Girl of Fire and Thorns, bk. 4. Greenwillow, 2020. ISBN: 9780062691903. (Age:14+) Highly recommended.
I eagerly picked up this outstanding fantasy novel, based on the name of the author. I had really enjoyed the Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy many years ago and was delighted to see another book in that extraordinary world. Carson has given her fans a stand-alone novel telling the story of Red Sparkle Stone as she grows into a young woman. The court will not accept her as one of Empress Elisa’s heirs, so she decides to join the elite Royal Guard, a group which has never had a woman warrior in it.
Red is indomitable, determined to prove her worth as a guard, but also as a young woman making her way in a man’s world. She allows herself to gradually befriend some of the new recruits and when danger faces the empire, she works with Ivan another young recruit and friend of the prince Rosario, to find who is trying to oust the empress.
There is plenty of action and adventure for thrill seeking fans, but the theme that stood out for me was that of soldier sickness. The story is told in both the past in chapters titled Then and the present entitled Now. Red’s heartbreaking upbringing and treatment as a child slave is disclosed in flashbacks, while what is happening with the recruits and her gradual emergence as a leader is told in the present. Red occasionally has moments when her past overwhelms her and she sometimes needs to find a safe small place to sleep, but she has learnt to live with this. The author gives an enlightening note about PTSD at the back of the book.
This is a coming-of-age story and will appeal to fans of Tamora Pierce while older readers may enjoy going on to A deadly education by Naomi Novik. I found myself rereading the Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy and can see why fans of the book asked Carson to write Red’s story.
Pip (or Pip@256X#YY.3_7 to be precise) is exactly what the title of this novel implies, a future friend. She lives 1001 years in the future and has little contact with anyone except her immediate family and pets. She has many amazing gadgets but is constantly confined to her living space due to an unhealthy outside environment. Her only real company is a robot, Pip 2, who is her exact duplicate.
Pip accidently stumbles into a time travel portal created by her inventor parents and arrives in the year 2019. She exits the portal through a toilet seat in Rahul’s parent’s shop. Rahul (who also loves to invent) is missing his friend, who has moved away, so it is no surprise that lonely Rahul and Pip easily begin to enjoy each other’s company. Rahul must keep Pip’s real identity a secret from his parents, school and the wider community. This becomes even harder when Pip’s two pets also travel through the portal.
Rahul struggles to help Pip work out how to return to her time, thwart Pip 2 who is up to no good back in 3020, keep the future pets (who have full command of the English language) hidden and try to make everything seem normal. No problem! The situation is not helped by the presence of a nosy, bully of a classmate who believes in a multitude of conspiracy theories.
David Baddiel has mixed humour with a time travel adventure and gives the reader an insight to a possible future world. This novel is about friendship and helping each other and the story highlights the importance of caring for an environment now, so that in the future it does not resemble Pip’s original world.
I enjoyed the twist at the end of the novel that clearly demonstrated how the future is created by the present.
David Baddiel is a bestselling author and his background as an English comedian is evident in his writing, as his stories use humour to capture and entertain his readers. The appealing, colourful book cover and black and white comic style illustrations by Steven Lenton add to the comedy and action of the novel.
You can watch David Baddiel read an extract of the book here .
Jane Moore
The promise by Lucy Diamond
Macmillan, 2020. ISBN: 9781529027020. (Age:Adult)
Dan likes working to a spreadsheet, so when his brother Patrick dies suddenly one night after an argument, Dan’s answer is to draw up a chart of tasks to help fill the gap left behind – this means stepping in to support the grieving Zoe and three children.
When the brothers were growing up the running joke was that Patrick got the looks, and Dan got the brains. Patrick was the popular one, happily married and a successful property owner. An underlying thread of resentment that coloured their relationship, is now compounded by remorse and guilt over the bitter last words on the fateful night.
Dan’s plans go smoothly at first; he fulfils his role of helpful brother-in-law and fun-loving uncle to the children, and he feels on top of the landlord tasks, until he discovers an unexplained maintenance line in the accounts. Then the problems start.
Diamond’s story starts slowly and fairly predictably, but the twist draws the reader in, to find out how Dan will handle the unravelling secrets. It is his character, a bit of a nerd, good intentioned but a little naive, that really makes this novel. The promise is a realistic depiction of the love but also the little jealousies within a family, and the young children are also portrayed with warmth and humour. All in all an enjoyable read.
Private detectives Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott delve into the cold case involving the disappearance and probable murder of Dr. Margot Bamborough. Bamborough’s daughter Anna and her partner give the agency a year to see if they can solve the mystery. No easy feat with the disappearance happening in 1974 and the agency already stretched.
