|summary=I will come straight out with it at the top of this review and state that I am a big fan of Helen Simpson. So this book, which is a selection of five stories from each of her five collections, is right up my street. All I’ve got to do now is convince you that you need to read it too!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099561573</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Allan Hendry
|title=End Game
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=A decade ago arms dealer Peter Rossi and Bill Rawlings, theologian, were in rough terrain two thousand feet above the Dead Sea. Rawlings was looking for something, but what, or where? It still wasn't entirely clear to Rossi when it was necessary for them to make a dramatic escape from a group of men - and the resulting carnage would be the stuff of nightmares for Rossi for many years to come. A decade later and at the other side of the world Bradley O'Connor, billionaire computer scientist, was forced to land his vintage plane on a mountain track in heavy snow and in the cold and lonely night which followed found his plane surrounded by a group of men eerily similar - had he but known it - to those Rossi and Rawlings had encountered.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848972431</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jane Sullivan
|title=Little People
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Unemployed governess Mary Ann rescues what seems to be a child from the currents of the Yarra River in Australia. However, the 'child' turns out to be none other than Charles Stratton, aka General Tom Thumb, 'midget' and star of PT Barnum's touring 'Lilliputian' show. As a token of gratitude for her act of heroism the troupe's tour manager, Sylvester Bleeker, offers Mary Ann work and a solution to her dilemma. For she is not only out of work and alone... and pregnant. She's made to feel welcome and a sense of belonging at last although all isn't what it seems. She may well be everything that Tom Thumb and his wife Lavinia have been looking for but that may not be a good thing. Even the title itself isn't all it seems and has an additional meaning, not just a reference to the small of stature. Mary Ann gradually realises that, as a lone single parent, she would be destitute (and everything that meant at that time) without the troupe. She too is a little person, but of no account rather than reduced height.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1742378854</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Melissa Wareham
|title=Winston Windsor and the Diamond Jubilee
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The Queen has quite a few corgis (and one dorgi) but her best-loved dog is Winston Windsor. Winston Windsor is devoted to the Queen, obviously, but his heart has been stolen by Wilma the poodle who is owned by the man who supplies fruit and vegetables to the Palace. When the Queen decides to change supplier (please step up the organic farmer based at Highgrove...) Winston realises that he will never see Wilma again. An unwise escape from the Palace in pursuit of his lady love leaves him in the dog pound with Flossy the Rottweiler (a difficult name for a boy, don't you think, particularly when you've been beaten up by a Chihuahua?) and Harry. When the dogs unearth a plot to kidnap the Queen on her Diamond Jubilee day they know that they have to get back to the Palace and warn the Queen - but how?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B0081LEK9M</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Keris Stainton
|title=Emma Hearts LA
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Emma's not thrilled to be moving across the Atlantic to LA - unlike her mother and her younger sister Bex. Her mum has a new job and Bex is set to meet with a Hollywood agent. All Emma has to look forward to is a reunion with Oscar, the dorky boy she knew when growing up. When she meets Oscar, though, he's unexpectedly cute... and then TV star Alex Hall appears on the scene as well. With two boys interested, great weather, and locations from movies and TV shows at every turn, maybe LA is actually a pretty good place to live...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408319527</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Martin Waddell and Leonie Lord
|title=The Super Swooper Dinosaur
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary='One day, Hal and his little dog, Billy, were out playing when the sky darkened and...'
