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Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library , the charity shop and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.

<!-- Foster Linda Jones -->

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===[[Check Mates Deadwood Hall by Stewart FosterLinda Jones]]===

[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]

In many ways Felix is a typical boy in Year 7, enjoying playing games on his PS4 late December Dylan Beaumont and hanging out with his friend Jake sister Emily were on their way to spend the week before Christmas at the weekendtheir grandfather's house. However Felix is struggling It was snowing heavily and you could sense that their parents were becoming annoyed at schoolthe bickering in the back of the car. He is not a problem child Emily was rather brusque with her nine-year-old brother's behaviour, but he does have then that's your prerogative when you're a problemgrown-up eleven year old. His ADHD makes it hard for him to concentrate, he keeps The snow was getting into trouble heavier and his grades are slippingthe journey longer when Emily opened the car window just a couple of inches. When his Mum suggests that he spends more time with his grandfather Felix is horrified. Ever since Grandma died his Granddad has been grumpy There was a dreadful smell and more eccentric than before. All he wants to do is sit in Dylan saw a horrible, snake-like figure clawing at the dark and play chess. Felix knows that this will be extremely boring. But sometimes we learn valuable lessons where we least expect to and perhaps Granddad and Felix can help each othercar window. [[Check Mates Deadwood Hall by Stewart FosterLinda Jones|Full Review]]

<!-- Jane O'Connor Denzil Meyrick -->

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===[[Needlemouse A Breath on Dying Embers (DCI Daley) by Jane O'ConnorDenzil Meyrick]]===

[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General FictionCrime|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]] We first meet Sylvia Penton on her birthday and her boss, the Prof, is taking her out to lunch. This is her favourite day of the year, not because it's her birthday but because of the special time she gets to spend with the man she loves. He's told her that he and his wife are going to divorce - Martha is apparently having an affair - and Sylvia is convinced that the Prof will then declare his love and they can be together. She hasn't fully constructed 'together' in her own mind - she envisages it as romantic, but her imagination hasn't yet progressed to the sexual part of the relationship. There's time though - she's only been the prof's PA for fifteen years. [[Needlemouse by Jane O'Connor|Full Review]]<!-- Various-->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1529006031.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1529006031/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[Return to Wonderland by Various Authors]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short StoriesCrime]]

In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years agoFew government trade missions arrive by luxury liner, when but the first book she was in [[Alicecruise ship ''Great Britain''s Adventures is berthed in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll Kinloch harbour and Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]], I found that I didn't really find too much favour with iton board are high-powered international delegates. The wacky-for-It's hard to avoid the-sake-of-suspicion that it did 's not gel, and I don't remember loving it more 'entirely'' about work as a child. But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at billionaires, entrepreneurs and their civil service minders tour the core from a tangentcountry, that show the benefits golfing and sightseeing with their entourage of the oblique glancesecurity personnel. IIt've always preferred coming to s an author's output through their least obviousevent which DCI Daley hopes will pass quickly, allegedly throw-away piecesparticularly as his formal uniform is far too tight for comfort, and but it's not long before one of the same with franchises – I'd more likely crew members and a local bird watcher go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, for obvious reasons)missing. For another thing, there was every reason to expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that love in mind could only provide for success after success? [[Return to Wonderland A Breath on Dying Embers (DCI Daley) by Various AuthorsDenzil Meyrick|Full Review]]

<!-- Elphinstone James -->

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| style=''"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''"|===[[Rumblestar (The Unmapped Chronicles) Starlight Watchmaker by Abi ElphinstoneLauren James]]===

[[image:4.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident ReadersDyslexia Friendly|Dyslexia Friendly]], [[:Category:Teens|Confident ReadersTeens]]

