'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
__NOTOC__
{{newreview
|author=Steve Webb and Katharine McEwen
|title=Tigerbear
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=I'm a sucker for a good bedtime story and to me ''Tigerbear'' is just that. With the perfect tone for a bedtime read, a small amount of adventure, a nice rhyming pattern and friendly illustrations, I can see this book sending many children off to sleep to have their own adventure in years to come.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184939007X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jamil Ahmad
|summary=After an acrimonious divorce, Vincent chooses to stay with his father and not his mother and sister. As his father works away much of the time, they go to live with Vincent's grandparents, who run an undertaking business. Vincent, a reserved and sensitive child, is being bullied on his way in to his new school by Frankie Lennox from the grammar school, who goes so far as to threaten Vincent with a knife.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408313022</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Francisco X Stork
|title=Marcelo in the Real World
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Marcelo has spent his childhood and the majority of his teenage years at Paterson, a private school that caters specifically for those with disabilities, providing them with a protected environment where they can learn at their own rate and feel accepted. However, his father Arturo feels that it is time that Marcelo experiences the ''real world'' and really challenges himself. Using the promise of a senior year spent at Paterson rather than a public school, Arturo coerces Marcelo to take up a small position for the summer in the law firm that he owns. In the firm, Marcelo is forced to interact regularly with a plethora of different personalities, and while some prove to be enjoyable company, others leave him feeling confused and distressed. Things really come to a head when he is forced to make a momentous decision, one that requires him to either ignore his conscience, or end up betraying his father and by extension himself; it is not a decision that is logical, and will require Marcelo to not only empathise with others, but also understand what makes himself tick.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407121006</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Karen Harper
|title=The Queen's Governess
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Kat Ashley isn't a name one usually associates with the Tudor era, but just like the more famous characters of the period, she has her own fascinating story to tell, a story which this book captures perfectly. As Thomas Cromwell's spy, Anne Boleyn's confidante and later Princess Elizabeth's governess, Kat Ashley certainly knew the Tudor court well and it is through her fictional diary entries that the reader is invited to know the dazzling, yet dangerous Tudor court too.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091940419</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sally Gardner
|title=Snow White
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Having read many retellings of Grimms' tales, it is refreshing to read one that expands the story familiar into six short chapters while remaining faithful to the original narrative. Gardner adds some detail to the story (the Seven Dwarfs try to protect Snow White by inventing some alarm systems to warn of the queen's approach, and Snow White is making an apple pie when the queen disguised as an old woman arrives with the poisoned apple) but does not remove or prettify the more violent aspects of the story; the huntsman kills a deer and persuades the queen that its heart is Snow White's, and the queen is ''smashed to smithereens'' on rocks as she tries to escape from the dwarfs . The prince arriving and Snow White returning to life after the piece of poisoned apple is jolted from her mouth is the resolution to the story, but the dwarfs being the guests of honour at the wedding is a nice touch.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444002430</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Andrew Wheen
|title=Dot-Dash To Dot.Com
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=You know exactly what you're getting when you read the summary of Andrew Wheen's ''Dot-Dash To Dot.Com''. ''How Modern Telecommunications Evolved from the Telegraph to the Internet'' sums it up perfectly. This is a history of technology and the people involved in creating that technology. It serves as a primer for anyone with an interest or need to know about telecommunications.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441967591</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Paula Leyden
|title=The Butterfly Heart
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary='The Butterfly Heart' takes place in Zambia, the beautiful 'butterfly heart' of Africa. The story is told through two voices: Bul-Boo, a young girl who lives with her family and twin sister Madillo, and Ifwafwa, the Snake Man. He is old and wise and has the unique ability to communicate with snakes. The twins' lovely and gentle friend Winifred is in trouble. Her father has died, and his brother has arranged for her to marry his friend, a man old enough to be Winifred's grandfather. Winifred seems resigned to her fate, but Bul-Boo is determined to do something, and in desperation, the twins turn to Ifwafwa.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406327921</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rodney Bolt
|title=As Good as God, as Clever as the Devil: The Impossible Life of Mary Benson
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Since I hadn't previously heard of Archbishop Benson, let alone his wife, I must commend the title, cover and advertising of this book. All of the above provided an accurate and irresistible glimpse of the biography within, and I wasn't one whit disappointed in my choice.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843548615</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Nigel Hamilton
|title=American Caesars: Lives of the US Presidents, from Franklin D Roosevelt to George W Bush
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=The premise is simple: take twelve men (and unfortunately they are all men, but that's not the author's fault) who have achieved high office and look at each of them. Firstly, take a look at the road to the high office, then how they performed once they reached their goal and finally a look at their private life. Suetonius did it first when he wrote ''The Twelve Caesars'' and now Nigel Hamilton has taken the same journey with ''American Caesars'', a remarkably in-depth look at twelve consecutive American presidents from the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, starting with Franklin D Roosevelt and finishing with George W Bush.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520419</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=David Bedford and Julian Russell
|title=Bouncy Bouncy Bedtime
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=At the very start of this book it is bedtime, but before going to sleep, the author asks the young reader:
'Have you ever wondered what the animals do?<br>
Do they go to bed like me and you?'
and then we are asked to imagine...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405257423</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Hegley and Neal Layton
|title=Stanley's Stick
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Stanley loves his stick and carries it everywhere. He loves to play with it and finds all sorts of uses for it. Forget all those expensive plastic toys; the stick is the best toy he could have. (It is nice to see a child in a book playing with something that doesn’t cost money).
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340988185</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Josh Lacey
|title=Island of Thieves
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=While Tom's parents have their first childless holiday in decades, our hero is supposed to be staying at his uncle Harvey's flat. Unfortunately his uncle is a roustabout adventurer, and with a clue to a treasure's location is himself going to Peru to seek the rest of the map. When Tom invites himself along he has no idea Harvey is already wanted by Peru's biggest criminal, nor what this impetuous decision will lead too...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849392455</amazonuk>
}}
