Tag: Book review

Movies Showing Nowhere,

Written by Yorick Goldewijk, translated by Laura Watkinson and illustrations by Yvonne Lacet

Reviewed by Aysha

This book was an absolutely amazing read! I really enjoyed this book and it pushed me out of my comfort zone as I usually read different genres but I absolutely loved this book. 

The main character is a girl called Cate. When Cate was born, her mum sadly died. Her dad never talks to Cate and is always silent so Cate has her rabbit to talk to and her photography and her films to keep her busy.

One day, when Cate was sitting in the field, she receives a strange and mysterious invitation to Mrs Kano’s abandoned cinema. Intrigued, Cate goes to the cinema and meets Mrs Kano. She discovers that the movie screens let you step through the screen into someone’s memory. Mrs Kano hires Cate to work at the cinema to serve customers juice. While working there, she discovers that if you bring an item from a memory, you can project it and visit the memory. With this knowledge, what will Cate do?

I loved this book and I will definitely be recommending it to family and friends!

Aysha

I loved this book and I will definitely be recommending it to family and friends! It’s a great book for anyone who loves to read a mystery or anyone that wants a good book to read!

The Thirteenth Child by Erin A. Craig Reviewed by Farrah

The Thirteen Child is a spellbinding, enchanting stand-alone fairy tale retelling that follows Hazel Trépas, a young healer with an inextricable connection to the gods.

Before Hazel is born, her parents promise her to one of the gods – the Dreaded End, god of Death. However, it is over a decade before her godfather comes to collect her, and Hazel spends the first years of her life as a neglected and disregarded thirteenth child.

When the Dreaded End finally does come to collect her, he has planned out Hazel’s entire, long life. She will become a celebrated healer, known kingdom wide for her skill and success rate. To aid her, her godfather has blessed her with the gift of seeing precisely the cure for every person whose sick bed she attends, but also saddled her with the curse of knowing when death has laid claim on a patient, and saving their life is not an option.

The path her godfather has pushed her onto sends Hazel across the kingdom, towards the capital and the palace itself, for she is the only one who can save the life of the king.

There, she is caught in the crossfire of oncoming war, politics, entitled royals and moral dilemmas.

Hazel must grapple with the weight of her gift and responsibility, beginning by deciding whether or not she goes against all she has been taught and saves the king marked to die.

The Thirteenth Child is a wonderful, enchanting novel, that captures you from its very first pages. Despite it being around 500 pages long, I couldn’t put it down and devoured it in only two days.

The reader follows Hazel as she grows up, learning alongside her, and sharing in her joys and miseries. She is a character who will stay with you after you close the book, inspired by her courage, fierce integrity and real, tangible humanness.

Hazel is a character who will stay with you after you close the book, inspired by her courage, fierce integrity and real, tangible humanness.

Farrah

The world Craig has created is vast and fantastical but also easily digestible, and one so vivid that you will feel fully immersed in it. In particular, the royal court that Hazel is plunged into is as vibrant and exciting as it is unnerving. Overall, if you enjoy fantasy stories, with an eclectic, striking cast of characters, a pantheon of gods with clashing agendas and questionable regard for human life, moral complexities and a delicious love story, this is the book for you.

‘The Super Sunny Murder Club’ Edited by Serena Patel and Robin Stevens and Illustrated by Harry Woodgate

Reviewed by Aysha

‘The Super Sunny Murder Club’ Edited by Serena Patel and Robin Stevens and Illustrated by Harry Woodgate

‘The Super Sunny Murder Club’ is a wonderful collection of short stories written by outstanding authors including Robin Stevens, Abiola Bello, Maisie Chan, Benjamin Dean, Roopa Farooki, Sharna Jackson, Patrice Lawrence, Elle McNicoll, E.L Norry, Serena Patel, Annabelle Sami, Dominique Valente and Nizrana Farook. We can’t forget the perfect illustrations throughout the book and the cover by Harry Woodgate. 

This book is a great book for people who love murder mysteries and also a little bit of fun! My favourite short stories in this collection were from Elle McNicoll and Maisie Chan. In Elle McNicoll’s short story, called ‘Say i Dunnit’, when her cousin nearly gets killed at her own wedding by a falling chandelier, Briar takes it upon herself to figure out who is responsible. In Maisie Chan’s ‘The Treetop Trials’ two siblings go on holiday to a caravan park and when someone dies in the new treetop trials, they realise they have a mystery to solve. 