Margot Bamborough left her inner London medical practice due to meet an old friend in a nearby pub, but she didn’t keep her appointment and was never seen again. The D.I. in charge of the case at the time did not conduct the case well and was eventually removed with mental health issues. His notes on the case were disorganised and were littered with strange symbolism. The general opinion at the time was that Margot was abducted and murdered by Creed a serial killer who operated in the Clerkenwell area, but his cellar had no traces of Margot.
Strike at his uncommunicative best is trying to cope with his Aunt’s cancer and declining health in Cornwall, as well as being continually texted by his half brother to come to a family reunion with his raging pop star father, along with calls from his ex partner who is having problems dealing with her life in general. Robin on the other hand is having flashbacks to traumas in her past triggered by one of the subcontractors in the agency and her protracted divorce from Michael. Adding to all of this is their inability to tell one another not only their feelings but also aspects of their investigations.
Galbraith, has, in this fifth Strike novel given the readership a tome of 927 pages! Despite this the plot keeps moving with several minor investigations and the emotional family circumstances of both Strike and Ellacott. The circumstances of the Margot mystery are of course complicated. After so much time, with some of the participants dead and memories unclear, not to mention the poor police procedures the probability of finding any facts to give Anna closure is remote. There are numerous characters and a great many red herrings, which require the reader to have a very good memory for misplaced facts and movements. I’ve no doubt there will be a great desire for Comoran and Robin to solve the Margot Bamborough case, it was certainly mine!
I heartily recommend Troubled Blood, Galbraith is a gifted storyteller and Strike and Ellacott are marvellous characters, I can’t wait for the next in the series. And of course, Galbraith is a pseudonym for J K Rowing.
Emmy, Dan and their children Coco and Bear seem to have it all. They live in a Georgian town house in London and have all the trappings of success. Emmy is an “influencer” with thousands of followers on instagram. She is Mamabare to her fans. She posts insights into her life as a mother of her two children and responds to fans (and haters) giving advice and support to other mothers.
Dan is a writer who published novel several years ago and his publisher would love him to publish another. He just doesn’t seem to be able get it right. He is conflicted, he has no study where he can write in peace and he has to fit in with the Mamabare brand.
Emmy has an agent, Irene, who has a stable of other influencers, sports stars and A listers she manages and carefully profiles. Emmy is one of her big earners and she has outlined exactly what she needs to do to retain her image and keep the endorsements coming in. Emmy is a business - a very carefully managed one. Mamabare is like producing and editing a magazine, photos are shot weeks in advance and edited to look spontaneous, there are streams on topical themes tags to her influencer friends and precision planned hash tags.
In truth Mamabare and her family is a fiction. There is a lot of air brushing and a huge amount of stage managing. When the Sunday Times reporter and photographer arrive the house was artfully untidy and Emmy was studiously imperfect to suit her image as the somewhat harassed mother of a toddler and baby.
Dan on the other hand is becoming more disturbed at the way the children are being used to promote an image especially when Coco’s birthday party is an enormous event with product endorsement and placement at its centre.
Their lives are turned upside down when the lives of Emmy and Bear are threatened, and Emmy’s Mamabare persona revealed as a fake, life changes but not as much as you would think.
Ellery Lloyd is the pseudonym for husband and wife writers Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos. Their peek into the lives of a celebrity couple is a revelation especially for readers who are not part of the whole online “instaworld”. The careful grooming and management of these ordinary people who become extraordinary through social media, but are in reality tools for commercial gain is fascinating. But added to the mix are the disaffected followers, particularly one whose sinister intent comes into focus as the narrative reaches its climax, making this novel very readable. Emmy and Dan are not likeable characters and there is a wish by this reader for them to get their just desserts. Thoroughly recommended.
Recommended for Nora Roberts’ fans. Roberts return to the familiar setting of Ireland in her latest romantic fantasy. Breen Kelly is a teacher, anxious and in debt when she accidentally discovers that her mother has been hiding an account with four million dollars in it, money that her estranged father had sent for her. She is determined to build a new life with the money, and she embarks on a trip to Ireland to find her father. There she uncovers secrets about her past and enters a fabulous portal into a land of mysteries and magic.
Breen is tentative and lacks confidence in herself before going to Ireland and it is great to see her begin to realise her potential and grow in skills, both in her writing in the real world, and her ability to fight in the fantasy world.