Rumblestar follows This is a dyslexia-friendly, science fiction novella for young adults. It tells the haphazard adventures tale of the anxious 11Hugo, an unwanted and rather lonely android, who makes a living for himself mending time-year-old Casper Tock who timetables travel watches. When one of his clients demands that his every movementbroken watch be mended, makes countless Hugo realises there is a mystery to do lists be solved, and is hounded by wealthy bullies with the absurdly humorous and appropriate names of Candida Cashmere Jumps and Leopold Splattercashonly too ready to help. He stumbles across a magic portal by accident just like Lucy An exciting journey of Narnia famediscovery unfolds, meets a feisty girl troubled by her past which takes Hugo out of his drab attic workroom and is plunged into a perilous quest. In a kingdom where the dark mythological forces scary adventure with some amazing new friends, exploring regions of Midnights threaten the weather Marvels (equated here planet never before known to the miracle of nature) conjured by magical creatures, only unlikely heroes can battle against evilexist. [[Rumblestar (The Unmapped Chronicles]) Starlight Watchmaker by Abi ElphinstoneLauren James|Full Review]]

<!-- Filby Stuart MacBride -->

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===[[The Evil Occupants of Easingdale Castle by Ray Filby]]=== [[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:TeensCrime|TeensCrime]]

Jason likes chess. HeDS Logan McRae is just back from a year's pretty good at it too - sick leave after he was attacked by a level eight on his computer programme, with level ten being Grand Master levelkiller. He's also good at systems, having contributed just about OK and he's supposed to be easing himself back into the relational database that has streamlined his schoolswing of the job in a gentle way - until three-year-old David Reid's administrationbody is discovered in a ditch. JasonHe'd been missing for some time and it came as no surprise that he was dead but he's schoolthe first of several child murders. To add to the complications the police even have a body but no child reported missing. A serial killer, Easingdale Comprehensivea child killer and abuser, is very big on technology the loose in Aberdeen and its head, Mr Johnston, is keen the press are missing no opportunity to involve his pupils wherever they show promisebay for blood. So Jason As if that wasn's friends have also helped t bad enough there seems to be a leak from within Force Headquarters: a local journalist, Colin Miller, quickly finds out. Liz is great with hardware and helped with the schooleverything that's card reader system. Becky has a flair for software and has recommended lots of curriculum-enhancing apps. And Bill is a talented programmer..happening. [[The Evil Occupants of Easingdale Castle Cold Granite (Logan McRae) by Ray FilbyStuart MacBride|Full Review]]

<!-- Caz Frear Angela Marsons -->

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===[[Child's Play (D I Kim Stone Cold Heart ) by Caz FrearAngela Marsons]]===

DC Cat Kinsella is back at the Met after a secondment to the London MayorThere's Office: the hours were good but the job was boring. She's grateful to be back with the old team - her partner DS Luigi Parnell, boss DCI Kate Steele a prologue and DC Rénee Akwa. She's still not prepared to say anything about the identity of her boyfriend: the knowledge we know that shewe's in a relationship re dealing with Aiden Doyle, the brother of a murder victim and moreover a murder with which her father might have had some involvement could finish her careersomeone who is very disturbed. Kinsella and Parnell The descriptions are called to horrifying, but worst of all is the discovery coldness of the body of a young woman: Naomi Lockhart was Australian, just twenty-two years old and her body was discovered by her flat mate, Kieran Drake, an ex-offenderkiller. [[Child's Play (D I Kim Stone Cold Heart ) by Caz FrearAngela Marsons|Full Review]]

<!-- Koomson Chiang -->

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===[[Tell Me Your Secret Exhalation by Dorothy KoomsonTed Chiang]]===

[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:ThrillersScience Fiction|ThrillersScience Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]

Despite Dorothy Koomson regularly being suggested as an author Over the past twenty-eight years Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories. These magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of the work by Ted Chiang. I might likecannot speak highly enough of this collection of short stories, ie people who like this author also like Dorothy Koomsonthey are so wide ranging in their themes and so beautifully written, I have never read her beforeChiang has written an absolute masterpiece of a collection. Having done so I can totally see why sheIf you come across Chiang's the bestselling author of fifteen bookswork before, take this opportunity to do so now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful. [[Tell Me Your Secret Exhalation by Dorothy KoomsonTed Chiang|Full Review]]

