Difference between revisions of "Newest Teens Reviews"

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[[Category:Teens|*]]
 
[[Category:Teens|*]]
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==Teens==
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Leanne Egan
{{newreview
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|title=Lover Birds
|author=Kathy Reichs
 
|title=Virals
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Tory Brennan is just a normal girl with an extraordinary aunt - the renowned forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan. Desperate to follow in her relative's footsteps, she seems to have little opportunity to do so living in South Carolina - but that quickly changes when she and her friends stumble on a decades old corpse. Desperately trying to find out what happened to the dead person, and cure a sick dog they've liberated from a laboratory on their island home, the quartet's lives have suddenly become rather complicated. And that's before a mysterious virus hits them all and leaves them with some very strange side effects...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099543931</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Andrew Motion
 
|title=Silver: Return to Treasure Island
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=Even if you have not read Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 classic ''Treasure Island'', or you have read it a long time ago, the chances are that you will be broadly familiar with the story and in particular some of the rich characters he created because they have entered into the culture of our image of pirates. Before Johnny Depp convinced us that pirates looked like Keith Richards, it was the terrifying image of Long John Silver and his parrot, squawking 'pieces of eight', double dealing his way to buried treasure and the innocence of young narrator Jim Hawkins that conjures up what we think of in terms of pirate adventure. But Stevenson left some tantalizing threads to his tale, not least the fact that Silver made off with only the majority of the treasure and left the remaining silver behind together with three marooned pirates to fend for themselves. Setting the story 40 years after these events, Andrew Motion picks up the tale and has the offspring of Hawkins, in the form of his son also called Jim and Long John Silver's daughter Natty returning to collect the remaining bounty. Of course, it's never going to be that simple.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224091190</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|author=Sophie Flack
 
|title=Bunheads
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Nineteen-year old Hannah Ward, a dancer with the Manhattan Ballet Company, has devoted her entire life to dance. She works hard, watches her weight like a hawk, and navigates the complicated maze of relationships with the rest of the company who, in many cases, are both friends and rivals. But then she meets musician Jacob, and she realises just what she's missed out on while growing up like this. Will she do the unthinkable and give up her career, or pass up the chance of love in the hope of gaining success in the ballet world.
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|summary=When new girl, Isabel, moves to Lou's hometown of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around her. A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, but Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with her, and that's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, isn't it?  Because Lou is straight, isn't she?  Even though none of her relationships with boys have gone very well so far, and she's never had a good kiss with any of them?  So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and wanting to hang out with her because fighting with her is fun, and she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907411275</amazonuk>
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|isbn=000862657X
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Ashley Hickson-Lovence
|author=Jillian Larkin
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|title=Wild East
|title=The Flappers: Vixen
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Gloria Carmody is a society princess in 1920's Chicago. Engaged to Sebastian Grey, both powerful and handsome, she is expected to be little more than an ornament to him. After spending a night at the notorious speakeasy the Green Mill, though, Gloria knows that there's more to life than balls and socialising...
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|summary=Written in verse, this is Ronny's story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and start at a mostly white school.  The move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a new town, a new school, and keep himself out of trouble. He listens to music constantly, and has always dreamed of being a rapper.  But now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and poetry, and the power of creativity and crafting your words.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552565040</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0241645441
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Jenny Valentine
|author=Catherine Jinks
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|title=Us in the Before and After
|title=The Paradise Trap
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Catherine Jinks
 
|summary=When Marcus's mum has to economise over their holidays, it means just the two of them, revisiting a campsite she herself knew as a child, in a grotty old second-hand caravan.  It's a greasy, shabby, squeaky little closet of a caravan, and no-one can agree on what the awful stink pervading it reminds them of.  But when the trip is hyped up as a great time for both, it seems to have a chance of coming true, for a bizarre cellar to the caravan leads everyone to their dream trip - if only, unfortunately, one way...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857386735</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Nicky Singer
 
|title=The Flask
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Twelve-year-old Jess is dealing with a lot. Her beloved Aunt Edie has just died. Her mother is expecting twins - but these new babies will be Jess's half-brothers and will complete Jess's mother's marriage to her stepfather. But will they complete Jess's family? Will they even survive? Because the twins are conjoined. And in 70% of separations, only one twin lives. And if this weren't enough in the way of trials and tribulations, Jess's best friend Zoe is moving towards a relationship with a boy. Does this mean she will leave Jess behind?
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|summary=Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connection. They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable.   Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007438761</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1471196585
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Max Boucherat
|author=Margie Gelbwasser
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|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
|title=Pieces of Us
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Every summer Katie and her sister Julie meet up with Alex and his brother Kyle at a lakeside community in New York. They leave behind their problems - which are legion - and find comfort in each other. But when a dark secret of one of them leaks out, the four are all left reeling by the far-reaching consequences.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0738721646</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Stephanie Guerra
 
