132,948
edits
Changes
January 2017 Newsletter (view source)
Revision as of 13:01, 11 January 2017
, 13:01, 11 January 2017no edit summary
For younger readers, John was mightily impressed by [[Me and Mister P by Maria Farrer and Daniel Rieley]]. Arthur is a young lad with a lot on his shoulders, and nearly all of it seems to come courtesy of his younger brother, Liam, who is on the autistic spectrum and whose unpredictable behaviour causes Arthur much stress. To the rescue comes MisterP. Mister P is a tall, distinguished character, oddly bearing a small suitcase that smells of fish and has a label on it stating Arthur and Liam's address. Has he possibly come to stay? That would be weird. And what is even weirder, is that Mister P is a polar bear... What can we say? It's lovely!
For teens, Jill has two books to recommend. In [[The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr]]. Flora Banks has anterograde amnesia. This means that she hasn't laid down any new memories since she was ten years old and had a brain tumour removed. She's now seventeen and can remember life before the tumour but can't hold on to anything that happened after that for more than an hour or two. The book is a spectacular exploration of memory, first love and family secrets. How can you find the boy you love if the only thing you can remember is kissing him?
Then there is [[Welcome to Nowhere by Elizabeth Laird]], the deeply moving story of a Syrian family and its travails through the dreadful civil war in that country. You can always count on Elizabeth Laird to write fearlessly but with compassion and this story will give readers plenty to think about.