Children Book Reviews

Name: Beverley Somerset
17 May 2021;

Genre: Environment & Nature

Laurie Larksie is 12 and lives with her mum, dad and younger sister Fern. The whole family are keen environmentalists, and want to save the planet. Laurie and Fern enjoy making their own eco-friendly beauty products from the foods their parents grow at home. The family even go so far as to loo...

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Name: Natalie J. McChrystal Plimmer
16 May 2021;

Genre: Funny Stories

The Exploding Life of Scarlett Fife begins a new series by the author of the Who Let the Gods Out? series. This illustrated stream-of-consciousness chapter book for older primary children is about Scarlett, who, when she loses her temper, makes things like a cake explode. She...

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Name: Jennifer Caddick
13 May 2021;

Genre: Adventure

This brilliantly humorous adventure features a lively cast of schoolkids, marooned on an island and cut off from the rest of the world. Tiny 11 year old Noah stows away on his older sister's geography trip to the Orinoco Warehouse (a nearby online shopping warehouse) but, proving that technolo...

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Name: Kristen Hopwood
12 May 2021;

Genre: Environment & Nature

Harklights is an orphanage and factory run by Old Ma Bogey and the children pack matchboxes in the factory. Strangely, none of the children ever seem to get a guardian and actually leave the orphanage. Old Ma Bogey uses her collection of random objects to rename the children w...

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Name: Kristen Hopwood
11 May 2021;

Genre: Animals

In Digger and Me we meet James who is in Year 6 and muddling his way through a confusing time in his life. His mum and dad are separated so he spends his time between two houses - mum and her boyfriend, Dave and Dad and his girlfriend, Kathy. James isn't sure whether he likes...

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Name: Kelly Buxton
10 May 2021;

Genre: Fantasy

Fans of Abi Elphinstone's Rumblestar series will enjoy Otherland by Louie Stowell: a fun and energetic portal story that delves into a dark and dangerous magical world inhabited by fairies, gods and vampires. Most children celebrate their birthdays with clowns, cake, fr...

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Name: Alison Kelly
09 May 2021;

Genre: Poetry

Three gifted children's poets have contributed to Being Me, Poems about Thoughts, Worries and Feelings, an important collection of poems that directly address children's mental health and well-being.  As Kay Tew says in the preface to the teaching resource that accompanies the...

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Name: Nathan Cox
07 May 2021;

Genre: Funny Stories

Something I Said is a joke-filled story from beginning to end. Carmichael Taylor, Car, is a 13-year-old boy with hidden comic skills and sarcasm. His perception of the world is one big joke but often people don't find things as funny as he does - 'If life is a joke, make it a...

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Name: Jane Rew
07 May 2021;

Genre: Environment & Nature

Quite how Lou Baker Smith manages to capture the beauty of bioluminescent creatures in The Deep Blue as they move through the twilight zone, the fluidity and opalescence jellyfish drifting on the ocean current, or the churning swell of waves under a lowering sea is a thing of...

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Name: Beverley Somerset
07 May 2021;

Genre: Mystery & Detective

Pete, Krish and Nancy are off on a school trip to Heathland Camp, where they are expecting to have a great time. There are derelict Ministry of Defence buildings nearby which they have been told are out of bounds, but Pete decides that they must go and investigate them. They discover that the...

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