|summary=On Rollrock Island, the fishermen find their brides from the sea through the usurial offices of the witch Miskaella. They're selkies; seal women who shed their skins to become human. Their husbands are obsessed by them and the men without a selkie will risk anything to become part of the enchantment, even their human wives and children and half their lifetime earnings. Soon there are no human women left on Rollrock - the adults to the mainland and the female selkie babies to the ocean. There are just dads and mams and little boys.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857560336</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Matt Haig
|title=To Be A Cat
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Be careful what you wish for - it might actually come true!
If someone had said this to Barney Willow before he wished to be a cat, if someone had made him believe it, then he might have avoided a great deal of trouble. But if you want to find out what he'd also have missed out on, then you'll need to read this lively and tragi-comic body swap story.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0370332067</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Don Calame
|title=Beat The Band
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=It's a welcome return for the trio of Matt, Sean and Cooper from the [[Swim the Fly by Don Calame|earlier book]], but there's a significant difference, as Cooper - something of a zany sidekick in the original - takes centre stage here. Moving on from wanting to see a naked girl last year, this time his goal is to go all the way with a girl. Things are looking bad for him, though, when he's paired up for a health project on safe sex with social pariah Hot Dog Helen. Deciding the only way to overcome the humiliation of association with her is to give the school something else to remember him for, Coop persuades the other two members of the trio to enter the Battle of the Bands competition. Can any of them play an instrument? Oh, come on, what do you think?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184877057X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Francesca Simon and Tony Ross
|title=A Horrid Factbook: Horrid Henry's Sports
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Horrid Henry is back with another book of freaky facts and random trivia. We loved his book about [[A Horrid Factbook: Horrid Henry's Bodies by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross|Bodies]] and this time the lovable lad (well, I'm sure that's what his mother said...) is back with a book about sport. And in the year of the London Olympic Games, what could be more suitable? It's not just a crammer for [[How to Watch the Olympics: Scores and laws, heroes and zeros – an instant initiation to every sport by David Goldblatt and Johnny Acton|every sport in the Games]] or [[The Story of the Olympics by Richard Brassey|the background to the Games]] themselves. This is the book which swoops into the World Cow Poo Throwing Contest and delves into the Bog Snorkling Championships.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444001647</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Karen Harper
|title=Shakespeare's Mistress
|rating=2
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=
The conceit of ''Shakespeare's Mistress'' is that Shakespeare was married to Anne Whateley the day before he was married to Anne Hathaway, and Anne W remained the love of his life, with an affair (if you can have an affair with your 'wife') continued in London where the same Anne was also the famed ''dark lady'' of his sonnets. There is some basis for this theory in that the parish records do show a mysterious entry into the register for just such a contract the day before the Hathaway marriage but although the author claims this is 'faction', it's very much at the fiction end of that scale and is really a 'what if?' piece.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091940427</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Margaret Park Bridges
|title=My Dear Watson
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=''My Dear Watson'' is written by the hand of Holmes, Lucy Holmes, whom the world came to know as Sherlock. Yes, the well-loved detective is a female cross-dresser but with good reason. The young Lucy, having watched her mother die tragically, rushed off to live with her brother, Mycroft, at university. In order to stay, undetected (no pun intended), she had to dress as a man. Being slight and gamine, this wasn’t difficult and, after a while, she preferred the lifestyle. Watson hasn’t seen through the disguise, continuing to live with Holmes between marriages as they combat the odds and solve crimes in (or despite) the police.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780920768</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John R Fultz
|title=Seven Princes: Books of the Shaper: Volume 1
|rating=3.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Elhathym gatecrashes a feast at the court of Vod-the-Giant-King demanding the throne, which he asserts was his 3,000 years ago. Vod is a little incredulous and refuses to abdicate. Elhathym then lives up to his job description (evil sorcerer), destroying the entire court... apart from his son, Prince D’zan who manages to escape with his bodyguard, Olthacus the Stone. Prince D’zan wants to fight to regain his kingdom but the only way to counter Elhathym and his armies of the dead is to form alliances with other nations; alliances that create friendships but also bring treachery and betrayal. Behind it all is Iardu the Shaper, a creation god-like figure who plans and plots.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356500810</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ivan Brett
|title=Casper Candlewacks in the Claws of Crime!