<!-- Jo Spain Lawrence -->

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===[[Rose, Interrupted by Patrice Lawrence]]=== [[image:4.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:CrimeTeens|CrimeTeens]]

There were six friends: four men Rose and two women. They're all about eighteen and they've known each other since they started school. Both girls her brother Rudder have recently escaped from cult- Hazel Brophy and Charlotte Burke - have been in relationships like fundamentalist Christian sect, the Pilgrims, along with one of their mother. While Mum works endless hours at agency cleaning jobs trying to keep the boysrent paid on their tiny flat, but Charlotte was determined that it would not be sexualRose and Rudder are trying to navigate the worldly world. HazelIt's views were so dramatically opposite that you wondered how they could be friends. They were all partying in a derelict house not easy when Luke Connelly was pushed to his death from a third floor window and Daniel Konaté Jones was charged with rape everything is new and murder. Daniel was loosely associated with the group but never felt himself one of them. He didnrigid rules you't come from a wealthy background, is of mixed race and openly gayve always lived by are suddenly missing. Targets don't come much easier than that, except for one thing. [[The Boy Who Fell (Inspector Tom Reynolds) Rose, Interrupted by Jo SpainPatrice Lawrence|Full Review]]<!-- Webb Kate Atkinson -->

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[[image:5star.jpg|link===Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Disbelieved: Skin and Bone CSIs by Beth WebbCategory:Crime|Crime]]===

[[image:4I guess that most of us have made the odd impulse purchase but Tracy Waterhouse, security chief at the Merrion Centre in Leeds, blew most people's ideas of an impulse purchase out of the water one morning. Seeing a known prostitute dragging a toddler through the shopping mall whilst cursing at her, Waterhouse followed the woman and bought the girl for £3000.5star The difficulty of a purchase like this is knowing what to do next and Tracy's humdrum life is replaced with one of stress, fear and an overwhelming love for four-year-old Courtney.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:TeensStarted Early, Took My Dog (Jackson Brodie) by Kate Atkinson|TeensFull Review]]

Anelise <!- Annie - has been living with her cousin Joe and her auntChloe Daykin -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0571349439.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0571349439/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Fire Girl, an eminent forensic scientist, since her mum died and her naturalist father went abroad on a research tripForest Boy by Chloe Daykin]]=== [[image:5star. So she does wonder sometimes whether the minor premonitions she jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers]] Maya has - whoto escape. She's on the other end of the ringing phone, or at the door when thererun in a country she doesn's a knock t know and has no idea who to trust. Raul is escaping too - are in her imagination. But travelling back to foresee his home where a serious accident and then for it terrible tragedy happened, ready to actually happen? And stir up trouble. When their paths collide in the middle of the jungle, the dreadful headachessparks begin to fly. Something's going As modern world corruption meets the magic and legends of ancient times, can Maya draw on. Luckily for Annie, Joe is convinced and also willing her hidden light to help. So they start find the way through to investigate the accident... truth? [[Disbelieved: Skin and Bone CSIs Fire Girl, Forest Boy by Beth WebbChloe Daykin|Full Review]]

<!-- Mick Herron Angela Marsons -->

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===[[Joe Country Child's Play (Jackson Lamb 6D I Kim Stone) by Mick HerronAngela Marsons]]===

[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:ThrillersCrime|ThrillersCrime]]

