Newest Teens Reviews
From TheBookbag
Teens
Bambert's Book of Missing Stories by Reinhardt Jung
Bambert was a very small man who could only walk with a stick and even that was very painful. Throughout his childhood he'd endured many painful operations in the hope that he would grow but eventually it was accepted that he would never be any taller. After his parents died he adapted the family home to suit himself. The local grocer had his shop on the ground floor, but above that the house was Bambert's and the furniture was small enough to suit him. There was even an electric chair lift to carry him right up to the attic window where he could look out at the world. Full review...
The Traitor Game by B R Collins
Michael and Francis are best friends. Michael's never really had a best friend before – in his last school he was bullied terribly, eventually leading to his transfer to St Anselm's. A new school, a new start. His Mum invites Francis round before the beginning of term to try and encourage friendship. Michael thinks it's a bad idea, that Francis will just laugh at how pathetic he is, needing his mother's help to make friends, but the boys form an unlikely bond over an old school project of Michael's, the fictional country Evgard. Full review...
The Pilgrims of Rayne (Pendragon) by D J MacHale
At first glance I assumed that this was going to need a quick read of the author's previous works, but I was wrong. While it is indeed part of a longer series, the skill of the storyteller manages to weave any nuggets of knowledge from previous events seamlessly into the narrative so that we are not in the dark. Full review...
Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
Audrey is buzzing along nicely in her Los Angeles life, quite well for an angsty teenager in fact. She has an awesome best friend, her parents are fairly right-on, her music is always loud, and her fatterbelly pet cat always raises a smile. If it weren't for Evan, her self-obsessed musician boyfriend, Audrey's life would be just peachy. So, never one to settle for second best, Audrey dumps Evan. But to her horror, at his band's gig a few days later, Evan unveils his new song. It's called Audrey, Wait! and it's all about her. Full review...
Priceless! (The Skateboard Detectives) by Andrew Fusek Peters
When a world-famous Faberge egg is stolen, ex-con Danny Cooper is the immediate number one suspect. And when planted forensic evidence is found at the scene, it's all the police need to make an arrest. But Danny's going straight. He's been framed. And the Skateboard Detectives are going to prove it. San can hack into anything, Ben is a peerless free-runner, Break is superb on a skateboard and Charlie, well, might be a year younger than the others, but she's a superb athlete and Danny's daughter, so she even more determined to crack the case. Full review...
The Kiss of Death by Marcus Sedgwick
Marko's father, a doctor, has gone missing and a mysterious and menacing letter convinces the young boy that he should travel to Venice to search for him. Once there, he finds Sorrel, whose father was Marko's father's patient. Sorrel is as determined to find the cause of her father's horrible illness as Marko is to find his. And the children couldn't be more different. Full review...
Nation by Terry Pratchett
Somewhere in the South Pelagic Ocean, a devastating tidal wave all but wipes out the Nation. On his island, only Mau is left - he had been on his rite of passage to becoming a man, and was paddling home in his canoe when the wave struck. Caught between boyhood and adulthood, he's now without a soul. But is that any bad thing, when the gods would unleash such destruction upon people? Full review...
The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd
It's 2015 and Britain has just become the first nation to introduce carbon rationing. Climate change is running amok, freak weather is everywhere and the Great Storm was the last straw. So everyone gets their ration cards and smart meters, and everyone has to decide what stays and what goes in their carbon-heavy lifestyles. Flights are out, obviously, but what about the car? The favourite Australian wine? The visits to the gym? The computer time? How hot do you like your shower? Full review...
Kobal: The Mysteries of the Septagram by Paul Bryers
Jade is having an identity crisis. She knows her friends are as well, it's a normal teen thing for them, though, where they discover their parents are more or less aliens to them and they try to figure out just who they are themselves. It's a rite of passage everyone goes through. Jade's crisis is nothing like theirs though. She begins hearing voices, and having strange images appear on her PC. Just what are her parents hiding from her, and what does it all have to do with a hospital for the criminally insane? Full review...
Wilderness by Roddy Doyle
Grainne has hit adolescence with a bang. She hates everyone, including herself. She can barely bring herself to acknowledge the rest of her family, let alone be polite. She spends a lot of time thinking about her mother, who left when she was very small and now lives in New York. Tired of the tense atmosphere, Grainne's father suggests a holiday for Grainne's stepmother and her two half brothers, Johnny and Tom. So the little boys and their mother head off to an ice safari in Finland. Full review...
