|summary=Young Timothy has been drummed out of his mother's kitchen by her and his sisters, so he cannot join in with their baking. Instead he goes to the garden and devises chocolate porridge – a lot of mud, plus some other ingredients. But only when he's happy with his craft does he begin to realise that not even calling mud chocolate porridge makes it edible. Oh what is a boy to do?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444011308</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|title=Scavenger 1: Zoid
|author=Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Somewhere out in the further reaches of the galaxy is a spherical construction, speeding the last few surviving Earth humans on their way to a different, new home, a giant biosphere acting as the one remaining Ark for what's left of humankind. And its purpose is even more important as, somewhen, somewhere and somehow, during its flight, the robot inhabitants – the cleaners, butlers, farmers and mechanics – rebelled. Since then they have evolved themselves, and ignored all their original programming, and are intent on wiping out humans instead. We, of course, are fighting back, but when the tiny community of little more than a hundred that serves as the whole world for the young worker known as York gets wiped out, he gets the clearest picture yet of how difficult that battle will be…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447231481</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|title=Poppet
|author=Mo Hayder
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=DI Jack Caffrey has been around for a while now, I just haven't previously stumbled into his deep dark world. This is the sixth in the series of books featuring the plain clothed Detective Inspector of Bristol's Major Crime Investigation Team, but you don't need to have read any of the others to enjoy - if enjoy is the right word - this (not quite the) latest offering.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857500767</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|title=The Beggar and the Hare
|author=Tuomas Kyro
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Our hero, Vatanescu, is a fish out of water. He's a father without his family, a man without a home, a possibility without a chance. He's being transported across Europe by a criminal people-smuggler, who is also packing Vatanescu's sister off to the cosmetic surgeon then the prostitute trade. Our hero is destined to sit in discomfort, sleet and in hateful gazes of others as a beggar on the streets of Helsinki. But at the same time impossibilities are amassing – one of which splits Vatanescu from his minder/mentor, and leaves him on the run with a fistful of useless currency. A further impossibility gifts him a friendly, warm companion – a rabbit being chased by local youths jumps into the sanctuary of his arms, and becomes a welcome source of focus. From then on many more jumps will be made from one impossibility to another, as the life of this illegal immigrant begins to resonate across his adopted homeland…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780721641</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|title=The Holy Fox: The Life of Lord Halifax
|author=Andrew Roberts
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Of all the British nearly-Prime Ministers Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, must be unique. He was the one who came closest to assuming the mantle only to find the job denied him, and had he done so, on him Britain’s destiny would have depended. For he was the man whom several confidently expected, and many wanted, to take over after the resignation of Neville Chamberlain during the dark days of May 1940.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781856974</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|title=The Rental Heart and other Fairytales
|author=Kirsty Logan
|rating=3.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=To start with, are these stories strictly fairytales? On the evidence of this collection, it is at times a distinction that seems open to debate, a category that lies waiting for definition. But at the same time, such is the genre-switching (and at times gender-switching), that it is a subtitle that serves better than most. The title story examines a life's romantic history via a twist on the idea that we give our heart away to every lover – what do we have when they are gone and a new one takes their place? Elsewhere, a landed lady takes advantage of her servant, and another cultured madam hires a clockwork companion to shrug off the suitors, with obvious, narratively logical results. A medical worker and her pregnant partner share a caravan together, all the while knowing a different circumstance might be closer than first thought. We have the beginnings of love lives, the end of hatred, and the end of the world in these pages.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773754</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lesley Glaister
|title=Little Egypt
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Twins Isis and Osiris are now in their 90s, living together in Little Egypt, the English manor house where they were born and brought up. Their names are a clue to their parents' near fetish for everything Egyptian. In fact this near fetish leads their parents to Egypt itself, in search of a big discovery back in the 1920s, demonstrating more enthusiasm than savvy. Having left the twins in the care of the housekeeper, they never return. Isis and Osiris are now bound to the house, tied not by love or memories but dark secrets that won't let go.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190777372X</amazonuk>
}}