I'd like to say that all the old crew are in Slough House but the rate of natural (or unnatural) wastage is such as to have Health and Safety worried. Roderick HoThere's there though, narcissistic as ever, a prologue and so's Louisa Guy. She's getting over the death of Min Harper to the extent we know that shewe's not ''too'' concerned when she gets a phone call from Clare Harper, Min's wifere dealing with someone who is very disturbed. River Cartwright has got death on his mind tooThe descriptions are horrifying, but in his case it's the impending demise worst of his beloved grandfather and former spook, all is the OB. Diana Taverner has taken over from Claude Whelan as First Desk at Regent Park and she's going to make changes: one coldness of the first is a shock. An argument with Emma Flyte sees the head dog departing the service. Meanwhile at Slough House, Catherine Standish is buying booze again, Jackson Lamb is offensive as ever and Shirley Dander and J K Coe do their best to remain unnoticed, the latter by saying nothingkiller. [[Joe Country Child's Play (Jackson Lamb 6D I Kim Stone) by Mick HerronAngela Marsons|Full Review]]

<!-- Laurain Gregory -->

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[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category:General Fiction|General FictionI Hold Your Heart by Karen Gregory]]===

Vintage 1954 starts by thrusting several completely different characters upon us, before deciding to run with them and formulate a plot[[image:4. So we have an American biker, just landing in Paris but unfortunately not with the wife who shared his dream of visiting the city together5star. We have a goth girl who everyone recognises from an American crime show, but actually is a humble restorer of antiques. We have a cocktail barman, infatuated with the goth girl. We also have a man ruling the roost over a whole suite of individual apartments fabricated from the Haussmann-era mansion his family once owned. Finally something conspires to get them together, and drinking from the same bottle of a rare 1954 red wine. Only, one of them has a bizarre incidence in his family history that also features the same plonk – where a grandfather imbibed, and walked out the door one rainy morning, never to be seen again. But of course nobody will be doing any disappearing now, though – will they? jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator):Category:Teens|Full ReviewTeens]]

Gemma has just started her A levels at school. She's a keen student and she has a good, close set of friends. Gemma loves country music and in her spare time she enjoys writing and singing country songs. She's pretty good at it too. Home life is busy - Gemma's brother Michael has a chance at a football career and the whole family, propelled by Gemma's rather over-invested dad, is supporting him with everything they've got. Gemma hasn't had a serious boyfriend yet, so when the handsome Aaron appears and an instant attraction fizzles between them, Gemma is keen to see where romance could lead... [[I Hold Your Heart by Karen Gregory|Full Review]]<!-- Ford Davis -->

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===[[The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind What's That in Dog Years? by Jackson FordBen Davis and Julia Christians]]===

[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:ThrillersConfident Readers|ThrillersConfident Readers]]

As the title suggestsGeorge and Gizmo have been together ever since George was born. Gizmo has always been a fun, this book is all about adventurous dog and a girlloyal friend, Teagan Frostbut just recently, who George has psychokinesisnoticed that he's starting to slow down a little. Forced A visit to secretly work the vets leaves George worried that Gizmo might not be around for the government along with a few unique (very much longer, and shady) individuals, Teagan has so he begins to use her power for unimaginable tasks. All of this whilst under the pretence of working for write Gizmo a moving-company. After her latest job goes wrong and her and the team escape by the skin bucket list, of their teeth, Teagan finds herself as a murder suspect when all the victim is found in such a way adventures that only she could they can still have committed the crime. The rest of the story unfolds together in a fast-paced race against time to clear TeaganGizmo's name and find out exactly what has happenedlast days. Is it possible that someone with a gift like Teagan's has managed But are they his last days? And who will help George to fly under the radarstay calm when Gizmo is gone? [[The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind What's That in Dog Years? by Jackson FordBen Davis and Julia Christians|Full Review]]

<!-- Caro Ramsay Hlad -->

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===[[The Suffering of Strangers Long Flight Home by Caro RamsayA L Hlad]]===

[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:CrimeHistorical Fiction|CrimeHistorical Fiction]]

