Difference between revisions of "Newest Teens Reviews"

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|summary=Elise is a fragile girl who's never felt like she fitted in anywhere. Shuttled between her divorced parents, she's desperate to be popular at school but can't work out how. Then a chance event leads to her DJ'ing in Start, a hot underground nightclub and her life suddenly improves dramatically - but can she really leave behind her old self, or are the bullies who make her feel like there's nothing worthwhile about her life right all along?
 
|summary=Elise is a fragile girl who's never felt like she fitted in anywhere. Shuttled between her divorced parents, she's desperate to be popular at school but can't work out how. Then a chance event leads to her DJ'ing in Start, a hot underground nightclub and her life suddenly improves dramatically - but can she really leave behind her old self, or are the bullies who make her feel like there's nothing worthwhile about her life right all along?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447252837</amazonuk>
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447252837</amazonuk>
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=When The Guns Fall Silent
 
|author=James Riordan
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=In 1964, Perry visits a foreign cemetery with his grandfather Jack, a hero of World War I. Jack doesn't like to talk about the war, much to Perry's disappointment, but on this trip he finds himself thinking back 50 years to a time when he signed up full of enthusiasm only to be confronted by the harsh realities of war, and looking back on those of his friends - English and German - who didn't make it.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192735705</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Doctor Who: 11 Doctors, 11 Stories
 
|author=Eoin Colfer, Michael Scott and others
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=It's basic knowledge that Doctor Who has changed a lot since first being seen fifty years ago – and I don't mean the title character, but the nature of the programme.  It has gone from black and white, and cheaply produced, and declared disposable, to being an essential part of the BBC, full-gloss digital, and accessed in all manner of ways.  So with the celebratory programme still ringing in our ears, and leaving people pressing a red button to see a programme about three Doctors, er, pressing a red button, we turn to other aspects of the birthday bonanza.  Such as this book, which has also mutated in its much shorter lifespan, from being a loose collection of eleven short e-book novellas written by the blazing lights of YA writing, to a huge and brilliant paperback collecting everything within one set of covers.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141348941</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Emily of New Moon: A Virago Modern Classic (Emily Trilogy)
 
|author=L M Montgomery
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=I think I should confess, before I write this review, that I am a true Lucy Maud Montgomery geek!  I have loved her books since I was a little girl, and I have read them so many times that the covers are worn and faded and her stories live inside of me, at least in part making me who I am.  I wrote my masters dissertation on her books.  I went to Prince Edward Island, Canada, for a conference about her works.  I came back with a bottle of red sand and a heart full of memories.  If anyone ever mentions ''Anne of Green Gables'' in my presence my eyes get very large and I get very excited (and my husband rolls his eyes...) So it is with trepidation that I sit down to review one of her books.  Bear with me, I will try not to geek out too much, and I will do my best to be fair!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844089886</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Warm Bodies
 
|author=Isaac Marion
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
 
|summary=Warm Bodies is told in an alternating first person point of view, switching back and forth between ''R'' a zombie who has retained a bit more of the power of thought than most, and Julie, a feisty and courageous heroine, who has been through horrible hardships, but retained an ability to truly care about others. In short, R has far more humanity than the average zombie, but Julie also held on to more of the traits that I  feel truly make us human in a world where kindness and unselfish love have become even more endangered than the human race itself. Two other characters are important to this storyline, ''M'', R's best friend and Nora, Julie's closest friend and confidant. I especially liked Nora, who has suffered far more than Julie, and yet still is willing to put aside past hurt, but M has his redeeming points as well.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099583828</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The New Hunger: The Prequel to Warm Bodies
 
|author=Isaac Marion
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
 
|summary=I normally review a book within a day or two of finishing it. I couldn't with this one. I loved this book, but I did feel dissatisfied with the ending, and I thought perhaps I was missing something - and I was. This book was written as a prequel, and most of the readers will have already read ''Warm Bodies''. I found something so unique in Isaac Marion's writing style, and something about this book so compelling that I couldn't quite bear to rate it down, but neither was I happy with a 5 star rating with such as lacklustre ending. It felt like half a book to me. So - in order to review this fairly - I felt  I had to read the author's first book. After reading it I am no longer disappointed in the ending. It isn't after all the end - it is just the beginning of one of the best books I have ever read.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587726</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Sky on Fire (Monument 14)
 
