Difference between revisions of "Book Reviews From The Bookbag"

Megan Shepherd has written a stunning tale, which is exquisitely illustrated by the artwork of Levi Pinfold. Secret Horses tells the story of a young girl and her friendship with a magical winged horse. When Emmaline is evacuated from Nottingham during the Second World War, she enters a fantasy world of discovery behind the silvery glass of the mirrors in her new country home at Briar Hill. An old sprawling mansion once owned by a wealthy family, Briar Hill has become a children’s hospital run by Nuns. Emmaline and the other children are struggling to recover from a serious illness and have been quarantined away from their families. To add to their plight, they worry about their fathers away at war and their mothers left at home to face bombing raids and the scarcity of food. Emmaline and her friends are carefully nursed by the Nuns through the harsh and snowy winter of 1941. This is a story of bravery and fortitude, good and evil and how one small child can find light even in the darkest of places. Full review...

Spinderella by Julia Donaldson and Sebastien Braun

From high above the classroom, Spinderella watches in fascination the classroom activities at Scuttleton Primary School. She wants to be able to do two things: play football and count. However, her family of spiders are only interested in flies, flies and flies. They also have no desire to learn how to count Down with numbers they all cry. Unperturbed by their lack of enthusiasm, Spinderella goes in search of numbers and playing football. Along the way she meets a familiar wish granting character (no spoilers here) and her journey begins. Full review...

The Road More Travelled: Tales of those seeking refuge by David Beckler

Short Stories

The Road More Travelled is an anthology of short stories - and one poem - written in response to the refugee crisis as it exploded across our TV screens and newspapers throughout 2015. To the horror of the authors, the language used by many was aggressive and dehumanising, describing this mass of desperate people as a swarm or a horde. The stories together form a response to this othering. Full review...

Letter to Pluto by Lou Treleaven

Letter to Pluto is a story told through an inter-planetary pen-pal friendship. Set in the year 2317, writing with a pen and sending letters has certainly become a dying art-form. However, Jon’s teacher, Mrs Hall, decides it is important to keep the art of letter writing alive. The only difference is that Jon’s pen-pal lives a long way away. 75 billion km to be precise. On Pluto. At first the idea of writing at all is bad enough, but when Jon finds out that his pen-pal is a girl he nearly quits the programme. Encouraged by his teacher’s bribes of merit awards for his best writing, Jon soon learns that Pluto is not as boring, small and smelly as he first thought. Full review...

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald

The USA is an odd place at times, and not just during election season. There are all sorts of nooks and crannies, places that time forgot, places that ‘’people’’ forgot. Broken Wheel, Iowa is one such place. You’d have no reason to go unless you knew someone there. And Sara does, her pen-pal Amy. Invited by Amy to come for a visit, and with time on her hands due to a recent redundancy, Sara packs her bags (and her books) and buys a plane ticket from her native Sweden to the US of A. Full review...

Tell Me No Lies by Lisa Hall

Thrillers

Steph, husband Mark and son Henry have just moved into a new house. That always leads to a fresh start, but even more so here as there are a few dodgy incidents in the past they are trying to move on from. Fingers crossed it’s all going to work out well. As a freelancer, Steph doesn’t have regular colleagues, but the neighbours seem nice enough even if some of the other mums at the school gate are a little stand offish at first. With Mark away a lot with work it’s up to Steph to make the house a home and get Henry settled in the run up to Christmas. Full review...

Conquest: Daughter of the Last King by Tracey Warr

Historical Fiction

Princess Nest ferch Rhys is the only legitimate child of Rhys ap Tewdr (there's a surname to make hist-fict addicts smile!), the last king of Deheubarth, Wales. Playing on the beach with her brother one day she's captured by Norman soldiers. From there she's held hostage by the noble Montgomery family, loyal to King William Rufus. The standard of captivity in which Nesta is kept isn't bad. Lady Sybil is particularly kind to her, realising that Nest is still mourning the deaths of her father and most of her siblings at the hands of men from that same household. There is an ulterior motive though. The object of Sybil's attentions is to make Nest a suitable wife for English nobility but she's already promised to a Welsh prince. Who will Nest actually marry and, more importantly, will Nest have any say in it? Full review...

Good People by Nir Baram

Literary Fiction

Thomas Heiselberg's self-focus pays off when he attracts the best clientele to the American advertising firm he helps establish across Europe from his German home. Meanwhile in Russia Sasha Weissberg is struggling with being in a literary, free-thinking family that doesn't go down too well with Stalin's regime. As World War II arrives, both of their worlds are shaken. As a result both decide to become collaborators rather than resistance fighters for different reasons and with far reaching effects. Full review...

Grass to Grace by Daniel Eyisi

Children's Rhymes and Verse

Odin Ndukaku was the last of four children to still be alive and he was an orphan. Life had not been kind to him, but he was strong and could do odd jobs to earn enough money for food. He had no thoughts of what he might do in the future: it seemed like a waste of time as he had no skills. He was simply surviving. All this changed one morning when he was eating his breakfast in his small hut and it began to rain. The rain came in through the roof and ruined his breakfast. It struck him that at the age of 29 he had very little. His only friend in the town of Agibi, Ndu, came to see him and Odin was cross, accusing Ndu of failing to help him. Ndu was husband, father, owner of livestock - all the things that are of importance in Igbo society - whilst Odin had just the few possessions which could be seen in the hut. Had Ndu ever given him advice? Full review...

