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{{newreview
|author=Ann Hood
|title=The Red Thread
|rating=5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=The Red Thread Adoption Agency has been successfully placing abandoned Chinese girls with loving American families, desperate for children, for many years when we join them. Named for the mythical Chinese belief that people who are destined to be together are connected by an invisible red thread, an immense amount of work goes in from both countries to make the process as smooth and straightforward as possible, and to ensure the matches are, if not magical, then at least perfect. Maya, the agency’s owner, knows all the children she has placed and spends a great deal of time with the prospective parents before they come anywhere near their potential daughters.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393339769</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Sheila Kohler
|summary=Everyone expected Kieran and Waverley to be together. As the first of the first generation born in space, it seemed almost written in the stars. Destiny. Waverley is mostly happy with her life on board the Empyrean – one of two ships trailblazing across the universe to New Earth, where their crews will start a new human frontier – she loves Kieran (she thinks) and the ship's crew is like one big happy family. But sometimes, she wonders if her life would be different, if her choices would be different, if the weight of continuing the human race didn't rest on her shoulders.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330535587</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Rob Stevens
|title=S.T.I.N.K.B.O.M.B.: Secret Team of Intrepid-Natured Kids Battling Odious Masterminds, Basically
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Archie loves planes, and is never happier than when his pilot father lets him take the controls of his Dragonfly 600 jet aircraft, with its ability to hover, move at five times the speed of a helicopter and land and take off vertically. But in the honourable tradition of the hidden hero, his slightly nerdy preoccupation with flying, not to mention going round with chocolate-guzzling Barney who lives in a dream-world of spies, conspiracies and enemy agents, gets him bullied at school and nagged at by his teachers.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330530240</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Michael Foreman
|title=Oh! If Only...
|rating=3.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=If only he hadn't met that dog who wanted to play with that ball, the Queen's birthday might not have been ruined and he wouldn't be the most embarrassed person in the whole world!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849393230</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Adam Gidwitz
|title=A Tale Dark and Grimm
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Not many books begin with the hero and heroine losing their heads (literally) before page thirty. And that's not the only misfortune to befall Hansel and his sister. No sooner are their heads and necks reunited, and they've fled their murderous parents, than the two children find themselves in front of an edible house. And we all know what happens if you eat people's homes, don't we? Well, maybe.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849393702</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Madeline Miller
|title=The Song of Achilles
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Before I started the book, I looked out my copy of Homer's ''The Iliad'' and skim-read its one page introduction (yes, yet another book in my 'must-read' pile but it's been on it for about ahem, ten years). Having said that, it is rather dry and scholarly which didn't really inspire me to get on with this book as I wasn't really looking for a 'heavy' read, especially on a nice summer's day. Onwards ...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408816032</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Barry Miles
|title=In The Seventies: Adventures in the Counterculture
|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=The sixties, argues Barry Miles, did not end in 1969. For him, they began as a definable period of cultural history in 1963 and lasted until 1977. During that time he worked on and with various underground and counter-cultural activities in London, among them the founding of 'International Times' and of the Beatles' spoken word label Zapple.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846686903</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Sam Osman
|title=Serpent's Gold
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Most children probably know more about Hindu gods and Creation myths than they do about ley lines, so there is a whole wealth of new information and ideas to be found in this series of books about the adventures of Wolfie, Tala and Zi'ib. Ancient beliefs about stone circles and megaliths, magic circles, the Great Pyramid at Giza and the Knights Templar are linked through these mysterious lines with modern sites like Battersea Power Station and the Tate Modern as our three heroes battle the forces of wickedness.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407105760</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Susan Lewis
|title=Stolen
|rating=5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary='Stolen' starts over thirty years ago with a harassed young mother and her three small children travelling on the tube. The children are messing about and it's no wonder that, when it is time for them all to get off, things become difficult. This results in the eldest child, Alexandra, being left in the carriage while the mother frantically attempts to stop the train. A kindly looking man gestures that he will get off with the little girl at the next stop and will wait for the mother. That is how it is left so the reader cannot be sure exactly what has happened although I definitely had my suspicions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099550679</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Mikey Walsh
|title=Gypsy Boy on the Run
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=I was surprised to find that 'Gypsy Boy on the Run' is Mikey Walsh's second autobiographical book. The book stands alone as a very satisfying read,and there isn't really any feeling that vast chunks of his life have been left out – although presumably his first book 'Gypsy Boy', has more detail on Mikey's childhood as a travelling Romany Gipsy.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444720201</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Lucinda Hare
|title=Dragon Whisperer: Flight to Dragon Isle
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Quenelda DeWinter is the twelve year old daughter of Earl Rufus DeWinter, the commander of the Stealth Dragon Services. As a member of the nobility, Quenelda should be at Grimalkin's College for Young Ladies and learning how to curtsey properly, like her jealous brother Darcy's fiancee, the ladylike Armelia. However, Quenelda is a dragon whisperer, and can communicate both telepathically and through dreams with dragons, and her ambition is to enrol at the Stealth Dragon Services Battle Academy at Dragon Isle.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552560235</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Jess Stockham
|title=Rumpelstiltskin
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Rumpelstiltskin is the tale of a miller who is so proud of his daughter that he lies to his friend and says that she can spin straw into gold. The king overhears this story but doesn’t believe it and so orders the miller to bring his daughter to him, he imprisons her and says she must spin the straw he has left for her into gold. Distraught, she sits in the room alone and cries. Just then, a creature appears and offers her help. But what happens next and what does the creature want in return for his help?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846432502</amazonuk>
}}