|title=Torn
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Stella Chavez is a fairly ordinary girl until she meets Ruby Caroline. She gets pretty good grades, has friends she's grown up with, and is a soccer star. New girl Ruby, on the other hand, is trouble with a capital T, right from the moment she storms into her first class wearing a band-aid of a skirt and swearing like a trooper. There's something about Ruby, though, that draws Stella to her, and the pair quickly become inseparable. But as Ruby's behaviour gets more and more erratic, and she's drawn into bad habits and an unsuitable relationship, can Stella save her friend - or will she get dragged down with her?
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|summary=We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome.  What could possibly go wrong?  Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky.  For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering.  When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0761462724</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008666482
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|author=Avery Williams
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|title=Compass and Blade
|title=The Alchemy of Forever
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Back in the Middle Ages, Seraphina nearly died. Her boyfriend Cyrus saved her life - at the cost of someone else's. Using his newly discovered Alchemy potion, he transferred her soul into another body. They've now lived over 600 years, changing bodies every decade or so, but Sera is tired of this unnatural existence and is determined to end it. She runs away from Cyrus, ready to die for real this time. When she finds sixteen-year-old Kailey, who's just been involved in a car accident, her good intentions waver and she takes over the dying girl's body. Could this be her chance for a new start?
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|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857076817</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.
|author=Gemma Malley
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|isbn=0008664730
|title=The Killables
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=In the City, evil has been eradicated. Each of its citizens has undergone the New Baptism - having the evil part of their brain, the amygdala, removed. But even this isn't enough - the City still needs its System, which monitors every citizen and labels accordingly. Any sign of evil results in a lower classification and the lowest classification of all is "K". Ks are sent for reconditioning. After this, they disappear and are never seen again.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444722778</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Harry Allen
|author=Michelle Hodkin
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|title=Children of the Sun
|title=The Unbecoming Of Mara Dyer
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Mara has just started her whole life over - new city, new school, new start. It's just what the doctor ordered, and her family - though still treating her like she might fall apart at any moment - are tentatively hopeful that it's just what she needs to get back on her feet. Mara just hopes her memories return. She needs to know what happened the night her two best friends and her boyfriend died in an accident she somehow managed to escape unscathed.
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|summary= Ra Eun Seo lives in a North Korean town and she is a talented singer. Life is hard and food is difficult to come by, so Seo and her friends Nari and Min go foraging every evening, looking for tree bark and edible grasses to supplement the meagre rations of rice and kimchi at home.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085707363X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1805140493
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Alexia Casale
|author=Sam Hawksmoor
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|title=Sing if you Can't Dance
|title=The Repossession
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Genie Magee hasn’t seen her boyfriend Rian all summer. In fact, she hasn’t seen anyone all summer – apart from the creepy worshippers of the Church of Free Spirits, whose leader Reverend Schneider has persuaded her mother she’s possessed, due to her strange mystical gift. Rian hasn’t stopped thinking of her, though, and has hatched a daring plan to rescue the love of his life and escape the town of Spurlake – but their escape will lead them into a situation more dangerous than they could ever have imagined.
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|summary=It's hard enough to navigate your teenage years without suddenly finding that you're having to navigate a life-changing disability too, but that's what Ven is dealing with after collapsing on stage in the middle of a dance performance that was going to change her life. But she comes back fighting, desperate to avoid the pity stares, and desperate to get back to a life that's as normal as she can possibly manage.  Meanwhile there's a new (cute!) boy in school, her music A Level performance piece to try to sort out, and just the day to day traumas of all the challenges her body continues to throw at her to navigate. So even though she can't dance anymore, might she be able to sing her way through instead?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340997087</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571373801
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Lauren Oliver
 
|title=Pandemonium
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Having escaped from Portland at the end of book 1, Lena is alone in the Wilds. Having to face the unthinkable - life without Alex – she chooses to join the resistance of the Invalids in an attempt to bring down those who have made love into a disease. Flicking between the early days immediately following her escape, as she settles into the community along with her new allies Raven and Tack, and a time a bit later on when she plays a more active role in the resistance, Pandemonium has more of the thrills and excitement that made the first book an enjoyable read.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444722921</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Simon Fox
|author=Sufiya Ahmed
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|title=Deadlock
|title=Secrets of the Henna Girl
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Sixteen-year-old Zeba Khan wasn't particularly looking forward to the family holiday with her parents in PakistanIt was eight years since she'd been there and she had only vague memories of the heat, the mosquitoes, her Uncle's home and her cousin Asif, who is eight years older than her.  She's just finished her GCSE exams and - along with her best friend Susan - was planning which subjects she would take for A level and university as well as looking at future careers.  She's always been happy in her Muslim faith and the lack of boyfriends, alcohol and drugs had never worried her, although she was perhaps a ''little'' envious of the fact that Susan could go out in the evenings.
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|summary=Late one night Graham Blake is late back from his shift on the force, and then suddenly rings Archie, demanding he fetch something from a secret place, and join him on the runThey get together, but barely begin to smell the whiff of Southern trains when the father is arrested, leaving Archie on the late express to Brighton, toting a tin his father was determined to keep away from his colleagues, and the bearer of a whole heap of questions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141339802</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839944420
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Lex Croucher
|author=Simon Mayo
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|title=Gwen and Art Are Not in Love
|title=Itch
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Itchingham Lofte - cool name, cool guy, but he's Itch to you and me - is an element-hunter. Like many kids, he's a collector-magpie, but football stickers and manga-style cards aren't his thing. Itch is a science geek and he is trying to collect a sample of all 118 elements. Itch lives in Cornwall, where he has recently arrived from London, and his element-hunting doesn't carry much kudos at his school, where he spends most time dodging the bullies. At home, Itch has a tendency to formulate disastrous experiments and the latest explosion not only removed his eyebrows but also got his collection banished to the shed.
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|summary=Who knew that what I really needed to read right now was a gay Arthurian RomCom?  But honestly, it lifted my spirits in a most delightful way.  In this story, Gwen and Arthur have been betrothed since they were tiny, much to their mutual disgust!  Gwen, you see, is in love with Bridget (the kingdom's only female knight) - something that Art discovers from her private diaries. And then when Gwen then catches Art kissing a boy they find themselves becoming reluctant allies, creating the subterfuge of falling in love with each other, when really they are enabling their own other romantic attachments. But as their impending wedding draws ever closer, will they find a way in which they can both truly be themselves, or are they destined to live a lie their whole lives?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857531301</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1526651793
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Nick Brooks
|author=Jesse Andrews
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|title=Promise Boys
|title=Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Greg is trying to survive high school, and is doing rather well at it. He's got a wonderful tactic of just avoiding pretty much everyone - never getting close to any group of people, never alienating any group either, just coasting along on nodding terms with everyone. The exception is Earl, who he makes low-budget version of cult classic films with. His life is about to be changed, though, as his mother is determined that he should rekindle an old friendship with Rachel Kushner – who’s dying of leukemia.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1419701762</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Andrew Hammond
 