I loved reading this book as every time I read a new chapter, I got a whole new and exciting story to captivate me. 

I would definitely recommend this book as a Christmas gift this year for a fond reader who wants to try a different approach to reading and for reluctant readers who like short exciting stories. 

The Beanstalk Murder: A Giant-sized Murder Mystery by P.G. Bell reviewed by Aysha aged 14

Anwen, a meadow-witch, witnesses a Giant falling from the sky and destroying her village of Old Stump completely. When she discovers that he was Giant royalty, she’s determined to figure out who murdered him. With her Grandma’s magic, Anwen and her Cerys, her trainee sorceress, are transported by a beanstalk to the Giant’s Land. They use the fact they are small to sneak around the palace in order to discover who the murderer is.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it kept me guessing until the end.

My favourite person in the story is definitely Anwen, because I love her character and how she has this thrill for investigating and searching for the answers. I really enjoyed reading this book, it kept me guessing until the end.

I would recommend this book for ages 9+.

When I Feel Red by Lily Bailey, reviewed by Emily (14)

‘When I Feel Red’ is an inspiring story about April, a 12-year-old girl, who is animal mad.  If she isn’t watching a tv vet show, she is fantasizing about her make-believe animal rescue with her soft toys.  However, as a Year 8 pupil,  she is starting to feel left behind as her peers are growing up – they are far more interested in boyfriends than dreamworlds.  This divide is not helped by April’s dyspraxia especially her lack of organisation.

This story helps the reader emphasise with the difficulties dyspraxia brings through April but also the theme that not everyone is the same and this is ok – it is best to be you rather than follow a crowd.

‘…it is best to be you, rather than follow the crowd.’

Emily (14)

The story is a powerful story and unforgettable –  I certainly wasn’t aware of dyspraxia before, but I am now.

I would recommend this to readers in Year 7,8 and 9.

Secrets of the Snakestone by Piu DasGupta, reviewed by Niamh (11)

Secrets of the Snakestone is Piu DasGupta’s brilliant, gripping, thrilling debut middle-grade novel. 

Set in the 19th century, Zélie Dutta has been shipped to Paris to work as a maid at Madame Malaise’s mansion far, far away from her home in Calcutta. The other servants hate her and accuse her of being a witch when poor Zélie has done nothing wrong! 

“I was heartbroken when I finished it!”

Niamh (11)

The only thing keeping her happy were her father’s letters containing riddles, but one day they just stopped coming. Life seems normal and mundane until she finds out about the mysterious Snakestone and its connection to her family. Zélie, along with her friend Jules, must embark on a treacherous journey to find the deadly Snakestone before it falls into the wrong hands… 

Secrets of Snakestone is dark, mysterious and you never know what’s coming next. I love the constant mysteries all through the book and the excitement on every single page! I am astounded how Piu Dasgupta managed to tell all that story in such a gripping way. I was heartbroken when I finished it!

I loved trying to solve the mysteries throughout the story and how different all the characters’ personalities were. And it would take a cold heart not to be won over by Titicaca the albino sloth!

This book is perfect for mystery lovers and people who love dark plots and shocking twists.

Perfect for fans of: The Cogheart Adventures by Peter Bunzl, The Eerie-on-Sea Mysteries by Thomas Taylor, and Mouse Heart by Fleur Hitchcock.

Keedie by Elle McNicoll, reviewed by Aysha (12)

I was so excited when I got this book to review in the post from The Book Nook as I absolutely loved A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll.

This story is all about Keedie, Addie’s older sister, and it is set five years before A Kind of Spark takes place. Keedie is also autistic and this story is about how Keedie also makes a huge difference to her town Juniper. 

“Keedie was everything I thought it would be but better.”

Aysha (12)

Keedie absolutely hates bullying so when she sees it affecting her best friend, Bonnie, she knows she needs to do something. Keedie has a very brave personality and she stands up to any bully who hurts someone physically or mentally.

