'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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|author=Jayne Woodhouse
|title=And Rocky Too
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=We [[The Stephensons' Rocket by Jayne Woodhouse|first met Rocky]] when Anna's father, the feckless Pete, brought him home as the latest in his many money-making schemes which inevitably cost the family dear. This one was to have a longer-lasting effect than most though – through his affection for Rocky, the retired racing greyhound, Pete realised that he had to support his family and Anna's brother Darren made a friend of another boy. Even Wilf, the pensioner who lived next door found hidden talents and it looked as though the family was set fair, right?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954925696</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Simon Packham
|summary=Clever and very funny, this is the sort of book where you immediately feel in safe hands. S.G. Browne has gone to town (New York), satirising just about every aspect of modern life, and my reading was continually interrupted by bells clanging loudly in recognition in my head.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749954728</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Colson Whitehead
|title=Zone One
|rating=4
|genre=Horror
|summary=To start, for once, with the book's style - this has probably the least dialogue of any book you'll read this year. There are some comments from characters, but they're few and far between - as are those characters that can actually speak. For we're in a devastated New York, later this century, and our three main protagonists are cleaning up after a worldwide plague of zombies. The active ones have mostly been gunned down by the military, but there are a few still locked away in hidden corners - as well as inactive ones, called stragglers, who seem stuck in one instant, whether finishing off their last office job for the millionth time, or like a ghost haunting a place relevant to them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846555981</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Dicky Neely and Paul R Spiring (Editor)
|title=The Case of the Grave Accusation: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure
|rating=3
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Much in the way that legend says that King Arthur will return when his country needs him, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson have returned because an accusation has been made against their creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The charge is that the great man plagiarised ''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' from his great friend Bertram Fletcher Robinson – and then went on to commit adultery, blackmail and murder in order to conceal what he had done. Holmes' rooms in Baker Street have not changed a great deal – if one can overlook the addition of a desktop computer and better plumbing – but it's not long before the pair are off to Dartmoor to discover the truth.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908218819</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Caragh M O'Brien
|title=Prized (Birthmarked)
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=The Cool Age - our age - is long gone. Few people made it and those that did now live in isolated communities. Gaia Stone, a young midwife, has just escaped from the Enclave, where genetic manipulation has both saved and condemned the select few. The rest live in poverty. Lost in the wasteland, Gaia and her baby sister Maya are rescued by Peter, an outranger from another settlement, Sylum.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857074954</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=David Crystal
|title=The Story Of English In 100 Words
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Crystal is a god when it comes to language. I’ve known that since I was quoting him during English A Level, since my university studies, since my TEFL days when students ask 'Why?' and you need an answer other than 'Because'. This is his new book, but you don’t need a degree in linguistics to find it fascinating, and in addition to the intriguing revelations and chummy writing style, it looks just lovely and would make a fab Christmas present.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684277</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Titania Hardie
|title=The House of the Wind
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I loved the intriguing title of the book and was hoping that Hardie explains it. She does: not only that but the wind element (no pun intended) is mentioned throughout at regular intervals. A nice touch, I thought and not over-played either. The short Prologue describes a young girl on the eve of her 'terrible fate.' But fate seems to have changed its mind at the very last minute. And this strange/weird/scary event happens at the Casa al Vento - 'The House of the Wind.'
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755346297</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michela Murgia and Silvester Mazzarella (Translator)
|title=Accabadora
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=This beautiful, slim volume has won no less than six literary prizes. Murgia paints an early and evocative picture of the young central character, Maria as she makes mud tarts. But this innocent activity is about to come to an abrupt halt. Her birth mother struggles to feed and clothe all her children (Maria is the fourth child and is really a nuisance) so when an opportunity arises which 'solves the problem of Maria' if you like, then she grabs it with both hands. Maria is quickly and rather unceremoniously adopted by an older woman who just happens to be a widow. She has no children of her own and seems to lead a rather lonely, insular life. She is old enough to be a grandmother, let alone a mother. Will she be able to cope with a noisy youngster under her roof? You wonder why she'd want to take in a raggedy child, or any child for that matter, in the first place.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857050451</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michael Booth
|title=Eat, Pray, Eat
|rating=4
|genre=Travel
|summary=I really enjoyed ''Eat, Pray, Love'' by Elizabeth Gilbert. Initially I thought I'd picked up a ''Me too'' variant with ''Eat, Pray Eat'' and must admit to my heart sinking. But no, here is a different personality with another story and writing style and after a few, doubting pages, I was away. This is a story of a family adventure to India, a hard-fought encounter with yoga, and some culinary interest thrown in. But like Elizabeth Gilbert, like most other visitors, India moved his life-view dramatically and for the better.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224089633</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Christina Goodings and Annabel Hudson
|title=My Look and Point Bible
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=
This version of the bible for toddlers has been cleverly retold to engage little ones, with lots of illustrations, pictures to point at and words to learn. It includes stories from both the old and new testaments, from the creation and Noah through to the birth of Jesus as well as some of his parables and the crucifixion.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0745962068</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mick Conefrey
|title=How to Climb Mont Blanc in a Skirt: A Handbook for the Lady Adventurer
|rating=4
|genre=Travel
|summary=Scott, Amundsen, Bleriot, Stanley and Livingstone, John Glenn, et all - any child should be drummed out of school if they can't name half a dozen explorers, travel pioneers and adventurers. But give them a gold star if they can name a single female entrant to history's list. Hence this book, for while some mountains have been topped by a lady first of all, and some landmark achievements by the guys have been quickly followed by the gals, there is just too much ground to be made up in recognising what the fairer sex have done in the world of, well, going round our world.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851688412</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Carey Morning and Alan Marks
|title=The Shepherd Girl of Bethlehem
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=The little shepherd girl is the daughter of a shepherd. She helps her father in the hills, tending the sheep, but only during the day for at night she's told it's too dark and is sent to bed in their house to sleep whilst he watches over the sheep in the hills. But one night she finds it isn't dark at all, and the light from a star is shining so brightly it seems like the whole world is lit up. So she sneaks out of her house and goes into the hills to find her father.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0745962327</amazonuk>
}}