[[Category:Teens|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Teens]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
{{Frontpage|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingauthor=Jenny Valentine|title=Us in the Before and After|rating=5|genre="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->Teens<!-- Lawrence -->|summary=Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connection. They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together.|-isbn=1471196585}}{{Frontpage| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Max Boucherat|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills[[image:1444940651|rating=4.jpg5|linkgenre=http://wwwConfident Readers|summary=We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome.amazon What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world.co But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky.uk/dp/1444940651/ref For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?|isbn=nosim?tag0008666482}}{{Frontpage|author=Rachel Greenlaw|title=Compass and Blade|rating=3.5|genre=thebookbag-21Teens]]|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.
|isbn=0008664730
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Harry Allen
|title=Children of the Sun
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary= Ra Eun Seo lives in a North Korean town and she is a talented singer. Life is hard and food is difficult to come by, so Seo and her friends Nari and Min go foraging every evening, looking for tree bark and edible grasses to supplement the meagre rations of rice and kimchi at home.
|isbn=1805140493
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Alexia Casale
|title=Sing if you Can't Dance
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=It's hard enough to navigate your teenage years without suddenly finding that you're having to navigate a life-changing disability too, but that's what Ven is dealing with after collapsing on stage in the middle of a dance performance that was going to change her life. But she comes back fighting, desperate to avoid the pity stares, and desperate to get back to a life that's as normal as she can possibly manage. Meanwhile there's a new (cute!) boy in school, her music A Level performance piece to try to sort out, and just the day to day traumas of all the challenges her body continues to throw at her to navigate. So even though she can't dance anymore, might she be able to sing her way through instead?
|isbn=0571373801
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Simon Fox
|title=Deadlock
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Late one night Graham Blake is late back from his shift on the force, and then suddenly rings Archie, demanding he fetch something from a secret place, and join him on the run. They get together, but barely begin to smell the whiff of Southern trains when the father is arrested, leaving Archie on the late express to Brighton, toting a tin his father was determined to keep away from his colleagues, and the bearer of a whole heap of questions.
|isbn=1839944420
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Lex Croucher
|title=Gwen and Art Are Not in Love
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Who knew that what I really needed to read right now was a gay Arthurian RomCom? But honestly, it lifted my spirits in a most delightful way. In this story, Gwen and Arthur have been betrothed since they were tiny, much to their mutual disgust! Gwen, you see, is in love with Bridget (the kingdom's only female knight) - something that Art discovers from her private diaries. And then when Gwen then catches Art kissing a boy they find themselves becoming reluctant allies, creating the subterfuge of falling in love with each other, when really they are enabling their own other romantic attachments. But as their impending wedding draws ever closer, will they find a way in which they can both truly be themselves, or are they destined to live a lie their whole lives?
|isbn=1526651793
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Nick Brooks
|title=Promise Boys
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=When the principal (headmaster) of Urban Promise Prep school is murdered, three boys find themselves called into the police station as suspects. Each, seemingly, has a grudge of some description against Principal Moore, and each could have been there at the time of his murder. But who killed him, and why, and if any of the boys are innocent, will they be able to clear their names?
|isbn=1035003155
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1919635017
|title=A Thief to Catch a Killer
|author=Kitt Townsend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary= Solomon Klyne isn't a bad lad, so why is he running around London committing a series of robberies? And how did he learn to crack safes? You'll have to wait to get an answer to the second question because I avoid spoilers. But I'll answer the first one: for his grandmother...
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Patrick Ness and Tea Bendix
|title=Different for Boys
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Ant is in Year Eleven at quite a standard school, and is surprised to find his geography class (within which it seems absolutely nothing about geography is ever learnt) has been restructured, so his desk is one of four with both his best buddy from the football team, and two other old muckers – in fact they all go back to primary school days together. As they're all fired up, straining at the leash only a single-sex school can form, the talk in class and out often turns to sex. Which is confusing for Ant, as he doesn't know what his score is, where his achievements in that regard lie. He's had a casual relationship, a secret one, for several months now, and so has effectively progressed up the ladder headed by 'experienced', but whether that's set in stone, he can't be sure. And that's mostly because of who he's been having the relationship and the sex with.
