Schools & Libraries Book Reviews

Name: Kyle Matravers
07 August 2018;

Genre: Adventure

Although not a thrilling and exciting story, How to be a Lion still delivers an important message to children about always being yourself, despite what others say. It encourages following your own path and not the path that others believe you should take. I feel that this is a very important mes...

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Name: Kyle Matravers
07 August 2018;

Genre: Adventure

Polly Dunbar has created a funny and charming take on the arrival of a new sibling into a family. The story centres around a couple and their pet cat. The text is written from the point of view of the cat and his love of fish. He introduces his family and declares that they give him lots of f...

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Name: Leia Sands
06 August 2018;

Genre: Adventure

This is the story of Dylan, a boy who dreams of being a superhero just like his brother Arctic Thunder and his sister Millie Monday. However, on discovering his slightly disappointing superpower - the ability to talk to iguanas - Dylan feels rather inadequate. The evil Super Villain Platypus Kid...

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Name: Linda Brown
03 August 2018;

Genre: Fantasy

This debut YA novel has breathless pacing, wonderful worldbuilding that lets your imagination run wild and a strong heroine that the reader roots for. Children of Blood and Bone is told through four different points of view, but their lives are all woven around the main charac...

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Name: Matt Davies
02 August 2018;

Genre: Adventure

What an adventure! This book centres around Emmeline, whose parents mysteriously vanish. Before long, she is on a ship to France where she encounters her side-kick-to-be, Thing. Everything takes a turn for the worse when Emmeline is kidnapped and taken to the North. From here on in, we have sc...

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Name: Sam Holmes
02 August 2018;

Genre: Adventure

Emmeline is trying to find her parents and is desperate to know why they can't be contacted. She receives a ship ticket and instructions to meet her new guardian in Paris. However, things don't go to plan and, despite befriending a stowaway named 'Thing', Emmeline is kidnapped by the evil Dr....

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Name: Susan Wilsher
02 August 2018;

Genre: Adventure

Living high in the mountains of the Philippines in 1899, Samkad's world is his tribe, his village. Now he is about the have the Cut and become a man. He is desperate to play his part in keeping the tribe safe from their enemy, the head-hunting Mangili, even if it means he will no longer be abl...

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Name: Alison Kelly
02 August 2018;

Genre: Poetry

What a lovely collaboration between two acclaimed figures in the field of children's literature this is! CLIPPA prize-winner, Rachel Rooney, brings a whole school classroom to life (and I don't just mean its pupils), beautifully complemented by former Children's Laureate, Chris Riddell...

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Name: Kristen Hopwood
01 August 2018;

Genre: Adventure

Bad Nana: Older not wiser is a brightly illustrated delight for children beginning to read chapter books as it is split into three sections. The whole book is told from the point of view of Jeanie, the 7 3/4 year old granddaughter of Bad Nana. The first section is an introduction to the charact...

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Name: Lorraine Ansell
01 August 2018;

Genre: Adventure

Jess Wilson is a teenager escaping from the grief and torture of her past. Able to recall every minute detail of her life and experiences from the age of 11, she has been tested to see if her condition, hyperthymesia, can be altered with alternate memories.Previously known as Freya...

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