Search results

• Dragon Danger and Grasshopper Glue (Wizzbang Wizard) by Scoular Anderson
  ...ocabulary selection and two stories in one give the child a chance to feel a sense of achievement. ..., when inevitably opened, contains a girl wizard called Jakaranda, sent on a mission to fight the evil wizard Beetleboot.
  3 KB (416 words) - 15:49, 3 October 2020
• While We Sleep... the Dream Snatchers Cometh! by Wolfren Riverstick
  |summary=A story of great originality about the battle between the Dremlocks and Inkyb ...on and the Dutch Hamster Sjaak. Guess what their house was called? Yup – it was Jacksonville.
  3 KB (520 words) - 12:54, 21 April 2018
• My Name is not Refugee by Kate Milner
  |summary=A gentle explanation of the current refugee crisis. Younger children will un ...adventure, but sometimes they're going to be on their own and it will get a bit boring, but sometimes they'll be with other people and he must remember
  3 KB (511 words) - 22:48, 2 March 2018
• A Dog Called Bear by Diane Fox and Christyan Fox
  |title=A Dog Called Bear |sort=Dog Called Bear
  4 KB (668 words) - 15:27, 26 February 2018
• Emily's Numbers by Joss Langford
  |summary= A book to enchant the child who is confident with numbers and who is open to discovering some of the ma ...f the even numbers, but it all worked out well when I really thought about it.)
  4 KB (674 words) - 11:29, 13 October 2020
• Parenting through the Eyes of a Child: Memoirs of My Childhood by Tabitha Ochekpe Omeiza
  |title=Parenting through the Eyes of a Child: Memoirs of My Childhood |summary=Engaging memoir and a twist on the usual parenting book as Tabitha Ochekpe Omeiza recalls her chi
  4 KB (707 words) - 12:13, 2 September 2020
• Billy Monster's Daymare by Alan Durant and Ross Collins
  |summary=Billy Monster has daymares - he keeps dreaming that he's seen a child and terrified that one might be lurking under the bad. Highly recommended b ...h his Daddy ''In a darkish, creepy wood... In a darkish spooky house... In a darkish, gloomy bedroom... ''
  4 KB (675 words) - 07:57, 19 August 2020
• A Child Called Happiness by Stephan Collishaw
  |title=A Child Called Happiness |sort=Child Called Happiness
  5 KB (840 words) - 15:39, 25 May 2018
• A Cat Called Ian by Wolfren Riverstick
  |title=A Cat Called Ian |sort= Cat Called Ian
  3 KB (582 words) - 14:35, 16 August 2020
• Emily Brown and the Thing by Cressida Cowell
  ...y with him so that he isn't alone in the dark. A marvellous book to help a child talk about its fears. Highly recommended. ...eping them awake.'' SPLISH! ''went the noise.'' SPLOSH! '' went the noise. It seemed to be coming from the window.''
  4 KB (710 words) - 09:28, 19 August 2020
• Child's Play (D I Kim Stone) by Angela Marsons
  |title=Child's Play (D I Kim Stone) ...ck to Kim Stone's past ''quite'' as much as earlier books have done. It's a good, engaging story which had me gripped from neginning to end and I didn'
  3 KB (622 words) - 17:48, 3 July 2019
• Moo! Said Morris by Jon Lycett-Smith
  ...cture book you don't mind reading for the twentieth time this weekend with a lovely twist to enjoy. Definitely recommended There was a little mouse called Morris and he was a very unusual mouse. Whilst all the other mice said ''Squeak'', Morris said
  2 KB (413 words) - 11:45, 7 October 2020
• Wednesday's Child by Peter Robinson
  |title=Wednesday's Child ...hief Inspector Alan Banks was investigating a particularly nasty murder at a derelict mill and the team had their hands full.
  3 KB (425 words) - 11:46, 8 March 2018
• Lots by Marc Martin
  ...erence, with lots and lots of random facts well illustrated, but is it all a little too random to be useful? ...do with giant tomes filled with information and perhaps, if you are lucky, a small black and white picture every now and again; the kids get full colour
  3 KB (592 words) - 09:11, 7 September 2020
• My School Day by Ellen Crimi-Trent
  |summary=A lovely, bold, interactive book for parents and children to share. ...the senses of sight and touch can be an effective method of teaching. The child is learning through play and having lots of fun at the same time.
  3 KB (492 words) - 16:27, 4 April 2018
• Sprinkles! Recipes and Ideas for Rainbowlicious Desserts by Jackie Alpers
  ...s broadly described as sprinkles. It's not exactly a healthy option - but it is colourful fun. ...cnic and he'd gone to town on the food. The pudding was decorated but the child seemed distracted:
  3 KB (568 words) - 13:42, 10 April 2018
• Busy Alice in Wonderland
  |summary=A well-made and thoroughly enjoyable board book which will serve as an excell ...o accept that I'm the exception rather than the rule. A friend who ''is'' a fan was chatting to me recently and lamented the fact that her grandchild w
  3 KB (514 words) - 11:54, 27 November 2015
• Ripley's Believe It or Not 2013 by Robert Leroy Ripley
  |title=Ripley's Believe It or Not 2013 ...llous, the freakish and the gut-turning. It's all here and kids will love it.
  3 KB (555 words) - 19:59, 23 March 2018
• The Weight of the World (The Amaranthine Spectrum) by Tom Toner
  |summary= This is the second book in a hugely ambitious science fiction series, and, like the first book, the acti ...s, I feel like I have just had a brief glimpse into something much larger. A great deal happens in the plot, but even more is happening, and has happene
  4 KB (718 words) - 08:12, 8 May 2018
• The King Who Didn't Like Snow by Jocelyn Porter and Michael S Kane (Illustrator)
  ...n engaging story which will encourage children to talk about their fears. It's well-written with great illustrations ...ld'' not to read them, he did - and turned bright green and grew as big as a cuddly pillow. He'd zapped himself. Obviously, he couldn't now live in th
  4 KB (660 words) - 10:42, 18 September 2021
• Vengeance by Lee Child (Editor)
  |author=Lee Child (Editor) ...ies: some are really well written, others less so, but being short stories it's very easy to skip ahead if you're not enjoying one and try out another.
  4 KB (603 words) - 13:46, 26 September 2020
• Fangs 'n' Fire by Chris Mould
  |summary= A beautifully illustrated book, but the content isn't really up to scratch. ...or at least interested in dragons. It also shows a lack of imagination as it's not mandatory for every dragon to be Smaug.
  3 KB (517 words) - 11:08, 11 August 2020
• My Cat Called Red by Jane Lightbourne
  |title=My Cat Called Red ...th a magic purr. A boy lost in grief. Can grandfather bring them together? A sweet, engaging story.
  3 KB (554 words) - 12:43, 21 May 2022
• Belle and Boo and the Very Merry Christmas by Mandy Sutcliffe
  ...eds someone to help him out. Thankfully, his best friend is a little girl called Belle and she knows what to do. Join them in this sweet and nostalgia fuel ...o stand out in the crowd. Before you can release a Christmas book though, it would help if all the characters knew what Christmas was. Thankfully, Boo
  3 KB (602 words) - 16:48, 28 March 2018
• Baggy Brown and the Royal Baby by Mick Inkpen
  |summary=A heart-warming story about a boy's love for his bear and his quest to return the bear to its rightful ow We reviewed this book when it was first published as [[Baggy Brown by Mick Inkpen|Baggy Brown]]. Here's
  4 KB (652 words) - 15:17, 26 August 2020
• Never Coming Home by Evonne Wareham
  ...man, Devlin, to help her find her daughter but in order to do so there is a shocking truth that needs to be uncovered. ...ne but when he spots photographs of Jamie, he realises that she is not the child who died in his arms.
  3 KB (560 words) - 07:26, 7 October 2020
• A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale
  |title=A Place Called Winter |sort=Place Called Winter, A
  4 KB (752 words) - 14:02, 29 September 2020
• Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
  ...terature. It's highly recommended by The Bookbag. Every child should have a copy. ...g the number of times that the grandfather clock strikes becomes a habit. It's an unnerving thirteen which persuades Tom to go down to the communal hall
  4 KB (628 words) - 11:22, 6 March 2018
• The Lost Child by Suzanne McCourt
  |title=The Lost Child |sort=Lost Child
  5 KB (812 words) - 16:11, 17 March 2018
• Baggy Brown by Mick Inkpen
  |summary=A heart-warming story about a boy's love for his bear and his quest to return the bear to its rightful ow ...A NOT FOR SALE notice was stuck on his nose and a NO 1 tag in his ear, but it was the NOT FOR SALE notice which proved his undoing. He didn't line himsel
  4 KB (644 words) - 11:13, 13 August 2020
• My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises by Fredrik Backman
  ...a little girl learning about life, the world and her grandmother's part in it. ...son behind Gran the superhero. Will it enforce her hero status or destroy it?
  5 KB (771 words) - 16:14, 29 August 2020
• Snatch by Gregory Mcdonald
  ...of an author and compiling a larger book consisting of similar stories is a great way of reusing stock that you already have. Hard Case Crime have don ...res and kidnapping of a young Duke during the Second World War, originally called ''Safekeeping''. Both have victims who are young precocious boys who have
  4 KB (624 words) - 11:50, 11 March 2018
• Home by Toni Morrison
  ...al experimentation. It sounds grim stuff, but while life is hard, it's not a traumatically difficult read. ...Wars tended to ignore the Korean war because no one knew what the point of it was.
  4 KB (628 words) - 11:17, 31 August 2020
• Charlie's Monsters (Nightmare Academy) by Dean Lorey
  ...e simplistic. The emotional landscape is rather uncomplicated, making this a fun read for thrill seekers of late primary age. ...s to sleep is a mystery to them. For Charlie is a particularly imaginative child. His dreams attract Class 5 Nether creatures, and anyone with the imaginati
  4 KB (591 words) - 10:57, 19 April 2018
• Crunch! by Carolina Rabei
  |summary=A gorgeous picture book with a couple of morals delivered in a non-preachy manner. Highly recommended. |publisher=Child's Play (International)
  2 KB (420 words) - 11:42, 29 March 2018
• Baby Dinosaurs (Follow the Trail) by DK
  ...ards if they got the chance. Better play safe than sorry and just get them a book that allows them to get their dinosaur touching thrills vicariously. ...ce to have something like ''Baby Dinosaurs'' at hand when your child is in a particularly hands on mood.
  4 KB (633 words) - 18:22, 19 March 2018
• Keras by Simon Rae
  ...young boy discovers a unicorn in the woods near his home and tries to keep it secret. Ever since reading ''The Enchanted Wood'' as I child, I always enjoyed stories about children who had the freedom to explore the
  3 KB (491 words) - 10:44, 23 April 2018
• Granny Grabber's Whizz Bang World by Charlotte Haptie
  ...mmon sense than several parents, a firm called The Happy Home Robotics and a King. ...fter all, a robot can be programmed to do exactly what you want it to, and it never has Ideas or Feelings or Imagination. As the instructions in the box
  3 KB (589 words) - 16:05, 22 April 2018
• Mr Pusskins and Little Whiskers by Sam Lloyd
  ...e great humour, this is recommended for children aged 3-5, especially with a sibling. ...imal fable. That does sound rather serious, doesn't it? But we are talking a picture book for children here, and the story in ''Mr Pusskins and Little W
  4 KB (676 words) - 13:46, 14 May 2018
• The Classic Adventures of Paddington by Michael Bond and Peggy Fortnum (Illustrator)
  |summary=A collection of the eleven original books of stories published between 1959 a [[A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond|A Bear Called Paddington]] was first published in 1958.
  3 KB (411 words) - 08:20, 24 April 2018
• The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett
  ...cept duck - until he finds the biggest one of them all. ''The Odd Egg'' is a beautifully-illustrated visual joke which will entertain adults and childre ...t incubating the egg and Flamingo is perched rather precariously on top of a very big egg.
  3 KB (515 words) - 13:20, 4 March 2018
• Tuesday by David Wiesner
  |summary=A book to delight the imagination and which is completely free of any moralis ...and to adults in equal measure? Well, he's called David Wiesner and he's a genius.
  3 KB (492 words) - 16:38, 7 March 2018
• Little Nothing by Marisa Silver
  ...d. A tale that stands with those famous fairy tales written years ago, yet a book immensely relevant for our modern day society. ...h their children as they pass on narrow market lanes. Pavla is no ordinary child, but then this is no ordinary tale.
  4 KB (732 words) - 11:47, 19 February 2018
• The Weight of Water by Penelope Evans
  ...uggle to come to terms with the changes in her life – perfect to devour on a slightly chilly, spooky evening. ...irl in a white summer dress and red shoes who stands poised on the edge of a riverbank, ready to step in and be swept away.
  3 KB (577 words) - 11:47, 18 September 2020
• My Mummy does weird things / Maman fait des choses bizarres by Amelie Julien
  ...mother can be - delivered in English and French. What better way to learn a language? ...there's doing yoga in front of the television, which could be worrying if it wasn't so funny. We won't go into too much detail about what goes on in the
  4 KB (658 words) - 10:56, 28 August 2020
• I Love You, Little Monster by Giles Andreae and Jess Mikhail
  ...with some heartfelt sentiments that will surely leave a warm feeling once it has been read. ...to say all of the things that he should say, but it is easy to do so when it is dark.
  3 KB (529 words) - 12:37, 2 March 2018
• Convertible Spaceship by Claire Philip and Belinda Gallagher
  ...a book that not only contains a story, but also changes into a playmat and a spaceship. ...Spaceship’ you get all three; a book that folds out into a playmat or into a spaceship. Can I hear the excitement from here?
  4 KB (734 words) - 11:29, 29 March 2018
• Tim the Tiny Horse by Harry Hill
  ...ve a warm glow in a reader. Probably more appreciated by a grown up than a child, though. ...it's "typical Harry Hill" and will make an attempt at reviewing ''Tim'' as a stand-alone.
  4 KB (648 words) - 12:18, 23 March 2018
• Madeleine Goes to the Moon by Peter Lynas and Charlie Roberts
  ...is book work so well together to show how valuable imagination can be to a child. Recommended. ...a girl could ask for in the way of toys, books, games and dollies. She's a very lucky girl in another way too: she has imagination and everything in h
  3 KB (554 words) - 08:06, 17 August 2021
• The House on the Lake by Nuala Ellwood
  |summary=A deeply unnerving look at the relationships between parents and their childr ...o was alone in the house is taken away by the police, but it's going to be a while before we learn exactly what has happened.
  3 KB (522 words) - 16:43, 11 August 2020
• The Dog who Dared to Dream by Sun-mi Hwang
  |summary= An outcast dog called Scraggly longs for love and family, in this poignant animal story translate ...ing she loves is cruelly ripped away from her. As she struggles to rebuild a new life and family for herself, she comes to understand that sadness, betr
  3 KB (576 words) - 10:07, 24 March 2018
• Too Pickly! by Jean Reidy and Genevieve Leloup
  ...p|Too Purply!]] looks at food rather than clothes. Just like the original, it's deceptively simple, but thoroughly wonderful. Warmly recommended. ...n love with Jean Reidy's tale of getting dressed, ''Too Pickly!'' looks at a little boy (and his hamster) deciding what to eat. Dish by dish, he rejects
  3 KB (461 words) - 13:48, 12 April 2018
• Grey Island Red Boat by Ian Beck
  |summary=This must be the perfect book for the emerging reader: a great story and all the benefits of Barrington Stoke's high production valu ...the trees and flowers. Princess Opal even sat on a grey granite throne in a grey granite room - and she wished that her life could be different. She c
  3 KB (629 words) - 11:05, 17 April 2018
• Don't Do That! by Tony Ross
  ...well that adults often do know best. Children will also love this tale as it features the delightful habit of nose picking! ...n any of the sensible grown ups help Nellie or is she facing a future with a permanent finger up her nose? But then again, Henry is very persistent...
  4 KB (660 words) - 15:52, 2 September 2020
• Planet Storyland by James Sherwood Metts
  ...in a better world, which will encourage critical thinking, creativity, and a love of storytelling. ...ong came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.
  4 KB (626 words) - 14:37, 25 February 2024
• Rainbow's Revelations: The Guinea Pig Story by Natalya Popova
  ...gentle book looks at family, love and loss and the care of small animals. It's aimed at the five to seven age group but there's some elegant word-play w ...ing to her advantage and she's even planning her own television programme, called ''Fire Without Matches''.
  4 KB (644 words) - 12:55, 18 April 2018
• My Mummy does weird things / Maman fait des choses bizarres by Amelie Julien and Gustyawan
  ...mother can be - delivered in English and French. What better way to learn a language? ...there's doing yoga in front of the television, which could be worrying if it wasn't so funny. We won't go into too much detail about what goes on in the
  4 KB (726 words) - 14:05, 4 December 2019
• Rapunzel by Simona Sanfilipo
  |summary=With 'Tangled' having been a huge hit at the cinema, my daughters were delighted to pick up the story of |publisher=Child's Play
  3 KB (595 words) - 07:30, 21 September 2020
• Lying Beside You by Michael Robotham
  ...eased from Rampton. Then Cyrus is called to a crime scene in Nottingham. A man has been murdered and his daughter is misssing. Highly recommended. ...is being released. Can Cyrus forgive the sinner whilst having to live on a daily basis with the results of the crime? Can he bear to have Elias livin
  4 KB (654 words) - 04:18, 1 April 2024
• Think Outside the Box by Justine Avery and Liuba Syrotiuk
  ...inking that will be super fun to share. One that will benefit from as much child and parent interaction as possible. ''Whenever you find a problem <br>
  3 KB (545 words) - 10:46, 18 September 2020
• Shine Moon Shine by David Conway
  ...return to the night sky with wonderful illustration which will delight any child from 3 to 103! Highly recommended. ...NIGHT IN A GREAT BIG CITY the moon fell from the sky and landed on top of a very tall building. All the people in the neighbourhood tried to put the mo
  4 KB (622 words) - 15:29, 3 March 2018
• Sew Quick, Sew Cute: 30 Simple, Speedy Projects by Fiona Goble
  ...in a short time but which still have the WOW! factor. The book gives you a real feeling of 'I CAN do this!' ...aevant to their lives. I was 'encouraged' to knit tea cosies as a child. It didn't cut the mustard even then... I think I might have found the answer.