|isbn=1529509491
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1800901232
|title=Stitched Up
|author=Steve Cole
|rating=5
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
|summary=Twelve-year-old Hanh wanted to be a fashion designer. Life in the rural village where she lived with her family was happy, if not prosperous, so when the smartly-dressed man and woman came to the village to offer Hahn a job in Hanoi it was an opportunity not to be missed. Some money changed hands and Hanh was on the mini-bus to Hanoi. Only, Hanh and the other girls were not going to work in a shop, they were to work in virtual slavery in an illegal garment factory. You know those jeans you really wanted: the ones with intricate embroidery and beading on the legs? The ones with the artfully-placed rips and distressed seams that felt so soft when you touched them? It's quite possible that Hanh and her co-workers made them.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Patrice Lawrence
|title=Needle
|rating=3
|genre=Teens
|summary=Brave. Charlene, the 'heroine' of this piece is extremely hard for some people to like, characters and readers both. Kicked out of multiple homes and schools, she's fostering with a pleasant yoga tutor, Annie, and has taken up residence in her son Blake's old room while he's at uni. Such a tempestuous personality may be in need of a comfort blanket, you might perhaps think, and the creation of one such item is part of the plot here, as Charlene is a wonder knitter, and is making something full of love for her younger sister – a younger sister she's allowed contact with no more. We see Charlene prove her belligerence with a store detective, and then force people to give her two days off school, when she shouts someone down as expletively ignorant. And then... well, what exactly happens is not for me to say, only to remark how sharp and pointy those knitting needles can be...
|isbn=1800901011
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Ann Sei Lin
|title= Rebel Skies
|rating= 5
|genre= Teens
|summary= Kurara has spent her entire life as a servant on the Midori, a massive dining hall floating in the sky where soldiers of the Empire come to drink and make merry between their conquests. However, when a man named Himura arrives to tell her that she is a Crafter like him, someone with the power to form paper into whatever she desires – a power sought after all across the Empire. He asks her to come with him, to leave the life of dreary servitude that is all she has known. Well, soon Kurara won't have any say in the matter, because the Midori is destroyed by a monstrous paper spirit known as a shikigami, and she is forced to flee out into the world. She joins Himura aboard the Orihime, a sky-ship whose express purpose is to hunt down shikigami, and a whole world of adventure awaits her…
|isbn=1406399590
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Marcus Sedgwick
|title=Wrath
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Meet Fitz, a young Scottish lad full of frustration at himself. Lockdown is only just over, and he should be free to do what he wants, to go where he wants and with whom he wants, but he cannot stop himself from putting his foot in it when he talks to his best friend, Cassie. They were half of a desultory school band, but Cassie was also one hundred per cent the enigmatic – saying she could hear a subhuman hum coming from the earth. Is this connected with one of her eco-warrior parents saying the end of the world is already a done deal? Is it some spooky new kind of music she's dreaming of? Is she just bonkers? And can Fitz find out the truth? Well, not when Cassie has gone missing he can't...
|isbn=1800900899
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Tori Bovalino
|title=The Devil Makes Three
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary= Working all summer in her boarding school's library is the last thing Tess Matheson wants to do — especially when she gets a request for over a hundred books that she has to deliver herself. What makes it worse is the man who requested the books: Mr Birch. The boarding school's headmaster, and a man Tess hates. As a petty act of revenge for making her find and deliver such a large request, Tess sticks post-it notes on each of the books, scribbled with the ugliest insults she can think of. They're never meant to reach him, of course. Her plan is to get her anger out like this, and then take them all off before delivering them. No harm done… Or it would be, if someone hadn't delivered them for her.
|isbn=1789098130
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Philip Reeve
|title=Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=In a word, rich. There is certainly an abundance of riches in this story set on a peculiar island called Wildsea, British but way west, beyond the Scillies. There are troll people on it, and sea-witches, and legends of the Dark family that has to keep watch for magical islands and their monster approaching from even further west, where no ship dare sail. The current Darks are the Watcher, Andrewe, who has to keep notes of activity from the Hidden Lands, his brother Will who lives in London with too much science in his head to worry about such local yokel superstitions, and Andrewe's foundling daughter, who washed up out of the sea one day eleven years ago. But when Andrewe Dark drowns himself, both his sullen brother and his curious ward are thrust into the world of protecting their island, like it or not.