Roberta (please call her 'Bobby') Chisholm is sleep deprived. SixSeptember 1940 -week-old Sholto doesn't ''ever'' seem to sleepas WWII rages on, bombs rain down on Britain, so Bobby's like destroying the homes and lives of a robot. There's a little light people on the horizonedge. In Epping Forest, though: Susan Shepherd and her husband James is up grandfather Bertie live together raising homing pigeons with the birds proving a comfort for a new job, which could mean quite a bit Susan following the loss of her parents. These pigeons are more money. When he rings than just birds to tell her that he's got it he's obviously over the moon Susan though – in each one, and tells Bobby to go to the local shop especially in Duchess, she sees a distinct personality and get forms a bottle of champagne so that they can celebrateclose bond. For once Sholto has dropped off Meanwhile, young pilot Ollie Evans leaves Maine to head to sleep Britain and when Bobby gets to join the Royal Air Force. Working with the shop she's reluctant to disturb him: surely there won't be a problem if she dashes National Pigeon Service, he soon meets Susan and is tasked with air-dropping hundreds of homing pigeons into German-occupied France, where many will not survive. As the shop to get mission is planned, the bubbly? She can keep an eye on the car through the shop windowbond between Ollie and Susan grows stronger, but when she comes outOllie's plane is downed behind enemy lines, the car has gone... it may be Duchess who provides an unexpected lifeline and ensures that hope of a reunion for Susan and Ollie remains… [[The Suffering of Strangers Long Flight Home by Caro RamsayA L Hlad|Full Review]]

<!-- Christopher Edge Peter Wohlleben -->

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===[[Walks In The Longest Night of Charlie Noon Wild by Christopher EdgePeter Wohlleben and Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp (Translator)]]=== [[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category: Confident ReadersAnimals and Wildlife|Animals and Wildlife]], [[:Category:Politics and Society|Confident ReadersPolitics and Society]] ''If you go into An instruction manual for the woods, Old Crony will get you.forest''is how Wohlleben' Secretss publisher described the idea for this book, spies or maybe even a monster... What lies in and that's basically what it is – although right at the heart of end the wood? Charlie, Dizzy and Johnny are determined author says that it is not intended to discover the truthbe a reference book, but when night falls without warning they find themselves trapped in a nightmare. Lost in the woods, strange dangers and impossible puzzles lurk in the shadowsan appetiser. As time plays tricks, can Charlie solve this mystery and find a way out of the woods? But what if this night never ends...? [[Walks In The Longest Night of Charlie Noon Wild by Christopher EdgePeter Wohlleben and Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp (Translator)|Full Review]]

<!-- M T Edvardsson and Rachel Lynch Wilson-Boyles -->

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===[[Bold Lies A Nearly Normal Family by M T Edvardsson and Rachel Wilson-Boyles (DI Kelly Porter 5translator) by Rachel Lynch]]===

[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]]

It was the smell which announced the presence of the body in the wheelhouse of a boat and identification wasnWe't re going to be easy as the man was stark naked. There were all hear this story through the signs viewpoints of a brutalthree different people: Adam Sandell, cold-blooded execution but gradually the man was traced back to Allendale Househis wife, Ulrika and his daughter Stella. Adam's a pastor in the estate Church of the former Lord Allendale, Sweden and then to LondonUlrika is a lawyer. Stella is, where two more bodies, nakedwell, in a staged setting in a garage, were discoveredjust difficult. Senior Investigating Officer DI Kelly Porter had to go to London You sense that she's always been difficult and there have even been occasions when Ulrika has let slip that she wishes that Stella was shocked to discover more like her best friend, Amina Bešic - and no one has ever said that the SIO for 'if they don't think thatthe other person is better. We first meet the family on Stella's 18th birthday and we get a sense of Adam' case was DCI Matt Carter, her manipulative and untrustworthy ex-lovers controlling nature. It was going Permission has to be anything but easy to work alongside Matt given for a glass of wine for Stella at the Tw... Ah, well let's not go therecelebration meal. [[Bold Lies A Nearly Normal Family by M T Edvardsson and Rachel Wilson-Boyles (DI Kelly Porter 5translator) by Rachel Lynch|Full Review]]

<!-- Jonathan Meres Green -->

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===[[Special Delivery The House of Light by Jonathan MeresJulia Green]]===

[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dyslexia Friendly|Dyslexia Friendly]], [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]