|title=CRYPT: Traitor's Revenge
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=There are teenage spies, ghosts and gore aplenty in store for readers of this series: the books are a non-stop, fast-paced battle against all manner of supernatural nasties, where the adrenalin remains high and the body count just keeps on mounting.
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|summary=When the principal (headmaster) of Urban Promise Prep school is murdered, three boys find themselves called into the police station as suspects.  Each, seemingly, has a grudge of some description against Principal Moore, and each could have been there at the time of his murder.  But who killed him, and why, and if any of the boys are innocent, will they be able to clear their names?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755378229</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1035003155
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1919635017
|author=Laura Jarratt
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|title=A Thief to Catch a Killer
|title=Skin Deep
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|author=Kitt Townsend
|rating=5
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=14-year-old Jenna survived a car crash which killed her best friend. Sometimes, she wishes it was her who was dead. Because the crash left her face scarred, and she can't stop feeling like a freak. As if that wasn't hard enough to cope with, her dad is out for justice and has set up a pressure group in response to the light sentence given to the driver of the car she was in - and the youth is responding with intimidation. Just as she hits rock bottom, though, 16-year old New Age traveller Ryan comes into her life. Could he be the person to see past her scars?
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|summary= Solomon Klyne isn't a bad lad, so why is he running around London committing a series of robberies? And how did he learn to crack safes? You'll have to wait to get an answer to the second question because I avoid spoilers. But I'll answer the first one: for his grandmother...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405256729</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Patrick Ness and Tea Bendix
|author=Karen Blumenthal
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|title=Different for Boys
|title=Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different
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|rating=4.5
|rating=5
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|genre=Teens
|genre=Biography
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|summary=Ant is in Year Eleven at quite a standard school, and is surprised to find his geography class (within which it seems absolutely nothing about geography is ever learnt) has been restructured, so his desk is one of four with both his best buddy from the football team, and two other old muckers – in fact they all go back to primary school days together. As they're all fired up, straining at the leash only a single-sex school can form, the talk in class and out often turns to sex. Which is confusing for Ant, as he doesn't know what his score is, where his achievements in that regard lie. He's had a casual relationship, a secret one, for several months now, and so has effectively progressed up the ladder headed by 'experienced', but whether that's set in stone, he can't be sure. And that's mostly because of who he's been having the relationship and the sex with.
|summary=Framed by Jobs' iconic speech at a Stanford College graduation ceremony, and the three stories he told the students, about connecting the dots, love and loss, and mortality, this biography gives a succinct and balanced account of Jobs' life, his successes and his failures, his passions and his ideals, and his infamously polarized personality. The author actively annotates the backstory of Jobs with references from this speech, as well as future events, carefully chosen statistics, and Jobs' own reminiscence, giving a rich context to his story. Jobs' achievements are incredible and they're not simply down to his genius, but his attitudes towards life and his incredible charisma.
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|isbn=1529509491
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408832062</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sarah Singleton
 
|title=Dark Storm
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Ellie is spending the summer with her grandparents, in the house where her mother grew up, while her dad and his new girlfriend go on holiday together. Although it's been more than a year since her mother's death, Ellie is finding it hard to move on with her life. Whilst shopping in an antique shop one day she comes across the model of an old theatre, and sets free a ghost who made the model theatre with his sister hundreds of years ago. With this model is a script for Romeo and Juliet, which the local theatre group are currently putting on. Ellie's grandparents are keen for her to join the group, and it's here she meets new friends and begins to fall in love with a ghost.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857070754</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kai Meyer
 
|title=Arcadia Awakens
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Rosa can't wait to get away from New York. En route to Sicily to be reunited with sister Zoe and her continental extended family, she makes sure every aspect of her American life is deleted, right down to the songs on her iPod. Arriving in Palermo, she's thrown into a sinister Mafia underworld filled with murder, corruption and clan rivalries going back more generations than you could shake a stick at. Zoe seems at home in this world but Rosa kicks against it right from the outset. Her rebelliousness is only exacerbated by the mutual attraction that springs up between Rosa - an Alcantra - and Alessandro - a Carnevare. Romance between scions of warring clans? It can't be tolerated.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848770081</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Elizabeth Wein
 
|title=Code Name Verity
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=
 
It is probably impossible to read this book without crying. It is one of the most heart-breaking and yet uplifting books around, and reading it feels like a privilege. Begin it early in the day, because you will not want to put it down until you have reached the very last page, and when you do you will care for many of the main characters like friends. You will weep for those who die (or most of them, at any rate: even the gentlest of readers will be glad that the world is rid of one or two). You will be proud to be human, if people like these are in our world, and you will burn for shame that others can be so cruel, so cold and so vicious. And the worst of it is, our study of history tells us that even if these precise events did not happen, then there are many other events in war, both in the past and doubtless now as well, which resemble them. The whole book is a testament to human courage and human frailty.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405258217</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Veronica Roth
 