The White Fox by Jackie Morris

Dyslexia Friendly

Sol had never been happy in Seattle. It wasn't just that he was bullied at school: being Inuit he looked different and that always makes you a target. Sol's heart was somewhere else - in the Arctic, where he felt he belonged and where he had grandparents whom he'd not seen for such a long time. Everything changed when his father told him about the white Arctic fox which had been seen on the docks and Sol set about finding the fox - and then feeding it. But what would happen to the fox when it was trapped? And how would Sol handle the situation? Full review...

The Date-A-Base Book 2017 by Dave Haslett and Kate Haslett

Reference

So here's a question for you: how do you go about reviewing a list - especially a list that runs to 3,800 entries and 544 pages? No, I'm not sure either, but I'm going to give it a go. Full review...

The Storykiller by Humfrey Hunter

Crime

The first rule of Super Injunctions is that you don't talk about Super Injunctions. These powerful legalese prevent the likes of you, me and the papers talking about certain stories. The rich, powerful and meaningless use them to stop the type of tittle tattle that fuels a million conversations at work, but what do you do if you are not rich, powerful or meaningless enough to afford a Super Injunction? Perhaps you can hire someone called a Storykiller who specialises in quashing rumours Full review...

Otherworld Chills by Kelley Armstrong

Fantasy

I came to Armstrong's Otherworld quite late in its development and it seems that she's now wrapping it up to move on to other things. Billed as the 'final collection' of stories Chills allegedly completes several storylines of her best loved characters. I'd disagree. If Sherlock can survive Reichenbach then I'm sure Werewolves, Vampires and demi-demotic Angels can survive whatever state they may have been left in. Full review...

The Last Night by Cesca Major

Historical Fiction

Spring 1952: Two best friends; Abigail and Mary, sit together on a bench, looking out to sea. They have big plans, but know that whatever happens they will always be together. They dream of a new life in America, each with a handsome husband and a happy family. When Abigail's mother dies unexpectedly, however, she is sent to live with her estranged sister in Devon, and the friends are torn apart. Little does she realise that tragedy lies just around the corner, and that the last night will change everything forever. Decades later, in 2016, a shy furniture-restorer called Irina has been given an unusual commission: to restore an old bureau containing many hidden secrets. As the two stories merge, curious Irina tries to piece together exactly what happened on the Last Night. Full review...

A Poem for Every Night of the Year by Allie Esiri

Poetry can feel a little intimidating, to children and grown-ups. All those school lessons of dissecting poems in order to ascertain exactly what the poet intended with every word and stylistic form tend to kill the beauty of a well-written poem. This collection is a year-long tour through a vast history of poetry, and gives the reader a new poem to try every night, with everything from Michael Rosen to Shakespeare to Christina Rosetti. Full review...

Pugh's New Year's Resolutions by Jonathan Pugh

Humour

If there's one thing that's for certain, it's that the world is changing. We're dating online, we're communicating in ways that make email seem redundant, and when we're shopping we just tell a website where and when it can be delivered, and how much leeway they have to swap our wishes for whatever it is they do bring us. But those changes are also supposed to be affecting us – we're supposed to use a smart watch to tell us if we're moving or not, we have to keep up with the latest fads, and we're supposed to prick our ears up and take note when the proverbial 'they' change their minds about what we're supposed to eat. Full review...

Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs

Teens

A fork-tongued princess. A boy who can control the currents of the sea. Cannibals who feast on the limbs of a village of peculiars. These are just a few of the brilliant stories to be found in Tales of the Peculiar, all of which hold mystical information about the peculiar world - a place familiar to many of us since its first introduction by Ransom Riggs in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. The stories in this collection explore peculiar history and folklore in a wonderfully imaginative way, and also include some beautiful illustrations to accompany each of the tales. Full review...

Rockadoon Shore by Rory Gleeson

Cath is worried about her friends. DanDan is struggling with the death of his ex, Lucy is drinking way too much and Steph has become closed off. A weekend away is just what they need. They travel out to Rockadoon Lodge, to the wilds in the west of Ireland. But the weekend doesn't go to plan. JJ is more concerned with getting high than spending time with them, while Merc is humiliated and seeks revenge. And when their elderly neighbour Malachy arrives on their doorstep in the dead of night with a gun in his hands, nothing will be the same again for any of them... Full review...

The Fox and the Ghost King by Michael Morpurgo and Michael Foreman

Considering how bizarre the stories in juvenile literature can sometimes be, it's weird to think that occasionally it's the actual source material that inspired it that is even more unusual. Whoever would really credit writing a book where footballing underdogs, and firm favourites to be relegated, defied odds of 5000 to 1 to win the Premiership? But that's what happened in the 2015/16 season, in a certain town in the East Midlands of England. Despite every worry directed their way, they sustained their fine form long enough to win the league, in a run that some people soon realised had started when said city had had another momentous event, namely holding the proper burial accorded a lost King of England. Like I say, completely unusual and unexpected events – surely too odd to be turned into fiction? Full review...