The book also shows how being a teenager is hard and more so when you’re autistic. When Keedie sees her twin sister Nina hanging out with the bullies, Keedie gets angry and is determined to change the town, stand up to the bullies and get her sister back.

Keedie was everything I thought it would be but better and it is such a great book! I couldn’t put it down. I would definitely recommend this to anyone from primary school to high school and beyond.

Where the Light Goes by Sara Barnard, reviewed by Farrah (17)

Where the Light Goes is a devastating, raw and nuanced depiction of grief, familial relationships and the human psyche after a beloved family member takes her own life. It is a complex and realistic dissection of life in the limelight, media scrutiny and its real-world implications, that is thoroughly necessary in today’s society where life is so deeply influenced and dictated by the internet and the media. 

Sixteen-year-old Emmy Beckwith is the younger sister of Beth Beckwith, who is known to the wider world by her stage name of Lizzie Beck. The book begins with Emmy finding out that her sister has taken her own life. From there, Sara Barnard expertly manipulates the writing style and plot structure, using first person perspective, messages, transcribed voice notes, flashbacks and newspaper articles in order for the reader to attempt to understand Emmy’s lived experience and stream of consciousness; we are inside her mind and immersed in her awareness. The book carries on over an extended span of time and excels at emphasising that grief is non-linear, and does not abide by time periods or schedules. 

“A lingering and devastating portrayal of grief, but equally one that tells of loves longevity.”

Farrah (17)

The characters in Where the Light Goes are complicated and realistically-driven, as are the events that take place. Lizzie Beck rose to stardom at a young age, and its subsequent consequences are explored. Emmy has to grapple with the separate, distinct identities of her sister and ultimately recognise them as one amalgamated person, while reflecting on their loss of privacy, and the exploitation of Beth that continues on long her death, with the media capitalising on the real, tangible grief of those who really knew her, and falsifying their sympathies when they were so cruel to her while she was alive. 

Where the Light Goes reflects on grief and its tangible, visceral effects, while simultaneously considering how it impacts relationships and the trajectory of people’s lives. It urges you to evaluate how you behave online, and to remember that behind every screen, there is a real, human individual who is receiving the comments, backlash and media scrutiny.

This is not a book that you should enter lightly; please check the trigger warnings and consider whether these are topics you are comfortable with reading at the moment. If you do decide to pick up this book, you will find a lingering and devastating portrayal of grief, but equally one that tells of loves longevity, and characters and a story that will remain with you long after you turn the last page. 

The Final Year by Matt Goodfellow, reviewed by Aysha (12)

The Final Year is one of the most amazing books I’ve ever read. It teaches us that school can be tough and setbacks are alright and stuff can change in the blink of an eye.

“This is a very moving story and everyone should read it.”

Aysha (12)

Nate, who is the main character in the story, has just started the last year of primary school when he and his best friend get split up into different classes. He needs to become friends with someone new which he finds hard. He is also very busy at home taking care of his two younger brothers with his mum, when his little brother is taken ill.

My favourite character in the book is the teacher, Mr Joshua. The teacher is so nice and thoughtful and even gives Nate a book to write his poems in, which was lovely.

This book is easy to read and would appeal to people who love illustrations. This is a very moving story and everyone should read it.

Peanut Jones and the End of the Rainbow by Rob Biddulph, reviewed by Aysha (12)

I absolutely loved this book. I got it for Christmas and I couldn’t put it down because it is a thrilling book to read. This book is great for readers who love adventure stories and books with illustrations. 

“This book is funny and definitely one of my favourites.”

Aysha (12)

This book is the third in the Rob Biddulph’s series and it is all about Peanut Jones who is at the end of her journey to beat Mr White and make The Illustrated City wonderful again with the help of her friends. But when Mr White decides to get Peanut Jones’s mum involved, now she’s in terrible danger. Will Peanut Jones be able to save her mum and also stop Mr White?

My favourite character is definitely Rockwell as over the series you can see how much he has grown to become the character he is in the third book. At the start of the series, he was quite shy and scared but at the end of the series he got braver and used his knowledge to his advantage. 

This book is funny and definitely one of my favourites. The illustrations are phenomenal and you can tell that he has put a lot of work into making the illustrations come to life with the different colours. 

(Cover illustration by Aysha)