|title=Divergent
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=Beatrice - or Tris as she becomes - belongs to one of five factions in a segregated future world. Beatrice is Abnegation (selflessness) but has always struggled with the self-effacing lifestyle embraced by her faction. But she's not sure if she's any better-suited to one of the others: Candor (honesty), Amity (kindness), Erudite (intellect) or Dauntless (courage). So Tris approaches the faction aptitude test taken by all sixteen-year-olds in her society with a large dollop of trepidation.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007420412</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1800901232
|author=Jennifer Lynn Barnes
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|title=Stitched Up
|title=Every Other Day
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|author=Steve Cole
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
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|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
|summary=When Kali sees the Orobouros mark on cheerleader, Bethany, at her high school, she doesn't hesitate in tempting the parasitic creature - a Chupacabra - out of Bethany and into her own body. The parasite is a death sentence for humans. Some days, Kali's blood is toxic to paranormal creatures. Some days she's blessed with strength, speed and killer instinct, and the parasite feeding off her memories wouldn't have stood a chance. But not on this day. On this day, Kali is completely human. And she has to survive the next 17 hours before she changes back.
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|summary=Twelve-year-old Hanh wanted to be a fashion designer. Life in the rural village where she lived with her family was happy, if not prosperous, so when the smartly-dressed man and woman came to the village to offer Hahn a job in Hanoi it was an opportunity not to be missedSome money changed hands and Hanh was on the mini-bus to HanoiOnly, Hanh and the other girls were not going to work in a shop, they were to work in virtual slavery in an illegal garment factoryYou know those jeans you really wanted: the ones with intricate embroidery and beading on the legs? The ones with the artfully-placed rips and distressed seams that felt so soft when you touched them?  It's quite possible that Hanh and her co-workers made them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085738970X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=SD Crockett
 
|title=After the Snow
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=On a near future Earth, Willo lives with his family in an isolated community without technologyHis parents remember a time when there were machines but all this has changed.  Now there's only enough petrol for the sinister government trucksOne day Willo finds himself totally alone, his parents missing, presumed takenArmed with his father's cryptic sayings and his only friend, (a dog's skull that speaks through his imagination) Willo leaves all that's familiar in order to find his loved ones. The unknown is a ruthless place filled with Stealers and starvation but there's escape from what he needs to do.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230759351</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
 
|title=Wyrmeweald: Bloodhoney
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Micah and his mentor, the grizzled old tracker Eli, have holed up in a mountain cave: fullwinter in Wyrmeweald is harsh, and few humans could survive its rigours. With them is Thrace, a kingirl who bonded with a whitewyrme but who was abandoned by the enormous dragon-like creature after she and Micah fell in love. Used to flying free across the skies, she finds the confinement almost unbearable, and she is wasting away before their eyes.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385617429</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Patrice Lawrence
|author=Kathryn Erskine
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|title=Needle
|title=Mockingbird
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|rating=3
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Mockingbird is the story of Caitlin, an 11-year old girl with Asperger's syndrome trying to recover from the death of her brother Devon in a school shooting. With her dad struggling to cope and Caitlin no longer having her brother to explain to her things she doesn't understand, the young narrator must seek closure on the tragedy herself.
+
|summary=Brave. Charlene, the 'heroine' of this piece is extremely hard for some people to like, characters and readers both.  Kicked out of multiple homes and schools, she's fostering with a pleasant yoga tutor, Annie, and has taken up residence in her son Blake's old room while he's at uni. Such a tempestuous personality may be in need of a comfort blanket, you might perhaps think, and the creation of one such item is part of the plot here, as Charlene is a wonder knitter, and is making something full of love for her younger sister – a younger sister she's allowed contact with no more. We see Charlene prove her belligerence with a store detective, and then force people to give her two days off school, when she shouts someone down as expletively ignorant. And then... well, what exactly happens is not for me to say, only to remark how sharp and pointy those knitting needles can be...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409538583</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1800901011
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Ann Sei Lin
|author=Jim Carrington
+
|title= Rebel Skies
|title=Drive By
+
|rating= 5
|rating=4
+
|genre= Teens
|genre=Teens
+
|summary= Kurara has spent her entire life as a servant on the Midori, a massive dining hall floating in the sky where soldiers of the Empire come to drink and make merry between their conquests. However, when a man named Himura arrives to tell her that she is a Crafter like him, someone with the power to form paper into whatever she desires – a power sought after all across the Empire. He asks her to come with him, to leave the life of dreary servitude that is all she has known. Well, soon Kurara won't have any say in the matter, because the Midori is destroyed by a monstrous paper spirit known as a shikigami, and she is forced to flee out into the world. She joins Himura aboard the Orihime, a sky-ship whose express purpose is to hunt down shikigami, and a whole world of adventure awaits her…
|summary=It's hot. Johnny and his friends tire of the park and ride their bikes to the local shop for an ice cream. Sitting outside in her husband's car is the Poisoned Dwarf, the miserable old lady who burst their football when it landed in her garden. Armed with water soakers, the boys just can't resist. But this "drive-by soaking" has catastrophic consequences. The Poisoned Dwarf has a heart attack and is carted off in an ambulance. And a few days later, she dies. Johnny is overwhelmed with remorse but is too afraid to come forwards. But are the weird things that start happening - waking up at the same time every night, a feeling of being watched - just tricks played by a guilty conscience? Or is the Poisoned Dwarf haunting him?
+
|isbn=1406399590
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408822784</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Marcus Sedgwick
|author=J D Sharpe and Charles Dickens
+
|title=Wrath
|title=Oliver Twisted
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=A small boy, Oliver, is brought up in a workhouse before being sent to work for an undertaker. Running away from the cruel undertaker and his wife, he finds himself in London, where he falls in with a disreputable old rogue called Fagin and his gang of thieves. Think you know the story? Think again - and add soul stealers, werewolves, and magic...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405258179</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=RS Russell
 
|title=Dead Rules
 
|rating=2
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=
 
Jana Webster knows that she will be with her boyfriend Michael Haynes for eternity. She even introduces herself as being part of Webster and Haynes. She knows that nothing can come between them – not even her death! So when she finds herself in Dead School, it's surely only a matter of time before Michael joins her… even if she needs to give him a helping hand.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857386751</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Marie Lu
 