  4 KB (734 words) - 11:00, 11 April 2018
• Dragon Magic (Red Bananas) by Pippa Goodhart and Lesley Danson
  ...soften the metal but unfortunately, the puff has run out. They need to get a new dragon soon and complete the gate but will they have enough time? ...n't be finished and he has spied strangers heading towards the city. It is a race against time especially when Puff shows signs of becoming ill. What el
  3 KB (487 words) - 15:41, 24 August 2020
• A Horse For Angel by Sarah Lean
  |title=A Horse For Angel |sort=Horse For Angel, A
  4 KB (640 words) - 11:08, 17 April 2018
• Keep Her Quiet by Emma Curtis
  ...nputdownable': this one truly is. A man connives in the theft of a baby. It will effect his life for years to come in ways that he could never have exp ...e's a high-earning accountant (it's her income which gives the family such a good lifestyle) and Leo has the sole use of her family cottage in rural Ken
  5 KB (834 words) - 10:20, 29 March 2024
• Peek-a-Poo - What's In Your Nappy? by Guido van Genechten
  |title=Peek-a-Poo - What's In Your Nappy? ...o lift the flaps and look at the different types of poo. You know you want it.
  4 KB (677 words) - 11:34, 6 April 2018
• I Could Be A Superhero by Chris Hornsey and Gwyn Perkins
  |title= I Could Be A Superhero ...dreams. He doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up but he knows it will be something exciting. In this book he shares some of his ideas with h
  4 KB (656 words) - 09:01, 3 September 2020
• The Declaration by Gemma Malley
  ...quality of writing is such that thoughtful younger children could approach it too. ...ven more strain on the world's dwindling resources and a Chinese-style one child per family policy isn't enough. In this speculative 2140, childbirth is ill
  4 KB (600 words) - 13:43, 25 February 2018
• Fire Girl, Forest Boy by Chloe Daykin
  |summary=From the author of ''Fish Boy'' and ''The Boy Who Hit Play'' comes a fast-paced and gripping story of lies, guilt and environmentalism set in th ...ngeance on his mind. When the two run head-long into each other, so begins a tale of the how the old and the spiritual meets modern corruption and greed
  3 KB (548 words) - 07:35, 7 October 2020
• The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
  ...and downs she clings to this fierce passion for all things floral - but is it enough? ...be as free as a bird and do what she wants, when she wants. Bliss. Or is it?
  4 KB (730 words) - 14:24, 17 March 2018
• Guess What I Found in the Playground! by Victoria Thompson
  ...asure to read and there are no tedious lessons being taught to the child. It's about ''joy and ''fun''. ...lectable things for her scrap box? (Isn't that so much more sensible than a scrap ''book''?) Well, actually, Tilly did find exciting stuff. There are
  4 KB (616 words) - 10:14, 31 December 2020
• The Borrowers: The Borrowers and The Borrowers Afield by Mary Norton
  ...eighton Buzzard, a market town in the Home Counties. He is recovering from a serious illness. The house is an ideal place for the Clock family, tiny peo ...rited a cottage near Leighton Buzzard, and she and Mrs May go to visit it. It is here that she hears the sequel to the events of the first book. The Cloc
  2 KB (409 words) - 13:26, 21 September 2020
• Dr Seuss: A Classic Treasury by Dr Seuss
  |title=Dr Seuss: A Classic Treasury ...Seuss book into the shower, when you can take five? This omnibus contains a selection of some of the good doctor's most loved classics.
  3 KB (593 words) - 08:25, 18 April 2018
• Shake Rattle and Hurl (Rotten School) by R L Stine
  ...contained within. You'll hate it and they'll love it. Just give in and buy it. This book is awful. It's utterly without merit. Buy it anyway.
  4 KB (769 words) - 11:56, 5 March 2018
• The Turkey That Voted For Christmas by Madeleine Cook and Samara Hardy
  |summary=Join a slightly confused young turkey in this colourful children's book that explo ...l novel will know that this does not always turn out for the best. Surely a kid's book is not going to reflect modern politics? I mean, when have we r
  3 KB (597 words) - 09:56, 6 September 2020
• Shrinking Violet by Lou Kuenzler
  ...girl who discovers a strange tendency that makes life rather difficult for a while. Suitable for confident readers from about six to ten. ...dreams, she starts to shrink. And finds herself staring face-to-face with a worm.
  4 KB (626 words) - 15:07, 11 October 2020
• The Factory Made Boy by Christine Nostlinger
  |summary=A surreal, unusual story that's fun to read and quite thought-provoking. ..., inside, a perfect factory-made little boy - she definitely never ordered a little boy! Conrad and Mrs Bartolotti soon grow to love each other, but wh
  4 KB (626 words) - 08:28, 23 April 2018
• Unnatural History by Jonathan Kellerman
  ...ry=Altruism gone wrong. It might be number 38 in the series but it's still a fresh and invesntive read. Recommended. ...then dressed up as their fantasy, photographed and sent on their way with a generous gift in dollars.
  3 KB (534 words) - 21:23, 2 April 2024
• My Unwilling Witch (The Rumblewick Letters) by Hiawyn Oram
  |summary=RB is having problems with Haggy Aggy. She doesn't want to be a witch any more. Excellent text, dynamic ilustrations and lots to explore th ...do is shop, watch telly and make some friends who aren't witches.'' What's a cat to do in that situation then?
  4 KB (643 words) - 14:56, 3 September 2020
• Botanicum (Welcome To The Museum) by Katie Scott and Kathy Willis
  ...y=A lavishly-produced book which unfortunately could be too advanced for a child but not sufficiently-detailed for an adult. ...author Kathy Willis and illustrator Katie Scott as curators. Still, it's a contrivance which doesn't affect the content.
  5 KB (879 words) - 09:32, 30 August 2020
• Tilly's Promise by Linda Newbery
  |summary=A gritty, realistic love story set during the first world war. Easy to read, ...e changed. Will even love remain the same - especially in the aftermath of a broken promise?
  5 KB (834 words) - 18:50, 17 March 2018
• Posy by Linda Newbery and Catherine Rayner
  ...ee the story of Posy's day told in rhyme is a delight. If you haven't got a cat then this book could convince you that you really should! Highly recom I've got a new best friend. She's called Posy.
  3 KB (528 words) - 14:25, 27 February 2018
• My Brother's Hot Cross Bottom by Jeremy Strong
  ...y reader which is going to appeal to the average seven year old boy. It's a good story and has characters you can relate to. Recommended. ...za delivery van) have developed hot, red, spotty bottoms and to cap it all a girl has come to live next door. When you're thirteen that's really more t
  3 KB (542 words) - 09:06, 20 April 2018
• Sins by Penny Jordan
  |summary= A light novel that does not live up to its title ...d to bag herself a royal husband, outsider Rose just wants to fit in, wild child Janey puts her heart and soul into becoming the next Mary Quant, and sensib
  3 KB (538 words) - 10:31, 6 April 2018
• The Quiet People by Paul Cleave
  ...ary=A well-paced read that takes a very different approach to the "missing child" story-line, bringing up some of societies unanswered debates along the way ...the past. The good news is that it turned out not to be a mistake but just a piece of brilliant serendipity.
  5 KB (815 words) - 15:44, 30 March 2024
• Cruel Acts by Jane Casey
  |summary=Another cracking story from Casey: it might be genre fiction, but it's exceptionally-well written. Highly recommended. ...ot two months for contempt of court and Stone was released on bail pending a retrial.
  3 KB (550 words) - 19:48, 11 August 2020
• Noo-Noos! by Carol Thompson
  |publisher=Child's Play (International) Ltd |summary=Sweetly drawn and simply written, a lovely book to share with little ones.
  3 KB (525 words) - 17:33, 4 April 2018
• Me and You by Anthony Browne
  ...sh perspective, but the more you dig, the more ''Me and You'' will reveal. It's an utterly gorgeous picture book that works on so so so many levels. Anth ''You may be looking for the similarly-named [[Me and You by Janet A Holmes and Judith Rossell]]''.
  4 KB (662 words) - 22:20, 2 March 2018
• Chinese Calendar Tales: The Tale of Rhonda Rabbit by Sarah Brennan and Harry Harrison
  |summary=A funny, unusual picture book - better for school age children rather than to ...on to capture and kill her, and the unfortunate conclusion to this romp of a tale...
  4 KB (607 words) - 10:48, 29 March 2018
• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
  ...derful illustrations in this deserved picture book classic. A must for any child aged 2 to 4. '''A ''Times Educational Supplement'' Teachers' Top 100 Book'''
  4 KB (697 words) - 12:25, 1 March 2018
• Marvin's Funny Dance by Sarah McConnell
  ...adults of all ages. Every page is a delight and it's the sort of book your child will want you to read again and again. ...with dung balls to send them on their way. After the plan works, Marvin is a hero and all of the other meerkats want to be like him!
  4 KB (694 words) - 12:36, 4 April 2018
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Other Nursery Favourites by Mandy Stanley
  |summary= A good collection of bedtime nursery rhymes with cute pictures. Every small child should have book (or a few) containing traditional nursery rhymes, and every so often newly illust
  3 KB (393 words) - 13:47, 6 March 2018
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Michelle Lovric
  ...g myth and legend against science. We jumped at the opportunity to ask her a few questions. ...g myth and legend against science. We jumped at the opportunity to ask her a few questions.
  5 KB (792 words) - 19:30, 18 November 2009
• The Island by Sarah Singleton
  ...ar expedition goes horribly wrong in this intense and sophisticated novel. It's vivid and compelling and again, something new from this tremendously vers ...has a different reason for the trip: Otto wants to get some experience for a hoped-for career in photo-journalism; Charlie wants to volunteer and beef u
  3 KB (491 words) - 13:45, 22 August 2020
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Glenn Dakin
  ...eries will be a big hit with tween readers. We asked Glenn Dakin all about it. ...eries will be a big hit with tween readers. We asked Glenn Dakin all about it.
  4 KB (749 words) - 09:08, 6 June 2011
• The First Book of Calamity Leek by Paula Lichtarowicz
  ...wall', their enemies being the 'injuns' and 'demonmales'. I know, that's a lot of words in quotes. Let me explain... ...ren, that are true and untrue, and where you draw the line at 'creating' a child's reality.
  5 KB (871 words) - 13:48, 16 March 2018
• Angels of Destruction by Keith Donohue
  ...legant writing makes this part-character study, part-fairy tale for adults a rewarding read. ...aned Norah, passing her off as her granddaughter. But Norah is no ordinary child…
  4 KB (641 words) - 10:42, 19 March 2021
• Animal Rescue: The Unwanted Puppy by Tina Nolan
  |summary=The first in a series about rescuing animals which have been abandoned, lost or neglected ...d Eva are ''not'' to get the idea that they can keep any of the animals on a permanent basis. If they did the house would be overrun!
  3 KB (540 words) - 12:37, 17 April 2018
• Read On - Unsolved Mysteries by Keith West
  ...steries is just as much fun for sceptics as for believers and suitable for a wide range of ages. ...how through. This combined with the easy to read text will help to build a child's confidence.
  5 KB (954 words) - 11:27, 25 February 2018
• The Beasties by Jenny Nimmo and Gwen Millward
  ...re book holds a delightful tale to share with small children especially as it is all about the magic of bedtime stories. ...erdinand, is telling an enchanting story all about a ring that belonged to a faraway king. Before long Daisy falls asleep wondering about the ring. Duri
  4 KB (650 words) - 14:31, 10 April 2018
• Toby and Sox: The Heartwarming Tale of a Little Boy With Autism and a Dog in a Million by Vikki Turner
  ...by and Sox: The Heartwarming Tale of a Little Boy With Autism and a Dog in a Million |summary= A very special dog called Sox arrives to help an autistic boy called Toby and his family, who are desperate for help.
  4 KB (651 words) - 11:44, 26 February 2018
• Choosing Crumble by Michael Rosen and Tony Ross (Illustrator)
  |summary=A funny and appealing story for newly independent readers telling you all you ...to be sure that his prospective owner is the perfect match for him and has a few questions of his own. Will Terri- Lee be able to convince Crumble that
  3 KB (484 words) - 11:11, 5 September 2020
• Tomorrow I'll Be Twenty by Alain Mabanckou
  ..., very touching and full of the child-like logic that would make the world a much better place if we were all that age again. ...as he meets her conditions: she requires children, a red 5-seater car and a white dog.
  4 KB (649 words) - 12:28, 8 September 2020
• Kinsey and Me: Stories by Sue Grafton
  ...er novels who would like to read a little bit more about Kinsey, and learn a little about the author's life too. ...tobiography for Grafton herself, with stories supposedly about a character called Kit Blue but, really, being stories of Grafton's own childhood and young ad
  4 KB (714 words) - 17:03, 6 August 2020
• Frida and Bear by Anthony Browne and Hanne Bartholin
  |summary=A story and rules in one, this is a book that's fun to read and a game that's fun to play. ...d it stems from their mutual love of drawing. If you didn’t think that was a two-player activity think again.
  3 KB (477 words) - 11:31, 7 August 2020
• Naughty Toes by Ann Bonwill and Teresa Murfin
  ...). She's dancing off the beat to her own jazzy rhythm...just what kind of a dancer is she? ...rightly on her face she ends up waving hers around so they'll sparkle like a disco ball!
  3 KB (570 words) - 17:03, 4 April 2018
• Flotsam and Jetsam and the Stormy Surprise by Tanya Landman
  ...ing with a pre-reader too, with a warm story and some potential for use as a source of language work material. ...ab called Sainsbury, explore the treasures that the sea brings and talk in a strange but perfectly understandable dialect reminiscent of the BFG.
  5 KB (887 words) - 17:15, 18 April 2018
• A Horrid Factbook: Horrid Henry's Bodies by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross
  |title=A Horrid Factbook: Horrid Henry's Bodies |summary=Chock-full of interesting facts and figures. A fun read for little fact lovers.
  3 KB (520 words) - 10:11, 8 August 2020
• Trash by Andy Mulligan
  .... Moving and thought-provoking and ever-so-slightly whimsical, it combines a mystery story and social comment to wonderful effect. ...nd he has good things in his life - a close extended family, a best friend called Gardo - and an exciting secret.
  4 KB (636 words) - 22:59, 17 March 2018
• The Toucan Brothers by Tor Freeman
  ...of visual cues when reading, this book is definitely one you want to take a closer look at. The expressions on the characters faces are perfect and eac ...ent of the book. I am not all surprised to learn that she has been awarded a very prestigious prize for illustration (The Sendak Fellowship).
  4 KB (814 words) - 11:17, 24 August 2020
• The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry
  ...d to be home to people with unnatural physical features. Was Lena's Father a Peculiar? And what does that make her? ...wants to know more about herself, why has she got these hands and feet? Is it because she has 'goblin blood' like her bitter Grandmother tells her?
  3 KB (542 words) - 14:13, 14 March 2018
• Charlie is My Darling by Malachy Doyle and Stephen Lambert
  ...ss Ellen Adams. He takes Charlie to the park where he soon discovers that a little dog can cause big trouble. ...either. This is a shame because as we learn later in the story he is just a dog ''who likes to run, who likes to play, who likes to paddle, likes to br
  4 KB (811 words) - 10:29, 29 March 2018
• The Astonishing Return of Norah Wells by Virginia Macgregor
  |summary=What happens to a family that's moved on from the departure of a wife and mother when she suddenly pops up again? Warm, poignant, funny and ...a and little 6 year old Willa seem a happy family. They are on the whole, it's just Ella who isn't. Fay, named by the ladies across the road 'The Mothe
  4 KB (708 words) - 09:36, 15 March 2018
• The Art of Roughhousing: Good Old Fashioned Horseplay and Why Every Kid Needs It by Anthony T DeBenedet and Lawrence Cohen
  ...Art of Roughhousing: Good Old Fashioned Horseplay and Why Every Kid Needs It ...=Art of Roughhousing: Good Old Fashioned Horseplay and Why Every Kid Needs it
  6 KB (972 words) - 11:11, 4 February 2023
• The Death of Her by Debbie Howells
  ...a child ever lived there. Does Angel really exist, or is she a figment of a tortured mind? ...s, but on closer examination of Evie's cottage, they find no evidence of a child ever having lived there...
  4 KB (596 words) - 11:38, 16 March 2018
• Chickens Can't See in the Dark by Kristyna Litten
  ...s to find the answer to. Having been told that they can't, she sets off on a mission to disprove this fact even though all of the other chicks are laugh When a little chick called Pippa hears her teacher, Mr Benedict, say:
  4 KB (622 words) - 08:58, 17 September 2020
• Super Happy Magic Forest by Matty Long
  ...funky fantasy. Join a gnome, a unicorn, a fawn, a fairy and a mushroom on a fantastical adventure. ...spark this enthusiasm in your kids? Matty Long may just have come up with a cunning plan.