How do you explain to children about dementia? Injuries or illnesses are obviousBonnie is growing up on a slightly strange island, living with her grandfather, scavenging for food, but when and rubbish that has washed up on the problem is the brain which isn't functioning quite as it used beach that she and her grandfather can use to it isn't as easy to graspmake things. Frank was a normal nine year old There is some sort of ban against anyone else landing on the island, and like many nine year olds what he wanted was lots of suspicion around those who live there, including a new bikegreat fear of anyone who gets sick. He'd had his for about seventy-eight years and he didn't want to raise But when Bonnie is on the seat any more. Mum pointed out that it wasn't his birthday or Christmas any time soon beach one day and bikes cost discovers not only an intact boat, but a lot of moneyyoung boy cowering beneath, which didn't grow on trees. His sister Lottie had a solution: Frank could help her with her paper round. Frank agreed despite thinking that it would take rather than turn him a thousand years in to save up the money for a bike AND he had to get up at six o'clock authorities she takes him home and hides him, smuggling him boiled eggs and blankets in the morningshed whilst she tries to figure out what to do. [[Special Delivery The House of Light by Jonathan MeresJulia Green|Full Review]]

<!-- Vivian French Foster -->

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===[[The Spectacular Revenge of Suzi Sims Check Mates by Vivian FrenchStewart Foster]]===

[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dyslexia FriendlyConfident Readers|Dyslexia FriendlyConfident Readers]], [[:Category:Confident ReadersTeens|Confident ReadersTeens]]

Suzi Simms loved running In many ways Felix is a typical boy in Year 7, enjoying playing games on his PS4 and it was her ambition to win hanging out with his friend Jake at the 100 metres race on sports day weekend. However Felix is struggling at the end of term - and that was next weekschool. We're going to read about what happened in her diary, although there's He is not a problem child but he does have a warning that we really shouldn't be reading problem. His ADHD makes ithard for him to concentrate, particularly as it's about Barbie Meekhe keeps getting into trouble and his grades are slipping. To say When his Mum suggests that the two girls don't get on at all well he spends more time with his grandfather Felix is a bit of an understatementhorrified. Ever since Grandma died his Granddad has been grumpy and more eccentric than before. Suzi wouldn't actually All he wants to do anything about it, but Barbie is a troublemaker sit in the dark and she wants play chess. Felix knows that this will be extremely boring. But sometimes we learn valuable lessons where we least expect to win the 100 metres race too - by fair means or fouland perhaps Granddad and Felix can help each other. [[The Spectacular Revenge of Suzi Sims Check Mates by Vivian FrenchStewart Foster|Full Review]]

<!-- Pye Jane O'Connor -->

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===[[Needlemouse by Jane O'Connor]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]] We first meet Sylvia Penton on her birthday and her boss, the Prof, is taking her out to lunch. This is her favourite day of the year, not because it's her birthday but because of the special time she gets to spend with the man she loves. He's told her that he and his wife are going to divorce - Martha is apparently having an affair - and Sylvia is convinced that the Prof will then declare his love and they can be together. She hasn't fully constructed 'together' in her own mind - she envisages it as romantic, but her imagination hasn't yet progressed to the sexual part of the relationship. There's time though - she's only been the prof's PA for fifteen years. [[Needlemouse by Jane O'Connor|Full Review]]<!-- Various-->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1529006031.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1529006031/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[Return to Wonderland by Various Authors]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the first book she was in [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]], I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. The Adventures wacky-for-the-sake-of-it did not gel, and I don't remember loving it more as a child. But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the core from a tangent, that show the benefits of the oblique glance. I've always preferred coming to an author's output through their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and it's the same with franchises – I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, for obvious reasons). For another thing, there was every reason to expect some kind of Harry Stevenson greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that love in mind could only provide for success after success? [[Return to Wonderland by Various Authors|Full Review]] <!-- Elphinstone -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1471173666.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471173666/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[Rumblestar (The Unmapped Chronicles) by Ali PyeAbi Elphinstone]]===