|title=Legend
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=
 
California. 2130 AD. The Republic of America is engaged in a vicious war with the Colonies. Life is hard for many in the Republic: plague terrorises millions in the slums while all resources are targetted at the military class. The regime is authoritarian and ruthless but the population believes that the constant struggle against a vicious enemy means that it has to be. All citizens undergo the Trial during adolescence. A high score means military college followed by privilege. A low score means life in the slums working in factories. A fail sends you to forced labour camps from which nobody ever returns.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141339608</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Elizabeth Woods
 
|title=Choker
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Cara has never quite fitted in with the other kids at school. Ever since her family moved away from her childhood home and she left her best friend Zoe behind, she has struggled to make friends, spending lunchtime sitting by other members of the track team without really taking part in their conversations. Then a humiliating incident at lunch, when her crush Ethan has to save her life, leads some bullying girls to brand her with the nickname Choker, and it seems as things have hit an all-time low. At this point, though, Zoe reappears in her life, on the run from a cruel stepfather and begging for shelter. Cara takes her in and hides her, and with Zoe's help, Cara starts to regain her confidence, make some friends, and even get close to Ethan. At the same time as Cara rises through the social ranks, though, bad things start happening to the bullies - and Cara is left wondering just what Zoe gets up to when Cara's at school, and whether she knows her friend at all.
+
|summary=Meet Fitz, a young Scottish lad full of frustration at himself. Lockdown is only just over, and he should be free to do what he wants, to go where he wants and with whom he wants, but he cannot stop himself from putting his foot in it when he talks to his best friend, Cassie. They were half of a desultory school band, but Cassie was also one hundred per cent the enigmatic – saying she could hear a subhuman hum coming from the earth. Is this connected with one of her eco-warrior parents saying the end of the world is already a done deal? Is it some spooky new kind of music she's dreaming of? Is she just bonkers? And can Fitz find out the truth? Well, not when Cassie has gone missing he can't...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857072862</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1800900899
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Tori Bovalino
|author=Veronica Rossi
+
|title=The Devil Makes Three
|title=Under The Never Sky
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Aria lives in the dome of Reverie, where she has pretty much everything she ever wanted. By travelling the Realms, she can find entertainment in a host of different settings, meet up with friends, and generally live a life of luxury. But when a real world excursion goes horribly wrong, and she's left to take the blame for someone else's mistake, she finds herself cast out into the dangers of the wild. Luckily for her, she meets an Outsider called Perry. He has his own reasons for needing to get into Reverie, and the two form an uneasy alliance.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907411054</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=B R Collins
 
|title=The Broken Road
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=''There's going to be a crusade. A boy came to the cathedral and preached. He's going to lead a crusade of children...''
+
|summary= Working all summer in her boarding school's library is the last thing Tess Matheson wants to do — especially when she gets a request for over a hundred books that she has to deliver herself. What makes it worse is the man who requested the books: Mr Birch. The boarding school's headmaster, and a man Tess hates. As a petty act of revenge for making her find and deliver such a large request, Tess sticks post-it notes on each of the books, scribbled with the ugliest insults she can think of. They're never meant to reach him, of course. Her plan is to get her anger out like this, and then take them all off before delivering them. No harm done… Or it would be, if someone hadn't delivered them for her.
 
+
|isbn=1789098130
Rufus is about to begin his apprenticeship in his father's goldsmith workshop in Cologne. The prospect doesn't thrill him, but what choice is there? And then a boy comes to the city to preach. He wants to lead a crusade of children, believing that their innocence will part the seas and win Jerusalem back without the need for violence. It's a powerful message and Rufus, along with countless other Cologne children and apprentices, find themselves following the charismatic Nick on a doomed journey to the Holy Land.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408806495</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Philip Reeve
|author=Maria V Snyder
+
|title=Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep
|title=Touch of Power: Avry of Kazan Book 1
+
|rating=5
|rating=4
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|genre=Fantasy
+
|summary=In a word, rich. There is certainly an abundance of riches in this story set on a peculiar island called Wildsea, British but way west, beyond the Scillies. There are troll people on it, and sea-witches, and legends of the Dark family that has to keep watch for magical islands and their monster approaching from even further west, where no ship dare sail. The current Darks are the Watcher, Andrewe, who has to keep notes of activity from the Hidden Lands, his brother Will who lives in London with too much science in his head to worry about such local yokel superstitions, and Andrewe's foundling daughter, who washed up out of the sea one day eleven years ago. But when Andrewe Dark drowns himself, both his sullen brother and his curious ward are thrust into the world of protecting their island, like it or not.
|summary=The game is up. Despite the risk that she would be betrayed Avry couldn't stop herself from healing a sick child, and after years on the run she is in a cell awaiting execution. Then a band of misfit companions offer her freedom, in return for healing their prince. Unfortunately, said prince is the one who spread the idea of the healers' guilt in the first place, and as such he is Avry's sworn enemy.  
+
|isbn=1788452372
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848450656</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Michael Grant
 
|title=BZRK
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=When Sadie witnesses the private jet in which her father and brother are flying crash into the packed football stadium where she is also present, and narrowly escapes with her life, she might think that the world can't get any crazier. Yet, without any time to grieve the loss of her only remaining close family, she is thrust into the middle of a global conflict. One that involves nanobots and microscopic biots being used to fight for control over the minds of the world's most important figures. While BZRK, a resistance group, fights for sustained freewill and freedom, the Armstrong twins head a movement towards a collective human identity, which will make free will a thing of the past but also, they promise, will bring universal happiness.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405259930</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Matt Dickinson
 
|title=Mortal Chaos
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=''Mortal Chaos'' is a powerful name, and it's perfectly apt for a book that describes a day in the lives of many characters, some from different countries, some adults and some children, some set for a typical mundane day while for others the day will be the definition of chaos. As the narrative rapidly alternates between the stories of these varied characters, it soon becomes apparent that they are all connected. How, you would think, could the day of a jockey, an airline pilot, a mountain climber on Everest, two boys exploring a forest, a boy in Africa, a thief, a gambler, a television crew, and an insane man with murder in his mind, all be connected? They don't know each other but the lives of all of these characters on this fateful day, depends on the actions of each other. Some will find themselves in life-threatening situations, while others will inadvertently end up causing them!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>019275713X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Julianna Baggott
 
|title=Pure
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=A Hiroshima-like event called ''the Detonations'' has transformed life on earth.  Shortly after the Detonations, when the survivors were still hoping for some form of help to arrive, a cloud of leaflets were released all bearing the same message:
 