  3 KB (597 words) - 12:25, 10 April 2018
• Dora's Christmas Parade by Leslie Valdes
  |summary=Dora the Explorer goes on a Christmas musical walk to her Grandma's. Clunky, cumbersome and an offence ..., designed as a way of either familiarising English-speaking children with a smattering of Spanish or (and?) brining the Latin (Mexican?) community clos
  3 KB (558 words) - 13:31, 8 March 2018
• Sticky Ends by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross
  |summary=A book of disgusting and gruesome rhymes. I didn't think it was fantastic, but there are one or two gems in there and some great illust ...nvolved, with each one getting their comeuppance. Tony Ross obviously had a wonderful time illustrating the book with everything from noses, dripping w
  3 KB (595 words) - 14:11, 11 October 2020
• Thud by Nick Butterworth
  ...ly illustrated story full of suspense, action, humour and humanity (though it concerns jungle animals and monsters), highly recommended for all preschool ...ut not monsters, Piers the warthog is too beautiful and Ralph the lion has a sore throat. Even the Ugly Beast doesn't feel able to help.
  3 KB (584 words) - 13:25, 12 April 2018
• Private Investigations (Bob Skinner) by Quintin Jardine
  ...is attempts to close it mean that it opens instead and the body of a small child is revealed. ...the new head of the unified Scottish police force, Sir Andrew Martin is in a difficult position. Does he accept Skinner's help or do his best to margin
  3 KB (603 words) - 07:55, 12 August 2020
• Molly and her Dad by Jan Ormerod and Carol Thompson
  ...y feels a bit sad because she is the only little girl in her class without a daddy at home. Sometimes, in order not to feel left out, she makes up stori ...after her. Although Molly is very excited about this, when he does arrive it takes some time for them to get to know and understand each other.
  5 KB (859 words) - 14:47, 4 April 2018
• Eric the Boy Who Lost His Gravity by Jenni Desmond
  ...mary=Unusual and funny, this is an interesting look at what happens when a child gets angry! ...deal with that anger. This story is about what happens when a little boy called Eric gets angry.
  3 KB (606 words) - 14:54, 29 March 2018
• 3 and me!
  ...young as three. Coincidentally the Numberjack I want you to meet today is called Three. ...pretty face though (despite what the front cover might suggest). There's a lovely curvy shape too and we're encouraged to draw the figure and practice
  3 KB (465 words) - 08:13, 30 November 2014
• The Ribbajack and Other Curious Yarns by Brian Jacques
  A superbly crafted collection of horror and suspense stories pitched perfectl ''A single bloodshot eye...'' <br>
  3 KB (575 words) - 09:01, 26 August 2020
• Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan
  ...rt-warming and humorous? This is book that could match either description. It all depends on your point of view. This is breathtakingly beautiful, and ...tion who are not too easily frightened, this book can be pure magic. It is a story of friendship, of the relationship between brothers, of anger and riv
  5 KB (816 words) - 18:44, 21 February 2018
• Criminal Enterprise by Owen Laukkanen
  ...of work, so one day a former accountant does something about it by robbing a bank. What happens next is charted in this thrilling and excellent novel. ...nth. What we don’t do is take a scribbled note saying you have a gun into a bank and force money out of the till. For one out-of-work accountant, Cart
  4 KB (670 words) - 14:01, 2 February 2024
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition with Dame Vivienne Westwood) by Lewis Carroll
  ...150th birthday? By adding to it, is how. Well, a nonsense book requires a nonsense riddle… ...thday edition for it, but this is one of the more distinctive efforts, for it comes with the help of Dame Vivienne Westwood. And even though I have [[Al
  5 KB (801 words) - 12:04, 17 April 2018
• The Lying Carpet by David Lucas
  |summary=A black and white blaze of simple, yet profoundly charming, fable. ...In between is a tiger rug. What potential is in that for the setting of a charming book? What potential indeed...
  3 KB (436 words) - 10:27, 8 August 2020
• Best-loved Paddington Stories by Michael Bond and R W Alley
  ...r appears in three classic tales that highlight his antics, but also teach a little bit about empathy. ...is comes across in his actions and how the other characters treat him. As a reader, you also see this and cannot help falling for his effortless charms
  3 KB (570 words) - 15:17, 10 August 2020
• The Incredible Luck of Alfie Pluck by Jamie Rix
  ...ve discovered a 'luck gene' and has bred it in a very special chicken. In a somewhat unlikely series of events, Alfie ends up with this chicken, which ...edly escaping from various people who want him, dead or alive. It's quite a clever ploy: the book is full of the most unlikely coincidences and last-mi
  3 KB (552 words) - 12:28, 16 August 2020
• A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern
  |title=A Place Called Here |sort=Place Called Here
  5 KB (900 words) - 08:18, 25 September 2020
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Martin King
  ...n 8 – 13, but I also like to think their mums and dads would enjoy reading it as well. ...of buried treasure when he was a young boy. Whilst writing my first book, a flash of this memory inspired the foundations for Jack Hunter.
  4 KB (814 words) - 16:47, 29 August 2011
• Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson
  ...d science and mixed with a dose of refreshingly unsaccharine love, this is a big book for the little ones, despite its occasional loose end. Best read a ...er, sinister alchemist and magician of indeterminate age, from discovering a powerful clock known as the Timekeeper and ruling the world himself.
  4 KB (723 words) - 13:36, 29 September 2020
• Tom Gates is Absolutely Fantastic (at some things) by Liz Pichon
  |summary=Tom Gates go on a school trip, with comic results. ...I am trying to see this book through my son's eyes, and he really enjoyed it.
  5 KB (871 words) - 10:22, 7 August 2020
• The Silly Satsuma by Allan Plenderleith
  |summary=A delightful morality tale which will leave you laughing and might give the m ...er the tree for Eric: a satsuma. Oh, there was something else - there was a note from Father Christmas explaining why there were no presents. Eric was
  3 KB (470 words) - 10:19, 19 September 2020
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Hilary McKay
  ...Frances Hodgson Burnett]]) and couldn't resist the opportunity to ask her a few questions. ...Frances Hodgson Burnett]]) and couldn't resist the opportunity to ask her a few questions.
  4 KB (754 words) - 16:16, 8 May 2018
• The Last Person in the World by Matthew Tree
  ...at troubling social problems in a slightly different way. This time, it's child abuse and you'll be left wishing that the real stories had worked out this ...d, the UK's third most prestigious university. Before going up, he took up a loose invitation to visit Ralph at his home, Clouds Manor in West Dorset.
  4 KB (632 words) - 12:37, 19 August 2023
• A Winter Book by Tove Jansson
  |title=A Winter Book ...ing for the natural world and the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the world might be.
  6 KB (1,002 words) - 11:15, 29 March 2024
• The Soul of Discretion (Simon Serrailler) by Susan Hill
  |summary=Every community dreads the thought that child abuse has been - or is - rife in their town. Simon Serrailler discovers th ...herapy centre and is was here that DCS Serrailer went as Johno Miles, also a convicted paedophile.
  4 KB (676 words) - 09:34, 12 August 2020
• Two Wrongs by Mel McGrath
  ...ong at Avon University in Bristol: it's being called suicide contagion but it might be that some of the teaching staff are more involved than they'd like ...l and Nevis calls her mother, Honor. They've not been on good terms since a discovery Nevis made the previous summer but right now, Nevis needs her mot
  4 KB (729 words) - 10:15, 30 March 2024
• The Sexes by Dorothy Parker
  ...They're in a book that's no bigger than most short stories but buy it and it could well be the best buy that you make this year. ...Her face, if you remembered to see it, had a look of shy welcoming…'', but a thread of keen observation runs through all the stories. She has the subtle
  3 KB (454 words) - 14:19, 24 February 2018
• XX by Angela Chadwick
  ...isgraceful behaviour of the media, and the general public, when faced with a controversial technique that could lead to the demise of men. ...ocesses such as the harvesting of eggs that are crucial to the process. As a reader you are able to picture how this trial would affect the world we liv
  4 KB (714 words) - 07:31, 13 August 2018
• The Rising Tide by Sam Lloyd
  ...ory of a family destroyed by a malicious attack which they have to face in a destructive storm. Utterly unoutdownable. ...a history together from the time they both spent in a children's home but it's difficult to think that Nick has Daniel's best interests at heart, partic
  3 KB (589 words) - 10:43, 30 March 2024
• Nowhere Island by Tania Unsworth
  ...patch of land. The fact they don't go full feral and prove to not deserve a decent future there is but one of many plus points here. ...destinies can combine, or if this is one place where life as we would want it just would not work…
  4 KB (636 words) - 21:45, 2 April 2024
• Esio Trot by Roald Dahl
  ...adult, the abuse of power, the questioning of authority. As such, it makes a great introduction to the great man for children of six or seven and up. Bu ...n it, I wanted my hair to grow as long as Rapunzel's hair. Mrs Mendoza was a great teacher. She was inspirational. And so was Roald Dahl. And so were hi
  8 KB (1,447 words) - 09:15, 2 March 2018
• The Water Thief by Claire Hajaj
  ...ption, politics, questionable charitable interventions…and wraps it all in a very human story of love and loss. ...med west African country providing engineering support for the building of a children's hospital. He has no idea what he is getting himself into.
  5 KB (848 words) - 08:02, 4 August 2018
• Class Three All At Sea by Julia Jarman and Lynne Chapman
  ...s them off on a boat trip today. It looks as though they are going to have a lovely day but they haven't seen what's lurking on the horizon... ...tones. However, there is something in the background that they don't see – a skull and crossbones!
  4 KB (674 words) - 10:22, 19 August 2020
• The Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle
  |summary=Fifty two succinct tips to help you get the best out of whatever it is that you want to do. Recommended. ...e business world. The tips are short - all fifty two are covered in about a hundred and twenty pages - easily read and simple to put into practice.
  3 KB (472 words) - 13:22, 13 April 2018
• The Accidental Stowaway by Judith Eagle
  ...the mystery elements of this story, and I really wanted to take a trip on a steamship by the end! ...) she winds up on the steamship hiding in a lifeboat, and before she knows it, the ship has left the docks and she is an accidental stowaway!
  4 KB (677 words) - 04:38, 1 April 2024
• Personal by Lee Child
  |author=Lee Child ...usade or may just be out to turn the whole world upside down by taking out a world leader in the most public way possible.
  7 KB (1,169 words) - 11:09, 16 September 2020
• The Ancient Egyptians by Imogen Greenberg and Isabel Greenberg
  ...f the most complex and intriguing peoples of all time is a big ask; making it assessable to children is even bigger. Imogen and Isabel Greenberg have at ...ome before reading the books, but of the two, ''The Ancient Egyptians'' is a slightly harder read.
  4 KB (644 words) - 09:47, 24 March 2018
• Precious and the Mystery of the Missing Lion : A New Case for Precious Ramotswe by Alexander McCall Smith
  |title=Precious and the Mystery of the Missing Lion : A New Case for Precious Ramotswe ...n't disappointed. Once again his gentle charm shines through, and this is a delightful book to read aloud or just enjoy by yourself, however old you ma
  3 KB (432 words) - 23:04, 9 March 2018
• The Death of Lomond Friel by Sue Peebles
  |summary=A compassionate look at a family in crisis and characters who'll stay in your mind long after you've ...troke she took a break from work and began to build her life around making a future for herself and her father. There are two problems here: Rosie isn'
  3 KB (552 words) - 13:45, 11 October 2020
• Gamer by Chris Bradford
  |summary=An all action, dyslexia-friendly book that reads like a video game. ...high adrenaline experience of a video game, but it has plenty to offer the child who loves books as well.
  4 KB (789 words) - 19:56, 29 August 2020
• Toad Surprise by Morris Gleitzman
  ..., as a Christmas-themed adventure offers delights and surprises aplenty in a hilarious adventure for those in single digits. ...zman|Holocaust stories]], but as it begins with an apocalyptic massacre in a hit and run road crash, perhaps you might. Such is the lot of the humble c
  3 KB (436 words) - 19:39, 11 March 2018
• Dust 'n' Bones by Chris Mould
  ...t illustrations and a good mix of new tales and retold classics. Ideal for a Halloween read or any fireside evening: and they'll be to scared to go upst ...issued anthology of short stories called ''Dust and Bones'' he has created a perfect primer for the whole genre.
  3 KB (488 words) - 11:38, 5 October 2020
• The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer
  |summary=A worthy winner of the Costa First Novel Award 2013 and an author to watch. ...d Annabelle who was burying her doll, but the story isn't about Annabelle, it's initially about Simon, Matthew's older brother and we know what's going t
  3 KB (534 words) - 16:43, 11 August 2020
• Peter the Penguin Pioneer by Daren King
  |summary= A zany and exciting adventure that verges on the sublimely ridiculous. ...r penguins discover that their ice skating rink has apparently shrunk, and it's up to Peter to discover the cause.
  3 KB (433 words) - 10:33, 7 September 2020
• Henry and the Hidden Treasure by B C R Fegan and Lenny Wen
  ...e bright and cheerful illustrations complement the text perfectly. I loved it! B C R Fegan popped into Bookbag Towers to [[The Interview: Bookbag Talks T ...is parents think he should be nicer to Lucy, Henry knows that she's really a secret ninja spy sent to steal his treasure. Isn't that true of ''all'' li
  4 KB (743 words) - 17:41, 29 March 2018
• For Richer, For Poorer: Confessions of a Player by Victoria Coren
  |title=For Richer, For Poorer: Confessions of a Player |summary=The life and times of poker-playing Victoria Coren makes for a highly-recommended and readable book.
  3 KB (458 words) - 10:38, 26 February 2018
• Floundering by Romy Ash
  ...alance just right - more compelling than depressing, but that doesn't mean it's not upsetting. ...but Jordy's more sullen. Once they arrive at their ultimate destination - a ramshackle caravan park - Tom begins to understand why but not before both
  4 KB (640 words) - 11:30, 23 February 2018
• The Only Pupil in the School by Hsukung Liu and Xinlin Wang (translator)
  |summary=A quirky look at a young girl's first day in school when she's the only pupil. ...e learned and at the library she drew a book about what she had seen - and it was there that the teachers found her.
  3 KB (506 words) - 10:19, 12 April 2018
• Jinny at Finmory: The Summer Riders by Patricia Leitch
  ...ly published in the seventies but still fresh and engaging and a treat for a young horse lover. ...y has been in trouble with the police for stealing and the girl walks with a limp. Just having them around is going to be bad enough, but there's worse
  3 KB (490 words) - 12:45, 21 April 2018
• Child of the Jungle by Sabine Kuegler
  |title=Child of the Jungle ...reader is free to make whatever judgements s/he chooses. This reader found it fascinating.
  4 KB (699 words) - 14:43, 24 September 2020
• Thanks for Telling Me, Emily by Deirdre Madden
  ...e) inside. It will probably appeal more to girls than to boys but there's a valuable message about the responsibilities which come with owning an anima .... Aunt Emily's cottage is covered in ivy and looks as though it's wearing a thick woolly sweater. What excites Keira most though are the animals who l
  4 KB (688 words) - 08:42, 20 April 2018
• Watch Out for the Crocodile by Lisa Moroni and Eva Eriksson
  ...es elusive, Tora needs to use all her imagination but can Dad do the same? A sweet and memorable tale of father-daughter bonding that parents and childr ...f imagination is called for from both father and daughter to make the trip a memorable one.
  3 KB (555 words) - 14:17, 12 April 2018
• Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick
  ...fetimes and seven incarnations they seek to find each other, to reunite in a loving embrace. ...of blood and violence, and at the last, just as the islanders drag him to a stone table to kill him, things become clear in his mind. He has been here
  5 KB (825 words) - 11:50, 4 March 2018
• Little Mouse by Alison Murray
  ...eated this engaging and heart-warming story about the relationship between a little girl and her mother. ...age child; she can waddle like a penguin, eat like a horse and splash like a whale in author Alison Murray's gorgeous wander through the daytime exploit
  4 KB (679 words) - 18:28, 2 March 2018
• Time Swimmer (Island Fiction) by Gerald Hausman
  ...culture with a nice message about the power of words and storytelling, but a slightly unsatisfying feel. .... In Jamaica that's bad news. You can't get anywhere without an education. A week ago, his friend Benji failed too. He took his own life, jumping off Ta
  3 KB (470 words) - 16:35, 18 April 2018
• The Sad Story of Veronica Who Played The Violin by David McKee
  ..., this story of a sassy little girl by the name of Veronica is bound to be a hit. ..., that like an X Factor contestant, she’s dropping out of school to become a star.
  3 KB (628 words) - 12:25, 7 March 2018
• A Darkness Descending (Sandro Cellini) by Christobel Kent
  |title=A Darkness Descending (Sandro Cellini) ...is bang up to the moment in its themes and has a clever plot. The pace is a little slow for my taste - but you might well think differently.
  3 KB (553 words) - 17:08, 7 March 2018
• The Stolen Songbird by Judith Eagle
  ...paintings and children roaming over the rubble of war-torn London…this is a jam-packed, exciting adventure story! ...away inside her mum's old suitcase, and all across London a fearsome gang called the Snakes are thieving artworks and terrorising people. Is the painting s
  4 KB (671 words) - 08:46, 3 April 2024
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Pete Johnson
  ...ampire Blog by Pete Johnson]], with its one liners and a horror element at a level perfect for late primary school readers. We jumped at the opportunity ...ampire Blog by Pete Johnson]], with its one liners and a horror element at a level perfect for late primary school readers. We jumped at the opportunity
  7 KB (1,305 words) - 14:49, 27 May 2010
• Choking Wolf (Urgency Emergency!) by Dosh Archer
  ...ctor Glenda and Nurse Percy. That's even true when their latest patient is a wolf who is choking and there's someone who is very much alive in his tummy ...nt emergency, quite often concerning some interesting characters whom your child might already know from other stories.
  4 KB (610 words) - 10:53, 29 March 2018
• The Shape of Him by Gill Schierhout
  |summary=A middle-aged, childless woman thinks that her life is all but over. Then pa ...and precarious nature of the work is laid bare. But Herbert seemed to be a natural. Why?