|author=Emmy Laybourne
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=
 
We left our supermarket kids when they split up at the end of [[Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne|Monument 14]]. Niko, Alex and six others were taking the school bus to try to save Brayden who had been shot and to find the US military evacuation team. Dean, Astrid and three of the little ones had stayed behind - it was too risky to take pregnant Astrid into the poisoned outside. And when we say poisoned, we mean it. A bioweapons accident had left the air toxic in different ways to different people, depending on their blood group. Nobody knows where Jake is.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444914723</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Skulk
 
|author=Rosie Best
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=All Meg wanted to do was go out and create a real work of graffiti art. Then she sees a dying fox transform into a man, and pass onto her a mysterious gem, and all of a sudden she's inherited a whole new world of problems. Skulk sees its heroine plunged into a secret London, where raggedy groups of people transform into animals. The shapechangers have never got on with each other, but with a mysterious stranger trying to claim the strange gemstone Meg's forced to try to unite this ragtag bunch.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908844701</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}

Revision as of 08:07, 17 February 2014

The God Beneath the Sea by Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen

4.5star.jpg Teens

When a baby falls from the sky into the sea, Thetis, goddess of the sea, takes him into her care and names him Hephaestus. Raised lovingly by Thetis and her sister Eurynome, Hephaestus still grows to question who he is and where he came from. The sisters tell him he was born on Olympus, and so begins the twisting turning tales of the Titans and the Gods - their battles for supremacy, their betrayals, their vengeance. Full review...

The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp

5star.jpg Teens

Sutter Keely, The Sutterman, has life pretty good. Sure, he's got no long-term plan and may spend his life folding shirts, but he's having a ton of fun, he's hugely popular - even his ex-girlfriends still like him - and his relationship with the wonderful Cassidy will get back on track soon enough. Then he meets the sci-fi obsessed, shy, put-upon Aimee, and decides he can make a difference in her life. The plan is to help her gain some confidence, become popular, and find a nice guy - but Sutter doesn't bargain on things going further than he was planning on. Will he change Aimee's life for the better, or for the worse? Full review...

Vengeance by Megan Miranda

4star.jpg Teens

Vengeance is a follow-up to Fracture, in which Delaney almost died, drowned under the ice of a lake. Things never got back to normal after that. Delaney can sense death. She is irresistibly drawn to people who are about to die. And people take a long time to get over the accident. Delaney survived for 11 minutes under the ice - how was this possible? And Carson, the boy who pulled her out, is dead. There are mutterings that Falcon Lake is cursed. It wanted Delaney and, denied her, is now taking others in some kind of freakish revenge. Full review...

The Children of the King by Sonya Hartnett

5star.jpg Confident Readers

In a prosperous area of London during World War II the two Lockwood children, twelve year old Cecily and her older brother Jeremy, are dispatched, together with their socialite mother, to stay with family in the north to keep them safe. On their arrival, at Cecily’s insistence, they take in a young evacuee, ten year old May. As they wander the countryside close to Cecily’s Uncle Peregrine’s country estate the two girls find two strange boys hiding in the ruins of Snow Castle and do not tell the rest of the family about their discovery. As the children attempt to cope with their changed circumstances and the fear of an approaching enemy, each evening Uncle Peregrine tells the children a dark and sinister story of intrigue in the Royal courts of long ago and so begins the story within a story. This intriguing book then goes on to combine two periods of English history in an extraordinary adventure that is not only an historical novel but a moving coming of age story too. Full review...