Reckoning by Magda Szubanski

Autobiography

In her memoir, actress, comedian and activist Magda Szubanski describes her journey of self-discovery from a suburban childhood as an immigrant child, haunted by the demons of her father's espionage activities in wartime Poland and by her secret awareness of her sexuality, to the complex dramas of adulthood and her need to find out the truth about herself and her family. With courage and compassion she addresses her own frailties and fears, and asks the big questions about life, about the shadows we inherit and the gifts we pass on. Full review...

Invasion by Luke Rhinehart

Humour

Super-intelligent furry aliens suddenly appear from another universe. And they've come to earth to have fun. Alien Louie follows fisherman Billy Morton home one day, and he and his family quickly come to love the playful alien. But when Louie starts using their computer to hack into government and corporate networks, stealing millions from banks to give to others, they realise that Louie and his friends mean trouble. As Billy and his family begin a roller coaster ride of fame and fortune, as well as a ranking high on the FBI's most wanted list, the Government soon decides that these aliens are terrorists, and must be eliminated. Whilst the aliens are playing games they hope will help humans to see the insanity of the American political, economic and military systems, they soon come to realise that the Powers that Be don't play games: they make war. Full review...

The Mothers by Brit Bennett

I love it when I get a book so very few have read yet, but it's hard to say what needs to be said, when you're not allowed to quote. All good secrets have a taste before you tell them… Full review...

The Darziods' Stone by Richard Smith

Teens

When the school summer trip to Blackpool gets cancelled, Harry's parents offer to include Harry's friends in their trip to Tredock Cove in Cornwall. Amelia, Mitch and Asad are grateful - Cornwall will be great and, even if it isn't as great as Blackpool, anything is better than being stuck at home, right? Ryan is less convinced. He's not the most open-minded of boys and he sincerely believes that Cornwall is full of carrot-crunchers. But he goes along anyway, even if it is reluctantly. Even Ryan doesn't want to be left at home by himself. And it doesn't take long for the quiet break in Cornwall to turn into something much more exciting - and frightening. The kids find a secret code and become convinced that cracking it will lead them to hidden treasure. And it might well do, but the code will also lead them to something much more dangerous... Full review...

Odd Dog Out by Rob Biddulph

As the title suggests this is the story about the 'Odd Dog Out'. All Odd Dog wants is to fit in and she, therefore, travels around the world to find a place where everyone is just like her. Everything seems perfect until she meets a dog who is behaving differently and realises that it might actually be a good thing to stand out from the crowd. Full review...

Murder In Midwinter by Fleur Hitchcock

It's almost Christmas and Maya is happily snapping pictures of the Christmas lights on Regent Street from the top of a bus. Everything seems perfect until she sees the couple arguing and, when the flash goes off, it reveals something unbelievable – the man has a gun in his hands. To make matters worse, the flash makes him look up. Suddenly Maya's a witness and, when a body turns up, she's whisked away from her immediate family to somewhere the police think is safe – her aunt's remote farm in the Welsh mountains. Cut off by the snow, Maya should have nothing to fear. But the police can be wrong. Full review...

More People to Love Me by Mo O'Hara and Ada Grey

'More People to Love Me' is a story about a little girl with a huge family. She has a mummy and a step-mum, a daddy and a step-dad and four brothers and sisters. She also has lots of grandparents: in fact, she has so many grandparents she has to have a special name for some of them – like Grananna, who is her step-dad David's mum. Given the size of her family, it's not surprising that this little girl struggles to fit everyone on the family tree she draws at school. This upsets her a bit until she realises it's actually better to have a forest than a single tree. Full review...

The Devil's Feast by M J Carter

Crime (Historical)

London, the early 1840s: the newly-opened Reform Club is the focal point for the Liberal elite, where Whigs and Radicals can co-exist in harmony. Or such was the intention. With a celebrity chef in its up to the minute kitchen, however, the club seems to have more of a reputation for its dinners than its politics, and when a man dies horribly after eating one the Reform could have a problem on its hands. Particularly when it begins to look like murder. Luckily William Avery agrees to look into the matter with some urgency, but – as everyone keeps asking him – where on earth is his professional investigator friend Jeremiah Blake? Full review...

Robin Hood by John Matthews

History

The Outlaw of Sherwood Forest has been part of national mythology ever since the twelfth century. Did Mr Hood really exist, or is he a figment of popular imagination who refuses to go quietly? If historians and researchers over the ages are to be believed, the truth seems to lie somewhere in between. Full review...

The Road Home by Katie Cotton and Sarah Jacoby

The year is winding down, and nature is beginning to turn her thoughts again to winter. As the leaves begin to change, and birds start to fly South, animals throughout the forest are preparing for this change in seasons. This book follows their trials and tribulations as they all try to take the road that leads them home. Full review...

Danger Really is Everywhere: School of Danger by David O'Doherty and Chris Judge