Schools & Libraries Book Reviews

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  • My Friend the Octopus

    My Friend the Octopus

    Name: Jacqueline Harris
    12 June 2022;

    Genre: Historical Fiction

    Vinnie Fyfe is 12 years old and lives with her mother in London. Her mother makes fine hats for rich ladies, hats designed by Vinnie, who is a talented artist. The year is 1877 and unexpectedly, Vinnie is taken by her mother to stay with an aunt in Brighton. Her mother than promptly disappears...

  • Special Delivery: A Book's Journey Around the World

    Special Delivery

    Name: Maria
    12 June 2022;

    Genre: Non Fiction

    Special Delivery begins with Jay who is counting down to his birthday. This is a great hook into this book. Who doesn't get excited by a birthday? The book then begins the making and journey of the book we are actually reading! What a clever idea. Lots of new vocabulary...

  • What Do You See When You Look At a Tree?

    What Do You See When You Look At a Tree?

    Name: Amanda Shipton
    11 June 2022;

    Genre: Environment

    Wow, what a beautifully presented book this is. Emma Carlisle has written a wonderful rhyming text which is carefully thought through to encourage readers, young or old, to ask those questions that make us stop and think. I would challenge anyone who reads this book not to look at trees in a d...

  • Look to the Skies

    Look to the Skies

    Name: Amanda Shipton
    11 June 2022;

    Genre: Environment

    Look to the Skies is a beautiful book following the migration, across North America, of the Monarch butterflies. You follow the butterflies on their journey, through the pages through the well thought-out cut-outs.   The children that I shared Look to the Sk...

  • The Knight With the Blazing Bottom

    The Knight with the Blazing Bottom

    Name: Elen Green
    10 June 2022;

    Genre: Funny Stories

    Like The Dragon with the Blazing Bottom - Beach's original picture book - his follow-up The Knight with the Blazing Bottom is packed with rib-tickling antics and a bouncy rhyming text that will have children giggling alo...

  • Escape to the River Sea

    Escape to the River Sea

    Name: Sue Wilsher
    09 June 2022;

    Genre: Environment

    Inspired by Eva Ibbotson’s classic, Escape to the River Sea opens with the story of Rosa Sweetman, a young girl who arrived in England as part of the Kinderstransport and who finds herself in the care of Sir Clovis and living at Westwood Estate, initially in the company of oth...

  • Just Like Grandpa Jazz

    Just Like Grandpa Jazz

    Name: Sharon Porter
    07 June 2022;

    Genre: Representation & Inclusion

    Grandpa Jazz tells his Grandson, Frank, stories all the time. Some of the stories are true, some are embellished a little with Grandpa's vivid imagination - just like a true grandpa! Grandpa tells Frank all about how he came to live in Britain and the sorts of things he experienced as a...

  • Keep Dancing, Lizzie Chu

    Keep Dancing, Lizzie Chu

    Name: Lisa Watkins
    07 June 2022;

    Genre: Friends and family

    This is the second book I have read by Maisie Chan and it is just as brilliant as the first, Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths!  Keep Dancing, Lizzie Chu is a heart-warming story of 12-year-old Lizzie-Chu who lives with he...

  • Tag, You're Dead

    Tag, You're Dead

    Name: Clare Wilkins
    07 June 2022;

    Genre: Suspense & Thrillers

    Tag, You're Dead is Kathryn Foxfield's latest book is another high-energy - and decidedly creepy - thriller. Reality star Anton Frazer has been lying low since a newsworthy death at his home, but desperate for a return to the limelight he launches an audacious city-wide game o...

  • How to Be True

    How to be True

    Name: Jo Clarke
    06 June 2022;

    Genre: Mystery & Detective

    How To Be True is the second adventure set amongst the School of the Good Sisters and it reunites the reader with familiar characters, Edie, Hanna and Calla. Just like its predecessor, How to Be Brave, it is narrated by Good Sister June, a...