One of the outstanding themes of this book is the friendship that Breen has with Marco, who supports and encourages her while the friendships she makes in Ireland help her grow as a person. I really liked the relationship she had with her grandmother and the skills that she learnt with her guidance. The slow-burning romance with Keegan is handled with a light touch.
Robert is a master at writing compulsive prose that keeps the reader engrossed to the end. Even though her themes are often recognisable to her readers, it is this familiarity that gives such a feel-good aspect to her books and has readers rereading them in hard times and looking forward to new books as they come out. And the lush green setting of Ireland in The awakening will have fans wanting to travel there.
A thrilling cliff-hanger of an ending will ensure that the next in the series is picked up.
This extraordinary novel, based on a true story about a group of men and boys stranded on a rocky outcrop (a Stac) in the North Sea for nine months, is riveting as McCaughrean ponders their survival. She gives each of the nine boys and three men a name and a back story, making sure each is recognisable and memorable.
The group is dropped off each summer to collect, kill and dry some of the birds which roost there, raising their chicks through the spring. The work is perilous and stories are handed down of some of their predecessors falling to their deaths as they scale the vertical cliffs. They must climb the rocks to the nests, using rope made by the islanders and handed down from one family to the next. They dry the dead birds, first taking their feathers to take back for bedding, and sharpening the quills for needles, an extra source of income for this isolated community.
Even getting to the island is breathtaking: each having to leap from the boat to the rocky edge as the boat rises with the waves.
These people are from the island of Hirta, the westernmost island in the St Kilda Archipelago, on the west coast of Scotland. The last inhabitants unsurprisingly opted to leave in 1930, settling on the mainland.
But this story takes place two hundred years before. In this tale, the men are in awe of one who calls himself minister, imposing the more objectionable traits of Christianity upon them, causing the younger ones to blanche with fear, but Quilliam a little older than these, offers a safe haven. Outcast, he finds a ledge where he can shelter, and it is to his cave that they come for a rest from the tyrant. Eventually the man leaves, commandeering the raft and sailing off for an island nearby from which he can signal their community.
But why they have been abandoned is a question they all ask, the minister saying that it is the end of the world and they have been forgotten by God. They dream of their families in Heaven and long to be with them.
The cold and wet is a constant throughout this long story, documenting their mental state as they cope with each other, the hunger and isolation. It was said that boys going fowling came back men, and this experience in 1727 made sure of that.
New Frontier, 2020. ISBN: 9781922326010. (Age:10-13 years) Recommended.
Scoop McLaren, a feisty, thirteen year old journalist/detective is the main character in Scoop McLaren : Waves of mystery. This is a second book starring Scoop. This time she stumbles across a crime involving bribery, corruption and sabotage.
Scoop and her friends live in a coastal town probably on the Australian east coast. A surfing competition is being staged and the prize money is considerable. Scoop's friend Fletch is a champion surfer. Inexplicable and dangerous things start to happen to him. Surfing events are rigged, people go missing and strange things happen but Scoop and her friend Evie are ever watchful and resourceful. The reader must attend to detail because it is in remembered conversations and tiny, inconsequential events that the mystery is solved. The attentive reader might remember clues along the way and come to their own conclusions.
The book is narrated in first person by Scoop. Regularly inserted within and between the chapters are news scoops by Scoop as appearing in her online newspaper.
Helen Castles, the author, herself a roving news reporter, is an excellent position to authentically create and describe the action-packed, problem solving approach that characterises Scoop as she pursues crime busting answers and news worthy information.
It is pleasing to see crime/mystery/detective books reemerge onto the children's literature scene. Crime books demand a high level of engagement with text. The motivation for attention to detail and plot for the reader is to try to successfully solve the crime themselves. Reading crime has to develop excellent reading strategies!
This is a light and humorous novel that showcases friendship, loyalty and intelligent thinking and action on the part of young adolescent protagonists. It is a very enjoyable read with just the right amount of challenge for would-be crime solvers! Teacher's notes are available.
New Frontier, 2020. ISBN: 9781922326096. (Age:4+) Recommended.
Suzie and her family have moved house, but everyone is so busy unpacking and moving things into various rooms that no one has time for Suzie. She asks Mum for a biscuit, asks Dad for some time to play with her and asks Grandma if she will play dress ups, but everyone brushes her aside, carrying their load of things to put away.
Suzie decides to do something about this and advertises for a friend. Initially no one applies for the job, but one morning a bear appears. She takes him inside and interviews him to see if he is suitable. She asks him if he likes biscuits and he gobbles down the whole plateful. She asks if he likes to paint and judging by the mess of paint over that page, yes he does! She puts Grandpa’s hat on his head to see if he likes dress ups and then hands him a pair of shoes. At this he baulks and roars at her that bears do not wear shoes. No matter what she does, he is adamant that he does not wear shoes. She has a problem to solve.
