Open main menu

Changes

no edit summary
'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
__NOTOC__
{{commenthead}}
[[Category:Teens]]
{{newreview
|author=Richmal Crompton
|title=Just William
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Whether it's a trip to the cinema, babysitting a youngster, being a page boy at a wedding, or running away from home to take a job below stairs, the 11-year old William Brown can always be relied on to create chaos and havoc wherever he goes. This short story collection (the first of 38 books) is a wonderful introduction to a classic character.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330507451</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|summary=The old saying that behind every great man there is a great woman has one major exception - Sherlock Holmes. Behind him is the figure of Dr John Watson, his biographer, the man who shares his Baker St lodgings, and the man eternally flummoxed by his deductions. This biography successfully shows how the superior Holmes walked over Watson in investigative skills, and also how Conan Doyle needed Watson, if only to help us admire Holmes more by making him less insufferably smug.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685766</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Mike Lancaster
|title=0.4
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Kyle Straker's taped testimony begins with an editor's note:
 
''The peculiar format that you are holding - a book - was still the dominant form of information storage at the time the tapes were made. There is a reason why I insisted on this archaic format which will, I hope, become apparent as the narrative progresses.''
 
Kyle lives in the early 21st century in a quiet village full of ordinary people.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405253045</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Sam Hawken
|title=The Dead Women of Juarez
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Although the story related here is a work of fiction, the situation is based on fact. The Mexican border city of Juárez has a shocking problem with female homicides (usually young and invariably pretty). Official statistics put the number of murders at 400 since 1993 while, we are told, residents believe that the true number of disappeared women is closer to 5000. But attention to this problem is diverted by drug crime, although the two may not be entirely unrelated. Anything that raises public awareness of this terrible situation, such as Hawken's book, is to be encouraged.
 
So much for the fact, what about the fiction?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668773X</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Hazel Allan
|title=Bree McCready and the Flame of Irenus
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Bree is back! She and her best friends, Sandy and Honey, are enjoying the summer holidays until one day Mimi, Honey's little sister, goes missing. The three friends find themselves once more having to search out the old, mysterious book that fits with the heart locket in order to try to find and save Mimi. Back in the mysterious land they went to during the [[Bree McCready and the Half-heart Locket by Hazel Allan|first of Bree's adventures]] the three friends face more challenges than ever before, and this time Mimi's life hangs in the balance so they must succeed!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905537174</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Ally Kennen
|title=Quarry
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Scrappy's life is going absolutely nowhere. His mother has left his father. His sister is saving like mad for the deposit on a flat so that she can move out too. His grandfather is descending into senility. His school is about to be demolished. His best friend Silva gets all the girls and he's worried about the school villain, Judge, picking on him. His father, paranoid about a visit from tax inspectors, slaves over the scrapyard's books all night and so his temper is unpredictable. Very unpredictable.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407111078</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Pamela Klaffke
|title=Snapped
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=They say that a good idea is to write about what you know. Well, Klaffke seems to have heeded that piece of advice. She writes here about a fictional fashion writer called Sara B (note the pretentious second capital letter) who is the central character. And although Sara B is now in her middle years, she's still acting like a teenager. She's got the younger boyfriend/lover, got the latest fashion look which she can deftly put her stamp on, got the invites to the best parties in the best venues with the must-be-seen-with minor celebrities. But - is she happy? I know, it seems a silly question, but is it?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778304337</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Jonathan Stroud
|title=The Amulet of Samarkand
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=When you summon a demon the last thing you want is for you to lose power over it - for the shoe to end up on the other foot. Especially when the demon shifts shape and is currently an eight-legged spider. That's what's happened to young Nathaniel, having summoned Bartimaeus for a task of vengeance. But perhaps it's worst of all when you have to rely on the same demon's help to protect you from an even greater evil - the wicked intent of a fellow man.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552563706</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Diane Chamberlain
|title=Breaking the Silence
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As I've reviewed several of Chamberlain's previous books and enjoyed them, I was looking forward to getting stuck in to this one. We meet the central character; wife and mother to five-year-old Emma, Laura. She's distraught. Her father (Emma's grandfather) has just passed away but his dying wish has really upset Laura. It's a strange request and she doesn't know what to make of it. She confides in her husband thinking that two heads are better than one. He's a brilliant academic and could give some much-needed advice. But he doesn't. In fact, he behaves like a five-year-old himself and almost has a tantrum. Odd. Now poor Laura's doubly confused, upset and doesn't know how to handle her grief. Tough times.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778304140</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Carrie Jones
|title=Captivate
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Zara, her werewolf boyfriend, Nick, and their friends Issie and Devyn think their pixie problems are over. They've trapped Zara's dad, a pixie king, and his followers in a house surrounded by iron to stop them getting out and killing more teenage boys. But, Zara's dad is growing weak in his iron prison, and his territory is ready for the taking. That's when Astley turns up, a pixie king himself, when he's around Zara's skin turns blue, the true colour of a pixie. Only being half pixie, and having not been turned, why is Zara reacting like this? But Astley isn't the only pixie king that's made his way to Maine to claim the territory, and he's certainly not the most evil.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408807416</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Melanie Watt
|title=Scaredy Squirrel at Night
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Scaredy Squirrel is scared to go to sleep at night. He has all sorts of tricks to keep himself awake so that he doesn't have to face his night-time fears. But his sleeplessness is having a toll on his health. Can he find a solution to his problem?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846471109</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Denise Mina and Antonio Fuso
|title=A Sickness in the Family
|rating=4
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=In Eton Terrance there lives the Usher family, in a house above a basement flat where a gangster holds sway over a Polish "girlfriend". After a bloodbath in there, the Ushers expand downwards, clearing a cavernous hole in their home where a staircase is due to go. This is not the only crack in proceedings, however, as we soon discover while witnessing the fall of this House of Usher.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848564163</amazonuk>
}}