|isbn=1788452372
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de Freston
|title=Julia and the Shark
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Julia, our pre-teen heroine, has been packed off with her parents and their cat from the family home in SW England to be lighthousekeepers for a summer, in the far NE of the Scottish islands. Here be Vikings, that kind of Scottish island. Dad is going to be automating the lantern, which is his specialist thing, while mum will be leaving her career in algae behind to hunt the elusive Greenland shark. And Julia, well, she will be homesick and alone – until she suddenly finds company one night.
|isbn=1510107789
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Jonathan Stroud
|title= The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne
|rating= 4
|genre= Teens
|summary= Scarlett McCain is an outlaw, rejecting the draconian conformity of the Surviving Towns and Faith Houses to wander the wildlands between the Seven Kingdoms of Britain, robbing banks and shooting other outlaws to keep herself alive. But then she meets Albert Browne, a dark boy with dark powers and a darker past. With mysterious militiamen hunting them down, they plan to flee to the mythical Free Isles of the London Lagoon. Together, they must brave man-eating wildlife, the cannibalistic Tainted and all the horrors of post-apocalyptic society to reach the Free Isles, but will they be any more accepted there than they are in the rest of Britain?
|isbn=1406394815
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Mercedes Helnwein
|title=Slingshot
|rating=3
|genre=Teens
|summary=Gracie Welles has resigned herself to being lonely. As a secret illegitimate daughter of a man with a "real" family, she is used to not being a priority in people's lives. But when she defends a random boy in her class with her slingshot, her simple existence is changed for good. No longer can she spend her time writing novels in solitude, for her life now has a boy in it that she never asked for: Wade Scholfield.
|isbn=152905818X
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= T L Huchu
|title= The Library of the Dead
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Teens
|summary= Ropa Moyo is a ghostalker, using Zimbabwean magic (and a bit of Scottish pragmatism) to take messages from the dead of Edinburgh for their living relatives. Ever since she dropped out of school, she's been using it to support not only herself, but her younger sister and her aging grandmother. However, there's an evil stalking the ruined streets of Edinburgh, targeting the city's children. Soon, Ropa is pulled into the search for a missing boy at the request of his dead mother. She will end up discovering an occult library and realise that the world of magic is far bigger and more dangerous than she ever could've imagined. Will she find the missing children and bring an end to this evil, or will it claim her too?
|isbn= 1529039452
}}
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Rose, Interrupted by Patrice Lawrence]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] Rose and her brother Rudder have recently escaped from cult-like fundamentalist Christian sect, the Pilgrims, along with their mother. While Mum works endless hours at agency cleaning jobs trying to keep the rent paid on their tiny flat, Rose and Rudder are trying to navigate the worldly world. It's not easy when everything is new and the rigid rules you've always lived by are suddenly missing. [[Rose, Interrupted by Patrice Lawrence|Full Review]]<!-- Gregory -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1526609169.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1526609169/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[I Hold Your Heart by Karen Gregory]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] Gemma has just started her A levels at school. She's a keen student and she has a good, close set of friends. Gemma loves country music and in her spare time she enjoys writing and singing country songs. She's pretty good at it too. Home life is busy - Gemma's brother Michael has a chance at a football career and the whole family, propelled by Gemma's rather over-invested dad, is supporting him with everything they've got. Gemma hasn't had a serious boyfriend yet, so when the handsome Aaron appears and an instant attraction fizzles between them, Gemma is keen to see where romance could lead... [[I Hold Your Heart by Karen Gregory|Full Review]]<!-- Filby -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1999683587.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1999683587/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Evil Occupants of Easingdale Castle by Ray Filby]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] Jason likes chess. He's pretty good at it too - a level eight on his computer programme, with level ten being Grand Master level. He's also good at systems, having contributed to the relational database that has streamlined his school's administration. Jason's school, Easingdale Comprehensive, is very big on technology and its head, Mr Johnston, is keen to involve his pupils wherever they show promise. So Jason's friends have also helped out. Liz is great with hardware and helped with the school's card reader system. Becky has a flair for software and has recommended lots of curriculum-enhancing apps. And Bill is a talented programmer... [[The Evil Occupants of Easingdale Castle by Ray Filby|Full Review]] <!-- James -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1781128952.