A wonderful solution will greet the reader already intrigued with the warmly funny laugh out loud illustrations, showing the two trying to overcome their problem. And the lovely family oriented resolution at the end will be another tick for an audience already smiling with loads of good humour. The endpapers too will delight readers as they see another layer of story with the first endpaper revealing a house with little adornment contrasting with the last endpaper showing the detritus of a family having moved in.
And visual jokes abound, allowing readers to peruse the detail on each page, happily pointing out what they have found, sharing their finds with others.
Concentrating on problem solving, friendship and family, this book will have wide appeal.
Themes Bears, Family, Friendship, Problem solving.
Fran Knight
The time-travelling caveman by Terry Pratchett
Penguin, 2020. ISBN: 9780857536020. (Age:7-11)
This is a mixed-up collection of weird, zany, funny stories by the amazing Terry Pratchett. Terry died in 2015 but these stories were published in newspapers, Bucks Free Press and Western Daily Press when he was a young 17-year-old. This is the last publication of his work, with some of his earliest stories. The book is thoughtfully dedicated to 17-year-old Terry himself.
There are 17 different short stories and they cover such crazy topics as “The Time-Travelling Caveman”, the title of this collection to “Lemonade on the Moon” about a group of children who have invented a machine to travel in space and must return to the moon to retrieve a discarded lemonade bottle before the first astronaut is to step onto the moon’s surface and discover its existence. As the reader, you can never really predict where any of the stories are going to take you and the wonderful illustrations by Mark Beech just add to the craziness. They do reflect their time and place with several references to Great Britain, but this does not detract from the stories in anyway. I particularly enjoyed “The Mark One Computer” story where an out-of-date computer finds a happy ending. A lot of the stories end abruptly and some are very short but they would make a great quick read aloud when you have 5 or 10 minutes to spare.
The appealing dust jacket, with the time travelling caveman cheerfully spinning in time, covers another wonderful vivid illustration of “Mr Trapcheese and his Ark”. Mark Beech’s illustrations remind me of Quentin Blake, for they have a similar quirky, energetic feel about them.
This book would be a great read for students aged 7 to 11 years old. A book trailer can be found here.
Positively Izzy by Terri Libensonis a hybrid book - a combination of graphic novel and illustrated diary.
The story follows two middle school aged girls (Brianna - the brain and Izzy - the dreamer) who are both navigating complex family dynamics, shifting friendship groups, boys, school and other concerns of tween/teenage life.Their lives converge on one day.
Each girl narrates their story in alternating chapters so it would be possible to read each continuous story by skipping alternate chapters. Brinna's story is comic book style; Izzy's is diary style text accompanied by illustrations and occasional speech bubbles. The pictures are delightful and convey humour and warmth.
Positively Izzy is the second book in the world of Emmie and Friends but both books can stand alone. Libenson has managed to capture the concerns and angst of young people in an engaging, humorous manner. The story is light but larger social themes stand behind it in an almost sub liminal way - sometimes as background illustrations eg. a poster on a wall, dress or skin colour detail. Izzy and Brianna are white girls but they are surrounded by a multi-racial cast of characters.The dominant theme is of searching, finding and accepting one's own identity and of the understanding that all people are multi faceted and can't be pigeon-holed.
Positively Izzie is sure to be enjoyed by young people especially those who have already discovered Raina Telgemeier, Jennifer Holm and Victoria Jamieson.
Themes Identity, Labels, Middle School issues, Shifting friendship groups, Family dynamics.
“My name is Emmie Douglas I’m thirteen and in seventh grade” p. 6. Emmie describes herself as 'pretty quiet'. While she claims to be just invisible, not like outcast characters in other books who are bullied, she is subject to occasional bullying at school which makes her anxious. Emmie is good at drawing and finds it helps her to relax, her cartoon self is small, in shades of pastel, documenting embarrassing moments in her life. Emmie’s best friend is Brianna, an outgoing ‘gifted’ student, good at making friends. Then we meet Katie, big, colourful illustrations reflect her personality, “How my friends describe me: smiley, friendly, athletic (I’d go on but I’d start blushing)” p. 14. Everything about Katie is larger than life, she is everything Emmie is not, school is her element and she sails through each day that to Emmie seems like an eternity. Alternating colourful Katie and pastel Emmie panels emphasise the girls’ differing perspectives. Brianna and Emmie have long had crushes on friends Anthony Randell and Tyler Ross and one day “Brianna suggests we write really gushy, sappy love notes to our crushes. Not that we would give the notes to them or anything.” p. 78. But when one of the notes goes astray Emmie feels she has become the laughing stock of the school and in danger of losing her best friend. Help comes from an unexpected quarter and things work out in the end.