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=This is the second outing for Casper and his friend Lamp, who likes inventing things, but don't worry if you haven't read the first book: this one is fine as a stand-alone. Casper's village is chock-full of idiots, who spend their time doing such ridiculous things you wonder how most of them managed to survive to adulthood. But the idiocy in these books does not encourage the reader, or indeed the author, to sneer: rather, it is a fond and glorious celebration of eccentricity taken to such extremes that it almost seems a different form of sanity. And it seems little lasting damage is done, either. People fall down, over and into things regularly, but never seem to suffer anything worse than a few cuts and bruises. A poor old lady in a wheelchair is thumped over the head, but the next time we see her she's grinning at the crowd and slapping her head to demonstrate what happened. And Casper's mum is such a bad cook she doesn't even take food out of the tin before cooking it, but no one starves. All in all, reading and enjoying the antics of the inhabitants of Corne-on-the-Kobb requires a major suspension of disbelief, which is of course not going to be a problem for the majority of the confident readers these books are written for. Indeed, the only difficulty such readers are going to have is to get through a whole paragraph of the book without dashing off to find someone to read a choice expression or joke to.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000741157X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Robin Wasserman
|title=The Book of Blood and Shadow
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Nora is an unusual heroine. She is sharp, snarky and funny, and her wry tone and contemporary references will resonate with her readers. But she is also uncompromisingly geeky, and she opts to complete her independent study assignment by joining her three friends at the local university in a research project on the Voynich Manuscript by Edward Kelley (This manuscript actually exists, and has taxed the abilities of some of the greatest code-breakers in the world in the last hundred years.). However Professor Hoffpauer does not consider Nora mature enough to work on the manuscript itself, despite the fact that her linguistic ability is far superior to that of the others, and instead he gives her the lesser task of translating the letters of Kelley's step-daughter Elizabeth Weston.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907411445</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Stephen Mackey
|title=Pushka
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The circus train is coming to town and little Pushka is asleep in the last wagon. Unfortunately, he topples out and wakes up in fright amongst the enchanted trees of the forest. He is scared by enormous thuds on the ground but then he spies a beautiful dancing girl and instantly falls in love. Little does he know that the lovely girl, Lulu, is a puppet and there is an evil giant controlling her strings and using her to lure Pushka to danger. He finds himself in a lot of trouble when he is enticed into the giant's oven with its fierce burning flames. Luckily, the giant does not reckon on the strength of the love that Lulu feels for her new friend, at it is the power of this that helps her to save him.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444901346</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
|title=Noah's Child
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Joseph, a young Belgian Jew, is sent away by his parents when they grow nervous about the treatment of Jews during World War Two. He is taken in by a village priest, Father Pons, and given a new identity and a place in Father Pons' school along with an assortment of other children, some of whom are genuine pupils and others who are, like Joseph, seeking sanctuary.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848874189</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Hiawyn Oram and David Melling
|title=The Totally Terrifying Three
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=This story sees the gathering together of three unlikely friends: a dragon, a witch and a giant. They all consider themselves to be TOTALLY TERRIFYING, yet when they meet each other, they're not scared. As they wander around together they come across a toddler. She isn't phased by any of them and the totally terrifying three soon find themselves entertaining her with a shoulder ride, a trip on the broomstick and a sweetly crooned dragon lullaby. It seems the three friends are not so terrifying after all!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444903020</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sue Townsend
|title=The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The country might be at war over the Falklands but life is hardly straight-forward in the Mole household. Adrian's parents are back together after both had disastrous affairs and it's not long before Adrian is shocked to learn that his mother is pregnant. He's equally shocked to see his father helping Doreen (a.k.a. the 'stick insect') along a path which isn't particularly slippy, although he does notice that she seems to have put on quite a bit of weight. Pandora Braithwaite is as fickle, but adorable, as ever and Adrian's hormones are still playing hop-scotch with his brain. So, what's new?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141046430</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Susan Hill
|title=A Kind Man
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Meet Eve, and her husband, the title character, Tommy. She's at a bit of a sticky wicket in life, for however much they want a baby, her sister and his feckless husband churn out son after son after son, and go no lengths at all to love them. So when Eve and Tommy do at last have a child, it's a tragedy for it to die when only three years old. But in this plot, which you'll thank me for not going into further, there will be a lot more swings and roundabouts, of torment and ecstasy, doldrums and delights, hell and heaven, to come.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555441</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Paul Geraghty
|title=Slobcat
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=''Slobcat is our cat.''<br>
''He does nothing but lie''<br>
''about and sleep.''