 
 
'We know you are here, our brothers and sisters. We will, one day, emerge from the Dome to join you in peace.  For now, we watch from afar, benevolently.'
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755385489</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Edward Hogan
 
|title=Daylight Saving
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=The Leisure World Holiday Complex, with so many sports and games available, might be the holiday of a lifetime for some teens – but Daniel Lever certainly isn’t one of them. Dragged there by his dad, and feeling guilty over his role in his parents’ separation, Daniel’s expecting he’ll hate it, and his early experiences seem to suggest he’s right. Then he meets a mysterious girl who he’d like to know better – but why do her bruises keep getting worse, and does her watch really tick backwards? More worryingly, why can’t anyone else see her?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140633717X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Edited by Kelly Milner Halls
 
|title=Girl Meets Boy
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Have you ever been in a relationship where you couldn’t understand what the other person was thinking? Perhaps that’s a dumb question… have you ever been in a relationship where you COULD understand what the other person was thinking? In a unique collection, twelve authors team up to write eleven stories telling things the same tales from both the boy's point of view and the girl's. It consists of five pairs of stories, each looking at the same events from a different angle, and a final collaboration which switches back and forth between the two viewpoints throughout the story.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1452102643</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jess Rothenberg
 
|title=The Catastrophic History of You and Me
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=When her boyfriend breaks up with her - ''I don't love you'' - Brie Eagen literally dies of a broken heart. Truly. Unable to believe the x-rays, her cardiologist father insists on a complete postmortem and it's true - Brie's heart was broken in two and she died. Brie finds herself in an afterlife limbo with other lost souls and meets a boy called Patrick who tells her she must process the five stages of grief before she can hope to move on. But of course, Brie is at the first stage - denial - and doesn't want to move on at all. She wants to stay close to the family and friends she left behind but more than anything, she wants revenge on Jacob, who broke her heart...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141334479</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sophie McKenzie
 
|title=Falling Fast
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=River is desperate to get the lead role in the inter-school performance of ''Romeo and Juliet'', because she wants to be Juliet in real life. To know romantic love, and true passion. When she first sets eye on Flynn, who’s been cast as Romeo, she thinks this could be it. But would a boy as intense and as talented as Flynn even look twice at someone like her? As all fans of the Bard know, the path of true love never did run smooth…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857070991</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de Freston
|author=Danielle Joseph
+
|title=Julia and the Shark
|title=Indigo Blues
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=High school senior Indigo briefly dated an older boy called Adam. He took the relationship more seriously than she did, and she broke it off. He moved away... and that's the end of that, yes? Except... the reason Adam moved away was to become a rock star. Suddenly, he's top of the charts with a song about the girl who broke his heart. Indigo just wants to forget their relationship, but how can she do that when half her school, and several journalists, want to hear all the gory details about the pair of them?
+
|summary=Julia, our pre-teen heroine, has been packed off with her parents and their cat from the family home in SW England to be lighthousekeepers for a summer, in the far NE of the Scottish islands. Here be Vikings, that kind of Scottish island. Dad is going to be automating the lantern, which is his specialist thing, while mum will be leaving her career in algae behind to hunt the elusive Greenland shark. And Julia, well, she will be homesick and alone – until she suddenly finds company one night.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0738720593</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1510107789
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=S B Hayes
 
|title=Poison Heart
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=
 
When Katy first sees a girl staring at her from the window of a bus, she shouldn't think anything of it. Something makes her look back, though, and in that moment everything changes. For some reason Katy doesn't know, the girl - Genevieve - starts to follow her around, insinuating herself into Katy's college, her friendship group, and even her relationship with the wonderful Merlin. Can Katy, with the help of journalist Luke, find out what's going on before it's too late?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857385704</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Phil Earle
 
|title=Saving Daisy
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Ever since finding a report which said she was responsible for the death of her mother, Daisy has felt unable to cope. Her dad, despite the good relationship they have, refuses to talk about her mum's passing, so she takes refuge firstly in her beloved films, but then in self-harm. As her life spirals more and more out of control, can Daisy be saved?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141331364</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sarah Crossan
 
|title=The Weight of Water
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Kasienka's Dad is gone, leaving only a brief note to say he'd gone to England. Its two years after his departure, and Kasienka and her mother are moving to England to find him. With nothing but a suitcase and an old laundry bag, they leave Poland and their lives behind. But England isn't what Kasienka imagined, living in a single room, and sharing a bed with her mum, she longs to return to Poland. At home her mother throws herself into finding Kasienka's Dad, heartbroken that he left them; at school Kasienka finds herself a target of bullying.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408823004</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Michelle Hodkin
 
