Schools & Libraries Book Reviews

Filter: 

  • A Song for Ella Grey

    A Song for Ella Grey

    Name: Dawn Woods
    02 January 2022;

    Genre: Friends and family

    According to the blurb for A Song for Ella Grey, this is 'The most beautiful book you'll read this year' - and, for me, that was true. I loved it. A modern interpretation of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, this novel is told from Claire's viewpoint. It describes her life fro...

  • The Primrose Railway Children

    The Primrose Railway Children

    Name: Nicola Mansfield Niemi
    02 January 2022;

    Genre: Family & Home

    Have you ever read a book where the characters feel so real you think you know them? That they are friends and you are simply revisiting them when you pick the book up to read? This is exactly what Jacqueline Wilson has done with The Primrose Railway Children; she has masterfu...

  • When The World Was Ours: A book about finding hope in the darkest of times

    When the World Was Ours

    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...

  • Freedom

    Freedom

    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...

  • The Righteous

    The Righteous

    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...

  • All Our Hidden Gifts

    All Our Hidden Gifts

    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,...

  • The Unadoptables: Five fantastic children on the adventure of a lifetime

    The Unadoptables: Five fantastic children on the adventure of a lifetime

    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...

  • When The War Came Home

    When the War Came Home

    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...

  • Roar Like a Lion

    Roar Like a Lion

    Name: Jo Clarke
    15 December 2021;

    Genre: Personal Growth

    Carlie Sorosiak has written a fun and quirky guide to well being and life in general. Uniquely, Roar Like a Lion uses the animal kingdom to draw parallels between the difficulties that we face as humans and those presented to our close relatives in the animal world. Using char...

  • How I Saved the World in a Week

    How I Saved the World in aWeek

    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...