  4 KB (650 words) - 09:07, 14 September 2020
• The Silent Hours by Cesca Major
  |summary=An absorbing tale of life and loss in a French village in World War II ...ul dreams. Something has taken everything away. Something so powerful that it has rendered her speechless.
  4 KB (590 words) - 15:15, 27 September 2020
• Portrait of a Murderer: A Christmas Crime Story by Anne Meredith
  |title=Portrait of a Murderer: A Christmas Crime Story |summary=A forgotten gem which makes a good, if rather unusual read. Recommended.
  4 KB (739 words) - 16:35, 15 September 2020
• Lolly Luck by Ellie Daines
  ...e and by nature - until her eleventh birthday when everything goes wrong. A wise look at unemployment, homelessness, infidelity and friendship. ...s the bike, but her dad has bad news. He's been made redundant. At first it's not too bad but then the reality of long-term unemployment kicks in and t
  3 KB (501 words) - 10:40, 22 April 2018
• Past Tense by Catherine Aird
  ...ging story with good characters but the plot suffers from facts being just a little too convenient at times. ...had a child (at a time when this would have been frowned upon) and amassed a considerable fortune. Her grandson Joe was flying home from Lasserta for t
  3 KB (456 words) - 14:23, 10 March 2018
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Rebecca Elliott
  ...and ''read it again!'' at the end. So I guess in an ideal world I'm seeing a cosy room of ridiculously cute Von-Trapp-esque children all gathering round ...on he makes friends with it anyway and has various adventures with it. The child reading the book is of course far more aware of what Milo's friend really i
  9 KB (1,516 words) - 17:53, 18 August 2010
• The Adultery Club by Tess Stimson
  ...mmend this book at all. You'd be better keeping your money or giving it to a charity. ...er, large sections of which are aimed at the female demographic. Do I hear a collective sigh?
  7 KB (1,205 words) - 15:48, 1 September 2020
• What! by Kate Lum and Adrian Johnson
  |summary= Patrick is spending the night with his Granny. All is well until it's time for him to go to bed but that's when all the trouble begins. Howeve ...es and sensible shoes who is never to be seen without her handbag. However it soon turns out that she is no ordinary granny as events in the story demons
  4 KB (795 words) - 14:31, 12 April 2018
• Yellowbelly and Plum Go to School by Nathan Hale
  ...ions make a book which is only slightly let down for the UK market because it uses such words as 'orthodontist'. Recommended because of its matter-of-fa ...Yellowbelly starts school, Plum goes along too. School looked like being a great fun game to play! They each have their own desks and join in all the
  3 KB (551 words) - 14:14, 17 September 2020
• The Mystery of Princess Louise: Queen Victoria's Rebellious Daughter by Lucinda Hawksley
  ...ctoria's children, an artist, campaigner for health reform and education. It also examines in detail the stories behind two scandals attached to her nam As a previous biographer once called her, Princess Louise was Queen Victoria’s unconventional daughter. Always
  7 KB (1,183 words) - 16:02, 16 March 2018
• One Perfect Morning by Pamela Crane
  ...other everything except the truth. One husband is going to die: who will it be and who will be responsible? A husband is about to have his throat cut in his own bed. To find out who -
  4 KB (694 words) - 10:18, 29 March 2024
• Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Spooky School by Tracey Corderoy and Steven Lenton
  ...crime and use all of their baking ingenuity to catch dastardly robbers and a power-grabbing, weather-controlling red panda in this wonderful story which ...age). If these children had experienced the earlier books, then there is a feeling that Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam have grown up with them. Alth
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• Churchill's Rogue: Volume 1 (Rogues Trilogy) by John Righten
  |summary=The first in a trilogy about a small international rescue force with a conscience operating in pre-war Nazi Germany. Dark, violent, stomach-punch ...son being hunted by an elite German force led by Cerberus, a code name for a sadist incarnate. On the plus side, Ryan soon discovers he's not alone. T
  5 KB (868 words) - 12:29, 22 February 2018
• The Children of Green Knowe and The River at Green Knowe by Lucy M Boston
  ...blished paperback collection. Adventure, nostalgia, history and fantasy in a likeable format, perhaps best to be read aloud to older children. ...ast century. There are six books in the series, all based in a large house called 'Green Noah' or 'Green Knowe', based on the author’s own home.
  5 KB (780 words) - 14:54, 23 April 2018
• Philip Ardagh's Book of Howlers, Blunders and Random Mistakery by Philip Ardagh
  ...the shops are full of at Christmas. Buying this one, however, will not be a mistake. ...Beatles as never likely to make a name for themselves. We have long been a race of idiots.
  4 KB (726 words) - 08:33, 19 September 2020
• Lily by Holly Webb
  ...her sibling, and that she intends to use Georgie's magical gifts to commit a terrible deed, they flee the island on which they have been imprisoned all Magic has been banned by the Queen since a magician called Marius Grange killed the King thirty years before. All the old magical fami
  5 KB (811 words) - 09:48, 22 April 2018
• The World of Norm: 10: Includes Delivery by Jonathan Meres
  |summary=Perfectly fun read for the reluctant audience, but coming with a slight whiff of filler. ...ssed out on. In lesser hands, it generally means the author can churn out a whole book without much forethought or providing much content. Luckily thi
  4 KB (757 words) - 16:08, 29 August 2020
• Who's On First? by John Martz, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
  ...ry= One of Abbott and Costello's funniest skits perfectly transformed into a picture sure to delight all ages. ...t need to know anything about baseball to enjoy this book, all you need is a sense of humour.
  5 KB (885 words) - 22:48, 7 March 2018
• Top Ten Books for Confident Readers 2013
  |summary= Going to work for the rather scary wizard Simon Magus seems a better bet to young Jinx than staying at home—which just goes to show how |title=The Child's Elephant
  5 KB (761 words) - 11:18, 2 February 2024
• There's No Home by Alexander Baron
  |summary=A British battalion billet for a time in a war-ravaged Sicily. Caution appears to be thrown to the wind with many, as This book was first published in 1950 and is one of Baron's so-called 'war novels.' The lengthy ''Afterword'' praises Baron citing him as the ''
  4 KB (679 words) - 13:52, 19 March 2018
• The Mother's Tale by Camilla Noli
  ...evening. I am suckling my infant son… We are picture perfect. Madonna and child''. ...r son. Zach is adorable. Quiet. Undemanding. A happy, generally relaxed, child. Gorgeous.
  5 KB (940 words) - 14:03, 5 April 2018
• Rainbow Dust: Three Centuries of Delight in British Butterflies by Peter Marren
  ...into words what most of us can only feel: the frankly sensual moment in a child's life when the full force of nature is felt for the first time.' ...h century. The first English entomological body, founded around the 1730s, called itself the Society of Aurelians. Some of the earliest known butterfly colle
  4 KB (700 words) - 21:57, 15 February 2018
• My Life from the Beginning by Violet Prater
  |summary=An inspiring story of how a woman rose above the constraints of a loveless childhood. ...sty'' behind her words. Her story's important because it illustrates that child abuse can extend beyond beatings and sexual abuse.
  3 KB (520 words) - 14:38, 7 April 2018
• We Love You, Hugless Douglas by David Melling
  |summary=Another adventure for the lovable bear, Douglas is looking for a best friend in this latest exploit. ...he’s returning back to his original sort of set up. This time, instead of a hug, he’s after someone to call his best friend.
  3 KB (458 words) - 14:27, 12 April 2018
• Unwind by Neal Shusterman
  ...It's wonderful, wonderful stuff - but sensitive readers may be troubled by a shocking description of the process. ...ches thirteen, its parents can decide on a retroactive "abortion". This is called ''unwinding'' - because each and every body part (well, 99.4% to be exact)
  5 KB (817 words) - 13:10, 28 August 2020
• Where is Fred? by Edward Hardy and Ali Pye
  ...for his dinner. Luckily though, Gerald is not that clever so there is just a chance that Fred will be able to outwit him. But how long can he hope to es ...d and an elderly man with a big white moustache. Of course, any eagle eyed child will soon spot where Fred is hiding in all of the pictures but luckily Gera
  4 KB (680 words) - 15:52, 12 April 2018
• Limelight Larry by Leigh Hodgkinson
  |summary=A stroppy peacock called Larry wants the limelight of his book all for himself. As the other animals ...is, and how amazing his book will be. When Mouse pops in to the corner of a page, Larry is annoyed to be sharing the limelight, and his frustration gro
  3 KB (505 words) - 18:18, 2 March 2018
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Philip Threadneedle
  |summary=[[The Astronaut's Apprentice by Philip Threadneedle]] is a hoot of a jaunt through space for tweens with Grandpa, Bradley and Headlice. We could [[The Astronaut's Apprentice by Philip Threadneedle]] is a hoot of a jaunt through space for tweens with Grandpa, Bradley and Headlice. We could
  7 KB (1,359 words) - 17:14, 17 December 2010
• Monsieur Linh and His Child by Philippe Claudel and Euan Cameron
  |title=Monsieur Linh and His Child |summary=A miniature masterpiece, as a book about an elderly immigrant pulls the rug from under one with its endin
  3 KB (511 words) - 10:46, 28 September 2020
• Stars: A Family Guide to the Night Sky by Adam Ford
  |title=Stars: A Family Guide to the Night Sky |summary= A gorgeous guide to the night sky for families to explore together.
  2 KB (399 words) - 15:14, 25 February 2018
• Ten Million Aliens by Simon Barnes
  ...a female. Once the female is impregnated, her digestive system morphs into a larva which breaks free from her when she dies. This may sound like the stu ...things get really tough, entering a phase called cryptobiosis. Exposure to a single droplet of water is enough to revive them and turn them back into li
  4 KB (738 words) - 13:13, 6 April 2018
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Anthony Browne
  ...iated by any age and any nationality. I suppose the nearest I can say is a child of about 4-9, maybe sitting with an adult – parent, carer, teacher or lib ...s often feature in your work, particularly in ''Into The Forest''. What is it about them that keeps drawing you back?'''
  5 KB (776 words) - 07:38, 15 August 2010
• Sam's Spitfire Summer by Ian MacDonald and Charlie Clough
  |summary=An extraordinary tale of a boy's courage during the 2nd World War. ...other remains in London, with the risk of bombing. This book really gives a good glimpse at how Sam feels being evacuated. He misses his home desperate
  5 KB (940 words) - 12:09, 17 April 2018
• The Teacher's Secret by Suzanne Leal
  ...oung upstart showing up and trying to meddle. He's not nasty about it, but it rubs him up the wrong way. ...al lady, or an exotic woman from overseas, or even just the local cleaner, it's another piece of the puzzle, ready to slot together.
  3 KB (532 words) - 13:38, 19 March 2018
• Don't You Dare by Sharky and George
  ...ontains everything you need to create your own entertainment, whether for a party or just to keep the children busy during the school holidays. 'Don't ...reasons, while other games have been adapted to suit different themes, and a few I am quite sure are Sharky and George originals.
  5 KB (894 words) - 16:13, 21 March 2018
• Oxygen by Carol Cassella
  ...of anaesthesiology and how precarious the line between life and death is. A stunning read, and one I would definitely recommend. ...being at fault. Is everything as it seems in the case, or is Marie merely a scapegoat?
  5 KB (898 words) - 12:51, 18 March 2018
• The Bureau of Second Chances by Sheena Kalayil
  ...isingly tense novel set in southern India has a thread of romance but also a serious side, exploring the displacement of an expat returning after thirty ...blind eye and leave it to his friend to deal with on his return. However, it stirs up thoughts and doubts within Thomas and before long he's involved wh
  3 KB (505 words) - 17:18, 23 April 2018
• Muddle and Win: the Battle for Sally Jones by John Dickinson
  ...ow they're trying a different approach — and it involves a demon's janitor called Muddlespot. ...on't ask what happened to the previous owner of the wart. Just accept that it was painful. And really, really messy.
  4 KB (651 words) - 15:53, 22 April 2018
• The Bliss Bakery Trilogy 1 - Bliss by Kathryn Littlewood
  ...she realises that the cakes really are magical. But then her parents are called away so Rose, along with her three siblings, is left to run the shop and th ...r the most delicious pastries, muffins and cakes they have ever known with a vague conviction that life is better as long as they do so.
  4 KB (692 words) - 09:20, 13 March 2018
• The Grubby Feather Gang (Bigshorts) by Antony Wootten
  |summary=A book with a big story in very few pages: perfect for the child who wants more ''meat'' to the story but prefers shorter novels. Antony Woo ...etermined that George is going to do his maths homework. You'd think that it couldn't get much worse, but the next day he's caned at school when he does
  3 KB (521 words) - 12:14, 24 April 2018
• Ottoline Goes to School by Chris Riddell
  ...absurd humour, design sophistication and inter textual references - attain a cult status when the children grow up to be adults; while the gentle advent ...e away, as usual, travelling and gathering objects and keeping in touch by a medium of wonderfully quaint postcards.
  4 KB (735 words) - 13:59, 19 April 2018
• What's in the Fridge? by Gaby Goldsack and Jo Moon
  |summary=A fun play and learn book with press-out pieces that teaches the numbers one ...py. So the best counting books - which, after all, are really no more than a sequence of pages with different numbers of objects on them - combine recog
  3 KB (469 words) - 13:41, 11 August 2020
• Discover the Awesome World by Camilla de la Bedoyere, John Farndon, Ian Graham, Richard Platt and Philip Steele
  ...ely new and refreshing way. Kids are going to read this because they love it - and learn whilst they do so. ...t of recycling reviews (honest!) but sometimes you know that you can't say it any better as exactly the same comments apply to Discover the Awesome World
  3 KB (525 words) - 10:07, 24 September 2020
• Jelly Baby by Jean Ure
  ...his new girlfriend, but will they be able to accommodate each other? It's a great story and not at all what I was expecting. Recommended. ...it doesn't seem important until they're told that their father is bringing a girlfriend home. The girls are delighted. They want their father to be ha
  3 KB (571 words) - 11:26, 28 August 2020
• The Gingerbread House by Carin Gerhardsen
  ...mes the first in a new series. Despite the odd teething trouble there's ''a lot'' of promise here. ...d who found him when she returned home from hospital. It was the first in a series of brutal murders in and around Stockholm.
  3 KB (577 words) - 12:32, 1 October 2020
• Matthew Green Talks To Bookbag About His Own Imaginary Friend
  ...oirs of an Imaginary Friend]] and fascinated to hear about his own friend, called Johnson Johnson. When I was a child, I had an imaginary friend named Johnson Johnson. My mother said that I pro
  3 KB (586 words) - 13:52, 3 March 2018
• Puppy Academy: Scout and the Sausage Thief by Gill Lewis
  ...dogs this makes for an engaging early reader from an animal expert. It's a good story which is going to hold the interest and is just nicely challengi ...f smell to find the owner - even if she looks as though she's been through a hedge when she arrives at school.
  3 KB (520 words) - 08:39, 4 October 2020
• Wendel's Workshop by Chris Riddell
  ...mixes healthy anarchic messiness with a subtle anti-waste message make for a winning mix for children aged 3 to about 6. ...something doesn't work, he just chucks it down the chute and it ends up on a gigantic scrap heap outside.
  3 KB (471 words) - 14:29, 12 April 2018
• The Boy Who Could See Demons by Carolyn Jess-Cooke
  ...uestioning and discussing events long after you've closed the final pages. A harrowing, but beautiful book. ...e frightening, and some just lurk in corners doing not much at all. One is called Ruen, and he's Alex's best friend.
  3 KB (449 words) - 14:00, 19 February 2018
• San Marco: The End of the Road by Margaret Henderson Smith
  ...Of course it is. This is the woman who could make Frank Spencer look like a miracle of organisation. She's going to have to do something quite spectac ...has another man in thrall to her charms, but this one seems to know quite a lot about subterfuge – and exactly who are those heavies who keep appeari
  3 KB (545 words) - 09:55, 6 September 2020
• In Your Dreams (Ruby Rogers) by Sue Limb
  ...ad with a realistic description of the ups and downs of childhood life and a lesson or two to learn. Recommended for children reading confidently on the ...-Persian kitten called Horatio, she falls in love and she just has to find a way to have him!
  4 KB (698 words) - 08:11, 20 April 2018
• If I Fall, If I Die by Michael Christie
  ...ty and what it might be like to be truly terrified all of the time provide a background weave to this coming of age story. ...ot about the atmosphere of this book that for the whole time I was reading it, I thought the title was ''If I Fall, I Die''. That missing second ''If''
  6 KB (1,027 words) - 13:42, 24 March 2018
• My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal
  |summary=Heartbreaking but brilliant - you might need a tissue or two, but you really won't regret reading this beautifully written ...all his planning he still manages to find enjoyment in small things, like a Curly Wurly, or riding his bike, or planting seeds with his new friends on
  5 KB (896 words) - 20:06, 29 August 2020
• The Saint Closes the Case by Leslie Charteris and John Telfer (narrator)
  ...he debonair Saint: this is the original dating from the nineteen thirties. A rollicking good tale ''and'' thought provoking. ...ed was a demonstration of a weapon which could well bring the world to war a mere twelve years after the end of the Great War. Templar and his confeder
  4 KB (693 words) - 11:06, 12 August 2020
• The Bear With Sticky Paws by Clara Vulliamy
  ...mummy. That is until the Bear with Sticky Paws comes to visit and she gets a taste of her own medicine. Suddenly Pearl can't do enough for her mummy... ...ther boa and long colourful beads, along with a cheeky little girl wearing a tiara. Their hands are full of delicate china and gooey cake and ice cream.