Castlecliff by Elizabeth Pulford
Jamie's mother is getting married. Hurst is a nice guy an' all, but he's large, enthusiastic and loud, a bit like an exuberant dog. Jamie is lurching into adolescence and all this happiness and jollity predictably makes him feel pressured and sulky. To make matters worse, the honeymoon has been cancelled because Hurst's grandmother has died and the house, Castlecliff, needs renovating for sale. Jamie was supposed to be staying with his friend Ritchie, but they've had a row about new kid on the block Leroy, and so Jamie's having to go along with the newlyweds. Full review...
The Resistance by Gemma Malley
We left Peter and Anna after their escape from a Surplus Hall and the surprise of becoming Legal. In Peter and Anna's world, a drug called Longevity has made death a thing of the past and children an unwanted and resource-costly surplus. Childbirth is illegal, unless you are prepared to give up your chance of immortality. And few people are. But there are some gainsayers, forced into an Underground movement to which Peter and Anna belong. It was the Underground that helped them escape from the Surplus Hall. Full review...
Weird by Jeremy Strong
Fizz is madly in love with Josh but Josh doesn't know she exists. Fizz blames her Stone Age parents and their refusal to allow to a) have contact lenses, b) change her brace to a trendy colour, and c) get a boob job. It's all so completely unfair. Josh isn't madly in love with anyone but he does have the adolescent hots for Fizz's older sister Lauren. Josh is more worried about his mother than his love life though. She takes in hordes of unwanted animals that clutter up the house, have sex on his bed, and break his precious rocket prototypes. Full review...
Kid Swap (Jiggy McCue) by Michael Lawrence
Jiggy is horrified to learn that his parents have traded him in. With Dad out of work and Mum about to head off on maternity leave, the McCues are rather short of cash. So they've signed up for a reality TV show called Kid Swap. Jiggy's mother calculates that the fee will tide them nicely over this tricky financial spot. Jiggy is not impressed. He's cynical about such TV shows and with his undeniable talent for cock up, he fears he'll be set up and the camera will not love him. But his parents won't listen, and with a heavy heart, he heads off to the Nexts, while Toby Next gets comfy at the McCue residence. Full review...
The Meaning of Life by Joanna Nadin
4 July: Teen-diary type book arrived. Sighed at the unimaginative title and read the blurb at the back. The sharpest, funniest diarist since Adrian Mole. Sounds promising, though hard act to follow. Joanna Nadin is a former political speech writer and advisor to the Prime Minister. Sounds less promising, due to political speeches not usually being a laugh a minute. Intentionally anyway. Vowed not to let personal prejudice interfere with the vital work of a Bookbag reviewer. Donned objective hat and perused first page. Full review...
Firmin by Sam Savage
I was looking forward to reading this book, because I love rats. I kept pet rats for many years and they are intelligent creatures with great personality. I get increasingly fed up with reading books where rats are portrayed as evil carriers of disease who are dirty and dangerous. I was hoping Firmin would be something different - and it is. Full review...
Stravaganza City of Secrets by Mary Hoffman
Matt Wood, a dyslexic boy from London, is just about to turn seventeen. He comes from a musical family – his father is a virtuoso opera singer and his brother is developing into a brilliant trumpet player, and so, Matt feels slightly left out. On his birthday, he gets the usual disappointing card from his great-aunt Eva. As always she has forgotten about his learning disability and sent him the usual book voucher. He uses it to buy an antique book written in a language he doesn't understand. Full review...
Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer
We have not exactly seen a lot of Artemis Fowl's parents in this series so far. What with his adventures taking him to other worlds, of course, they've been left behind – and earlier times had mother ill and father hostage. Here, however, in a much more gentle and poignant way than anything before, we have a new, horrid illness keeping Angeline bedbound. Full review...
Strangled Silence by Oisin McGann
Ambitious wannabe journalst Amina Mir has landed a summer job working for The Chronicle, thanks to her war correspondent mother. Ivor is a Sinnostan veteran hors de combat because he lost an eye in a roadside bombing. He's won the lottery, but all the money in the world couldn't shake his feeling that he's being followed. Chi "No Puns Please" Sandwith is a conspiracy nut who believes in alien abductions. Full review...
Bloodchild by Tim Bowler
Will is lying in a deserted lane. He knows he's had an accident. And he is sure that he's dying. Above him there is birdsong and a tree, and girl's face. She's phoning for help. And there's another girl too, a beautiful girl with black hair. But try as he might, Will can't hold on and he submits to the darkness. He comes to in hospital with just flickering images of the accident's aftermath to cling to. Two people are sitting by the bed, apparently his parents. But Will can't remember them. He can't remember anything. Full review...
