Schools & Libraries Book Reviews

Name: Jennifer Caddick
14 February 2022;

Genre: Adventure

The Boy in the Post is an energetic, lively and charming, children- and animal-packed adventure story, with a warm, gentle and old fashioned feel to the characters, setting and tone. The story follows a summer holiday like no other for three siblings: Orinthia, Seafra a...

More

Name: Jennifer Caddick
14 February 2022;

Genre: Horror

Dread Wood is the superb, super-scary and super-cool new horror-comedy story from the brilliant Jennifer Killick. After her last two books (the fantastically creepy Crater Lake and Crater Lake: Evolution), Jennifer has, yet again, upped the level of stylishly slick, sinister s...

More

Name: Jennifer Caddick
14 February 2022;

Genre: Mystery & Detective

This was a fabulous, funny, intriguing and puzzling interactive mystery story where you, the reader, becomes one of the main characters and detectives of the crime that has been committed. You find yourself in the town of Haventry. It may look normal but it also has a 'Shady Side', inhabited b...

More

Name: Linda Canning
14 February 2022;

Genre: Adventure

I have adored the How to be a Hero series from beginning to end, and A Gathering of Giants is no exception. The perfect ending to a fantastic series, it sees Lotta and Whetstone face their greatest challenges yet. Like its prequels, it is a quest story packed...

More

Name: Samantha Hughes
14 February 2022;

Genre: Friendship

In Home is Where the Heart Is, Bear moves into the Wild Old Woods and make a home for himself. Despite it being filled with beautiful things, however, there is something missing; Bear realises that he's lonely. So he goes out in search of a friend. He meets Hare, who is very d...

More

Name: Emma Nelson
13 February 2022;

Genre: Historical Fiction

Anna Ciddor's novel The Boy Who Stepped Through Time is a glorious tale of a boy who time travels back to the Roman era whilst on holiday with his family. The story begins with Perry and his family visiting a Roman grape harvest festival at a Roman villa in France. Perry inadv...

More

Name: Amanda Shipton
12 February 2022;

Genre: Early Readers & Young Fiction

Speedy Monkey is a beutifully written, colourful, hardback book; perfect for children who are developing fluency and moving away from phonetically decodable texts. The vocabulary used will allow for wonderful discussions and allow opportunities to ask questions about a child's...

More

Name: Eileen Armstrong
10 February 2022;

Genre: Friends and family

In Shades of Scarlet, Scarlet's world implodes when her parents' relationship falls apart and her mum leaves her dad, taking Scarlet with her. To add insult to injury, her mum has a boyfriend who Scarlet only finds out about on the school grapevine as, embarrassingly, he's the...

More

Name: Sam Phillips
10 February 2022;

Genre: Mystery & Detective

From a young age children are taught that stories have a beginning, a middle - usually the problem, and an end. Well this great mystery adventure story by Gareth P. Jones, breaks the traditional story book mould. Solve Your Own Mystery - The Time Thief is the second book in th...

More

Name: Amanda Shipton
10 February 2022;

Genre: Early Readers & Young Fiction

The Night Train is a beautifully written story about characters trying to get into the correct child's dream. There are stories within a story, as we find out the background of each character. Teamwork prevails as disaster threatens to strike the train. A cleverly writt...

More