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}{{newreview <!-- remove 5/8 -->
|title=Eye Spy II
|author=Tessa Buckley
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Fresh from the success of solving its first case, Eye Spy Investigations is certainly up for another. So twins Alex and Donna jump at the chance to investigate the strange things happening at the Priory, home to school friend Jimmy Devlin. Alex doesn't believe in ghosts and he is very keen to persuade Donna that they don't exist.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1788032667</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview <!-- remove 4/8 -->
|author= Geoffrey Arnold
|title= Hunted
|rating= 4
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary=Tullia learns about survival in the bush when she is taken hostage and later saves a youth's life during a hunt. Adopted into a Bushman family and the tribe, her presence stirs disparate feelings amongst the young men and women, a mixture of awe, desire, fear and hate. Living a very different life, Qwelby, Tullia's twin, is deeply shocked by the violence on Earth. As he is rescued by his four best friends from the Pit of Despair, he experiences his first feelings for Tamina, a girl he has known for years. Feelings which become much stronger for another girl he tries to help during a violent attack from his own world as he and Tullia seek to restore their telepathic link. Forming a connection with the twins during the attack, the girl, Xaala, is charged by her master with monitoring their attempts to mentally reconnect – and to prevent them. Xaala is torn between her mixed feelings for the twins and obeying her orders. Meanwhile, on the planet Vertazia and in secret, Quelby's family and friends build what they hope will be the first ever inter-dimensional transport. On a short test run, the village where he is staying is discovered. When Quelby finds out he is being watched, he flees from the village...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785891855</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Ed McDonald
|title= Blackwing: The Raven's Mark Book One
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Fantasy
|summary= Perfect for fans of Scott Lynch, Joe Abercrombie and Mark Lawrence, this dark adventure is gripping and bloody; it is a twisted story that spins a web of deceit. Nothing is as it seems, as ageless powers manipulate and control the lives of the characters. The world is a staging ground, all leading to one dramatic confrontation that has been a century in the making.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147322201X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jeff Brown and Rob Biddulph
|title=Flat Stanley
|rating=4.5
|genre=Emerging Readers
|summary=''Stanley was four feet tall, about a foot wide, and half an inch thick.''
Yes, there's proof that this is the original text of this classic children's book – at least it's not been updated to metric. So while the illustrations are new, we get the real deal, with the young Stanley squished one night, to such an extent he can limbo under shut doors, get airmailed to America to visit relatives, become a kite for his younger brother to play with, and more. But then you don't need to update perfection.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405288108</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kate Ellis
|title=The Mermaid's Scream (Wesley Peterson)
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=In 1884 a wealthy young woman became infatuated with the man who ran a travelling puppet show. We'll follow the story of John Lipton's courtship through excerpts from his journal.
 
In August 2016 Zac Wilkinson was writing the biography of the reclusive novelist Wynn Staniland. It's not easy work as Staniland isn't inclined to give more away than he has to and is unwilling to discuss the one thing which the public will want to know about: his wife's suicide which seemed to follow a scene from his most famous book. Wilkinson is doing his best to drum up interest in the forthcoming book: he does talks at local libraries which are well attended and he was seemingly on his way to one of these talks when he disappeared.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349413118</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Naoki Higashida and David Mitchell
|title=Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight: A Young Man's Voice From the Silence of Autism
|rating= 5
|genre= Reference
|summary=Naoki Higashida was only 13 years old when he wrote the international best-seller ''The Reason I Jump.'' The book was popular because it gave a rare glimpse into the workings of the autistic mind, as told from the unique perspective of a teenager with non-verbal autism. Naoki communicates by using an alphabet grid, or by tracing letters on the palm of a transcriber. Despite this slow and laborious method of writing, he has published several books in his native Japan, and manages to give public presentations to raise awareness of his condition. ''Fall Down 7 Times Get up 8'' reintroduces us to Naoki as a young adult in his 20s and explains how his perspectives on life have changed since writing his first book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444799088</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Caz Frear
|title= Sweet Little Lies
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Thrillers
|summary= In 1998 a girl called Maryanne disappears in Ireland. In 2017 a woman called Alice is found dead in London. In both cases, Detective Constable Cat Kinsella is coincidentally close by, but she's more worried by the fact her father is too. And he cannot be trusted.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785763350</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Mayim Bialik
|title= Girling Up
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Children's Non-Fiction
|summary= Aimed at teenagers, this book focuses on growing up as a girl, or ''Girling up'' if you will, and what it means to transition from school girl to grown up, via that hideous detour of teenage years.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0399548602</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Philippa Pearce and Cate James
|title=The Ghost in Annie's Room (Little Gems)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
|summary=Emma is on a family holiday in an older relative's seaside cottage, where she is to sleep in the room in the attic. Her brother has passed on what he says he has overheard – that it is haunted. But even with the mementos of the person that once lived there all around her, and with a strange feeling of being watched, even with the stormy winds knocking tree limbs on to the window – Emma can sleep through it all. But that's not to say things will forever be that way…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781126852</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Svetlana Alexievich, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (translators)
|title=The Unwomanly Face of War
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=''War'', says Svetlana Alexievich, ''is first of all murder, and then hard work. And then simply ordinary life: singing, falling in love, putting your hair in curlers…''. This extraordinary book is a collection of first-hand accounts by Russian fighting women in the Second World War. A million women joined Russian military forces as soldiers of all ranks, medics, pilots, drivers, snipers, cryptographers. Most were very young, little more than girls of 18 or 19. They were passionate about defending their homeland and often extremely keen to join up, returning again and again to recruitment offices until someone could be persuaded to take them. Their ambition was to help their brothers, fathers, husbands to fight the terrible invader. They were trained and sent to the front, where they were greeted at first with disappointment and disgust by fighting men, who had hoped for reinforcements of able-bodied men. The women had to prove themselves.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141983523</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Alison Jay
|title= Alison Jay's ABC
|rating= 4.5
|genre= For Sharing
|summary= At first glance, this is a beautiful but fairly standard alphabet book: one letter per page with a nice big picture of an apple or a panda front and centre - after all, the ABC format is pretty restrictive, isn't it? And truth be told, that's all most small people will see first time round. But look a little closer . . .