  5 KB (847 words) - 14:30, 10 April 2018
• Dead in the Dark (Cooper and Fry) by Stephen Booth
  ...nusual premise - proving a murder without a body, twice - and make it into a good read. ...e that was in difficulties or was something more sinister going on? Then, a decade later, Reece Bower disappears without trace. His new partner wants
  3 KB (602 words) - 07:42, 12 August 2020
• Creepy Caves (Elf Girl and Raven Boy) by Marcus Sedgwick and Pete Williamson (illustrator)
  |summary=The conclusion to a great knockabout fantasy series for those of primary school age – and fan ...tles were announced, that the final battle would be the pair – and his rat called Rat – battling the Goblin King. But there was little clue to just how fr
  3 KB (502 words) - 07:51, 9 October 2020
• The Body on the Train (Kate Shackleton Mysteries) by Frances Brody
  ...ook in the Kate Shackleton series but it's up there with the best of them: a real cracker which didn't work out the way I was expecting at all! Highly r ...her as a child and could not come to terms with the fact that she was now a woman experienced in dealing with murder. He was reluctant to give her all
  4 KB (611 words) - 19:55, 11 August 2020
• The Worst Witch to the Rescue by Jill Murphy
  ...ght any early reader although it's probably more for girls than boys. It's a school-based adventure story with illustrations by the author. Highly recom ...roblems with a tortoise who doesn't like being called Speedy and a ride in a broomstick in near-hurricane conditions.
  3 KB (606 words) - 09:34, 17 April 2018
• Pilgrim State by Jacqueline Walker
  ...al illness and leaving Jamaica for South London in the early 1960's. It's a part of the development of Black Britain, and I was totally hooked. ...reat strength, is that it's the real narrative of mother and daughter. As a girl I was familiar with areas of London where Jackie Walker lived and hear
  5 KB (763 words) - 11:03, 26 February 2018
• Who Framed Klaris Cliff? by Nikki Sheehan
  ...ho really belongs to one of the kids next door. But these days having such a voice in your head is dangerous, so unless he can prove Klaris didn't do al ...r needs to be lonely. So far so good: a contemporary, cheerful story about a likeable young teen. But there's one sinister element in this everyday worl
  4 KB (675 words) - 12:30, 1 March 2018
• Stolen History by Sathnam Sanghera
  |summary=A superb introduction for the preteen to the British Empire and how we should ...(and occasional failures, but we didn't dwell on those) in what came to be called 'the colonies' as want to dispute what right the army had to be there in th
  3 KB (426 words) - 21:40, 2 April 2024
• Ready for Pop by Hurk
  ...ong at hilarious speed, ''Ready for Pop'' is a brilliant piece of fun, and a truly original graphic novel ...in a new generation? Will Vic Vox's big rivals, 'The Small Pocks' be given a boost in Vic Vox's absence? And will June Scurvy get her hit (or maybe not)
  3 KB (507 words) - 17:35, 16 February 2018
• Stick Dog by Tom Watson
  |summary=A badly-drawn dog and his friends go on a quest for food in the local park. ...th the bad pictures that my art teacher doesn’t like) will also be told in a way that I like (but my English teacher doesn’t).''
  3 KB (471 words) - 09:53, 10 October 2020
• Wild Lily by K M Peyton
  ...an aeroplane. His father agreed and Antony went to Brooklands and bought a Sopwith. ...ny, Lily was simply ''there''. He didn't even know her surname: he always called her father Gabriel, but was that his first name or his surname? To Lily, A
  3 KB (534 words) - 16:34, 11 August 2020
• Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Yarrow, Lenny Lipton and Eric Puybaret
  ...e tune is brought to life with lovely artwork and a new musical version on a CD that also contains 3 other tunes featuring the original band with their ...(there is also an instrumental and two other tunes in similar vein). It's a gentle, sweet but not saccharine folky tune with lyrics about fantasy lands
  3 KB (564 words) - 13:30, 6 April 2018
• Upfront and Personal: The Autobiography by Coleen Nolan
  |summary= A great read, entertaining and informative. Definitely recommended. As a child, I was a huge fan of the Nolan Sisters. When ''I'm in the Mood for Dancing'' hit the
  3 KB (575 words) - 11:48, 26 February 2018
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
  |summary=A brilliant, vividly imagined Dystopian read about a world with rules that have never really been challenged...until now ...iven a typical role, however. He is selected to be the Receiver of Memory, a position given out only once every few generations. He will receive and sto
  4 KB (775 words) - 13:46, 25 February 2018
• Radiance by Louis B Jones
  ...ds about this book - the protagonist annoyed the hell out of me and not in a good way, but the writing is sublime. ...? Well, on the tarmac at LAX it dawns on him that a heart attack would be a convenient way out of everything.
  3 KB (565 words) - 08:47, 31 March 2018
• When We Were Very Young by A A Milne and E H Shepard
  |author=A A Milne and E H Shepard ...ren and will be enjoyed by adults too. Highly recommended particularly as a gift.
  3 KB (590 words) - 13:08, 24 April 2018
• Fantastically Great Women Who Made History by Kate Pankhurst
  ...history. Vivid, lively illustrations and inspirational text will make for a brilliant and motivational book for sharing. ...is about men. Kings and generals and inventors and politicians. Sometimes, it feels almost as though there were no women in history at all, let alone one
  3 KB (553 words) - 10:41, 1 October 2020
• Locked Out Lily by Nick Lake and Emily Gravett
  ...of girl-on-fantasy-quest-with-animal-companions and real life drama can be a gallingly good read at times. And with Ms Gravett's help never begins to l ...ilish interlopers need to be ousted to get the family back intact, even if it's not the family Lily wants – and all she has to help her in the task are
  3 KB (489 words) - 15:30, 30 March 2024
• Secrets of the Sea by Kate Baker and Eleanor Taylor
  ...ibrary no end. I can't see it as a household item, though, however pretty it might look. ...researched and encountered, you never know – this book might well inspire a pioneering discovery some time in the future.
  4 KB (730 words) - 09:25, 10 October 2020
• Tibs the Post Office Cat by Joyce Dunbar and Claire Fletcher
  |summary=A sweetly nostalgic story, that is lovely to share. ...alled Tibs (who was a real cat) who was born in a post office, and who had a job to keep all the rats and mice under control. Rather than killing and e
  3 KB (585 words) - 11:23, 11 October 2020
• Pig City by Louis Sachar
  ...n is as acute as ever and the humour is equally on the button, but this is a light story and not one of his best. ...of how long she has gone without telling a lie. After catching her out in a fib when she was small, her parents had promised her that she'd never have
  3 KB (571 words) - 12:54, 18 April 2018
• The Perfect Life by Nuala Ellwood
  |summary=A cleverly-constructed thriller which will keep you guessing to the end. Rec ...her three children, Lavender, Freddie and Barclay. The boys are a bit of a handful which is why she's making this trip on her own. The house would be
  3 KB (556 words) - 15:20, 30 March 2024
• The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers
  ...Jessie Lamb do anything about it? Is she a hero of the human race or just a misguided, innocent young girl? This dystopian novel asks some difficult qu ...way of immunising frozen, pre-MDS embryos which, if they can be placed in a willing volunteer, may ultimately allow the survival of the human race. How
  4 KB (764 words) - 09:20, 6 March 2018
• Horrid Henry's World Records by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross
  |summary=A fun mix of factual world records along with some wild claims to various rec ...my own childhood reading habits. But when my sons began to beg for ''books a bout real things'', I saw the error of my ways.
  5 KB (837 words) - 08:38, 22 March 2018
• Horrid Henry's Nightmare by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross
  ...he was happy to listen in as well and we all enjoyed sharing this book as a family. ...s not an icon of moral virtue for children to aspire to emulate. But he is a hilarious character who will have children laughing their socks off, and mo
  4 KB (757 words) - 16:32, 1 September 2020
• A Case in Any Case by Ulf Nilsson and Gitte Spee
  |title=A Case in Any Case ...win out over complete coherence and long-term appeal, but it's well worth a look.
  3 KB (565 words) - 10:57, 17 April 2018
• White Boots by Noel Streatfeild
  |summary=One of my childhood favourites! A great depiction of family dynamics, and an engaging story. ...find that it is still funny and engaging, all these years later, and that it still has the enduring power to make me wish for my own pair of white skati
  4 KB (755 words) - 12:50, 24 April 2018
• Run Rabbit Run by Barbara Mitchelhill
  |summary=In 1942, there is a war on, Lizzie's dad is a conscientious objector and the family is on the run in this exciting advent ...a criminal. Dad has decided they are going to move to Whiteway, a Colony (a sort of alternative community), for people who don't believe in war, in Glo
  4 KB (737 words) - 12:46, 21 April 2018
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
  ...e to make a book they'll return to again and again. The writing is perhaps a little weak. ...in a garret in a Parisian railway station in the 1930s. His father died in a fire and he had gone to live with his uncle, who maintains the many clocks
  4 KB (613 words) - 09:41, 17 April 2018
• Love, Splat by Rob Scotton
  ...resulting purchase that it ultimately aims for. Useful as a joke gift for a cat-loving girlfriend, though. |buy= As a joke for a grown-up
  3 KB (570 words) - 10:36, 28 August 2020
• My Sister's Voice by Mary Carter
  ...k together. Mary Carter avoids all the clichés of lost siblings giving us a unique and engrossing read with an unexpected twist. ...dismisses it as a joke but curiosity gets the better of her when she sees a picture of Monica, and she soon finds herself confronting Margaret, her orp
  5 KB (846 words) - 14:13, 5 April 2018
• The Night of the Solstice: Heart of Valour by L J Smith
  ...tle her arch-rival Thia Pendriel, but dangers nearer home send them off on a quest to find her. ...ishment, she is called on to be a hero — a genuine, fight-the-baddies-with-a-magic-sword kind of hero. Her dismay at this, coupled with her gradual acce
  4 KB (702 words) - 10:57, 21 April 2018
• Play Dead (D I Kim Stone) by Angela Marsons
  ...rth book in the DI Kim Stone series delivers as a police procedural and as a thriller. Highly recommended. ...there in the grounds waiting to be uncovered? And who will be next? Then a local reporter disappears.
  4 KB (627 words) - 07:37, 12 August 2020
• The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss
  |summary=A classic picture book, with trademark Seussian quirky illustrations and play ...d not bizarre fantastic creatures, reveals that many of his books are half a century old.
  5 KB (818 words) - 15:48, 6 August 2020
• The X-Files: Earth Children are Weird by Kim Smith
  |summary=Part children's book, part cult TV show homage; join a young Mulder and Scully in their very first adventure together as kids in t ...ave craved new films, new episodes to this day. But have they ever craved a children's book based on the characters?
  4 KB (628 words) - 16:20, 28 August 2020
• Paralian: Not Just Transgender by Liam Klenk
  ...e all else, the author's attitude and nature shine throughout, making this a hopeful and mood enhancing read. ...s. At five months old, Liam was adopted from an orphanage – and thus began a journey to conquer childhood disability, issues with parents, marriages, di
  3 KB (540 words) - 16:18, 7 April 2018
• Frankenstein's Cat by Curtis Jobling
  |summary=Very funny, merciless spoof of the classic gothic tale, cut for a younger audience, with hilarious artwork, but not for the sensitive or part ...requests a friend, Frankenstein makes a dog, called Fifi, but not exactly a cuddly ball of fur.
  3 KB (457 words) - 12:30, 19 April 2018
• Chain of Custody by Anita Nair
  ...s in maintaining human warmth against a backdrop of shocking and very real child exploitation in modern day Bengaluru ...re) police, called in when an affluent lawyer is found dead at his home in a prestigious and well-guarded gated community. However, that is the prologu
  4 KB (724 words) - 09:53, 2 March 2018
• The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson
  ...inter's Tale'', Winterson links a London financier, a Parisian singer, and a blended family in New Orleans. Inventive and true to the themes of the orig ...ence of the plot. Yet two crucial elements of the play don't make sense in a modern setting, and in the end I felt this added nothing to my enjoyment of
  5 KB (843 words) - 12:08, 24 March 2018
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne
  |summary=A book that probably has ''Read Me'' written all over it, even if it's patently stupid. ...ccasion I suggest you should do, if only to find out what complete rubbish it is.
  4 KB (622 words) - 12:02, 17 April 2018
• Zimbabwe in Pictures by Keith Hern
  I'm a bit of an amateur photographer, and since the advent of digital cameras, I ...s containing one photo in portrait and one in landscape which might not be a problem for some people but which drove me mad turning the book back and fo
  4 KB (749 words) - 08:02, 7 August 2020
• Granny by Anthony Horowitz
  ...en bowling, but you still don't need to turn into a granny. Smelling like a granny, forgetting everyone's names on purpose, and doling out horridly ina ...ght be up to something, and that the naff gifts, the wrong names, and even a couple of mysterious deaths, might be due to the fact that granny has somet
  3 KB (556 words) - 10:54, 9 March 2018
• The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader" by C S Lewis
  ...sy series ever written for children. Don't miss it and don't let them miss it either. ...anced people. They were vegetarians, non-smokers and teetotallers and wore a special kind of underclothes. In their house there was very little furnitur
  7 KB (1,193 words) - 17:10, 11 March 2018
• Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
  ...commend this as a guide to parenting, as a memoir and an entertaining read it's outstanding. ...demic' subject. Then there's the piano and violin practice… On hearing she called her
  3 KB (509 words) - 10:29, 26 February 2018
• 1,411 QI Facts To Knock You Sideways by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin
  ...esenting trivia, four (on rare occasion, three) statements to the page, in a very nice little cubical hardback. Now they're being represented in paperb ...way they walk.'' Never has the journey from to A to B made B become such a surprise.
  3 KB (518 words) - 08:12, 30 April 2018
• A Life Without End by Frederic Beigbeder and Frank Wynne (translator)
  |title=A Life Without End ...personal trip to reveal its narrative as easily as it should, but is worth a look.
  4 KB (627 words) - 09:41, 26 April 2020
• Discover the Savage World by Simon Adams, Camilla de la Bedoyere, Ian Graham, Steve Parker, Phil Steele, Clint Twist and Amanda Askew
  ...ry boy-friendly bite sized bits of science, history, geography and more in a fun annual series from the Discovery Channel. ...d the Siege of Masada right up to the Somme, the Battle Of Stalingrad with a heavy focus on snipers and the Battle of Kursk.
  6 KB (976 words) - 16:06, 24 February 2018
• Star Dancer by Beth Webb
  |summary=A rewarding and complex but accessible read in the vein of Michelle Paver's C ...Griff, her "halfhead" foster brother and the druids continue to search for a saviour. But Tegen's destiny cannot be denied...
  3 KB (535 words) - 16:00, 13 June 2019
• What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn
  ...even a child could understand but with an intricately woven plot makes for a superb read. Highly recommended by The Bookbag. ...earches the endless service corridors and fails to find her, but over time a relationship grows between Kurt and Lisa.
  3 KB (569 words) - 15:24, 23 August 2020
• Into the River by Mark Brandi
  |summary=A dark and harrowing story, but deftly written and very readable. ...So far, so normal. But with the arrival of a new neighbour for Ben, a man called Ronnie, things begin to change. Ronnie wants Ben to come over to do some o
  4 KB (604 words) - 09:45, 4 January 2019
• The Woman in the Picture by Katharine McMahon
  ...y about the social tensions in early 1926 when England was on the brink of a general strike. The plotting is superb and the story thought provoking. H ...loser. The Wright family worm their way into Evelyn's life: the father is a bullying, drunken, wife beater, the mother is scared and brow beaten, but t
  5 KB (828 words) - 14:32, 22 March 2018
• House of Joy by Sarah-Kate Lynch
  ...e production of champagne which lifts it above the average. Recommended as a holiday read. ...ine's unhappiness. She then discovered that her father had an illegitimate child, the waif-like Sophie who was entitled to another quarter. And what of the
  4 KB (626 words) - 14:30, 4 April 2018
• A Sixpenny Song by Jennifer Johnston
  |title=A Sixpenny Song |summary=The death of a parent doesn't always hit hard and when Annie returns to Dublin she's more
  3 KB (605 words) - 10:20, 31 March 2018
• The Sandhorse by Ann Turnbull
  ...commended for children aged 3-8 and might make the grownup reading it shed a tear too. You call them ''white horses'' in English and in Polish they are called ''manes''. Clearly, there is something distinctly equine about the white se
  5 KB (941 words) - 12:26, 7 March 2018
• Where The Truth Lies by Rosemary Ingham
  ...care and becomes an abuse of trust. The plot is excellent but the book is a little let down by the characterisation. ...ong before the strong physical attraction between Isabel and Jack leads to a passionate love affair.
  5 KB (869 words) - 11:27, 20 March 2018
• Man Booker Prize 2011
  |summary=This short book is almost perfectly formed. A retired, (and somewhat dull), man is forced to recall events soon after lea ...existence in the east end of London. But one day he literally comes across a tiger - and his life is changed forever.
  5 KB (743 words) - 10:22, 11 February 2024
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and Sir John Tenniel
  It can hardly have escaped anyone's attention that 2015 is the 150th anniversa ...and didn't like it. Sue was quite clear as a child that she didn't enjoy it, but Peter has fond memories of being the White Rabbit in the school play.
  4 KB (673 words) - 12:03, 11 October 2020
• The Museum of Doctor Moses by Joyce Carol Oates
  |summary=A very smart package of gloomy stories for when the evenings close in. How c ...the happiest read, we think, before turning to the second story, which is called Suicide Watch.
  4 KB (632 words) - 09:51, 2 April 2018
• My Experimental Life by A J Jacobs
  |author=A J Jacobs ...rdly original, but his whimsical tasks provoke a good deal of humour - and a surprising amount of thought.
  4 KB (724 words) - 11:41, 23 March 2018
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Cathy Farr
  ...rs we asked her all about fellhounds, Thesk, and how she feels about being a writer. ...rs we asked her all about fellhounds, Thesk, and how she feels about being a writer.