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1781128952/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Starlight Watchmaker by Lauren James]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dyslexia Friendly|Dyslexia Friendly]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] This is a dyslexia-friendly, science fiction novella for young adults. It tells the tale of Hugo, an unwanted and rather lonely android, who makes a living for himself mending time-travel watches. When one of his clients demands that his broken watch be mended, Hugo realises there is a mystery to be solved, and is only too ready to help. An exciting journey of discovery unfolds, which takes Hugo out of his drab attic workroom and into a scary adventure with some amazing new friends, exploring regions of the planet never before known to exist. [[The Starlight Watchmaker by Lauren James|Full Review]] <!-- Webb -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1916459900.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1916459900/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Disbelieved: Skin and Bone CSIs by Beth Webb]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] Anelise - Annie - has been living with her cousin Joe and her aunt, an eminent forensic scientist, since her mum died and her naturalist father went abroad on a research trip. So she does wonder sometimes whether the minor premonitions she has - who's on the other end of the ringing phone, or at the door when there's a knock - are in her imagination. But to foresee a serious accident and then for it to actually happen? And the dreadful headaches. Something's going on. Luckily for Annie, Joe is convinced and also willing to help. So they start to investigate the accident... [[Disbelieved: Skin and Bone CSIs by Beth Webb|Full Review]] <!-- Whitlock -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1782692177.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1782692177/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[The Collective by Lindsey Whitlock]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] ''Illinois Territory, Collective Homesteads of America.'' It's certainly an unusual place. Some people live in sunken houses, buried into hillsides to disguise how large their property is at times of austerity, among other reasons. Others are called Foresters, for they live and work in trees – forever playing and resting in trees as children, but farming in amongst them and living between them too. These two sides hate each other – so perhaps this is less of an unusual place than at first sight. Our drama kicks off when the small area the Foresters live in is placed under compulsory purchase – the residents are given a pitiful amount to clear out, before they get manfully cleared out. It's probably the Hills that are behind this, what's more. Our hero, Elwyn, has just left the trees for the Hills, to live with an uncle and learn their ways – he's just of age to decide things for himself, and he has decided to see how the other half lives. This has, of course, opened himself up to no end of prejudicial judgement. But what's this – as soon as he reaches the Hills he sees a third way of living, in a lovely colonial-style mansion, where everything sparkles and shines with crystalline light. What does it mean that he feels destiny-bound to this even posher, newer and more hopeful life? [[The Collective by Lindsey Whitlock|Full Review]] <!-- Macdibble -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1910646482.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1910646482/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Dog Runner by Bren MacDibble]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] Set in a dystopian Australia, this is the story of Ella and Emery and their dogs travelling across the outback together. A red fungus has wiped out all the crops and grasses, and with the food chain grinding to a halt, society is collapsing. Ella's mum has been gone for a long time - she left for work one day and then never came home. Ella and her half brother Emery have been living at home with their dad and their dogs, hoping for the best, but one day their dad decides to go out and try to find Ella's mum. When he also fails to return, Emery decides that their best chance of survival is to set out with the dogs to travel across the outback to his grandfather's house where, he believes, there will still be food and a safe place for them to live until their father can find them again. [[The Dog Runner by Bren MacDibble|Full Review]] |-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0008291845.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008291845/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[We Are Not Okay by Natalia Gomes]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Set in a typical American town, ''We Are Not Okay'' tells the story of four teenage girls facing the difficulties brought on by high school and growing up as a girl in today's society. The novel is told from four different perspectives, those of Lucy, Ulana, Trina and Sophia, whose friendship statuses vary from BFFs to sworn enemies. The reader is presented with a glimpse into each of their lives, but more importantly their minds, and at times the thoughts of those characters could have been taken directly from my own. Gomes has created a heartbreakingly real and relevant novel that focuses on prominent topic areas which are becoming ingrained in our society, particularly in relation to the ''Me Too Movement''. ''We Are Not Okay'' reminds the reader of the importance of phrases like ''I'm With Her''. [[We Are Not Okay by Natalia Gomes|Full Review]] <!-- Crossan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1408868121.