''I WANT A BOYFRIEND!''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849394652</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Daniel Postgate and Sam Childs
|title=Friends in the Snow
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=When Lucy’s dad offers to paint her bedroom walls, she is adamant that she only wants them to be white. He is a little surprised by her choice thinking that just white is a little bit boring. However, Lucy jokes that it’s not just white because there is actually a white monster hiding in the white snow. Her dad agrees and before long she has a freshly painted bedroom. The only problem is that, when she tries to go to sleep, she wishes that she hadn’t mentioned the monster because he keeps her awake with his grunting and growling.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407115391</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mhairi McFarlane
|title=You Had Me At Hello
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Who hasn’t got a ‘one that got away’? Or maybe several? Rachel and Ben meet at university in Manchester, but she’s got a boyfriend back home, and he’s a bit of a ladies man, so rather than settle down together (which is arguably what at least one of them thinks they should have done), they pad through a few years as fellow students and then go their separate ways. After a while Rachel heads back to Manchester and some time well after that, Ben finds himself back up north too. They bump into each other and it’s like nothing has changed. Except everything has changed. Rachel is hot off a broken engagement, while Ben is married to a hotshot lawyer from Lan-dan. Will their past stay in the past, and do they want it to? Told from Rachel’s point of view, this is a story that sets out to answer those, and other questions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000748805X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Neil Griffiths and Melanie Siegel
|title=The Best Present Ever!
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Long ago and far away lived a kind and generous King and Queen in a land where everyone was well treated and happy. One day the Queen tells her delighted husband that she is to have a baby. The King decides that his lovely wife deserves the very best present ever to mark the happy event. So begins a search by the King’s messengers throughout the country and across the world for the perfect gift for the Queen. Beautiful gifts are brought to the palace from all over the globe for the King to inspect. As he is about to select the ''best present ever'' a poor young fisherman arrives and incredibly the gift that he brings might be exactly what the King is looking for!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908702060</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Joyce Carol Oates
|title=The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares
|rating=5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Many years ago, I stumbled across a Joyce Carol Oates story in a horror anthology. What I most remember about the story was how vividly the feelings the characters experienced were portrayed. Whilst the story itself was not exactly a horror story in the mould of Stephen King and James Herbert, it was very well presented. With this experience, I had high hopes of 'The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares' a brand new collection of short stories from Oates.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908800224</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sangu Mandanna
|title=The Lost Girl
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Eva is an echo. Woven at the Loom, she is a carbon copy of Amarra, a girl loved by her parents so much that they can't bear the thought of losing her. Should anything ever happen to Amarra, Eva will take her place - live in her home, go to her school, even kiss her boyfriend. So Eva's young life is all about Amarra. She eats the same foods, studies the same subjects, reads the same books, watches the same films. When Amarra gets a tattoo, so must Eva. The Weavers impose many rules and if Eva breaks even one of them, her life is forfeit.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849416176</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Graham McNamee
|title=Beyond
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Teenager Jane's life so far has been plagued by near-fatal accidents. The last one left a nail embedded in her brain and the doctors say surgery is too dangerous. And she sleepwalks at night, walking alone in a daze up the highway. As you can imagine, Jane's parents are beyond worried about her. But they don't know the worst of it. Only Lexi, Jane's best friend and fellow Creep Sister, does. The truth is that Jane's shadow is trying to kill her. Literally. She has no control over it but it has control of her.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144491278X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sally Prue
|title=Song Hunter
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=A new Ice Age is coming. Winters are getting colder. There are fewer mammoths to hunt and no trees from which to fashion spears to kill them. A small group of Neanderthals is facing starvation this winter. One of them, Mica, is full of ideas to avert the impending doom, but the others simply won't listen to her. If something has never been before then it is ''nothing'' and simply not worth thinking about. Even Bear, who loves Mica, won't hear her. One night, Mica hears strange voices calling in the darkness. They fill her with a deep sense of longing. But to whom do these siren voices belong? And do they hold the key to Mica's future?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192757113</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=James Henry
|title=Fatal Frost
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=It was 1982 and Jimmy Savile and the sinking of the Belgrano dominated the airwaves. Thirty years on we might prefer to forget that either happened, but in Denton the first black policeman has arrived. DS Waters is on loan from the Met, in the name of encouraging racial diversity. Frost and his team have been dealing with a spate of local burglaries when the body of fifteen-year-old Samantha Ellis is found in local woodland near a railway line, but it's not immediately evident whether this is suicide or something more sinister. For the teenagers of Denton it's going to get a lot worse, but DS Jack Frost finds the pressure of work a welcome distraction from home. His marriage is in difficulties, his wife is either unwell or as dissatisfied with the marriage as he is - and he's not immune to the charms of DC Sue Clarke either.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552161772</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Patricia Briggs
|title=Aralorn: Masques and Wolfbsane
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Here is what seems quite a rum [[:Category:Patricia Briggs|Patricia Briggs]] compendium – her first attempt at a fantasy novel, published and read by roughly six men and an orc back in the early 1990s, and what would appear the fourth book in the same series, dusted off after they both got a rewrite in 2010, and together at last for the curious completist. And if the rewriting ironed out a few creases it shows just how much there was needed done – for the first book is still full of minor problems – a man immune to, or invisible to, magic unless when it's needed for the plot, a host of exposition all throughout, and much that marks it down as a debut effort. It doesn't mean it's not worth reading however.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356501647</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lisa Hilton
|title=Wolves in Winter
