'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Gladys Mitchell
|title=Death at the Opera
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Miss Ferris would not normally have been entertained for a major part in Hillmaston School's production of The Mikado. She was self-effacing, meek and not very talented. But – she had offered to finance the cost of the production and this swung matters in her favour. It did mean that she couldn't afford the holiday she had planned for the summer and had to spend it in her aunt's boarding house, but she'd been pleased to make the gesture as she'd been happy at the school.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546841</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Helen Dunmore
Whichever of these descriptions you would apply to Communism you will find Archie Brown's detailed and largely objective study enlightening and engrossing. On one level, this is a chronological description of how a political force grew to dominate a third of the world's population then virtually disappeared within a period of less than a century.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845950674</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Seth Hunter
|title=The Tide of War
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The Tide of War is the second book in a trilogy of historical fiction
novels by Seth Hunter, set in the 1790s and recounts the adventures of
British naval captain Nathan Peake. In this book newly-promoted Peake
is sent to the Caribbean to command a British frigate, the Unicorn,
to hunt for the French warship, the Virginie.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755357612</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lynne Reid Banks
|title=I, Houdini
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Houdini is not your usual, commonplace hamster. Oh no, he is a hamster on a mission, a mission to escape! From his very first glorious taste of freedom he spends his life inventing ways to escape and scurrying away (usually straight into a heap of trouble) at every possible opportunity. This is his tale, related entirely from his own, rather conceited, point of view.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007341539</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Andrew Matthews and Tony Ross
|title=The Merchant Of Venice (Shakespeare Stories)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Bassanio's got the hots for Portia, and she for him. His friend, Antonio, borrows money from Shylock so Bassanio can woo her. Antonio is usually well-off, but all his money is tied up with his ships at the moment. Due to past rivalries, Shylock demands that Antonio pay him back with a pound of flesh if he can't come up with the money. Meanwhile, Portia is putting various suitors to the test. As someone wise once said elsewhere, the course of true love never did run smooth.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408305046</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Caryl Hart and Sarah Horne
|title=Rhino? What Rhino?
|rating=3.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=The rhino was lonely and bored and the zoo, so he squeezes between the bars and heads out into the great, wide world. Being a rhino, his manners aren't quite up to scratch, so he gets into all sorts of scrapes and japes as he steals people's clothes and food. Other poor animals get the blame, so they decide to have a word with the rhino to set him back on the right path.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340981393</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Gabrielle Lord
|title=April (Conspiracy 365)
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=It's April and Cal has survived three months of his year on the run. Will the fourth bring him any closer to answers about the Ormond Singularity? And can he trust Winter Frey?
You guys last saw Cal in January, feeling rather shell-shocked after his father's death from a mysterious disease and his brush with a crazed lunatic who told him that his father was murdered and he'd be next unless he could hold out until next New Year's Eve. Within days, Cal found himself on the run, accused of battering his own sister, and in search of something called the Ormond Singularity.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340996471</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Andrew Weale and Margaret Chamberlain
|title=The Newt In The Suit
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=There's one newt in a suit, and he's looking very dapper. He's joined by two snazzy-looking flies in ties, three cockatoos in high-heeled shoes, and so on up to ten. Yep, this is a counting book with lots of well-dressed animals going about their business.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340988673</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michelle Lovric
|title=The Book of Human Skin
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=''Ye can't take the slither out ovva snake.''
So says Gianni, valet in a wealthy eighteenth century Venetian household. The master, a merchant, divides his time between Italy and Peru, where he deals in silver. But the merchant isn't the serpent - his son Minguillo is. On the night an earthquake ripped through Peru and deposited fanatical nun Sor Loreta at the convent in Arequipa, Minguillo was born - a serpent in his family's midst. His own mother couldn't bear to nurse him and his father went into denial, making more and more frequent trips to a South American home free of sociopathic progeny.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880588X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Glenn Murphy
|title=Science: Sorted! Evolution, Nature and Stuff
|rating=5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Ever wanted to know about evolution, nature and stuff? Unsurprisingly, this is the book for you. If you're interested in [http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0330508938?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0330508938 space, black holes and stuff], then Glenn Murphy has also written a sister book in the ''Science: Sorted!'' series packed full of all the information you'd want to know. It's all written with the fabulous quality that made [[Why is Snot Green? by Glenn Murphy|Why is Snot Green?]] such a must-read.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330508946</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Hayley Long
|title=Lottie Biggs is (Not) Desperate
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Lottie Biggs, who's in her mid-teens is recovering from what's described as a 'mental disorder of a reasonably significant nature'. She's having counselling from Blake (from New Zealand) who has some rather unusual turns of phrase and looks like Johnny Depp, but without the pirate make-up. All in all she's doing quite well. Gareth Stingecombe is still the love of her life and to seal the bond even tighter she gets a Saturday job in his mother's hairdressing salon. This might, or might not, turn out to be a mistake given what the mother-in-law-to-be thinks constitutes a trendy hairstyle.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>033047975X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Simon Dawson
|title=The Self-Sufficiency Bible: Window Boxes to Smallholdings - Hundreds of Ways to Become Self-Sufficient
|rating=4
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=The recent financial crises have taken people by surprise and instead of trying to ride the problem out and then get back to our old, profligate ways we've looked at how we can live more sustainably and less expensively. Thrift is the new black and many people are taking pride in not spending money. I might take issue with whether or not Simon Dawson's book should be called a ''bible'' which suggests a completeness which is doesn't seem to exhibit, but it's an excellent starting point for those wanting to become more self-sufficient. It also has the recipe for a chocolate sponge which takes just five minutes to make – and that takes a lot of beating.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906787689</amazonuk>
}}