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1787410196</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Anna Kovecses
|title=Opposite Things
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Rearing a child is not a competition, but have a conversation with a certain type of parent and they won't agree. Their child can speak four languages. Their child wrote their first sonnet at the age of three. Their child can be seen wistfully looking into the middle distance just wanting to play on the bouncy castle. For me, I am happy, if my child is happy; be that doing sums, or eating play-doh. However, even with a relaxed attitude to educating your kid, it can be fun to learn a little, especially when a book is as fun as Little Mouse's ''Opposite Things''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786030381</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Michael Morpurgo and Shoo Rayner
|title= Mudpuddle Farm: Hee-Haw Hooray
|rating= 4
|genre= Emerging Readers
|summary=Two collected stories from Mudpuddle Farm series – ''Nowt to Worry About'' and ''Tickety-Boo''. How will the animals react when the sky goes strange and horrifying noises abound? Changes are afoot that could mark the end of Mudpuddle farm; or is it just a new beginning?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008241988</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview <!-- remove 1/8 -->
|author=Stephan Santiago
What price will they pay for freedom? What will they fight to protect?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785762990</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jennifer McVeigh
|title=Leopard at the Door
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=18 year old Rachel Fullsmith returns home to Kenya after being away at school in England and finds a lot can change in 6 years. Of course she realises her mother's death would alter things but she's not prepared for her father's live-in 'companion' Sara nor Sara's son Harold sleeping in Rachel's old room. Michael the Kikuyu servant boy she grew up with is still there though and now a man with his own ideas. Meanwhile the unrest between the British rulers and the local Mau Mau fighters is increasing and about to blow.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241247616</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Anthony Ryan
|title=The Legion of Flame: Book Two of the Draconis Memoria
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=WARNING: There are spoilers for [[The Waking Fire: Book One of Draconis Memoria by Anthony Ryan|Book 1]] from the beginning.
Lizanne Lethridge, Blood-Blessed and secret agent of the Exceptional Initiatives Division has survived another mission, only to be forced to go out again. This time it entails a man-hunt in a place from which no one has emerged alive. Talking about alive, Claydon Torcreek, having escaped several types of death in the jungles now goes to the southern ice with Hilemore in their current attempt to defeat the dragons and put the world on a safe footing. What if all that waits for them is more dragons and more inventive ways to die? That's a thought that's soon banished from his mind. 'This is where we save the world' says Clay… but he's been wrong before!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356506401</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview <!-- remove 26/7 -->
|author=Ritchie Valentine Smith
|title=Words of Fury: Volume 2 (Words of Power)
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Warning: Spoilers ahead…
Emmanuel (Man) Kinross, Yoshi, Joah, the Voice and Dirk Faslane are all fleeing the Lord of the North in a giant floating bubble. This is a delicate conveyance when you consider that the stakes are high and, if caught by the evil Lord of the North, the world as they know it will end. They just need to get to the Waning of the Moon, a psychic fortress that spells safety but there's still a long way to go and the odds are very much against them. The Lord of the North has more power than they've seen yet and more devastating ways to use it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1544214839</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Elena Varvello and Alex Valente (translator)
|title= Can You Hear Me?