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1408868121/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Toffee by Sarah Crossan]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] ''I am not who I say I am,'' ''and Marla isn't who she thinks she is. '' ''I am a girl trying to forget.'' ''She is a woman trying to remember.'' Allison has finally had enough and has run away from home. The burning red weal on her face provides a clue to why. She's on her way to Bude to find Kelly-Anne, who was the first to run away from home, but Kelly-Anne isn't answering her phone. Night is closing in and so Allison takes refuge in a shed in the garden of what looks to be an empty house. But the house isn't empty. Marla lives in it and Marla doesn't remember things very well. She mistakes Allison for her friend, Toffee. And because Allison doesn't much want to be Allison any more and because Marla is so happy to see Toffee - why shouldn't Allison ''become'' Toffee? [[Toffee by Sarah Crossan|Full Review]]<!-- Carroll -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1471160645.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471160645/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Words That Fly Between Us by Sarah Carroll]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Lucy is living in a beautiful, expensive house along with her joking, playful dad and her lovely mum. Everything should be perfect. Her dad is a property investor, making millions, and she and her mum don't lack for anything in their lives. But still, Lucy lives her life on edge, controlled by the words around her, whether they are spoken, or unspoken. You see, her dad is a bully, edging closer and closer towards physically abusing her mum, and Lucy is manipulated by him, unable to express her true feelings, or fully develop her artistic side which is where she feels her talents lie but her dad says won't ever lead to her having a successful life. [[The Words That Fly Between Us by Sarah Carroll|Full Review]] <!-- Foster -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1471172236.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471172236/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Check Mates by Stewart Foster]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] In many ways Felix is a typical boy in Year 7, enjoying playing games on his PS4 and hanging out with his friend Jake at the weekend. However Felix is struggling at school. He is not a problem child but he does have a problem. His ADHD makes it hard for him to concentrate, he keeps getting into trouble and his grades are slipping. When his Mum suggests that he spends more time with his grandfather Felix is horrified. Ever since Grandma died his Granddad has been grumpy and more eccentric than before. All he wants to do is sit in the dark and play chess. Felix knows that this will be extremely boring. But sometimes we learn valuable lessons where we least expect to and perhaps Granddad and Felix can help each other. [[Check Mates by Stewart Foster|Full Review]] <!-- Wild-Palmer -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1782692231.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1782692231/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Tunnels Below by Nadine Wild-Palmer]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] Meet Cecilia. It's her twelfth birthday, and after a scene that shows her parents to be wacky, witty and wonderful as if fresh from an American sit-com, the whole family is set to go out for a grand day of celebration. Cecilia is toting a large, silvered ball that her younger sister found as a present, but ends up dropping it, and watching it as it rolls right back from her grip into the very Underground carriage they had just left. Mind the gap. Back in the train with it she finds she is alone – and the train promptly hares off to leave her abandoned in pitch darkness at a stop no other train has ever taken her to… It's the outskirts, Cecilia will find, of a strange society of English-speaking humanised animals, and her first acquaintance, a fox-man, will tell her that all talk of a world above, with suns and fields and fresh air, is pooh-poohed as the nonsense gibberish of people who have wandered in darkness too much and forgotten their origins. Can she survive all this wondrous civilisation can throw at her and find her way back to the family she left behind – or will the dark leaders from the resident crow family subject her to their evil reign? [[The Tunnels Below by Nadine Wild-Palmer|Full Review]] <!-- Lupo -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1408898055.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1408898055/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[We Are Blood And Thunder by Kesia Lupo]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] ''In a sealed-off city, a young woman, Lena, is running for her life. She has been sentenced to death and her only way to survive is to trust those she has been brought up to fear - those with magic.'' ''On the other side of the locked gates is a masked lady, Constance, determined to find a way back in. Years ago she escaped before her own powers were discovered. But now she won't hide who she is any longer.'' So, Lena is a cryptling - a low caste individual living in the city of Duke's Forest.[[We Are Blood And Thunder by Kesia Lupo|Full Review]] <!-- Paige -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:140128339X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/140128339X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Mera: Tidebreaker by Danielle Paige and Stephen Byrne]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Graphic Novels|Graphic Novels]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Meet Mera. She's the latest in a line of young women intent on fighting against their intended destiny for one only they can see for themselves. Her father, the king of Xebel, sees some cotton wool and a hunky man in an arranged marriage as her future – after all, Mera's mother, the territory's warrior queen, is long dead. Mera doesn't fancy the cosseting or the fella involved at all, and is in fact trying to get Xebel out from under the cosh of Atlantean power, for Xebel's royalty are merely puppets of Atlantean masters. So when she overhears her father request that her intended goes to the world of us air-breathing humans, and kill the Atlantis heir, she rushes off to get the quest (and the promised throne) all for herself. But of course, she has no idea what kind of person she will meet, and how hard it will be to get the job done… [[Mera: Tidebreaker by Danielle Paige and Stephen Byrne|Full Review]] <!