Well that is what the little girl who tells this wonderful story about a most endearing cat thinks. Actually, she is quite wrong, as the reader discovers, as the story progresses. Because she and the rest of the family only see him lazing around and sleeping, they have named him Slobcat. It is a term of affection though as they do really love their cat, even though they have got him quite wrong. She tells the reader that Slobcat is too lazy to eat his dinner; often comes home soaking wet because he can't be bothered to shelter from the rain and he would be totally useless if there were any rats or mice that might need catching.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849393885</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Phillip Thomas Tucker
|title=Exodus From the Alamo
|rating=3.5
|genre=History
|summary=Remember the Alamo!
The war-cry of generations of Americans is based upon the idea of the hugely outnumbered defenders of the Texan mission against the marauding Mexicans standing in defence of an ideal until death.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1612000762</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Wendy Meddour
|title=A Hen in the Wardrobe
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It was a quiet night in Cinnamon Grove, with all its residents settled in for a peaceful night's sleep. But all is not well with everyone. At number 32, there is a sudden crash and Ramzis’ dad is on the move… looking for a hen in the wardrobe! But that isn’t all. So far, Dad has been chasing frogs across the pantry floor, searching for a leopard in the back garden and sailing to the moon in the bathtub. Dad is sleep-walking again, because he is homesick. The only solution is for the family to take off for an extended visit to his home, a Berber village in the mountains of Algeria. While there, Ramzi encounters Boulelli (a giant spider in the forest), the Wise Man of the mountains and the native Tuareq in the desert in an effort to solve Dad’s problem for good. But will any of it work? Or will it be up to Ramzi and his secret plan to save the day?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847802257</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Belinda Bauer
|title=Finders Keepers
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Set in Exmoor, plucky little Jess Took is kidnapped from her father's vehicle while he is off managing the local hunt. Before you can say 'who took Took?' another little boy is plucked from his parents' car. In both scenes the only evidence is a post-it note saying 'you don't love her' or him. On the case is DI Reynolds who is initially more concerned with how his new hair transplant is taking until the crimes escalate to a full scale serial abduction case.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593066901</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Katie Dale
|title=Someone Else's Life
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=
Rosie's beloved mother Trudie has just died of Huntington's disease and now Rosie has a terrible decision to make: should she get tested and discover whether or not she has inherited the mutated gene that causes this fatal illness? But just as she decides that truth and knowledge is better than fear, Rosie discovers that Trudie wasn't her biological mother. She and a dying baby were swapped at birth. So Rosie sets out to the States to find her real mother, accompanied by Andy, an ex-boyfriend with whom she hopes to rekindle a love that never quite died. They find more than Rosie could ever have expected, and she is faced with an even more agonising choice: live a lie, or tell the truth and destroy lives just as hers has been destroyed...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857071416</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Peter Ackroyd
|title=Dickens: A Memoir of Middle Age
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=
With publishers falling over each other in an effort to outdo each other in celebrating the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’ birth, it was perhaps inevitable that we should see a reappearance of what has become the modern standard life, by Peter Ackroyd. The 1200-page original was first published in 1990, while this 600-page abridged edition surfaced in 1994, and now makes another timely appearance.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099437090</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Curtis Jobling
|title=Wereworld: Shadow of the Hawk
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=At the start of Shadow of the Hawk, our heroes are in disarray. Drew, having bitten off his hand to escape Vanmorten and the undead, is in captivity, about to be forced to fight as a gladiator. The Staglord Manfred and the Wereshark Vega, two of the three remaining members of the Wolf's Council, are on the run, spiriting Drew's mother to safety. And Hector, the third of the Council... oh, Hector!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141340495</amazonuk>
}}