|title=The Unbecoming Of Mara Dyer
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Mara has just started her whole life over - new city, new school, new start. It's just what the doctor ordered, and her family - though still treating her like she might fall apart at any moment - are tentatively hopeful that it's just what she needs to get back on her feet. Mara just hopes her memories return. She needs to know what happened the night her two best friends and her boyfriend died in an accident she somehow managed to escape unscathed.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085707363X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Jonathan Stroud
|author=Melvin Burgess
+
|title= The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne
|title=Burning Issy
+
|rating= 4
|rating=5
+
|genre= Teens
|genre=Teens
+
|summary= Scarlett McCain is an outlaw, rejecting the draconian conformity of the Surviving Towns and Faith Houses to wander the wildlands between the Seven Kingdoms of Britain, robbing banks and shooting other outlaws to keep herself alive. But then she meets Albert Browne, a dark boy with dark powers and a darker past. With mysterious militiamen hunting them down, they plan to flee to the mythical Free Isles of the London Lagoon. Together, they must brave man-eating wildlife, the cannibalistic Tainted and all the horrors of post-apocalyptic society to reach the Free Isles, but will they be any more accepted there than they are in the rest of Britain?
|summary=It's the early 17th century and Issy is living in Lancashire with her foster father Nat and foster brother Ghyll. Nat is a cunning man - a herbalist and healer - and Issy keeps house while Nat plies his trade and teaches Ghyll how to follow in his footsteps. It's a hard life and there is little to spare. And the family live on the edge of suspicion. Convinced he's being plotted against by Scottish witches, the King has unleashed witch-hunts on a deeply superstitious and fearful country. Healers like Nat are working in the grey areas of persecution and are only ever an accusation away from torture and trial, while time is running out for self-professed witches like Demdyke and her family.
+
|isbn=1406394815
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849393974</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Thrillers Reviews]]
|author=R J Anderson
 
|title=Swift
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Ivy lives in an abandoned Cornish tin mine with the rest of her piskie clan. The piskies live in fear of kidnapping spriggans and so it's a closed life, with the females of the clan rarely going above ground. It's just too dangerous. This weighs heavily on Ivy, who has an independent spirit and sense of wanderlust. And Ivy has other sadnesses: her mother disappeared years ago, taken by spriggans, and she was born without wings so cannot fly like the others.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408312638</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 09:54, 8 July 2024

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Review of

Lover Birds by Leanne Egan

4.5star.jpg Teens

When new girl, Isabel, moves to Lou's hometown of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around her. A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, but Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with her, and that's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, isn't it? Because Lou is straight, isn't she? Even though none of her relationships with boys have gone very well so far, and she's never had a good kiss with any of them? So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and wanting to hang out with her because fighting with her is fun, and she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she? Full Review

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Review of

Wild East by Ashley Hickson-Lovence

4.5star.jpg Teens

Written in verse, this is Ronny's story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and start at a mostly white school. The move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a new town, a new school, and keep himself out of trouble. He listens to music constantly, and has always dreamed of being a rapper. But now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and poetry, and the power of creativity and crafting your words. Full Review

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Review of

Us in the Before and After by Jenny Valentine

5star.jpg Teens

Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connection. They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together. Full Review

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Review of

The Last Life of Lori Mills by Max Boucherat

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn? Full Review

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Review of

Compass and Blade by Rachel Greenlaw

3.5star.jpg Teens

I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.

Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear. Full Review

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Review of

Children of the Sun by Harry Allen

5star.jpg Teens

Ra Eun Seo lives in a North Korean town and she is a talented singer. Life is hard and food is difficult to come by, so Seo and her friends Nari and Min go foraging every evening, looking for tree bark and edible grasses to supplement the meagre rations of rice and kimchi at home. Full Review

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Review of

Sing if you Can't Dance by Alexia Casale

5star.jpg Teens

It's hard enough to navigate your teenage years without suddenly finding that you're having to navigate a life-changing disability too, but that's what Ven is dealing with after collapsing on stage in the middle of a dance performance that was going to change her life. But she comes back fighting, desperate to avoid the pity stares, and desperate to get back to a life that's as normal as she can possibly manage. Meanwhile there's a new (cute!) boy in school, her music A Level performance piece to try to sort out, and just the day to day traumas of all the challenges her body continues to throw at her to navigate. So even though she can't dance anymore, might she be able to sing her way through instead? Full Review

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Review of

Deadlock by Simon Fox

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Late one night Graham Blake is late back from his shift on the force, and then suddenly rings Archie, demanding he fetch something from a secret place, and join him on the run. They get together, but barely begin to smell the whiff of Southern trains when the father is arrested, leaving Archie on the late express to Brighton, toting a tin his father was determined to keep away from his colleagues, and the bearer of a whole heap of questions. Full Review

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Review of

Gwen and Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher

4star.jpg Teens

Who knew that what I really needed to read right now was a gay Arthurian RomCom? But honestly, it lifted my spirits in a most delightful way. In this story, Gwen and Arthur have been betrothed since they were tiny, much to their mutual disgust! Gwen, you see, is in love with Bridget (the kingdom's only female knight) - something that Art discovers from her private diaries. And then when Gwen then catches Art kissing a boy they find themselves becoming reluctant allies, creating the subterfuge of falling in love with each other, when really they are enabling their own other romantic attachments. But as their impending wedding draws ever closer, will they find a way in which they can both truly be themselves, or are they destined to live a lie their whole lives? Full Review

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Review of

Promise Boys by Nick Brooks

4star.jpg Teens

When the principal (headmaster) of Urban Promise Prep school is murdered, three boys find themselves called into the police station as suspects. Each, seemingly, has a grudge of some description against Principal Moore, and each could have been there at the time of his murder. But who killed him, and why, and if any of the boys are innocent, will they be able to clear their names? Full Review

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Review of

A Thief to Catch a Killer by Kitt Townsend

4.5star.jpg Teens

Solomon Klyne isn't a bad lad, so why is he running around London committing a series of robberies? And how did he learn to crack safes? You'll have to wait to get an answer to the second question because I avoid spoilers. But I'll answer the first one: for his grandmother... Full Review

