Families Book Reviews

Name: Catherine Purcell
01 January 2022;

Genre: Historical Fiction

Tom Palmer's After the War; Michael Rosen's The Missing; Karen Levine's Hana's Suitcase; Morris Gleitzman's Once; Judith Kerr's When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit; and now, Liz Kessler's When the World Was Ours. Vienna. 1936. Three friends spend a joy-filled day together cel...

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Name: Louisa Farrow
01 January 2022;

Genre: Representation & Inclusion

Freedom isn't a long novel but it crams in so much emotional satisfaction, excitement, and adventure! It also weaves the story around real historical events in a way that feels beautifully natural. The appalling fate of slaves on the slave ship Zong and the insurance fr...

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Name: Linda Brown
01 January 2022;

Genre: Fantasy

Renee Ahdieh is so good at her craft that once again she immersed me onto the atmospheric streets of New Orleans in The Righteous. Into its dark secluded alleyways and even darker secrets of the vampires, werewolves and other ethereal creatures that share the streets with huma...

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Name: Linda Brown
01 January 2022;

Genre: Fantasy

We have all watched a creepy film where a group of teenagers pick up the tarot cards/quija board and screamed at the TV 'Don’t do it!' This is exactly what you will be doing as the get deeper into this debut YA novel... Maeve is a 16-year-old girl who lives in Ireland and due to her behaviour,...

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Name: Nicola Cleveland
23 December 2021;

Genre: Adventure

The Unadoptables is a stunningly spooky and sinister story of loyalty, determination and family packed with adventure and adversity.Amsterdam, 1886. The Little Tulip Orphanage has strict rules on how babies should be delivered, but that autumn, five children arrive...

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Name: Beverley Somerset
22 December 2021;

Genre: Historical Fiction

Set in the early 1920's, this wonderful novel explores the after effects of World War 1 on both the surviving soldiers and the families they return to. Natty lives in the small Welsh village of Libanwy with her mother, Ffion, who is a vocal supporter of women’s rights. When her outspokenness c...

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Name: Jan Blagden
10 December 2021;

Genre: Adventure

How I Saved the World in a Week kept me engrossed. The chapter headings give clues to the next part of the story without giving anything away, and I liked that some were only a page whilst others were several pages long. This uneven pace of chapter length draws the reader into...

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Name: Amiran Age 14
01 December 2021;

Genre: Personal Growth

I would definitely recommend this book, but to a specific audience. Me being of South Asian minority, I don't think I related to this as much as other black girls would, but I would definitely recommend it to them. It was an interesting read and could give a girl some great insights into growi...

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Name: Lisa Watkins
01 December 2021;

Genre: Humour

Diary of a Christmas Elf is a charmingly hilarious story of Tog, an apprentice elf. Being selected by Santa isn't quite what Tog had dreamed of and it doesn't take long before he is relegated to cleaning out the reindeer stables. Tog finds himself being accused of a terrible C...

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Name: Amanda Shipton
01 December 2021;

Genre: Picture Books

Tiny Reindeer is a beautifully written, seasonal story focusing on an underdog character with a huge heart and an even stronger determination. Children will easily identify with Tiny as he is desperate to help Santa do jobs, but often makes them worse rather than helping. A he...

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