Tilly's Promise by Linda Newbery

5star.jpg Dyslexia Friendly

Tilly often wished things would change in the sleepy little village she called home, but she gets more change than she bargained for when war breaks out. First her sweetheart joins up, then Tilly signs on a nurse and finally her brother Georgie is called up, despite the fact that he is completely unfit for service. Georgie is different, big and strong but with the mind of a child - how could he possibly survive the horrors of war? So many promises are made, Tilly promises her sweetheart Harry she will wait - Harry assures her he won't be away long - sure it will probably be over by Christmas (famous last words). When Georgie is posted to Harry's unit, Tilly extracts a somewhat reluctant promise from him to look after her brother. More promises will be made - but promises are hard to keep in wartime. As Georgie and Harry face the harsh reality of life in the trenches, Tilly finds herself near the frontline as a nurse. Everything seems to have changed. Will even love remain the same - especially in the aftermath of a broken promise? Full review...

Boys Don't Knit by T S Easton

5star.jpg Teens

Ben Fletcher is a pleasant and fairly quiet boy - so when the 17-year-old gets roped into taking part in the Great Trolley Robbery to grab some booze for a party, it's just his luck that he's the one who ends up getting assaulted by a lollipop lady and put on probation! Forced to keep a journal, give back to the victim of his crime, and take up an approved hobby, he reluctantly chooses knitting - only to find a real talent for it. Can he keep his new-found hobby a secret from his dad and his mates, get the girl of his dreams, and become a champion knitter? Full review...

The Kissing Game by Jean Ure

4star.jpg Confident Readers

Salvatore d'Amato - sometimes nicknamed Sally Tomato - is twelve years old and has never been kissed. He's determined to change that before his next birthday. But will Lucy, the object of his affections, ever return them? He has a secret weapon - his poetry. Is it going to win her heart, or just disgust her? And will Harmony Hynde, the girl in his class who works as a library assistant, stop bothering him? Full review...

Unnatural Creatures by Neil Gaiman

4star.jpg Teens

I wished I could visit a Museum of Unnatural History, but even so, I was glad there wasn't one... If someone actually caught a werewolf, or a dragon, if they tamed a manticore or stabled a unicorn, put them in bottles, dissected them, then they could be only one thing, and they would no longer live in the shadowy places between the things I knew and the world of the impossible, which was, I was certain, the only place that mattered.

So says Neil Gaiman in the introduction to this anthology of sixteen unnatural creatures (to capitalise or not to capitalise, that is the question). Full review...

ZOM-B Gladiator by Darren Shan

4star.jpg Teens

WARNING: Gladiator is the sixth book in the ZOM-B series, so if you don't want to catch any spoilers, look away now.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

You're gone, right?

Good. Full review...

The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two by Catherynne M Valente

3.5star.jpg Teens

A while ago a friend recommended a book called The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. I have to say, the title alone intrigued me, but somehow that title sat on my 'to get' pile and I never actually got around to reading it. Since then several other people (all adults) have suggested I might like it, so when I saw the latest book in this series was available I decided to give it a try. I really should have read the first two books, I think. This is the third in the series, and I believe there are going to be five altogether. There are some series which you can dip into without feeling too lost, but this isn't one of them! Full review...

Old Dog, New Tricks by Bali Rai

5star.jpg Dyslexia Friendly

Nick is a miserable old sod by anyone's definition. His equally mangy dog, Nelson, is the only friend he has, as his nasty nature puts everyone off. But while he may be unpleasant to most people, he is downright horrible when the Singh family move in, bringing out the worst of his racist views - but can a man who likes Bob Marley really hate anyone of another colour? Is Nick just an ignorant and offensive old git, or is there something more beneath the surface? No one seems to have really bothered to find out before a common love of dogs draws young Harvey Singh to attempt to befriend not only the unkempt dog, but the lonely old man as well. Full review...

Tesla 1 by Mark Lingane

4.5star.jpg Teens

Sebastian has lost both his parents. His father died of a mysterious wasting disease whereas his mother is just... well... lost. The only thing he has he has to remember his mother by is a note telling him to go to the mysterious Steam Academy. However, first he has to find his way there in a futuristic Australia without widespread technology but with dangerous cyborg warriors. What's worse, despite fighting humans in general for thousands of years, the cyborgs now seem to have turned their attention and energy to killing Sebastian in particular. What's he done to deserve that? More to the point, whatever he's done, how can he survive? Full review...