The City of Spirits by Paul Bajoria
London, the 1820s. Our main characters, Mog the tomboy, and her twin brother Nick, are returning to the city they were dragged up in – home to evil people who separated them almost at birth, and denied them their family, their birthright, their happiness. But, brought together by the first two books in this trilogy, they are a little upset to find their newly-discovered inheritance is worth nothing – an estate saddled with enough debt to mean their memories of poverty will stay with them much longer. Full review...
Kiki Strike: The Empress's Tomb by Kirsten Miller
The Irregulars are Kiki, Oona, Ananka, Luz, Dee Dee and Betty. A group of girl scout rejects, they guard New York's Shadow City, a vast network of underground passages, used by criminals and man-eating rats. They're high-kicking, girl power action heroes, these friends, and their adventures are absolutely hair-raising. In this second book in the Kiki Strike series, the focus is on Oona, the most mysterious of the six. It turns out that Oona's father is Lester Liu, a notorious China Town gangster. What you might call an absent father, he suddenly shows an usual interest in his daughter. But why? And why won't Oona share her secret with the other Irregulars? Full review...
The Museum's Secret: The Remarkable Adventures of Tom Scatterhorn by Henry Chancellor
With his parents absent, our hero Tom Scatterhorn is packed off to his relatives, and their dusty, musty, fusty, stuffed animal galleries – the museum of the title. It's not looking to be the best Christmas ever for Tom. Nearby, members of the town's other major family lineage surface from darkest Peru, and claim to want to bury the hatchet on a four hundred year neighbourhood grudge. They have, of course, hidden motives. But the museum can offer a lot more of its own that is equally well hidden… Full review...
The Glitch in Sleep (Seems Trilogy) by John Hulme and Michael Wexler
So, who do you put the blame for the weather on? God, or another deity? Science? It certainly isn't John Kettley any more. No, I am sure, having read this book, that it is entirely down to the Department of Weather. Indeed, as our hero, the awkwardly named Becker Drane, finds out, everything in our world is controlled by everything in another existence – The Seems. All our weather, luck, love, sleep – all is sent our way by the ministrations of departments of unknown number in the world of The Seems. Having looked after an unscheduled drought, Becker has a much bigger task facing him as his first 'grown-up' job, that of the titular gremlin. Full review...
Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr
Leslie's life is not much fun: her father is a drunk and a gambler, her brother uses (and deals) in drugs and it's up to her to maintain a façade of normality and find the money to pay the bills the father misses with her waitressing job. She doesn't confide in anybody and, increasingly struggling with her own feelings after her brother spikes her drink and allows her to be raped by his dealer friend, feels compelled to get an elaborate tattoo as means of regaining control of her body, and her life. Full review...
Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London by Keith Mansfield
Johnny Mackintosh is a thirteen year old boy, living in a children's home in Essex, his only friend is his dog, Bentley. Constantly tracked and put down by the home's chief, Mr Wilkins, he is finding it increasingly hard to get solitary access to the home's computer room. This proves problematic, because soon after the teenage computer genius programmes the computers to search for extraterrestrial intelligence, he finds a signal coming from above the Earth. Full review...
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
A wonderfully romantic fairy tale that's packed with adventure, comedy and excitement. The additional back-stories of S Morgenstern and a fictional Goldman himself give it a fresh twist that raises it up to a modern classic. Full review...
Unwind by Neal Shusterman
Pro-lifers and pro-choicers fought the Heartland War. Thousands died. If human beings killing one another over the definition of life itself were not horrific and ludicrous enough, the negotiated peace takes things one step further. Under the Bill of Life, all pregnancies must be brought to term. However, when a child reaches thirteen, its parents can decide on a retroactive "abortion". This is called unwinding - because each and every body part (well, 99.4% to be exact) is used in transplantation surgery. Full review...
The Sky Inside by Clare B Dunkle
Martin lives several generations from now, in metal-roofed domed suburb. Life is very ordered but everyone in his suburb has everything they could possibly want - food, warmth, the latest gadgets, even new, ever-improved genetically-designed babies. Most people don't need to work. It's a real democracy too. Every day, Martin's parents get to vote on the burning issues of the day - what colour curtains the President should have in his office, that kind of thing. Martin's father is quite an important man in the suburb too - he's the Packet Chief, and he supervises everything coming in and going in and out of the area. People don't go in and out unless they die. Full review...