The next thing Hal knows is that an enormous winged super swooper dinosaur has landed in his garden and wants to play. Well, you don't really want to argue with a dinosaur that you have only just met so Hal agrees. The first game that the super swooper suggest is Hide-and-seek but it soon becomes apparent that it won't be very successful as the dinosaur is too big to hide anywhere in the garden and is easily found by Hal every time. It's time to think of something else but the next idea, dino-dancing, is equally unsuccessful when Hal's new playmate ends up dancing on the roof. Paddling is equally problematic when the super swooper lands in the little paddling pool with an enormous splash which completely soaks Hal's mum
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408307804</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Eliza Graham
|title=The History Room
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The novel begins with a key scene from Meredith’s childhood and then springs forward to the present day and the incident in the history room. The prank sets the tone for the whole novel – sinister in many subtle ways and having several layers of meaning. The cast assemble around the fall out from the prank and each character is beautifully drawn. Hugh, Meredith’s husband, is suffering the results of horrors he experienced in Helmand. Meredith’s immediate family are also traumatised by the death of her mother. In this highly charged atmosphere, it’s hard to know whether they are taking the prank too seriously or if it does indeed imply worrying occurrences within the school. Add in the presence of strangers in the form of new pupils and new staff, and before long even the most long-held relationships begin to suffer as a result of all the suspicions that are brought out by the prank.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330509276</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams
|title=Goddess Girls: Athena the Brain
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Turns out Mount Olympus isn't so very different from our world after all. Lots of young gods and goddesses all together, making friends, discovering how to use their abilities properly, and having the occasional argument. It has eccentric teachers, handsome boys, and mean girls — in other words, it's middle school!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>141698271X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Helen Moss
|title=Adventure Island: the Mystery of the Drowning Man
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The great thing about adventure stories, as opposed to fantasies, tales of superheroes and even the more dramatic end of the teen-spy spectrum is that young readers can easily imagine themselves joining in the action. Pulling a drowning man from the sea, saving a film star, finding a treasure map and discovering dinosaur bones are all ''possible'' — even if, to be honest, they're not very likely.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444005340</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Trisha Ashley
|title=Chocolate Shoes and Wedding Blues
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Tansy was brought up by her great-aunt Nancy, who is in her nineties at the start of this book. Tansy lives with her fiancé Justin, but time is racing by and she is beginning to despair of ever getting married or having babies. Justin is under his demanding mother's thumb, and Tansy loves getting away to the village where her great aunt owns a small shoe shop.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847562779</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jeri Smith-Ready
|title=Shine
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Age gap relationships - who'd risk them? Zach is only a brief moment older than Aura, but in that instant the world changed, as Aura and anyone younger can see and speak to ghosts - while Zach might as well be poison to them. Over two books Aura has accepted being with Zach and not her dead rock-star boyfriend, who has finally, permanently, moved on. [[Shift by Jeri Smith-Ready|Last time]] they even found out a lot about how and why the Shift, as that moment is called, happened. Now we're to consider the present and the future - what it would mean for Zach and Aura to really get together, and what the Powers That Be (whoever they are) are expecting of them, together and apart. It's the last in the trilogy, so a lot of secrets will be revealed, a lot of threat will be faced - and it'll be emotional.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857074113</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Chuck Palahniuk
|title=Invisible Monsters Remix
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary='Don't expect this to be the kind of story that goes: and then, and then, and then.' And yet... Once upon a time I collected a couple of Palahniuk books, upon his first, ''Fight Club''-inspired flush of British success, and never got round to reading them. And then the book reviewing gods conspired to give me [[Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk|Pygmy]], [[Tell-All by Chuck Palahniuk|Tell-All]] and [[Damned by Chuck Palahniuk|Damned]] to peruse. And then I still didn't go back through his past works. But then he revised Invisible Monsters, his second-written and third-published novel, and I got to look at it after all.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099575051</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Marie N'Diaye and John Fletcher (translator)
|title=Three Strong Women
