Families Book Reviews

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  • Oxford Reading Tree TreeTops inFact: Level 8: Story of our Lives

    Story of our Lives

    Name: Sue Wilsher
    05 October 2015;

    Genre: Adventure

    This book links the family history of the Hancock family from Liverpool to historical events over the past 100 or so years. This is a very attractive book, cleverly combining family pictures and artefacts with photos of world events. The use of 'tape' to label the photos is effective, combined wi...

  • Oxford Reading Tree TreeTops inFact: Level 12: Big Weather

    Big Weather

    Name: Sue Wilsher
    05 October 2015;

    Genre: Adventure

    This book looks at extreme weather conditions. Big Weather is full of interesting facts, supported by some amazing pictures. The book explains extreme weather conditions in a number of ways - Q and A, diagrams, sections of text, fact files - which makes the subject easy to understand. The book w...

  • All My Secrets

    All My Secrets

    Name: Helen Langley
    27 September 2015;

    Genre: Adventure

    Days after finishing her GCSEs Evie answers the door to find a lawyer asking to speak to her. He tells her she is going to come into an inheritance of 10 million pounds from a woman called Irina Galloway. Eve wants to know who Irina is and why she has been left this money. Her parents obviously k...

  • Draw it! Colour it! Creatures: With over 40 top artists

    Draw It! Colour It! Creatures

    Name: Rachel
    27 September 2015;

    Genre: Adventure

    We are told on the inside cover that this series is 'Books for people who love to draw made by people who love to draw'. And this book is exactly that, but so much more. There are drawing activities on every page by well known names such as Alex T Smith, Emily Gravett, Jim Field and Sarah McInty...

  • The Baby

    The Baby

    Name: Clare Humphreys
    23 September 2015;

    Genre: Real life

    I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I first picked up the book, but once I started reading, I just couldn't put it down! It starts at Olivia's seventeenth birthday party, her best friend, Nicola subsequently gives birth to a baby girl, Eliza on the bathroom floor, much to the surprise of her...

  • A Brush with Danger

    Fox Investigates: A Brush with Danger

    Name: Lizi Coombs
    20 September 2015;

    Genre: Adventure

    This is an animal based, humourous crime book.... how do you categorise that?! Adam Frost has written a series of Fox Investigates , and I've read two of them - this one and A whiff of mystery. I found them both fast-paced, witty and funny whilst also being easy for children to access. The stor...

  • The Curious Tale of the Lady Caraboo

    The Curious Tale of the Lady Caraboo

    Name: Carol Williams
    16 September 2015;

    Genre: Adventure

    This novel is all the more fascinating for being based on a true story. Mary Willcox, a poor mixed-race girl in Regency England, experiences dreadful hardship, and is next seen as the mysterious Lady Caraboo, taken in by the wealthy Worrall family. Mrs Worrall is fascinated by anything exotic, an...

  • What the Ladybird Heard Next

    What the Ladybird Heard Next

    Name: Jennifer Niblett
    15 September 2015;

    Genre: Adventure

    The sequel to the fabulous What the Ladybird Heard. Julia Donaldson's story telling is engaging and Lydia Monks's illustration again brings it all to life, with the added sparkle drawing in even the most reluctant of children. We see the return of Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len, who come up with a pla...

  • Greenling

    Greenling

    Name: Jennifer Niblett
    15 September 2015;

    Genre: Adventure

    From the award-winning illustrator, Levi Pinfold, comes a modern fable about natures power, Greenling. Previous credits include Django and Black Dog. 'Mr and Mrs Barleycorn live a quiet life, alone and quite forgotten by the world. But something is growing on Barleycorn land. Something that Mr Ba...

  • The Memory Hit

    The Memory Hit

    Name: Catherine Purcell
    15 September 2015;

    Genre: Adventure

    At the heart of this fast paced thriller is a drug, Nostalgex. The ultimate memory hit. Nostalgex, or rather the effects of Nostalgex, appear to be highly addictive; the desire to relive an event, drawing a person back, encouraging them to inhabit a past that has, well, passed. We're introduced...