|rating= 5
|genre= Crime
|summary= In 1978, in a small town in Northern Italy Elia Furenti is sixteen and troubled. His mundanely stable, loving and ordered life is rocked by the murder of a young boy and the disappearance of a young woman, who vanishes into the woods. As Elia struggles to make sense of his shifting relationship with his increasingly erratic and unpredictable father, he begins to question what role this volatile man may play in these acts of senseless violence. Into this steps Anna, the mother of Elia's friend, a woman bowed under the strain of life and haunted by her choices. As the heat of summer intensifies, so does Elia's certainty that something is desperately wrong in his home. Drawn, seemingly inevitably, to the mysteriously sensual and sad Anna, Elia feels the ground start to shift under his feet, to feel the wind whipping his face from the cliff edge of adolescence and the unavoidable pull of adulthood.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473654874</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Gavin Herbertson
|title= William and Dorothy Wordsworth: A Miscellany
|rating= 5
|genre= Anthologies
|summary= William Wordsworth was a defining member of the romantic literary era. He was part of the first wave, and his poetry helped to shape a large part of it. Nature is the key: existing in nature, finding one's own true nature and becoming natural in the process were the driving forces behind it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1903385598</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Chae Strathie and Anna Chernyshova
|title=Captain Firebeard's School for Pirates: The Sneaky Sweet Stealer
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The ''Rusty Barnacle'' is set to sail again, with a second term for the wannabe pirates and their teachers and crew. Tommy, despite being late, is the keenest pupil there – after all, he has great friends, enemies he can easily vanquish, and a very good novice parrot for company. But everyone on board has reason for concern when they set sail – the prize sweets from the tuck shop are going missing in great quantities. Who could possibly be behind this mystery?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140716340X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sarah Hutton
|title=Cool Physics
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=If you aren't entirely sure about a phrase such as ''Christiaan Huygens states his principle of wavefront sources'', don't worry – it was only in 1678 that it happened, so you're not too far behind in physics. Brownian motion, and the gravitational constant being measured both date from before the Victorian era, and all of these three things are on the introductory timeline in this book, which I think might well be proof enough that a primer in the world of physics is very much needed.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843653249</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Cathy Hopkins
|title=The Valentine's Day Kitten
|rating=4
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
|summary=Marcie is distraught. On Valentine's Day last year she'd didn't receive a single card and her parents could see that she was upset, so when she came home from school there was a box on the kitchen table and in it was the most gorgeous fluffy silver kitten. Misty and Marcie were soon inseparable until the day that Misty went out without a collar on - and didn't come home. Marcie blamed herself: Misty's collar had broken and she'd never got round to buying a new one. Mum has put notices up everywhere she can think of and rung the local vets and animal rescue centres, but there's no sign of Misty. Then Marcie starts having dreams, about a boy, a hotel, a painting - and Misty. Will there be a happy ending?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178112678X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Shane Hegarty
|title= Darkmouth: Hero Rising
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Confident Readers
|summary= Things seem as bad as they can get for Finn, trainee Hunter of all those nasty things that keep trying to get through to our world from the Infested Side. His dad has been sacked, leaving him practically alone to face the baddies, both monstrous and human, he has no weapons or back-up apart from his friend Emmie, and the family has even been kicked out of the house they've lived in for generations. Of course, in the way of the best stories, you only have to hint that things couldn't get worse for them to do exactly that. And any beastie that's got all the monsters from the other dimension scared is not going to be a doddle to fight. Far, far from it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007545622</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Lucy Daniels
|title= Summer at Hope Meadows
|rating= 4
|genre= General Fiction
|summary=''Animal Ark'' was a popular series of children's books written between 1994 and 2008. The stories focus on a young girl called Mandy Hope, the daughter of two vets who run a practice, Animal Ark, in the Yorkshire town of Welford. Along with her best friend James, the children seek to help out creatures in need. The series consisted of 94 books in total and was written by a collection of authors writing under the pseudonym Lucy Daniels. ''Summer at Hope Meadows'' is the first in a new series for adult readers, continuing grown-up Mandy's story now that she is a fully qualified vet.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473653878</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Frederic Dard and Louise Rogers Lalaurie (translator)
|title=The King of Fools
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Having sort of split up with his partner, Jean-Marie is on holiday alone on the southern French coast, when he chances to meet a married English woman, Marjorie. They meet in the most unusual ways – with two identical cars parked next to each other, she gets in the wrong one by mistake, then leaves her beach bag behind. Lo and behold they find each other at the casino, and the following day, when she arrives at his hotel to reclaim her bag, they meet heart to heart. Jean-Marie sees her to be a very unhappily married woman, and not even the arrival of his partner and make-up sex can convince him he is not in love with Marjorie. But finding her again will take him to Edinburgh – and into no end of trouble…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178227197X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tania Hershman
|title=Some of Us Glow More Than Others
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=I won't be alone in stating that reading short story collections can be slightly awkward. Going through from A-Z, witnessing a bounty of ideas and characters in short order can be too much, but do you have the right to pick and choose according to what appeals, and what time you have to fill? The sequence has carefully been considered, surely. Such would appear to be the case here. The last time I read one of this author's collections, with [[The White Road by Tania Hershman|The White Road]], the only real difficulty was holding back and rationing them, but here you not only get a whopping forty pieces of writing, they are also spread into sections.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910061484</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= John Bude
|title= Death Makes A Prophet
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Crime
|summary= Two pages into this ''Crime Classic'' I had to check the first publication date. Reading the first two pages, it could easily have been written in 1967, or '87, or even (possibly as a pastiche) in 2017. Given that Bude's witty caper originally came out in 1947, it's slightly criminal that it's taken this long to resurface.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712356916</amazonuk>
}}

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