I was put off at the prologue about weird kids and found the inclusion of the fat kid and the smelly kid unpleasant and unnecessary but on the whole the observations of daily life of an introverted middle schooler hit the spot and the story was funny and engaging. The mix of graphics and text make it an easy read. It captures the courage needed to face stressful social situations and the rewards for doing so.
The Wanderer illustrated by Peter Van Den Ende is a wordless picture book with dramatic and complex black and white illustrations. In this incredibly detailed visual narrative the story begins with the simple construction of a paper boat by two characters who will appear and reappear along the way. The fragile boat takes a path around the world and travels into places and lands not always familiar to the reader. The reader is offered the chance to let one’s imagination run wild and bask in the joy of creating one’s own story to fit the page. There is danger throughout the journey but the paper boat manages to gently meander along its path.
Van Den Ende has been able to capture the essence of worldly environments and at times alludes to the damage done by humankind. Some of the images appear Escher-like in their construction especially the white birds against a black background. The front end papers show the little paper construction against a tall fortress-like ship. The back endpapers clearly map the journey of the paper boat and the sights and perils encountered along the way.
It is simply quite stunning in its presentation and is a book that readers of all ages will pore over time and time again.
Cat Kid Comic Club is the new and latest creation of master graphic novel series writer and illustrator Dav Pilkey. Even in the hands of a graphic novel sceptic it is obvious that consummate skill and command of the genre stands behind this book and every book that Pilkey writes.
Cat Kid is a spin off from the ever popular Dogman series that every librarian, parent and teacher knows about. Dog man follows Captain Underpants and who doesn't know of Captain Underpants?
These books are beloved by many children and reluctant readers have learned to love reading with these heavily illustrated series.There is no reason to think that Cat Kid will be any less popular than its predecessors.
There is a good plot, there is good art and there is good action. And there is discussion and inclusion of values like integrity and virtue, of concern for audience, of coping with failure, embracing it and moving on. This book could act as a basis for teaching comic making in school and/or even setting up a Comic Club. A variety of styles, topics and approaches are presented. Even Haiku is presented in a beautifully integrated way. Notes and fun facts at the back explain and make suggestions about how some of the comic creations in Cat Kid Comic Club were made.
Cat Kid Comic Club encourages and supports students and teachers to think about creating their own graphic novels. Cat Kid Comic Club is light and humorous but there is considerable depth. It is a book that can be simply enjoyed on one level or one that might inspire future graphic novelists or at least provide ideas for alternative student presentation responses across the curriculum.
Inspirational, international and sure to be bestselling.
Themes Comic book instruction, Resilience, Integrity.
Wendy Jeffrey
Roald Dahl, how to avoid witches by Roald Dahl. Illus. by Quentin Blake
Penguin, 2020. ISBN: 9780241461792. (Age:Primary school age) Highly recommended.
Roald Dahl, How to Avoid Witches is a perfect companion guide book to be read/presented alongside Roald Dahl's The Witches. What a lot of fun for the parent, teacher or librarian to capture student imagination with the host of possible spin off activities this book presents.
The original book, The Witches was first published in 1983. In Roald Dahl, How to Avoid Witches, Quentin Blake's illustrations appear again but this book is written by Kay Woodward, published in 2020 and the copyright is held by The Roald Dahl Story Company Ltd. This book is a guide, speaking directly and instructively to children, about how to save their lives if they ever meet a witch!
It is such a FUN book. It's funny - HIGHLY engaging! Font, illustrations, diagrams and typesetting is varied throughout. There are multiple activities including choice quizzes, motto-making guides, "witchograms", bad witch jokes, word searches, witch world flight paths, witchy recipes, fact files, mazes, ratings, flip book guides and much more.
Extracts from The Witches and Boy are included in just such a way that children may well be enticed to go and find the original stories and read more. Bonus material including links to apps and audiobooks read by some..." very FAMOUS voices" are included at the end with the reminder that Roald Dahl Day is every year on the 13th September.
Teachers, Librarians, if you want to mystify the children - keep them guessing - this book is an instruction book that will tell you how. A must for the school library if librarians are able to part with it to share with teachers and children.
Themes Witches, childhood initiative and resilience.