City of Screams by John Brindley
It's been some years since Ash broke free of the compound on ASP Island and established a new society in which rodents could exist cooperatively with raptors and agles. Evolution has continued apace, and the first flier, Laura, has descendants with beautiful and fully-formed wings. They are known as air agles. Phoenix, however, despite her name, is a ground agle who wishes she were an air agle. She's in love with Gabriel, whose advanced flying skills and piercing eyesight has made him one of the first arch angels. Phoenix wants to be an air agle so much that she despises her heavy body and makes herself sick after every meal. Full review...
Ginger Snaps by Cathy Cassidy
Ginger Brown's parents were a little unconventional. It's unusual to call your child 'Ginger' and unfortunate when she turns out to have hair of the appropriate colour. It wasn't the only reason that she was bullied and an outsider at school, but it didn't help and when Ginger went on to Kinnerton High she reinvented herself. The puppy fat and pigtails disappeared and in their place appeared a sophisticated (well, almost) young woman. She's popular, confident and along with her best mate, Shannon, they seem to have the world at their feet. Full review...
The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall
Four years before the beginning of this book the Penderwick sisters lost their mother. She died of cancer soon after the birth of Batty, leaving eight year old Rosalind, and younger sisters Skye and Jane and the baby to be looked after by their father. One thing the girls always looked forward to was the arrival of their Aunt Claire, but this time the visit was not to go smoothly. Elizabeth Penderwick had worried that her husband would be lonely and had written a letter which she asked Claire to deliver in three or four years. She wanted Martin to start dating again. The girls were horrified and their father wasn't much happier. Full review...
Just Henry by Michelle Magorian
I haven't read anything by Michelle Magorian previously, but I have been aware of her name a long time. This novel – Just Henry – is aimed at teenagers and presumably competent and enthusiastic readers, as it is over 700 pages.
It follows the exploits of Henry Dodge, a boy in his final year of school, living in post-War Britain. His father died a war hero and he now lives with his mother and stepfather, younger sister Molly and his grandmother. Full review...
Cathy's Key by Jordan Weisman, Sean Stewart and Cathy Brigg
We last saw Cathy six months ago. She'd just found out that her boyfriend was immortal, been kidnapped, rescued, and parted from the ageless Victor who protected her by submitting to the live subject laboratory research of Ancestor Lu, who wants to bring immortality to the world. Full review...
Mirrorscape by Mike Wilks
Mel is a young artist, living his simple youth away in a basic village, with a rude hut for home, and a weaver for a father. His future lies between two seeming polar opposites. On the one hand a powerful and rich benefactor, whose agent – a scary giant of a man with a scarred face and silver artificial hand – comes with news that his skills have been adjudged worthy of a free apprenticeship. On the other, a sinister witchfinder-general type, sent with the news that the drawings Mel has done so far are illegal goods. Full review...
The Trouble With Donovan Croft by Bernard Ashley
Keith Chapman is about to get a new foster brother. His name is Donovan, and he can't stay at his own house because his mother has gone back to Jamaica to care for her dying father, and his father works too many hours at the factory to take proper care of him.
Keith isn't sure how he feels about having someone else in the house. It's just been him and his parents since his older brother got married. Then Donovan arrives and he won't talk to anyone. He won't talk to Keith, he won't talk to Mr and Mrs Chapman, and he won't talk to the teachers at school. It's not that he's badly behaved – he does everything he's asked to, he just won't respond. Full review...
Zoe and Chloe: Out to Lunch by Sue Limb
Zoe and Chloe want to go on a fabulous holiday to Newquay with all their friends, but before they can soak up the sun they have to convince their parents to let them go, and earn enough money to pay for it. Zoe's Mum is not happy about the idea and will take some serious convincing, but that won't be a problem if they can't get jobs. Full review...
After the Flood by L S Matthews
Jack lives in a world deeply affected by climate change. The weather is increasingly unpredictable and floods are commonplace. Cars are no more. People travel little. Goods are delivered by horse and cart. Rural children no longer get a proper education as they can't make it into towns to school. They're taught instead by a kind of Dad's Army of volunteers and achievement is patchy to say the least. Tea, sugar, coffee, chocolate - they're all treats. But life goes on. Full review...