Red by Libby Gleeson

4star.jpg Teens

Mud. In her mouth, her nose and her eyes. Mud in her hair and caked on her neck and her arms. Mud filling her shoes and seeping through her clothes. She lay sprawled on her side, a garbled, barely distinct sound coming from her: jaymartinjaymartin.

Who is jaymartin? And who is this girl? Red doesn't know who she is or what has happened to her. She doesn't know what has caused the devastation all around her. Rescued from the mud by Peri, Red discovers that she's in Sydney in the aftermath of a terrible hurricane. Chaos is all around as the emergency response struggles to get to grips with the dead, injured and displaced. Through the noticeboard at the rescue centre, Red and Peri discover that she has a name. And a father. And a frightening secret. Full review...

Dead Ends by Erin Lange

4.5star.jpg Teens

Dane is a rebel who's close to getting kicked out of a school; Billy D is the new kid in town. One of Dane's few rules of behaviour is that he won't hit kids in special ed, so Billy D figures hanging around with someone tough who won't hit him is a good idea - although it's not that easy to convince Dane of this. He really needs to, though, because he has a puzzle to solve and Dane could be the perfect person to help him. Full review...

Nomad (Faery Rebels) by R J Anderson

4.5star.jpg Teens

Ok. Before we begin, you should know that Nomad is the second in a sequence. So if you haven't yet read Swift, you should probably start there. Don't read this review: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

We meet up with Ivy again as Full review...

The Forbidden Stone (The Copernicus Legacy) by Tony Abbott

4star.jpg Confident Readers

If you like your fiction full of heart-stopping adventures, mysterious cults and constant danger, then you'll love this book. Codes, puzzles and ancient secrets abound, and there is no doubt that the publisher's comparison with the novels for adults written by Dan Brown is justified. There's drama and deadly peril on pretty well every page. Full review...

Emily's Quest: A Virago Modern Classic (Emily Trilogy) by L M Montgomery

5star.jpg Teens

When I read this book as a teenager (many times over!) I loved Emily's passion for writing, I loved the excitement of all the different events through the story and I loved the happy ending. Coming to the story now, twenty-plus years later, I found the book had a rather different flavour to it. It is, at times, terribly, desperately sad. I was surprised, by a book that is widely regarded as a children's story, at just how bleak Emily's life appears to be, and how traumatic the events in her life are. It is very well written, and I still experienced the same compulsion to read it as I used to find when I was younger, yet even with the final, desperate happy ending that Montgomery manages to squeeze in I was left feeling rather contemplative. Full review...

A Room Full of Chocolate by Jane Elson

5star.jpg Confident Readers

Sometimes family isn't the one you are born into but the people and pigs you collect along the way.

Grace doesn't want to leave her London home and go and live with misery guts Grandad while her mum goes into hospital to get a LUMP sorted out. Grace can't see why she couldn't look after her mum herself. After all, the LUMP was just caused by Mum dancing too much, wasn't it? WASN'T IT? But Mum won't hear of it and Grace must move away, start a new school, make new friends and miss her mum so much that even chocolate doesn't help. Things go from bad to worse when Grace upsets the resident school bully on her very first day. Full review...

The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson by Paige Toon

4star.jpg Teens

Jessie Jefferson isn't having a great time of it. Her mum died in a freak accident. On Jessie's birthday. While buying Jessie's birthday cake. Grief and anger at the loss of her mother has sent Jessie into a spiral of teenage rebellion. She's drinking and smoking and partying and stepfather Stu is at the end of his tether. So much so that he finally tells Jessie something she's always wanted to know: the identity of her biological father...

... it's Johnny Jefferson, global rock star. Full review...

Bird by Crystal Chan

5star.jpg Confident Readers

Grandpa stopped speaking the day he killed my brother, John.