  7 KB (1,212 words) - 05:55, 13 June 2012
• The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst
  |title=The Stranger's Child |sort= Stranger's Child
  6 KB (946 words) - 12:54, 5 March 2018
• Pandora's Box by Giselle Green
  |summary= A powerful story of a mother with a terminally ill teenage daughter, and their joint struggle to come to terms ...it a couple of days ago, and thought it would last me at least a week, but it's one of those books that gripped me almost from the beginning. I've been
  5 KB (943 words) - 11:56, 25 February 2018
• The Bower Bird by Ann Kelley
  ...probably younger than the readers who could cope with its ideas, refining it to the more sophisticated junior audience. ...lone become a photographer when she does. Gussie's on the waiting list for a heart and lung transplant.
  5 KB (871 words) - 15:56, 16 April 2018
• Walter Tull's Scrapbook by Michaela Morgan
  ...ild to Barbadian slaves – died, leaving him an orphan, and forced to go to a Victorian children's home in London. In his downtime there Walter became q ...ction, an unflappable stillness and engaging mien. Lord knows what he was called behind his back – the press had to leap to his defence in the light of ji
  4 KB (622 words) - 15:49, 5 September 2020
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Shirley Hughes
  ...novel for adults. The chance to ask such an icon of children's literature a few questions was more than we could resist. She was absolutely lovely and ...novel for adults. The chance to ask such an icon of children's literature a few questions was more than we could resist. She was absolutely lovely and
  4 KB (775 words) - 13:39, 14 May 2018
• King Dork by Frank Portman
  ...ks a little tension, but the book is so funny, they'll be happy to forgive it. ...ed copy of The Catcher in the Rye that belonged to his father, it sets off a series of coincidences and conspiracies involving dead people, naked people
  4 KB (598 words) - 14:41, 3 March 2018
• The Quick by Lauren Owen
  ...nto this debut novel, that whilst predictable and unevenly paced, is still a fun ride ...e, playing dark games to pass the time. It is only when James, the younger child, moves to London, that the games become very real indeed, and both brother
  4 KB (619 words) - 13:54, 18 March 2018
• The Book of Time by Guillaume Prevost
  ...thankfully doesn't get too bogged down in scientific paradox but achieves a pacy and exciting narrative with plenty of interesting historical detail. G ...o, he picked up a book showing Dracula's castle. Two minutes ago, he found a way to travel through time.''
  3 KB (563 words) - 15:36, 16 April 2018
• Flight by Isabel Ashdown
  ...y she walked out on her husband and six-month-old baby. Two decades later it's time for her to explain why. Recommended. ...as she was alone and left - also alone. Later a letter would arrive from a solicitor saying that she had no intention of returning. Her husband Rober
  3 KB (559 words) - 10:35, 24 April 2018
• The Peppermint Pig by Nina Bawden
  ...something children will want to read over and over, but it certainly worth a library trip. Now here's a Mummy who can tell good stories:
  8 KB (1,447 words) - 10:28, 12 April 2018
• When Fred the Snake Got Squished and Mended by Peter Cotton
  |summary=A wonderful way to teach children how ''not'' to cross the road and a book which opens up so many other areas of discussion. Highly recommended. ...the extent that they would take Fred out with them when they went out for a walk. And that was where the problem started. Fred didn't have any road s
  4 KB (735 words) - 10:21, 3 January 2023
• Tales for Great Grandchildren by John Jackson and Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini
  |summary=Beautiful book produced in a traditional luxury format. It's sheer pleasure to read and even simply to touch. Corresponding apps bring ...goat, and a delightful rabbit called Vijaya. Nobody will forget Vijaya in a hurry! Beautifully illustrated by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini in rich colou
  4 KB (628 words) - 16:46, 3 March 2018
• Star Wars: A New Hope Junior Novel (Star Wars Junior Novel 1) by Ryder Windham
  |title=Star Wars: A New Hope Junior Novel (Star Wars Junior Novel 1) |summary=A new hope, maybe, but an old story – just be grateful it's one of the world's most popular ones.
  4 KB (679 words) - 08:48, 10 October 2020
• Bleed For Me by Michael Robotham
  |summary=This is a page-turning and stylish psychological thriller. Lots of red herrings, twi ...ryone is talking about, the teenager who's been discussed and described as a cold-blooded killer, is his daughter's best friend. Could his life get any
  4 KB (635 words) - 08:28, 8 July 2023
• Oomph! (Preston Pig) by Colin McNaughton
  ...make sure that you pay close attention to the illustrations where there is a slightly different story being told. ...his family are packed and ready to leave that Max points out that there is a wolf on the roof rack, but Preston thinks that she is only joking!
  4 KB (674 words) - 11:02, 6 April 2018
• Can You Draw the Dragosaur? by Peter Lynas and Charlie Roberts
  |summary=A children's colouring books with added extras. Great fun! ...ustration - and there's a gap. ''You'' are going to put your name there. It's ''your'' responsibility to provide the pictures for this book about one o
  4 KB (636 words) - 19:36, 17 September 2019
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Richard Smith
  ...oved the real locations and the book's interactive website. She had quite a few questions when the author popped into Bookbag Towers. ...oved the real locations and the book's interactive website. She had quite a few questions when the author popped into Bookbag Towers.
  5 KB (858 words) - 08:55, 16 November 2013
• Mr Gum and the Cherry Tree by Andy Stanton
  ...hoolmaster to solve, as her entire village ups sticks and moves to worship a tree spirit. ...ian who vanishes from the story) to a sacred glade in a nearby wood, where a tree spirit of Old is trying to enslave them.
  3 KB (551 words) - 18:47, 9 March 2018
• The Cry of the Sloth by Sam Savage
  ...ed industry. It's not a failure itself - there are good laughs - but it's a little too scathing to be completely welcoming ...reads (and often, with dodgy, cheap printing, no-one could physically read it anyway), and which makes him poorer in time, money and spirit.
  4 KB (642 words) - 14:43, 15 March 2018
• Ready Steady Ghost! by Elizabeth Baguley and Marion Lindsay
  ...rate to find a nice little homely house to haunt. 'Ready Steady Ghost!' is a charming story that shows that even ghosts have feelings too. ...been seeking all along – a toy castle with a king and queen who only need a small timid ghost to make them jump!
  4 KB (662 words) - 13:05, 3 March 2018
• My Pet Book by Bob Staake
  |summary=When is a book, not a book? When it is your pet! Join one little boy and his pet book on an adventure full of ...u describe your bookshelf) and I don’t walk around the street with them on a lead. Who on earth would do that?
  4 KB (717 words) - 16:24, 4 April 2018
• Anorexic by Anna Paterson
  |summary= The incredible story of a young girl's journey to hell and back. ...what ironic that an obese woman is reviewing a book on anorexia. But it is a topic I have always found interesting. Despite my being at the opposite end
  5 KB (836 words) - 11:39, 13 April 2018
• Lost and Found by Brooke Davis
  ...the touch typist and Agatha Pantha embark on a cross-Australia adventure. A tale of loss and grief that sparkles with wit and humour and observation. ...irst Dead Thing was her dog Rambo. Then there were other things a spider, a Bird… but then there was number 28. The twenty-eighth dead thing than Mi
  6 KB (988 words) - 16:21, 29 August 2020
• Hinterland by Caroline Brothers
  ...ey and a lot of hope. Haunting, touching and beautifully written, this is a book you won’t forget. ...ipped only with some money sewn into a belt and stories of a promised land called England, they learn about desperation, misplaced trust and other lessons no
  3 KB (557 words) - 16:38, 1 September 2020
• The Slaughter Pavilion by Catherine Sampson
  |summary=Song, a private investigator in Beijing, is horrified when a man who tried to seek his help dies tragicaly, with the frozen corpse of hi ...ing behind the frozen body of his daughter. Intrigued, Song discovers that a number of children are going missing in an area outside Beijing, but the au
  5 KB (952 words) - 11:42, 11 March 2018
• The Sty's the Limit: When Middle Age Gets Mucky by Simon Dawson
  ...e mirror, bare-chested, then he shouldn't do it when he's standing next to a fit teenage boy. ...in the noise of a New Year's Eve party and only found out that it involved a smallholding in Devon in the sober light of the new year.
  4 KB (617 words) - 13:40, 13 April 2018
• Black Lake by Johanna Lane
  |summary=A beautiful, touching story about a family's ties to its ancestral home, ties to each other and the effects of ...by the government with revenue from opening it to the public. At the time it seems the perfect solution, but the future has plans other than perfection.
  4 KB (586 words) - 13:58, 23 March 2018
• The King's Pearl: Henry VIII and His Daughter Mary by Melita Thomas
  ...nulment of her parents' marriage, it ended harmoniously. The author paints a vivid picture of the Tudor court and of the early life of the woman long re ...royal succession with sons, Mary Tudor's relationship with Henry VIII, who called her his 'pearl of the world', was inevitably an important and often fraught
  6 KB (1,034 words) - 22:25, 15 February 2018
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Jon Mayhew
  ...range in age from 10 to 17, boys and girls. I think I also see myself as a child too. But when I write, I tend to write for myself! JM: [[Mortlock by Jon Mayhew|Mortlock]] if they haven't read it! But self-interest aside, Dead of Winter by [[:Category:Chris Priestley|Chr
  6 KB (1,052 words) - 17:36, 7 March 2011
• The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai
  ...h the Head of the Children's Section, Lucy but then their friendship takes a turn for the worse ... ...child. He stole her.'' I don't mind 'not getting it' in the slightest as it just makes me want to read the book even more. So I was keen to get stuck
  4 KB (678 words) - 11:33, 15 March 2018
• The 50 States: Explore the U.S.A. with 50 fact-filled maps! by Gabrielle Balkan and Sol Linero
  |title=The 50 States: Explore the U.S.A. with 50 fact-filled maps! |sort=50 States: Explore the U.S.A. with 50 fact-filled maps!
  5 KB (792 words) - 20:50, 17 February 2018
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Melissa Wareham
  ...do you have any regrets about not becoming a vet? Could you have imagined a better job than the one you ended up with? ''' ...– kennel maid, behaviourist, rehomer, manager and television spokesperson. It really was my dream job.
  5 KB (947 words) - 17:08, 1 February 2011
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Alison Murray
  ...og Georgie. ''One Two That's My Shoe'' tweaks the familiar rhyme and tells a fresh story through its outstanding illustrations. We were delighted to int ...og Georgie. ''One Two That's My Shoe'' tweaks the familiar rhyme and tells a fresh story through its outstanding illustrations. We were delighted to int
  6 KB (1,057 words) - 08:50, 11 May 2018
• Midnight in Havana by Peggy Blair
  ...al jeopardy to the investigation. A fantastic start to what I hope will be a long series. ...presents us with a compelling mystery set within an exciting setting with a legal system that really adds to the suspense of the story.
  4 KB (727 words) - 09:41, 10 March 2018
• Heist Society by Ally Carter
  |summary=Kat belonged to a family of high-end burglars until she decided to go straight. But someone h ...happen. They should have told her, using your criminal abilities to forge a false identity and get yourself into the best boarding school in the countr
  5 KB (833 words) - 19:11, 9 April 2018
• Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
  ..., but can she work out who she wants to be, and become that person, before it's too late? ...e called popular, and though sometimes inside she might feel on the inside a little like an imposter, on the outside, well, she's the definition of ''in
  6 KB (1,024 words) - 09:55, 26 August 2020
• The Chinaman's Bastard by Amanda Taylor
  ...situation involving a young girl but all relevant facts seem enveloped in a sea of mist; not unlike the book's coastal location. ...ry captivating''. Well, to be brutally honest, it's either captivating or it's not. The word 'very' is not needed. And sadly, no, I didn't find the bo
  5 KB (847 words) - 08:37, 21 March 2018
• It Was You, Blue Kangaroo! by Emma Chichester-Clark
  |title=It Was You, Blue Kangaroo! ...ake responsibility for your actions') will be relevant to every parent and child. Good for children, especially lively girls, aged 2 to 6.
  6 KB (1,109 words) - 14:17, 8 September 2020
• Hilldiggers by Neal Asher
  ...engaging each other in a space war. It was a needless war, of course, and a very episodic and lengthy one due to their erratic orbits. However the titu ...ot of that influence might be down to the token mysterious alien artefact, a worm-shaped item that was smashed into four by the military and is now quar
  4 KB (652 words) - 13:45, 1 April 2018
• Supertato Run Veggies Run by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet
  ...nd fruit in my house can't do any of this, but then they aren't Supertato; a spectacular spud that, more than once, has saved the day with his powers. ...rizes. But as everyone knows, some vegetables are frozen for a reason and it appears that The Evil Pea has thawed once more and wants to rig the sports
  3 KB (553 words) - 16:06, 9 October 2020
• The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan
  ...edition of one of 2009's most promising new writers, Mari Strachan. With a quirky title like ''The Earth Hums in B Flat'', I knew I'd enjoy whatever c ...the characters struggle to cope with their family secrets. If that sounds a bit tacky, fear not, because the viewpoint character, Gwenni, is all whippe
  6 KB (1,048 words) - 12:01, 21 February 2018
• Almost Perfect by Delia Franklin
  ...ntial is there for a gentle story of relationships and self-discovery. But it suffers from lack of editing, with confusing structure and too much explana ...him to the fact that his only granddaughter Lucy has had a fall, and is in a serious state in hospital.
  4 KB (692 words) - 15:07, 10 August 2020
• Home Workout for Beginners: 6 Week Fitness Program with Fat Burning Workouts for Long Term Weight Loss by James Atkinson
  |summary=The sort of workout which doesn't require expensive equipment or a gym membership and which is explained with enthusiasm and thoughfulness abo ...that he ''understands'' what it's like and he knows how his clients feel: it's much more helpful than the twenty-something who was born super-fit and wi
  4 KB (700 words) - 09:35, 29 December 2023
• Fallen Angel by Kevin Lewis
  ...th his new novel, introducing us to DI Stacey Collins, a tough cop cutting a swathe through an even tougher man's world. ...t illustrate to those fortunate enough to have had a charmed childhood how it feels to live in constant fear of your parents.
  5 KB (845 words) - 09:33, 6 October 2020
• The Hidden World: The Remarkable Adventures of Tom Scatterhorn by Henry Chancellor
  ...read than before, and feels like even longer at times, but is still worth a look. ...y realise they share an enemy the only thing to do is to drop all ideas of a quiet time, and combine forces.
  4 KB (694 words) - 13:22, 16 April 2018
• More Deaths Than One by Jean Rowden
  |summary= Although I can't see it at the top of a best-seller list, this is an entertaining, light-hearted read set in the 19 ...ings are not as they seem. Can Thorny work out what is going on, even with a broken leg?
  5 KB (812 words) - 10:54, 10 March 2018
• Horrid Henry's A - Z of Everything Horrid by Francesca Simon
  |title=Horrid Henry's A - Z of Everything Horrid ...Henry embodies (while sending thanks for not actually having to cope with a Henry of their own). Obviously, no smelly-toady-goody-two-shoes are allowed
  5 KB (761 words) - 10:38, 23 March 2018
• Blackmoor by Edward Hogan
  ...ge times, and the very strange people that live there, considering a young child, his violent father and what made his mother die. ...d have caused such casual self-justified violence? Perhaps it pertains to a certain ghost put to rest – or not – in the now demolished village of B
  4 KB (619 words) - 10:25, 29 September 2020
• Victoria Eveleigh Talks To Bookbag About Why Pony Books Aren't Just For Girls
  ...t by Victoria Eveleigh|story]] about a friendship between a young girl and a wild stallion kept Sue reading well into the night. We were fascinated when As a pony-mad but pony-less child in London during the 1960s, I devoured any pony book I could lay my hands o
  6 KB (979 words) - 14:07, 3 March 2018
• A Wolf in Hindelheim by Jenny Mayhew
  |title=A Wolf in Hindelheim |sort=Wolf in Hindelheim, A
  4 KB (699 words) - 10:01, 20 March 2018
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Jane Elson
  |summary=Jill and Robert both loved [[A Room Full of Chocolate by Jane Elson|A Room Full of Chocolate]]. Jill got to do the review, but Robert was at the Jill and Robert both loved [[A Room Full of Chocolate by Jane Elson|A Room Full of Chocolate]]. Jill got to do the review, but Robert was at the
  7 KB (1,241 words) - 10:01, 14 February 2014
• Logic of Demons: The Quest for Nadine's Soul by H A Goodman
  |author=H A Goodman ...asm. H A Goodman was kind enough to be [[The Interview: Bookbag Talks To H A Goodman|interviewed by Bookbag]].