The Tribe by Valerie Bloom
Maruka's mother was stolen by the fierce Kalinago people. In the same raid, her beloved older brother was killed. Maruka's father is a cacique, or chief, of the peaceful Taino people. They don't lie, they don't raid, and they don't kill. Maruka isn't like the other Taino girls. She likes to hunt, and she hates to work in the fields. And, embittered by the loss of her mother and brother, Maruka has anger and revenge in her heart. She's convinced her mother is still alive and she is determined to rescue her some day. The half-made canoe hidden in the jungle is testament to that. Full review...
Possessing Rayne by Kate Cann
Rayne is sixteen. It's the summer between GCSEs and A Levels and she's feeling unsettled. Life is crowding in - her London estate is noisy and oppressive, her younger brother is demanding lots of attention and her mother thinks Rayne should give it. Damian isn't pressuring her for sex yet, but Rayne knows he will do soon and she's not sure she's ready. She's not even sure she likes him enough and she knows his interest in her is quite possibly simply because he's her first boyfriend. Everything's getting too much and all Rayne can think of is getting away. So when the job at isolated Morton's Keep comes up, she jumps at it. And before she knows it, the city girl is buried away in a remote country village. Full review...
Promise of the Wolves (Wolf Chronicles 1) by Dorothy Hearst
Never consort with humans. Never kill a human unprovoked. Never allow a mixed blood wolf to live.
The is the wolf's covenant. So when the Greatwolves prevent pack leader Ruuquo from killing Kaala, a young puppy born in a forbidden, mixed blood litter, it causes shockwaves and consternation throughout the pack. To make matters worse, Kaala has a crescent moon of white fur on her chest. A wolf with such a crescent, it is prophesied, will some day either save or destroy her pack. Full review...
Generation Dead by Daniel Waters
Meet Phoebe. She's at high school and is a bit of a Goth. She likes the black clothes and the miserable music. As her friend Adam jokes, every song she listens to has death in the title. But Phoebe's look has taken on a whole new meaning of late. All over America, teenagers who die aren't staying dead. Nobody knows why, but dead adolescents are coming back to life. And some of them are Phoebe's school. The living impaired or differently biotic as they are euphemestically known in today's earnest political correctness, with their jerking gait and their blank, staring eyes, study alongside the living pupils in a very uneasy atmosphere. Full review...
The Summoning (Darkest Powers 1) by Kelley Armstrong
Chloe Saunders is a normal teenager. She likes boys but not as much as peer pressure makes her pretend to. She wishes her periods would start. She'd like her hard-working father to pay more attention to her. As much as she likes her Aunt Lauren, she misses her mother who died when Chloe was very young. Chloe wants to be a film director and she's enrolled at an arts school and spends her days happily making movies in her head. Full review...
Lost Riders by Elizabeth Laird
When Rashid was eight, he was sold. He lost everything. He lost his home. He lost his brother. He lost his freedom. He lost his name. Rashid was one of the lucky ones.
Camel racing is one of the most popular sports in the United Arab Emirates. The fastest camels run best with little jockeys - and little doesn't mean short men like jockeys in the western world. It means little children, some under five years old. Over three thousand children were taken from Pakistan by traffickers and sold into slavery as camel jockeys, some under the most appalling conditions. Half-starved to keep their weight down, bullied and abused, children worked all hours of the day and night, all in return for a pittance sent home to their naive, but very poor, parents. Full review...
Fire Dreamer by Beth Webb
After saving her village from a demon in the first book in the series, we meet Tegen again as she is making her way to Mona to undertake training as a druid. Tegen meets up with the mysterious Owein - a lame man with druidic knowledge but who carries a king's seven colour cloak in his baggage and can read Latin. Owein is going to the Lughnasadh fairs and he's sure Tegen will find a druid there who will conduct her to Mona. But Owein's secrets bring Tegen to the attention of a powerful sorcerer. Between this Shadow Walker and the invading Romans, Tegen's path to becoming a druid proves as fraught with danger as ever. Full review...
Eulalia! (Redwall) by Brian Jacques
From inside the stronghold of Salamandastron comes a prophecy – one that is more than a little unfortunate. The sad, world-changing events it heralds focus on three incredibly unlikely characters. The first is a badger currently tied to the mast of a piratical fox's ship's mast, and trying to still his nature while said fox is trying to turn him into a bloodlust-filled berserker warrior. The second is a squirrel being, at that moment, thrown out of Redwall Abbey on account of his only being reliable for his light-fingered thievery. And the female destined to bring these together, and return them to Salamandastron, is a hare, noted only for her cooking, and her willingness to box all and sundry, with her favourite war-cry, Eulalia! Full review...
