'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Neil Griffiths and Judith Blake
|title=Itchy Bear
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Poor bear has an itch. An all-over sort of itch. And everywhere he goes to try and have a good scratch it seems he's disturbing someone! Will he ever find anywhere for a satisfying scratch?!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905434111</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Giles Milton
|summary=We've met Tilly Redbrow before. She's of native American Indian descent but living with her adoptive family in the UK. To say that she is mad on horses is something of an understatement – just about everything she does revolves around them. This time she and her friends are having a sleepover at the Silver Shoe Stables, where – although no one is supposed to know about it – a famous racehorse is staying incognito because his history as a Derby winner means that horse thieves are after him.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444000918</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sarah Winman
|title=When God Was A Rabbit
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When God Was a Rabbit is a book that tugs at the emotions in a sweet but uncompromising way. It's in no way a RomCom but if you are a fan of that genre of film, I would suggest that you might too enjoy this book as it shares many of the traits if not the storyline. The analogy to a movie is apposite too as first time author Sarah Winman's 'day job' is as an actor - she has appeared recently in Holby City, for example.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755379284</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ali Sparkes
|title=S.W.I.T.C.H: Ant Attack
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It seems that Josh and Danny are about to meet their match. Despite being almost eaten by cats, birds, spiders and more when they've turned into creepy crawlies before in this series, they have a far worse foe this time - Tarquin, the snooty posh brat from up the road. How they survive him turning them into ants, and his misguided attempts to kill them, while all the time the next door neighbour's scientific research which is allowing all this transformation has to be kept a top secret, are all elements of this fourth book in the series.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192729357</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Adrian McKinty
|title=Falling Glass
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Like all good ''noir'' fiction, McKinty provides us with a charismatic central character - here in the form of Killian. Of Pavee traveller, Irish stock (otherwise known as 'tinkers') he has made his name as an enforcer of other people's laws, collecting debts and finding missing people. He's tough and capable of violence, but generally gets his man by avoiding force where possible. A sort of hit man with a conscience. However, when the book kicks off he has semi-retired, but his decision to invest his ill gotten gains in property has fallen foul of the property crash, so when a job comes up offering a cool half million for simply finding the ex-wife and daughters of budget airline magnate Richard Coulter, it's not one he can easily turn down. Killian knows this sounds too good to be that simple. And, of course, he's right.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687829</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Eva Petulengro
|title=The Girl in the Painted Caravan: Memories of a Romany Childhood
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Eva Petulengro was born in a painted caravan in 1939. Her Romany family had travelled in Norfolk and Lincolnshire for generations. She has had a very successful career as a clairvoyant, writer of horoscope columns and publisher of magazines, and her daughter is also a well known media astrologer. The Girl in the Painted Caravan is a memoir of her childhood and youth, up until her marriage in her 20s and the beginning of her career.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330519999</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Claire Peate
|title=Guerrillas in Our Midst
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=The book opens in south-east London. It's a rather gritty urban place but friends Edda and Beth love it. And we soon get the low-down on a hush-hush project by some of the locals. They call themselves, rather grandly I thought, a guerrilla gardening society - but what the devil does it all mean? Edda and Beth stumble into the situation simply by listening to their gut instinct and doing what they feel is right for their neighbourhood. Basically, an eyesore of a skip (full, smelly) has been abandoned near Edda's house. No one wants to deal with it and take it away so the two girls come up with the idea of 'beautifying' it, if you like. Tipping in a whacking great load of topsoil and then planting it up with flowers etc. But all of this is done under cover of darkness. And Peate (what an appropriate name) gives us all the silly, giggly, half-drunken details of the girls' adventure. They've had plenty of adventurous times in the past (which we hear about later) and this lark is just another one to add to the list. They manage to keep it a secret. Difficult, they manage it - just.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784256</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Donald Spoto
|title=Possessed: The Life of Joan Crawford
|rating=3.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Thanks to the memoir 'Mommie Dearest' by her adopted daughter Christina, the enduring image of movie star Joan Crawford is one of an alcoholic, sadistic monster. Spoto clearly believes that this portrait is a gross exaggeration, and is at pains to rectify the balance. Having previously written biographies of Alfred Hitchcock and Marilyn Monroe among others, he clearly knows the subject of cinema inside out, and has written a very thorough chronicle of Crawford's career. The impression the reader is left with, however, is that in looking at her family life and art he has perhaps striven too far to present her as a person more sinned against than sinning, a legendary talent, beauty and above all a grossly maligned adoptive mother.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091931274</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Charlotte Haptie
|title=Ice Angel
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Rockscar City is controlled by the Scarspring family – or at least, its water supply is, which comes to the same thing. And the water which the citizens receive is stale and unpleasant, especially in the summer months. City authorities are obliged to spend vast amounts of money looking for new wells, but for some reason each excavation is sabotaged as soon as it is begun. So when Zack and Clovis decide to use the pure, sweet water from a secret spring high in the mountains to make and sell delicious ices, they run into all kinds of danger. Unless they're very careful, they will be made to disappear, just as their father did twelve years before.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340894180</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sam Meekings
|title=The Book of Crows
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Having lived in China for a substantial period of time, Sam Meekings has clearly soaked up a great deal of the culture; something he has already put to great effect in his first book, [[Under Fishbone Clouds by Sam Meekings|Under Fishbone Clouds]]. In The Book of Crows, his third book, he continues to show his talent as a non-Chinese raconteur of Chinese culture, but goes one step further by telling a story that spans several periods of Chinese history, thereby giving the reader a glimpse into different people's lives.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971721</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sophie Jordan
|title=Firelight
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Jacinda was singled out as special by her Pride when she manifested with the ability to breath fire. A fire-breather hasn't been born to the Draki for generations, and there are those in the Pride who would use her for their own ends. Craving freedom, Jacinda takes a risk that nearly costs her life. Now Jacinda's mother has dragged her and twin sister Tamra from their mountain home, sneaking away in the middle of the night, leaving everything they knew behind.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192756508</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Stephen Anderton
|title=Christopher Lloyd: His Life at Great Dixter
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=When I first had a garden I did what I always do with a new project: I turned to books to see what help I could find. There were any number which told me how to do the basics and what I needed to know to make the right decisions. It was rather like cooking only with a few more uncertainties thrown in. Then there were the books which didn't really bother about the basics but provided limitless inspiration. At the head of these writers, if not way out in front, was Christopher Lloyd who gardened throughout his life at Great Dixter, producing colour combinations which stunned and probably one of the greatest gardens of the twentieth century.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845950968</amazonuk>
}}