  4 KB (667 words) - 10:32, 6 May 2018
• Snapper by Brian Kimberling
  ...s back on his upbringing, his job as a bird watcher and his obsession with a girl he seems destined never to catch. ...y type of bird, but from the snapping turtle that lives in the state. It's a broadly affectionate and wry look at the people of Indiana, known as 'Hoosi
  4 KB (744 words) - 11:40, 19 March 2018
• An Urgent Message of Wowness by Karen McCombie
  ...t to say it shouldn't be written about, but it's hardly the bombshell that it's made out to be. ...I got over this set back, however, I got into this book and found it quite a nice read. The main story is about Heather and how she interacts with her f
  4 KB (746 words) - 13:35, 10 October 2020
• The Giant of Jum by Elli Woollard and Benji Davies
  |summary=A fresh and original take on the traditional fairy tale character that will a ...ng them, using his extra height to fetch a lost ball and rescue a cat from a tree. When he finally finds Jack will he really be able to eat Jack up? And
  3 KB (570 words) - 11:06, 22 September 2020
• Witch Baby and Me by Debi Gliori
  ...at's your kind of thing then you'll love ''Witch Baby and Me'', but if not it will drive you mad. ...most remote part of Scotland, high on top of an impossibly steep mountain called Ben Schreeeiiighe live the Sisters of Hiss. The Chin, the Nose, and the Toa
  3 KB (624 words) - 12:40, 19 April 2018
• The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd
  |summary=In the mould of ''A Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time'', Ted brings his unique pers ...s afraid of heights, he explains - and so Ted and Kat watch Salim's pod as it gracefully makes its circuit. But when the pod comes back to ground and the
  4 KB (640 words) - 12:44, 19 September 2020
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Dan Abnett
  ...] is a perfect tie-in novel with lots of Cretaceous critters for fans, and a very good action fantasy for anyone else. We couldn't wait to interview him ...] is a perfect tie-in novel with lots of Cretaceous critters for fans, and a very good action fantasy for anyone else. We couldn't wait to interview him
  5 KB (981 words) - 12:00, 13 January 2011
• Bath Times and Nursery Rhymes by Pam Weaver
  |summary=A heartwarming account of the life of a young nursery nurse in the 1960s ...private nanny to a rich young widow and an eventful but emotional stint in a premature baby ward.
  4 KB (643 words) - 11:21, 18 September 2020
• Miracle: The extraordinary dog that refused to die by Amanda Leask
  ...sections dealing with the treatment of dogs in Thailand are harrowing, but it's important that the evil dog meat trade is stopped. An important book. ...inking. Wouldn't we all like to have that sort of lifestyle? But hold on a minute.
  4 KB (745 words) - 09:18, 27 April 2018
• Jake's Bones by Jake McGowan-Lowe
  |summary=This isn't a book for every child, but for the budding palaeontologist, biologist - children who apply the sa ...forced to wait. It was worth waiting for though, this book is truly one of a kind.
  7 KB (1,172 words) - 16:37, 24 February 2018
• Paint It Black by P J Parrish
  |title=Paint It Black ...ime scenes are even more gruesome for the local police department and when a Private Investigator and an FBI agent are thrown into the mix, things get p
  4 KB (638 words) - 07:18, 9 August 2020
• Mr Gandy's Grand Tour by Alan Titchmarsh
  |summary=A gentle easy read that's ultimately heart-warming and uplifting. A perfect beach read. ...that was where the idea of the grand tour came from. He was going to take a leisurely trip around the cultural sights of western Europe and indulge him
  4 KB (631 words) - 10:16, 12 August 2020
• Being by Kevin Brooks
  ...xistential questions and vivid emotions make this Blade Runner themed book a five star volume, not to be missed. ...fied, they have called in a shadowy government agency and a sinister agent called Ryan appears to be directing the doctors. And then all hell breaks loose. O
  7 KB (1,170 words) - 09:41, 14 May 2018
• The Climbers by Keith Gray
  ...might be snatched from his hands. How can Sully stop Nottingham? And will it cost him his best friend, or maybe even all of his friends, to do so? ...iour, and some mentions about child abuse. But for all the darker moments, it remains an ultimately uplifting read.
  4 KB (764 words) - 15:30, 30 March 2024
• Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo, Louise Simonson and Kit Seaton
  ...ana Prince, where the young adult audience might have wished for something a little sprightlier. You can't deny its melding of original plot and old my ...race, but the survivor she drags from the waters is only going to disturb a lot more...
  5 KB (819 words) - 19:59, 1 April 2024
• The Dying Season: A Bruno Courreges Investigation by Martin Walker
  |title=The Dying Season: A Bruno Courreges Investigation |sort=Dying Season: A Bruno Courreges Investigation
  4 KB (673 words) - 10:11, 12 August 2020
• The Wonder by Diana Evans
  |summary=A young man seeks to learn more about his dad's career as a dancer and what happened to him, in this evocative story of life, dance, lo ...an, getting on with her job as a florist, but her younger brother Lucas is a dreamer, still trying to establish what he wants to do with his life, and i
  3 KB (591 words) - 09:57, 20 March 2018
• Dewey: The True Story of a World-famous Library Cat by Vicki Myron and Brett Witter
  |title=Dewey: The True Story of a World-famous Library Cat ...wn of Spencer, Iowa. There was the most unusual package in the book drop - a small dirty bedraggled kitten who was about to become Dewey, the world famo
  4 KB (705 words) - 12:28, 21 March 2018
• Call of the Undertow by Linda Cracknell
  ...hern coasts of Scotland. There an unexpected friendship with an odd local child changes both of their lives. Beautiful, haunting and highly recommended. ...so, most of your reading is done in stolen moments – often in moments when a nagging voice from the gremlin-centre of your brain is reminding you that y
  6 KB (1,041 words) - 11:11, 23 February 2018
• Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber
  ...family values, love and friendship which is just perfect for when you need a lazy, indulgent read. Definitely recommended. ...nough – despite the fact that her mother would like her to forgive Clark. It's not Phoebe she's thinking of as much as the social connection with his fa
  4 KB (634 words) - 11:14, 28 September 2020
• We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
  ...that turns on an original twist. A Man Booker winner? I don't think so. A worthwhile way of spending an afternoon? Definitely, but enjoyment may be ...ogist has wrought and the revealed secrets that will finally make sense of it all.
  5 KB (818 words) - 13:08, 22 September 2020
• Hooked by A C Wise
  |author=A C Wise ...nd against his will? What if one day Hook found a way to escape? This is a re-imagined Neverland story, with terror and heartbreak and pirates galore!
  4 KB (647 words) - 16:43, 9 June 2022
• Their Little Secret by Mark Billingham
  ...ly shouldn't have been investigating but it developed into a murder. It's a cracking story which I read far too quickly. An easy five stars and highly ...e disappeared and ghosted his former lover. She threw herself in front of a tube train.
  4 KB (786 words) - 15:02, 1 March 2019
• A Boy Called M.O.U.S.E by Penny Dolan
  |title=A Boy Called M.O.U.S.E |sort=Boy Called M.O.U.S.E
  5 KB (768 words) - 10:53, 17 April 2018
• Home by Marilynne Robinson
  |summary= Ponderous and melancholy tale in small town America of a damaged family struggling to understand each other and find inner peace. ...'t been home since, not even for his mother's funeral. He returns seeking a safe place to stay, and the chance to find some kind of peace with his past
  4 KB (679 words) - 11:46, 3 March 2018
• Strange Victoriana: Tales of the Curious, the Weird and the Uncanny from Our Victorian Ancestors by Jan Bondeson
  ...e forever' after reading it, as the blurb claims, is open to question, but it makes an extremely entertaining read. ...enerally in Britain but sometimes in Europe as well. This book is based on a recently-discovered archive of the paper. Prepare to be amazed, enthralled,
  5 KB (817 words) - 08:46, 8 October 2020
• Forgetting Zoe by Ray Robinson
  ...olated area of Arizona. A chance opportunity sees him abduct a young girl called Zoe and keep her captive for years, in an underground bunker. ...s left in no doubt as to the nature of the father with lines such as, ''As a form of punishment Father would press one of his hands down on top of Thurm
  4 KB (669 words) - 08:27, 5 September 2020
• White Dolphin by Gill Lewis
  |summary=A beautifully tender story of grief, loss and new beginnings, overlaid with e ...living with judgemental Auntie Bev. And, worse of all, Mum is not around. A marine biologist, she disappeared on an expedition along with several of he
  3 KB (581 words) - 10:06, 18 March 2018
• Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford
  ...es about his unconventional childhood, which included being raffled off as a prize at the World's Fair. ...aper; a story about a young immigrant boy who was given away as a prize in a raffle at the World's Fair in 1909.
  3 KB (543 words) - 17:53, 16 February 2018
• The Faber Book of Nursery Stories by Barbara Ireson and Shirley Hughes
  |summary=A bumper collection of classic stories for reading at bedtime, this is the ul ...ones. There are stories that go on for pages and others that finish after a few paragraphs. There are entries you might end up reading again and again,
  4 KB (608 words) - 16:46, 6 March 2018
• Mr and Mrs Disraeli: A Strange Romance by Daisy Hay
  |title= Mr and Mrs Disraeli: A Strange Romance ...e an unexpected yet very successful Prime Minister. This biography paints a vivid portrait of 'the odd couple'.
  5 KB (898 words) - 13:31, 9 April 2018
• From Sci Fi to Reality: How Dreams Turn Into Innovations
  ...he show was only around for a couple of seasons, but fans fell in love and it continues to inspire to this day. The device in Star Trek wasn’t called a mobile phone, as such, but rather as the ''communicator.'' This paved the w
  6 KB (1,057 words) - 08:52, 27 August 2020
• How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell
  |title= How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer ...e suggests, Montaigne's ideas are still relevant half a millennium later. A must-read for those with existential angst or pretensions to erudition.
  5 KB (808 words) - 11:44, 31 January 2024
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
  ...e them to establish a literary society? And, most pressing of all, what is a potato peel pie? ...al value of reading and she decides to include the society in her article. A visit to the island is inevitable.
  4 KB (697 words) - 10:33, 10 October 2020
• Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
  |summary=Two boys share a dreadful secret. As the repercussions take their toll on the boys, their f ...ugh both boys live in the town of Corrigan, until now, they haven't spoken a word to each other. They live in different worlds. Until now, that is.
  4 KB (746 words) - 08:55, 27 September 2020
• A Diamond in the Sky by Margaret Pelling
  |title=A Diamond in the Sky ...ed to have a lovely life: husband, young baby - but all that's gone now. A chance encounter with singleton Tom does wonders for her morale and may jus
  4 KB (756 words) - 12:14, 16 March 2018
• Intervention by Robin Cook
  |summary=This latest book from the pen of Robin Cook is a page-turning thriller. Dr Jack Stapleton meets up with two of his old, col ...itten many books, ''Intervention'' is the first one that I have read - I'm a Robin Cook 'virgin.'
  4 KB (702 words) - 09:38, 29 August 2020
• Mr Birdsnest and the House Next Door by Julia Donaldson and Hannah Shaw
  ...ouse Next Door'' gives us a chance to enjoy this brilliant author for just a little while longer. This is fun story, told in the first person, so we nev ...hildren's imaginations work overtime. In the end though, the children find a lovely new friend, and perhaps learn not to judge so quickly by appearances
  5 KB (822 words) - 11:30, 17 April 2018
• I Can See in the Dark by Karin Fossum
  ...events of his confession don't amount to a full hill of beans – more like a small pile. ...al park. But there is a lot more than just that – more deaths are in fact a lot closer to him, as this confession reveals…
  4 KB (786 words) - 10:32, 3 April 2018
• So Say the Fallen (DCI Serena Flanagan) by Stuart Neville
  ...e DCI Serena Flanagan series reads perfectly well as a standalone and it's a cracking good read. Recommended. ..., and the local clergyman, Peter McKay seemed suspiciously close. Perhaps a few loose ends needed tidying up before the case was closed?
  4 KB (746 words) - 12:08, 20 August 2020
• Broken Things by Lauren Oliver
  |summary= A sinister tale of friendship, fantasy, obsession and murder. This dark page- ...d in the woods where they all played and everyone thinks Mia and Brynn did it.
  4 KB (729 words) - 14:21, 13 September 2018
• Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne
  ...d in characters and troubled times, avoids lyricism but still emerges with a stark, sand-blown beauty. When the terrorist bombs bring London to a standstill in July 2005, a doctor heads out in frantic search. He can't find her, and he knows she ca
  5 KB (900 words) - 14:20, 23 March 2018
• Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz
  ...l humour. As for the political observations: make of them what you will. A great read. ...k is 19 years old ''trained up, mission ready. And yet untested.'' He's in a foreign city on an officially unofficial mission, which he executes with al
  6 KB (1,023 words) - 15:03, 3 September 2020
• Violet and the Pearl of the Orient by Harriet Whitehorn
  |summary=The first in a new series this is a delightful story of mystery, adventure and humour featuring Violet Remy-Rob ...is hanging upside down in a tree. One could safely say that Violet is not a typical ten year old. When her eccentric neighbour, Dee Dee Derota, has her
  3 KB (566 words) - 08:56, 24 April 2018
• Ooh, La, La, Connie Pickles by Sabine Durrant
  ...h capital, but you can bet the trip won't be without its problems. This is a funny travelogue told through the eyes of an acutely observant teen. ...s quoi'' of the city that never sleeps. She just knows she's going to have a fabulous time.
  4 KB (642 words) - 19:42, 29 August 2020
• Alice Through the Looking-glass by Lewis Carroll and Tony Ross
  ...meat and bones of the book. If anything the skeleton is a journey across a surreal chess board, meeting real-sized counterparts for the pieces, and en ...'t turn to these pages for a celebration of the book quite as Carroll knew it.
  4 KB (683 words) - 12:09, 17 April 2018
• The Last Night by Cesca Major
  |summary= A dual-narrative story that centres around a village tragedy in 1952. ...hange everything forever. Decades later, in 2016, a shy furniture-restorer called Irina has been given an unusual commission: to restore an old bureau contai
  4 KB (698 words) - 20:41, 2 September 2018
• Boo by Neil Smith
  ...at's not your average heaven nor your average dead-13-yr-old-boy fiction. A funny, sad, surprising, unsentimental, highly original adult/YA cross-over ...t he woke up in the rebirthing bed. His friends and tormentors had always called him Boo because of his ghostly pale complexion and now he's finally earned
  5 KB (905 words) - 16:22, 29 August 2020
• The Throwaway Children by Diney Costeloe
  ...go. Distraught Mavis chooses her man over her children, setting in motion a tragic chain of events that leads to the girls being sent to an orphanage t ...pealing character, who shouldn't be underestimated simply because she is a child.
  3 KB (586 words) - 07:39, 12 August 2020
• Edisto by Padgett Powell
  |summary=A much more conventional debut for Padgett Powell, giving us a rarefied coming-of-age story very much at odds with his later novels. ...lack bar, but the man – who Simons decides to call Taurus – is going to be a peculiar father figure, opening his world up into that of adulthood.
  4 KB (730 words) - 10:21, 24 March 2018
• Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch
  ...xistence in the east end of London. But one day he literally comes across a tiger - and his life is changed forever. ...novel which starts with the evocative lines ''I was born twice. First in a wooden room ... and then again eight years later ...''? I was hooked and B
  4 KB (714 words) - 14:20, 3 March 2018
• The Crossing of Ingo by Helen Dunmore
  ...tinues the theme of the world as entity, not as resource and it never puts a foot wrong. ...crossing is the most important of all. No one of human blood has ever been called before, and if they succeed, Sapphire and Conor will enable the healing of
  4 KB (672 words) - 19:10, 10 March 2018
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Anthony McGowan
  ...iences, and I'd tackle almost anything if it came in between the covers of a book. ...s perfect sense to us! How much fun was it to let down your hair with such a wacky book as ''Einstein's Underpants''? Is writing fun?'''
  7 KB (1,214 words) - 13:45, 14 May 2018
• Ancient Egypt in 30 Seconds: 30 Awesome Topics for Pharaoh Fanatics Explained in Half a Minute (Children's 30 Second) by Cath Senker and Melvyn Evans
  ...pt in 30 Seconds: 30 Awesome Topics for Pharaoh Fanatics Explained in Half a Minute (Children's 30 Second) ...rs. Although this is fine, its format doesn't quite manage to distinguish it.
  4 KB (705 words) - 16:46, 19 March 2018
• Things We Have In Common by Tasha Kavanagh
  ...debut novel will divide people. The writing is brilliant, but the plot is a little less convincing - and we won't even start on the ending! An author ...of her that she stalks her. One day, in the school playground, she spots a man watching Alice as carefully as she does and becomes obsessed by the ide
  4 KB (740 words) - 11:05, 12 August 2020
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Antony Wootten
  ...od story - there's a subtle message that life will improve. Sue had quite a few questions for Antony when he popped into Bookbag Towers ...od story - there's a subtle message that life will improve. Sue had quite a few questions for Antony when he popped into Bookbag Towers
  8 KB (1,469 words) - 16:16, 4 March 2013
• Song of the Current by Sarah Tolcser
  ...sy debut with a great central character. Subtle, organic worldbuilding and a clear authorial tone on sexism, classism and racism are ''very'' welcome an ...she expected, and she is drawn into a life and death political struggle in a world far removed from life aboard her father's wherry...
  4 KB (718 words) - 11:33, 31 March 2020
• Grow: A Family Guide to Growing Fruit and Veg by Ben Raskin
  |title=Grow: A Family Guide to Growing Fruit and Veg ...dis of a book - you'd never believe that so much could be packed into such a small space! Highly recommended.
  5 KB (865 words) - 17:28, 7 March 2023
• Winnie to the Rescue! / Yuck's Rotten Joke Ha! Ha! Ha! by Laura Owen, Matt and Dave, Korky Paul and Nigel Baines
  ...in the Witches' Cat Show before causing mayhem on World Book Day. Yuck is a mischievous boy who can only manage to be good by playing tricks. These sho ...escue!'' but when she turned it over there was an entirely different story called ''Yuck''. When she realised that we were actually getting two stories in on
  4 KB (691 words) - 13:24, 19 April 2018
• Following the Tractor by Susan Steggall
  ...oils as the seasons roll around. The medium of collage and rhyme makes for a unique, vibrant and engaging book that is sure to appeal to small children. ...cDonald then had to invest in additional vehicles for the tractor round as it was less 'brrmm brrmm here' more 'toddler fisticuffs there'.