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=As it says on the tin, this powerful novel revolves around three women, connected by their strength and two countries and diverse cultures (France and Africa) but also other, more subtle factors. (More of that later.) First there's lawyer, Norah, returning to Africa at the behest of her estranged father. There has never been love lost between them, mainly because her father prefers to ignore his female offspring; therefore his reason for the summons is a mystery, until... The second story is that of African teacher, Fanta, forced by an event beyond her control to leave Africa and settle in France with her husband Rudy. Then the final section belongs to Khady, widowed after three years of marriage and sent to France by her Cinderella-esque mother-in-law. As Khady's status as a childless widow is financially unattractive, it has been deemed that she would be of more use sending money back from Europe... once she has entered France as an illegal immigrant.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857050567</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Carol Midgley
|title=My Family and Other Freaks
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Danielle has an embarrassing family, a dog who's in love with an Ugg boot, and a love rival who she can't possibly live up to – or can she? Determined not to be beaten in her efforts to secure Damien's affections, Danni hits on a plan – only for it to go horribly wrong, landing her with the nickname of 'Dench The Stench'. Surely things can only get better – can't they?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857388940</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Simone Elkeles
|title=Chain Reaction (Perfect Chemistry)
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Luis Fuentes is a risk-taker who meets a feisty girl whom he falls in love with. Unfortunately, a gang called the Latino Blood are also interested in him for rather different reasons, and Nikki doesn’t approve of them. Who will win out – the gang, or the girl?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857077473</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kim Harrington
|title=Clarity
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=The tourist season at Cape Cod is about to start and for Clarity 'Clare' Fern and her family, this is really important. Clare's family are psychic, not the phoney kind who take your money and give you a false prediction about tall dark strangers - the genuine kind. Clare's mother can read minds, her brother Perry can talk to the dead, and Clare can see memories linked to objects. Their family business is entertaining the tourists, and the summer rush pays the winter bills.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407130854</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Crockett Johnson
|title=Harold and the Purple Crayon
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=''Harold and the Purple Crayon'' is a classic picture book that celebrates the power of the imagination. Harold draws his own journey with the crayon. When he gets hungry, he draws himself a picnic. When he wants to walk through a forest, the crayon helps out. His slight figure walks across the plain white pages of the book creating everything that the reader sees. But the things Harold draws don’t always do what he likes, and he has to think quickly to reach the safety of his bed at the end of the tale.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007464371</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mara Bergman and Nick Maland
|title=Snip Snap, look who's back!
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=''Were the people scared? You bet they were!''
So says Mara Bergman when the alligator from ''Snip Snap! What’s that?'' returns for further slightly scary fun. The original story is a sure fire hit as a read aloud and fans will definitely want to try this sequel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444902474</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Keith Gray
|title=Next
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=That Keith Gray hangs out with all the cool people, you know. Hot on the heels of one fabulous anthology of short stories all about virginity, [[Losing It by Keith Gray|Losing It]], comes ''Next''. The topic this time is life after death and it's another preoccupation for young people. What's next? What will it be like? How will those left behind manage and cope? Each of the cool people contributes an idea of what death may bring.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849393001</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Pete Hautman
|title=What Boys Really Want
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Adam is a teenage entrepeneur with a keen eye for a get rich quick scheme. His best friend Lita is an aspiring novelist who also writes an anonymous blog. There's definitely no romance between them - Lita may have broken up a couple of Adam's relationships without him realising it, but that's for his own good. In fact, Lita's convinced Adam knows nothing about romance, so when he comes up with the great idea of writing a self-help book which explains what boys are looking for in a girl, she wants nothing to do with it. Of course, if she took more of an interest, she might notice there are a lot of parts with a significant resemblance to a certain blog...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407132113</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Hugh Jefferies
|title=Great Britain Concise Stamp Catalogue 2012
|rating=5
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=Now in its 27th year of publication, the Great Britain Concise Catalogue provides a comprehensive listing of all issues from the 1d black and 2d blue of May 1840 to the Children’s Comics issue of 20 March 2012. As a halfway house between the very basic ‘Collect British Stamps’ and the multi-volume specialised edition, this lists the main variations of each issue, alongside miniature sheets, special first day of issue postmarks, postage dues, booklets, and the regional issues from Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, as well as the Channel Islands and Isle of Man prior to their postal independence in 1969 and 1973 respectively.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0852598467</amazonuk>
}}