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Review of

Different for Boys by Patrick Ness and Tea Bendix

4.5star.jpg Teens

Ant is in Year Eleven at quite a standard school, and is surprised to find his geography class (within which it seems absolutely nothing about geography is ever learnt) has been restructured, so his desk is one of four with both his best buddy from the football team, and two other old muckers – in fact they all go back to primary school days together. As they're all fired up, straining at the leash only a single-sex school can form, the talk in class and out often turns to sex. Which is confusing for Ant, as he doesn't know what his score is, where his achievements in that regard lie. He's had a casual relationship, a secret one, for several months now, and so has effectively progressed up the ladder headed by 'experienced', but whether that's set in stone, he can't be sure. And that's mostly because of who he's been having the relationship and the sex with. Full Review

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Review of

Stitched Up by Steve Cole

5star.jpg Dyslexia Friendly

Twelve-year-old Hanh wanted to be a fashion designer. Life in the rural village where she lived with her family was happy, if not prosperous, so when the smartly-dressed man and woman came to the village to offer Hahn a job in Hanoi it was an opportunity not to be missed. Some money changed hands and Hanh was on the mini-bus to Hanoi. Only, Hanh and the other girls were not going to work in a shop, they were to work in virtual slavery in an illegal garment factory. You know those jeans you really wanted: the ones with intricate embroidery and beading on the legs? The ones with the artfully-placed rips and distressed seams that felt so soft when you touched them? It's quite possible that Hanh and her co-workers made them. Full Review

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Review of

Needle by Patrice Lawrence

3star.jpg Teens

Brave. Charlene, the 'heroine' of this piece is extremely hard for some people to like, characters and readers both. Kicked out of multiple homes and schools, she's fostering with a pleasant yoga tutor, Annie, and has taken up residence in her son Blake's old room while he's at uni. Such a tempestuous personality may be in need of a comfort blanket, you might perhaps think, and the creation of one such item is part of the plot here, as Charlene is a wonder knitter, and is making something full of love for her younger sister – a younger sister she's allowed contact with no more. We see Charlene prove her belligerence with a store detective, and then force people to give her two days off school, when she shouts someone down as expletively ignorant. And then... well, what exactly happens is not for me to say, only to remark how sharp and pointy those knitting needles can be... Full Review

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Review of

Rebel Skies by Ann Sei Lin

5star.jpg Teens

Kurara has spent her entire life as a servant on the Midori, a massive dining hall floating in the sky where soldiers of the Empire come to drink and make merry between their conquests. However, when a man named Himura arrives to tell her that she is a Crafter like him, someone with the power to form paper into whatever she desires – a power sought after all across the Empire. He asks her to come with him, to leave the life of dreary servitude that is all she has known. Well, soon Kurara won't have any say in the matter, because the Midori is destroyed by a monstrous paper spirit known as a shikigami, and she is forced to flee out into the world. She joins Himura aboard the Orihime, a sky-ship whose express purpose is to hunt down shikigami, and a whole world of adventure awaits her… Full Review

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Review of

Wrath by Marcus Sedgwick

4.5star.jpg Teens

Meet Fitz, a young Scottish lad full of frustration at himself. Lockdown is only just over, and he should be free to do what he wants, to go where he wants and with whom he wants, but he cannot stop himself from putting his foot in it when he talks to his best friend, Cassie. They were half of a desultory school band, but Cassie was also one hundred per cent the enigmatic – saying she could hear a subhuman hum coming from the earth. Is this connected with one of her eco-warrior parents saying the end of the world is already a done deal? Is it some spooky new kind of music she's dreaming of? Is she just bonkers? And can Fitz find out the truth? Well, not when Cassie has gone missing he can't... Full Review

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Review of

The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino

4.5star.jpg Teens

Working all summer in her boarding school's library is the last thing Tess Matheson wants to do — especially when she gets a request for over a hundred books that she has to deliver herself. What makes it worse is the man who requested the books: Mr Birch. The boarding school's headmaster, and a man Tess hates. As a petty act of revenge for making her find and deliver such a large request, Tess sticks post-it notes on each of the books, scribbled with the ugliest insults she can think of. They're never meant to reach him, of course. Her plan is to get her anger out like this, and then take them all off before delivering them. No harm done… Or it would be, if someone hadn't delivered them for her. Full Review

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Review of

Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep by Philip Reeve

5star.jpg Confident Readers

In a word, rich. There is certainly an abundance of riches in this story set on a peculiar island called Wildsea, British but way west, beyond the Scillies. There are troll people on it, and sea-witches, and legends of the Dark family that has to keep watch for magical islands and their monster approaching from even further west, where no ship dare sail. The current Darks are the Watcher, Andrewe, who has to keep notes of activity from the Hidden Lands, his brother Will who lives in London with too much science in his head to worry about such local yokel superstitions, and Andrewe's foundling daughter, who washed up out of the sea one day eleven years ago. But when Andrewe Dark drowns himself, both his sullen brother and his curious ward are thrust into the world of protecting their island, like it or not. Full Review

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Review of

Julia and the Shark by Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de Freston

4star.jpg Confident Readers

Julia, our pre-teen heroine, has been packed off with her parents and their cat from the family home in SW England to be lighthousekeepers for a summer, in the far NE of the Scottish islands. Here be Vikings, that kind of Scottish island. Dad is going to be automating the lantern, which is his specialist thing, while mum will be leaving her career in algae behind to hunt the elusive Greenland shark. And Julia, well, she will be homesick and alone – until she suddenly finds company one night. Full Review

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Review of

The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud

4star.jpg Teens

Scarlett McCain is an outlaw, rejecting the draconian conformity of the Surviving Towns and Faith Houses to wander the wildlands between the Seven Kingdoms of Britain, robbing banks and shooting other outlaws to keep herself alive. But then she meets Albert Browne, a dark boy with dark powers and a darker past. With mysterious militiamen hunting them down, they plan to flee to the mythical Free Isles of the London Lagoon. Together, they must brave man-eating wildlife, the cannibalistic Tainted and all the horrors of post-apocalyptic society to reach the Free Isles, but will they be any more accepted there than they are in the rest of Britain? Full Review

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