[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]

Meet Harry Stevenson. He's a typical guinea pigRumblestar follows the haphazard adventures of the anxious 11-year-old Casper Tock who timetables his every movement, except he's perhaps a bit more ginger than normal. And more lazy than usual. And his appetite makes countless to do lists and is possibly bigger than hounded by wealthy bullies with the normabsurdly humorous and appropriate names of Candida Cashmere Jumps and Leopold Splattercash. Apart from that he's He stumbles across a regular guinea pig. But the stories in which he features are nothing magic portal by accident just like. In the first one hereLucy of Narnia fame, the lad who owns meets a feisty girl troubled by her past and looks after him is being forced to move house. It should be a simple journey for Harry, safe in his cage from all the predators that watching nature documentaries have put plunged into his imagination, but he gets distracted and – shock horror – left behind. It takes some bravura slapstick and a charming contrivance for him to be found againperilous quest. In a kingdom where the dark mythological forces of Midnights threaten the second, for we get two full-length stories in this volume, there's a party being held weather Marvels (equated here to get the lad used to his new schoolmatesmiracle of nature) conjured by magical creatures, and Harry used to life in a garden hutch. And one more wonderful conceit that drives high dramaonly unlikely heroes can battle against evil. [[Rumblestar (The Adventures of Harry Stevenson Unmapped Chronicles]) by Ali PyeAbi Elphinstone|Full Review]]

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===[[The Evil Occupants of Easingdale Castle by Ray Filby]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:ThrillersTeens|ThrillersTeens]]

The Yoo family originated in SeoulJason likes chess. Yoo Young and her daughter MehHe's pretty good at it too -hee came a level eight on ahead of his computer programme, with level ten being Grand Master level. He's also good at systems, having contributed to the father of the familyrelational database that has streamlined his school's administration. Jason's school, Easingdale Comprehensive, is very big on technology and its head, Yoo PakMr Johnston, as is keen to involve his pupils wherever they show promise. So Jason's friends have also helped out. Liz is great with hardware and helped with the school's card reader system. Becky has a couple in Baltimore offered to provide accommodation flair for Young software and Mehhas recommended lots of curriculum-hee in exchange for assistance in their grocery storeenhancing apps. What Young had not appreciated was that she was to work from 6 And Bill is atalented programmer.m. until midnight, seven days a week. For years she hardly saw her daughter except when the Kangs brought Meh-hee to see her at the store. Meh-hee became Mary and struggled at school: her fellow pupils were no exceptions to the rule that children can be cruel and Mary was an easy target. [[Miracle Creek The Evil Occupants of Easingdale Castle by Angie KimRay Filby|Full Review]]

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===[[Velocity Weapon Stone Cold Heart by Megan E O'KeefeCaz Frear]]=== [[image:4.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science FictionCrime|Crime]] The last thing Sanda remembers DC Cat Kinsella is her gunship explodingback at the Met after a secondment to the London Mayor's Office: the hours were good but the job was boring. She expected 's grateful to be recovered by salvageback with the old team -medics and to awaken in friendly handsher partner DS Luigi Parnell, patched-up boss DCI Kate Steele and ready DC Rénee Akwa. She's still not prepared to rejoin say anything about the identity of her boyfriend: the fight. Instead knowledge that she wakes up 230 years later's in a relationship with Aiden Doyle, on the brother of a murder victim and moreover a deserted enemy starship murder with which her father might have had some involvement could finish her career. Kinsella and Parnell are called The Light of Berossus - or, as he prefers to call himself, 'Bero'. Bero tells Sanda the war is lost. That discovery of the entire star system is dead. But is that the full story? After allbody of a young woman: Naomi Lockhart was Australian, just twenty-two years old and her body was discovered by her flat mate, in the vastness of spaceKieran Drake, anything is possible an ex-offender. . . [[Velocity Weapon Stone Cold Heart by Megan E O'KeefeCaz Frear|Full Review]]