Families Book Reviews

Name: Carol Carter
25 July 2019;

Genre: Adventure

Cloud Forest is a powerful, moving and important picture book on the themes of love and loss and the potential of memories and stories to help us through. In a magical dream-like landscape, a nameless child listens to Umpa weave words into stories, and stories into adventures. Travelling on trai...

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Name: Carol Carter
25 July 2019;

Genre: Adventure

Cinders and Sparks: Magic at Midnight is a fantastic riff on the traditional Cinderella tale. While the first chapter starts off reasonably conventionally, with a bossy stepmother, annoying sisters and Cinders desperate to attend the palace ball, things quickly fly off on a hilarious tangent. T...

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Name: Carol Carter
24 July 2019;

Genre: Adventure

Warrior Monkeys and the Volcano Adventure is the first in a new series of martial arts adventures aimed at 7-9 year-olds. Set at a monkey martial arts school in the Shanti Islands, we are immediately introduced to the large cast of characters including brave but reckless Suki and her more cautiou...

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Name: Mandy Abel
23 July 2019;

Genre: Environment

Clem and her older sister live a bus ride away from the seaside, so they go to the beach every weekend. Clem's sister likes to sit on their beach hut verandah to read and dream, while Clem enjoys beachcombing, searching for shells, pretty stones, pieces of sea glass and other treasure. Clem al...

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Name: Katrina Smith
23 July 2019;

Genre: Adventure

The children in my class wrote: "I liked this book and my favourite part was when Rabbit was really kind to all of the other animals in a race to help them win. I learnt that you don't have to win everything for people to like you"; "I like the book because at first Rabbit was mean but at the end...

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Name: Megan Age 11
23 July 2019;

Genre: Information books

This books is about how and why we first went into space. It is an immersive experience telling the awe-inspiring story of space exploration to date, it looks both back and forwards. This book is accompanied by an app allowing the reading to explore videos, diagrams and 3D models through augmente...

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Name: Megan Age 11
23 July 2019;

Genre: Adventure

Starfell is about a girl called Willow Moss, the youngest and least powerful sister in a family of witches. Willow may not be all powerful but she has an uncanny knack of finding lost things-socks, keys, even wooden teeth! Not an exciting gift but useful when it comes to finding a missing Tuesday...

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Name: Ellen Green
22 July 2019;

Genre: Adventure

What a delightful young fiction read, perfect for emerging readers and those needing a little encouragement - and especially if they happen to love creatures who are small, fluffy and squeak! Harry Stevenson is a guinea pig who is very attached to his 7 year old, football-mad owner, Billy. Unfo...

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Name: Maggie Age 15
22 July 2019;

Genre: Adventure

I would recommend this book because of the really clever way the story is constructed. The use of dual-narratives creates contrasting and emotive perspectives and there is a good use of humour throughout the book to lighten the very deep aspects of her past. I would also recommend this book bec...

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Name: Lizi Backhouse
18 July 2019;

Genre: Adventure

Another lovely book from Lydia Monks, Rabbit Races Ahead is part of a series of stories about animals at Twit Twoo school. In this story, it's sports day and Rabbit is determined to win everything. The day arrives and as Rabbit wins medal after medal, the other animals become sad and don't want...

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