That was also the day Jewel was born. Birthdays for Jewel are miserable affairs during which her parents' grief for their son trump their joy in their daughter. In fact, Jewel doesn't see that her parents have any joy in their daughter at all. She's quite certain that nobody will ever love her as much as Mom, Dad and Grandpa loved John. Until, one day, she finds a mysterious boy sitting in one of her favourite trees. Grandpa doesn't like this new John, but Jewel does. She finally has someone that she can really talk to, who really understands the way her mind works. But John isn't everything he says he is. And his arrival is about to change Jewel's life forever... Full review...

Looking at the Stars by Jo Cotterill

5star.jpg Teens

Amina and Jenna are sisters living under the Kwana regime. Because the Kwana have banned girls from going to school, they contribute to the family finances by weaving baskets and mats from reeds. Life under the Kwana is tough but Potta and Mamie tell their children to keep their heads down and get on with life as best they can. But fighting is breaking out across the country and when Amina sees a column of liberating soldiers, she begins to think life might get better soon. Full review...

Hunger (Hammer 1) by Melvin Burgess

4star.jpg Teens

Beth wakes up one morning covered in dirt and consumed by a ravening hunger. She puts it down to illness and sleepwalking at first but when the hunger doesn't go and reports of a grave desecration surface, Beth has to admit that something sinister is afoot. Beth doesn't know it yet, but she is a special person. She carries a conduit from the land of the living to the land of the dead and a newly-awakened demon wants her very much. But can Beth, together with brother Louis and friends Ivan and Coll, defeat him? Full review...

Shadowplay by Laura Lam

5star.jpg Teens

Micah Grey and the clown Drystan have left the circus. Trying to escape their past, and the terrible tragedy that ended Pantomime, they find Jasper Maske, a retired magician who owes Drystan a favour. While they seem to have found a safe haven, the return of a figure from Maske's past reignites an old rivalry. Can they help Maske and avoid detection when the mysterious Shadows seek both Micah and the person he once was? And who is the mysterious Cyan, and can they trust her? Full review...

Storm and Stone by Joss Stirling

4.5star.jpg Teens

American student Raven Stone doesn't like it at her exclusive English boarding school. People are going missing, and return seeming very different. The teachers pick on her as a scholarship students, and her classmates hate her - one of them enough to send her death threats. Just as the mystery starts to deepen, two new boys arrive. Joe is friendly and charismatic, but it's Kieran's analytical brain which may be the clue to solving her problems. Although her problems may be bigger than either of them had realised... Full review...

The One Safe Place by Tania Unsworth

5star.jpg Teens

Devin lives on a farm with his grandfather, away from the rest of the world. He knows a little about it – how the gap between rich and poor is far wider than the world we live in, and how many children now live on the street, scavenging for scraps to say alive. But, he’s never been that concerned. On the farm the life is a simple one, but they can grow enough food to get by, and they’re happy. When tragedy strikes, Devin is forced to leave his home and venture into the city for the first time. Full review...

Crash Into You by Katie McGarry

5star.jpg Teens

This is the second companion book to McGarry's stunning debut Pushing The Limits, following Dare You To. In the wonderful Pushing The Limits, we were introduced to main characters Noah and Echo and an excellent supporting cast including Noah's best friends and surrogate family Beth and Isaiah. Full review...

Salvage by Keren David

4.5star.jpg Teens

Cass is adopted. She's always been happy in her new family, getting on well with her parents and feeling protective of their natural son Ben. So when her father, a high-ranking MP, is revealed to be having an affair with a woman not much older than her the betrayal hits her hard. Aidan, her brother, manages to get back in touch with her shortly afterwards and seems to be the bright spot in her life. But how much do these siblings really know about each other? Full review...

This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

5star.jpg Teens

Elise is a fragile girl who's never felt like she fitted in anywhere. Shuttled between her divorced parents, she's desperate to be popular at school but can't work out how. Then a chance event leads to her DJ'ing in Start, a hot underground nightclub and her life suddenly improves dramatically - but can she really leave behind her old self, or are the bullies who make her feel like there's nothing worthwhile about her life right all along? Full review...