-- Collins -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1408888335.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1408888335/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[All the Invisible Things by Orlagh Collins]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] Vetty, her dad, and her little sister are about to move back to London and Vetty can't wait. The family has been staying with Aunt Wendy since the death of Vetty's mother several years ago. With the girls older and Aunt Wendy getting married, it's time to get back to their lives. Vetty, mostly, is looking forward to reconnecting with Pez. She and he were inseparable - spending all their time together and knowing each other inside out, without the need for words. Vetty could do with a friend like that right now, as her inner feelings of difference get ever stronger... [[All the Invisible Things by Orlagh Collins|Full Review]]<!-- Schienmel -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0349003289.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1492667242/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Danger to Herself and Others by Alyssa Sheinmel]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] ''They needed someone to blame, and I was the only available scapegoat. Their daughter was my best friend. Playing the scapegoat was the least I could do under the circumstances.'' Seventeen year old Hannah Gold was born mature – or so her parents tell her. She has dined in fancy restaurants, explored the most sophisticated corners of the globe and lived a life of luxury. [[A Danger to Herself and Others by Alyssa Sheinmel|Full Review]] <!-- Barnard -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1509852883.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1509852883/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Fierce Fragile Hearts by Sara Barnard]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] It's two years since Suzanne hit rock bottom. She's had extensive therapy and a stint with a lovely foster family. And now she's eighteen and must leave the Looked After system. Suzanne is apprehensive but excited. She's found herself a job, a bedsit has been rented, and she's about to return to Brighton, the only place she's ever felt truly at home, and to Caddy and Rosie, her two best friends. [[Fierce Fragile Hearts by Sara Barnard|Full Review]]<!-- Owen -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0349003203.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0349003203/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[All the Lonely People by David Owen]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] Kat and Wesley are both loners, looking for places to fit in. Kat finds this with online communities, where she feels like she can be her true self - a feminist, an activist, someone who isn't scared to speak out. Wesley's desire to feel a sense of belonging sees him fall in with an altogether nastier crowd. Bullies, trolls, extremists. When he pulls the final trigger on a violent, targeted online bullying campaign, Kat is forced to delete her entire online presence. Bereft of everything that represented her identity, Kat's physical self starts to fade as well. As the entire world slowly forgets that Kat ever existed, only Wesley seems to remember the girl whom he erased. Wesley is faced with a choice: get sucked further into a sinister alt-right movement or help Kat to stop them. [[All the Lonely People by David Owen|Full Review]] <!-- Dylan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1788950720.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788950720/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Whiteout (Red Eye) by Gabriel Dylan]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Horror|Horror]] Are you up for a sleepless night or two? If so, read on! Charlie is Move on a school trip, skiing in the Austrian mountains. He's not having much fun. A miserable home life has given Charlie a bad attitude reputation and he's not a popular kid. Charlie tends to go off by himself - not always a safe thing to do if you're staying in a ski resort - and this is what brings him into contact with one of the ski guides, Hanna. Hanna herself doesn't have the happiest backstory and this forms a connection between them. [[ Whiteout (Red Eye) by Gabriel Dylan |Full Review]] <!-- Landman -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1781128510.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1781128510/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[One Shot by Tanya Landman]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Newest Thrillers Reviews]] [[:Category:Dyslexia Friendly|Dyslexia Friendly]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] ''Pa and I understood each other. Our souls were cut from the same cloth.'' But Pa has since died, leaving Maggie very much alone in her family. She was the only one of three children who looked like him, and none of the others acted like him, and certainly his wife didn't seem to fully understand him. Maggie might as well be reliving the Cinderella story, stuck with two siblings and mother that are fully against her. But at least she can sneak out at night, and shoot some game to stop them from starving? Well, no, not where her mother is concerned – the very idea of a female shooting things, when they could be preparing for a life of unhappy married drudgery, is just scandalous. [[One Shot by Tanya Landman|Full Review]] <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|}