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=It's 1492 and Mura, an exotic-looking child of Moorish, Spanish and Viking origin enjoys an idyllic childhood living with her widowed father, a Toledo bookseller. However she soon learns that the world is a cruel place when he's snatched by the Spanish Inquisition and she's hidden in a brothel for safe keeping. Adara, the lady of the night entrusted with Mura, betrays that trust and the child's adventurous journeys begin. From nurtured daughter to child prostitute to Medici slave, Mura discovers the power within, nourished by her childhood tales from the Moors and 'North Men' and her gift of 'the sight'. Mura also bears a secret but it seems that she'll be the last to discover it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848874677</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kevin Smith
|title=Jammy Dodger
|rating=5
|genre=Humour
|summary=
It's 1980s Belfast and Artie McCann has it sorted. Having left uni with a literature degree, a love of poetry and no real urge for hard work, he and his mate Oliver discover the joy of Art Council grants. All they need to do is establish a literary magazine and bring out an issue (very) occasionally. This frees them up for reliving the best bits of their former student lifestyle and discussing the comparable merits of biscuit varieties. However things start to go awry; not all the magazine's would-be contributors are happy (or unarmed) and life begins to appear more unsettled. There is a way out but it will take some hard work, an actor and a remedy for that smell of rotting milk.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908737085</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Nick Sharratt
|title=Fancy Dress Christmas
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Who is who at the Christmas party? All the animals have come in fancy dress, so can you guess who is inside each costume? Someone is dressed as a snowman, someone is dressed as an angel. Someone is even dressed as a candle! Can you tell who each one is? Lift the flap and see...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407115898</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
|title=The Highway Rat
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=When you see a new book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler you know it's already set to be a best seller and that you're in for a treat! Here Donaldson takes the refrain from ''The Highwayman'' by Alfred Noyes and weaves it into a story about a rather naughty rat who just can't stop stealing everyone else's food!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407124382</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Bryan Forbes
|title=The Soldier's Story
|rating=5
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Alex Seaton awaits his post-war demob from the British army in Germany while tracking down wrong-doers ranging from allied black-marketeers to Nazi war criminals. Although fraternisation with locals is still frowned on, Alex meets and befriends university lecturer Professor Grundwall after a chance meeting. United by their love of books, Alex becomes a regular visitor to the Professor's home. However books aren't the only attraction: Alex gradually falls in love with the Professor's daughter, Lisa. Their future together seems assured until Alex uncovers a secret that will rip to the core of Alex's loyalties and jeopardise more than just their love.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704372800</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Malcolm Gladwell
|title=The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs with Foreword
|rating=5
|genre=Pets
|summary=I think it's fair to say that you're not even going to pick this book up unless you're a dog lover. If you've always yearned for a cat and shudder at the thought of early morning walks in the rain then this is definitely no the book for you. But - if you know, or are known by a dog then it's the equivalent of that massive hamper of chocolate delights to a chocoholic. Only a magazine like the ''New Yorker'' could raid its archives and produce such a massive compendium of humour, illustrations, essays, fiction, poems and cartoons about dogs, or have a cast of writers which could put many a bookshop to shame.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>043402239X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rutu Modan
|title=Maya Makes a Mess
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=For once it is almost impossible to make a plot summary without giving almost the whole game away – such is the brevity of this bright and breezy book for those youngsters still reading with some supervision. Maya is at home and nothing she can do when eating lunch is to her parents' taste – her posture, her table manners or her use of the dog for leftovers. But lo and behold when they give the Queen as an example where she might need more decorum, there then comes a summons to dinner from the Queen – who would be more than surprised to see Maya in action…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1935179179</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Joff Winterhart
|title=Days of the Bagnold Summer
|rating=4
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=Meet Daniel Bagnold. He is a surly, sullen, modern teenager, permanently in a black hoodie, with long, lanky hair and almost a monobrow, who one would call very quiet were it not for the metal music that forms almost his only interest. He has been forced to spend the summer, not in Florida with his absent father's new family, but with his librarian mother Sue, his best friend and his shyness. He doesn't want much, and neither it would appear does his mother – although she knows she has to get him some posh shoes for her cousin's wedding. This book is about their relationship – the two of them and the dog that completes the household – in telling, devastating and humorous manner.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224090844</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=David Nytra
|title=The Secret of the Stone Frog
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=You know the drill – you are a young boy and find yourself waking up alongside your older sister, but with your beds beside the bole of a huge tree in an enchanted forest. The advice you get is straightforward, but impossible to follow, as you don't stick to the straight and simple path home that you should. As a result you find a tempting house guarded by bees who steal the words out of your mouth, hoity-toity upper class lions, angler fish on the daily commute and more.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1935179187</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=James Church
|title=A Drop of Chinese Blood
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Set on the Chinese border with North Korea and in Mongolia, James Church's ''A Drop of Chinese Blood'' offers a complex crime mystery of lies and deception, although for much of the book it's not entirely clear what the crime is. I was drawn to the book by the author's background. James Church is a pseudonym for an American former intelligence officer whose working life was spent in North Korea and the surrounding area, so he undoubtedly knows his subject. His previous books have featured the North Korean Inspector O, and while he gets another outing here, this time he has moved beyond Korea to China to have O residing with his chief of Chinese Ministry of State Security nephew, Major Bing.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0312550634</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jane Hissey
|title=Little Bear's Trousers
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=When Little Bear wakes up one sunny morning to discover that he has lost his trousers he feels sure that he will find them quickly with the help of his friends. However, although Old Bear, Camel, and the others have all seen Little Bear’s trousers no-one knows where they are now. So Little Bear sets off on a journey to visit all his friends in search of his missing trousers. What has happened to them? Will Little Bear and his trousers be reunited?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908177837</amazonuk>
}}