously thought it was. He found that for him Happiness is not something, it is the absence of something else. He found that focusing on what prevents Happiness from occurring rather than looking for it is the key to experiencing it. Being an introvert was a major obstacle to being Happy, however being an introvert had also led him to the answer for himself.It raised a life changing and important question “Can you describe the taste of banana ?”

This fantasy adventure has a theme on bullying and how the hero, Billy Gherkin, a teenage boy with no particular talents apart from honesty and a good sense of humour, undertakes a long journey. This is a journey to find his confidence and discover that he is never on his own, even when it gets really bad. There is always someone to help, it’s just a matter of taking that first terrifying step to help yourself. Along this journey he encounters a series of weird and wonderful characters where he learns beneficial skills and techniques to help him in his quest.The story opens with a bullying session which he has experienced many times before. However, because of his sore eczema, which is one of the reasons he is picked on, he reaches breaking point and tries to fight back and as a result finds himself in the imposing Headmaster’s office (Dr T Bone). Billy is encouraged by Dr Bone to learn to defend himself with a recommendation that Sirloin steak is the best thing for him, a slightly off the wall comment!Billy’s stress at the beginning of this story manifests itself in nasty bouts of eczema, a condition that proportionally worsens on contact with bullies, Nasal O’Hare in this case, (who gets his name from the snorting noise he makes through his nose when punching other children). After struggling through the day at school, with his sore eczema skin scraped from fighting and the general humiliation of being picked on again he retreats to his bedroom – and it is here through a very strange event that Billy enters a place where the normal rules of physics and space time continuum definitely do not apply. He enters Paper Jungle.In this strange land Billy meets a rather unusual guide, a knight of the ‘Order of the Stones’, a kamikaze band who protect the ‘Love’, ‘Happiness’ and ‘Hope’ stones - magical stones that provide Paper Jungle with these emotions. Unfortunately two of the stones have been taken by General Brutus Von Mawler, a monstrous baboon who works for the worst tyrant queen imaginable. Billy has to help get the Stones back, along with his self-respect. He learns a few ‘kick-ass’ moves and trains to be a spy, all with one certain inevitable destination in mind. The question is – can Billy do it for himself and those that need his help in Paper Jungle?

What if the ancient story of Persephone and Hades wasn't just a myth? Cora Dell has, up until her junior year, lived the ordinary life of an ordinary teenager. But that was before the dreams started—vivid dreams of another world and a darkly seductive stranger who whispers intriguing promises into her ear. When her dreams turn into nightmares, however, she suspects that her nightly journeys into this foreign world may be more than fantasy. With the help of her two best friends—and an unexpected ally—Cora struggles to find a solution that will keep her safely in the world she calls home.