  4 KB (714 words) - 16:14, 29 March 2018
• The Way Of Shadows (Night Angel Trilogy) by Brent Weeks
  ...udalism, functioning magic, intricate plotting and - of course - including a powerful artefact to be found and used. ...o) and a king threatened by the usurper (e.g. Arthur). This is, of course, a major simplification, but still, many, many fantasy novels follow one of th
  6 KB (965 words) - 15:31, 12 October 2020
• Daddy Love by Joyce Carol Oates
  |summary=Once more, Joyce Carol Oates provides a dark and disturbing read, but one so accomplished in both style and emotion ...disappearance of their daughter. The synopsis of ''Daddy Love'' suggested a similar impact, given the nature of the story and what I'd recently discove
  4 KB (802 words) - 13:28, 6 September 2020
• Remembering The Bones by Frances Itani
  ..., wife and widow. A well written and moving account of four generations of a quiet, hardworking Canadian family. ...few minutes into her journey, the car leaves the road and is plunged into a ravine. She is thrown clear of her car, injured and out of sight, and is in
  6 KB (1,049 words) - 14:17, 18 March 2018
• Second Chance by Elizabeth Wrenn
  ...l be trained as a guide dog. You'll laugh and you'll cry - but you'll love it. Highly recommended. ...le washer to her husband and three children. She's also invisible. This is a phenomenon which will be familiar to many middle-aged women: they exist, no
  4 KB (816 words) - 10:06, 6 April 2018
• Faith by Jennifer Haigh
  ...round (alleged) child abuse. As if this is not shocking enough in itself, a popular and hard-working local priest is accused and his siblings and paren ...ts someone else. Two more children are born and they all settle down into a normal, American family unit.
  4 KB (728 words) - 09:07, 6 October 2020
• Mary's Hair by Eoin Colfer
  |summary=An absolutely brilliant story of a bad hair day which will have adults laughing as much as the children. ...rst she cuts her hair, but when that doesn't go to plan she decides to dye it. She has learned something from the whole hair cutting experience though, t
  4 KB (686 words) - 22:25, 2 March 2018
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To John Saunders
  ...child left in them. It's definitely not a book for serious person that has a sophisticated sense of humour - the type that might find chemical equations ...good look on the map, but I can't find Vernham anywhere. Where exactly is it?'''
  10 KB (1,930 words) - 11:16, 12 January 2011
• Whortle's Hope (The Deptford Mouselets) by Robin Jarvis
  ...encountering depths of history and mystery as a sideline. Fascinating, and a great saga for the 8-13 year old audience. ...tle mouse will have to over-achieve in several sporting events - five from a menu of ten must be chosen before he can hope to win.
  5 KB (791 words) - 09:56, 12 March 2018
• Reckoning by Magda Szubanski
  ..., coming to terms with her sexuality. Moving and engaging throughout, it's a great read. ...es her journey of self-discovery from a suburban childhood as an immigrant child, haunted by the demons of her father's espionage activities in wartime Pola
  4 KB (744 words) - 11:05, 26 February 2018
• The Cake, the Wolf and the Witch by Maudie Smith
  ...ildren (honestly, what normal mother calls their kids Nettle and Wild?) on a quest in the Land of Ever After, he has no choice: either work together wit ...well, to tell the truth, he's plain daft. He prances about the place like a demented butterfly, and he never takes his baseball cap off, even to go to
  4 KB (686 words) - 19:07, 10 March 2018
• Slave Girl by Jackie French
  |summary=A well-researched, gripping historical drama with strong female characters bu ...ed the coast of that continent over four centuries before him. They called it Vinland.
  4 KB (716 words) - 14:13, 19 April 2018
• The Raven's Head by Karen Maitland
  ...g as paths of a runaway scribe, an apothecary's niece and a boy adopted by a monastery converge to meet in hell on Earth. ...stian. Meanwhile in France, Vincent, a scribe's apprentice, is framed for a theft and has to run for his life. The three will meet but under circumsta
  4 KB (679 words) - 09:32, 3 February 2024
• The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death in the Sixteenth Century by Joel F Harrington
  ...rom all public buildings. He therefore had no choice but to take it up as a lifelong career. ...ble to review this book without conveying some of that brutality herewith, a cruelty that emanated from criminal and agent of punishment alike.
  6 KB (1,027 words) - 12:56, 16 April 2018
• C S Lewis: The Boy Who Chronicled Narnia by Michael White
  ...a quick look at the man who created Narnia it might be just the thing, but it omits large areas of Lewis' interest and applies modern therapeutic and cur specifically as a chronicle of the life of the man who chronicled Narnia. White
  6 KB (968 words) - 15:06, 8 April 2018
• What Is She Doing Here? by Kate Clanchy
  |summary=A remarkable and unforgettable memoir of a friendship with a Kosovan refugee. ...e which would eventually end up rubbing spines with all the ''Child Called It'' replicas and tragic real life stories. I have no problem with people maki
  4 KB (722 words) - 09:52, 27 February 2018
• The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth H Winthrop
  ...forward as a young man prepares for his electrocution by electric chair in a small town filled with prejudice and ignorance. ...en a black man and a white woman was never going to have a happy ending in a small town filled with small-minded people.
  4 KB (722 words) - 13:58, 21 October 2021
• Killer in the Photo by Annette Mark
  ...er which moves seamlessly between Thailand and the United Kingdom. I read it far more quickly than I intended because I ''had'' to find out what happene ...crowd. Only Kate's quick thinking averts mass deaths, but Peter, the only child of her best friend, Carmen Tan-Williams, will die.
  4 KB (658 words) - 10:29, 3 January 2023
• Pug-a-Doodle-Do! by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre
  |title=Pug-a-Doodle-Do! ...hat just begs the audience to be creative. Heartily recommended, although it offers little for those of us who can't draw and appear doodle-deficient.
  5 KB (769 words) - 15:26, 9 April 2018
• The Man Who Came to London by A S Cookson
  |author=A S Cookson ...8, the first set of Caribbean nationals arrived in Great Britain on a ship called "Empire Windrush". They struggled to find housing. They worked as labourers
  4 KB (695 words) - 12:38, 7 January 2019
• The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas
  ...=The first of a projected trilogy is a stunning novel from Sarah Prineas. It comes highly recommended by The Bookbag. ...gical powers… does this sound a familiar scenario? Well, I guess for many, it will sound somewhat familiar, but being one of the few people on the planet
  4 KB (685 words) - 14:28, 26 September 2020
• The Georgian Star: How William and Caroline Herschel Revolutionized Our Understanding of the Cosmos by Michael D Lemonick
  ...quick look at the remarkable life, times and efforts of William Herschel. It ticks all the right informative boxes without ever extending itself from it ...ee nearly as much as he might. Conversely, he would have adored living in a time such as ours – with the technology to show him so much he couldn't s
  4 KB (732 words) - 09:25, 9 April 2018
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Siobhan Curham
  ...]] had brilliant charaterisation and a really interesting setting. He had a few questions when author Siobhan Curham popped into Bookbag Towers to chat ...] had brilliant characterisation and a really interesting setting. He had a few questions when author Siobhan Curham popped into Bookbag Towers to chat
  7 KB (1,210 words) - 06:26, 3 August 2013
• An African Princess: From African Orphan to Queen Victoria’s Favourite by Walter Dean Myers
  ...as they undertake a trip to Victoria’s empire. ''An African Princess'' is a readable and intriguing piece of historical research if somewhat lacking in ...ational Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Walter Dean Myers, it is a creatively imaginative account, with an historical backbone of genuine diar
  4 KB (620 words) - 16:47, 19 March 2018
• Hello Kitty Dictionary
  ...bright, easy to read, fun dictionary that makes word hunting a doddle not a drag. ...ars. That’s not to say the dictionary isn’t clear and easy to read because it certainly is: the decorations don’t extend into the centre of the pages,
  5 KB (791 words) - 10:23, 6 October 2020
• Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  |title=Half of a Yellow Sun ...as resonance for current world issues. It's only let down very slightly by a rather self-conscious structure.
  5 KB (752 words) - 14:01, 11 October 2020
• Slawter (The Demonata) by Darren Shan
  ...schlockfest, Slawter still manages to be suitable for children. Gotta love it for that alone. ...sister to the titular master demon, suffers a nervous breakdown, discovers a half-brother and goes into battle with his uncle against Lord Loss, all bec
  4 KB (765 words) - 17:15, 14 March 2018
• A Sign of Her Own by Sarah Marsh
  |title=A Sign of Her Own ...ity history that I hadn't known about before reading, through the story of a sweet, engaging girl.
  5 KB (863 words) - 09:19, 3 April 2024
• The Last Weekend by Blake Morrison
  ...Two old university friends and their partners share what is supposed to be a restful weekend by the coast. But as old wounds, negative feelings and res ...''a compelling psychological thriller ...'' I absolutely love a book with a psychological element. I'm in my element, you could say.
  4 KB (782 words) - 14:39, 17 March 2018
• The Cuckoo Boy by Grant Gillespie
  ...ve parents don't appear to be up to the task of rearing and nurturing such a complex personality (he tests them at every level of his upbringing) and th ...the lines. She wants a baby but not the mess that comes with it. James, a tiny baby is brought into this brittle home.
  4 KB (691 words) - 14:45, 15 March 2018
• The Good Mayor by Andrew Nicoll
  |summary=A sweet love story with a magical twist follows the Good Mayor of the Baltic town of Dot and his obse Tibo Krovic is the good and honest mayor of Dot. Dot is a small town in a forgotten part of the Baltic states… just across the water from Dash… n
  5 KB (786 words) - 12:25, 24 March 2018
• The Boy With One Name by J R Wallis
  ..., and a hefty sprinkling of magic – you're sure to be taken on one hell of a ride. ...It's just that most people don't see them. If you're a Badlander, however, it's all you see.
  4 KB (748 words) - 09:40, 25 April 2018
• Dead Like You by Peter James
  |summary=The latest Roy Grace case, fast-paced as ever, involving a serial rapist and Grace's own missing wife. ...his ugly head again, why has he chosen to do so after so long? Could it be a copycat rapist? And will Grace's memories of Sandy help him to find some cl
  6 KB (987 words) - 20:08, 29 August 2020
• After This by Alice McDermott
  ''The New York Time Bestseller'' it proclaims on its appropriately subdued jacket. The blurb is full of glowing ...ar comes and even the tragedy it brings is passed lightly over - after all it was not so different to what thousands of other Americans experienced.
  6 KB (1,081 words) - 08:06, 4 April 2018
• A Poem for Every Night of the Year by Allie Esiri
  |title=A Poem for Every Night of the Year ...is a year-long tour through a vast history of poetry, and gives the reader a new poem to try every night, with everything from Michael Rosen to Shakespe
  5 KB (950 words) - 09:36, 16 February 2018
• The Hidden Fires by Merryn Glover
  ...denoch in Scotland. I can think of no-one better a combination to give us a re-appraisal of Nan Shepherds work than the first Writer in Residence in th ...g just emerged from a world war, Shepherd didn't have thought nor care for a few insect bites?
  8 KB (1,477 words) - 21:21, 2 April 2024
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Jackie Marchant
  ...he accept, she also introduced him to the boy who some people are calling 'a modern day William Brown' and he was kind enough to also answer some questi ...he accept, she also introduced him to the boy who some people are calling 'a modern day William Brown' and he was kind enough to also answer some questi
  7 KB (1,295 words) - 13:39, 9 September 2012
• The Three Day Rule by Emlyn Rees and Josie Lloyd
  ...a breather from your latest guilt-ridden foray into Anna Karenina; this is a book that requires no concentration and no attention - you could probably w ...e Vaughan has it all: a great job that pays good money, beautiful clothes, a great love affair and fabulous sex. Kellie has never been happier in her li
  4 KB (717 words) - 17:24, 18 February 2018
• The Boy on the Bridge by M R Carey
  ...and of the first book lacks both a strong lead-in character and the attack it deserves. ...ng on an intriguing character being on board – a teenaged savant, no less, called Stephen Greaves. But that source of the unusual is nothing perhaps to the
  5 KB (779 words) - 11:43, 1 April 2018
• Desolation Island by Adolfo Garcia Ortega
  |summary=Ortega's weird and wonderful take on a seafaring yarn is a novel to get lost in. ...ending cabinet of curiosities. This magical realist take on the history of a place involves forbidden love, sixteenth-century automatons, mysterious Bal
  5 KB (759 words) - 09:43, 24 March 2018
• Counting the Cost by Jemima Brigges
  ...kes on a new identity as a stern housekeeper and forms a special bond with a young village girl who comes to work for her. ...er disguise, she becomes the dowdy 'Miss Dinchope' and takes a position as a housekeeper for the village rector.
  4 KB (627 words) - 08:49, 21 March 2018
• The Missing by Tim Gautreaux
  ...ran suffers guilty pangs and takes it upon himself to search for a missing child in the world of prohibition, steamboats and Louisiana Jazz. The most absor ...d enter the world of the parents until he finds the girl. Even if this is a hard and hardening world where no-one has time to do anything for anyone el
  5 KB (847 words) - 16:25, 22 February 2018
• The Last Pearl by Leah Fleming
  ...water pearl called 'Queenie' changes the lives of a young Scottish boy and a penniless girl from York in this family saga that spans years and continent ...o pearl. Sorrows have a way of strengthening the heart, never forget that, child.''
  4 KB (712 words) - 14:48, 12 October 2020
• Top Ten Crime Novels 2016
  For the most part we've avoided the big names in our favourites this year: it's good to see some new names coming through! These are our favourites in a ...ting late fifties, early sixties. If I'd looked closer, I'd have seen that it is much more contemporary than that. Then again…
  7 KB (1,190 words) - 13:52, 2 February 2024
• Dear Thing by Julie Cohen
  ...when poor Matthew dies! Involving, funny, heartbreaking and thoughtful - a beautiful story. ...of feeling you simply cannot take any more, your best friend offered to be a surrogate mother, and carry your baby?
  7 KB (1,277 words) - 10:03, 11 August 2020
• Love and Lies: And Why You Can't Have One Without the Other by Clancy Martin
  |summary= Clancy Martin, a philosophy professor, self-confessed expert liar, and serial groom, exposes ...sophy professor, self-confessed expert liar, and serial groom, sets out on a mission to disprove the central beliefs we hold with respect to, no more an
  5 KB (741 words) - 17:12, 23 April 2018
• Kill Fee by Owen Laukkanen
  ...it men. How can you catch a killer in front of their PC? Join the duo in a fast paced, action crime thriller that will have you wondering what you jus ...net if you know where to look! Want someone killed by a professional for a reasonable fee? This may be depressingly easier than you think.
  5 KB (837 words) - 14:37, 3 March 2018
• Dadland: A Journey into Uncharted Territory by Keggie Carew
  |title=Dadland: A Journey into Uncharted Territory ...er of Aung San Suu Kyi)and was at one stage ''plucked off the Irrawaddy by a flying boat, like James Bond''.
  5 KB (828 words) - 11:05, 17 February 2023
• Velocity Weapon by Megan E O'Keefe
  ...ll have you wanting more with every page. A must-read for fans of James S. A. Corey and Alastair Reynolds. ...starship makes preparations for its decades-long voyage across the stars, it becomes clear to Sanda that something else is going on...
  5 KB (765 words) - 12:35, 12 August 2020
• Dog by Andy Mulligan
  ...hilosophically-minded drama turns into a quite frenetic adventure for both child and animal characters. ...g at a lowly place – he ignores his absent mother, he has the privilege of a scholarship for him to get beaten up and bullied at school, and he can't se
  5 KB (864 words) - 12:04, 23 April 2018
• Arsenic For Tea (A Wells and Wong Mystery) by Robin Stevens
  |title=Arsenic For Tea (A Wells and Wong Mystery) ...ntry mansions, it's not long before the two girls are called upon to solve a murder.
  4 KB (701 words) - 11:51, 12 August 2020
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Andy Mulligan
  ...s bound to win awards. You shouldn't miss it. Andy was kind enough to have a chat with us. ...s bound to win awards. You shouldn't miss it. Andy was kind enough to have a chat with us.
  10 KB (1,810 words) - 10:59, 18 September 2010
• The Alchemaster's Apprentice by Walter Moers
  ...ive fantasy, as a young creature signs his life away for a last month with a weird scientist. ...ientist from the castle that looms over everyone and everything offers him a month of entertaining gluttony before he kills Echo, as opposed to three da
  5 KB (798 words) - 07:36, 13 March 2018
• A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of the Columbine Tragedy by Sue Klebold
  |title=A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of the Columbine Tragedy ...l shooters, the devastating story of her son's murder-suicide and the ways it still affects her and others more than 17 years later.
  6 KB (944 words) - 08:35, 7 August 2020
• Owen Pendragon by W S Markendale
  ...ess or two, dragons, trolls, the Camelot mythology and the odd dinosaur in a race to save Earth and an interplanetary alliance. ...nap children in Cornwall and the army seems powerless to do anything about it. 12-year-olds Owen and Mary assume they too are therefore powerless as the
  4 KB (642 words) - 15:24, 17 April 2018
• Cheesemares by Ross Collins
  ...run away with it in on a madcap adventure that gives the term ''mad cow'' a whole new meaning. ...rom the clutches of the mad cattle and make cheese safe to eat again. It's a good thing cows don't have hands to clutch with.
  5 KB (801 words) - 10:53, 17 April 2018
• Nutshell by Ian McEwan
  ...ing precis, and see the humorous and questioning look at the world's evils it posits. ...Oh, and he himself, our narrator, is the child she's pregnant with. He is a very alert young thing, with nothing else to do but kick here and there, an
  5 KB (847 words) - 13:10, 10 March 2018
• The Bear Whispers To Me: The Story of a Bear and a Boy by Chang Ying-Tai and Darryl Sterk (translator)
  |title= The Bear Whispers To Me: The Story of a Bear and a Boy |sort= Bear Whispers To Me: The Story of a Bear and a Boy
  5 KB (883 words) - 13:42, 23 March 2018
• September 2016 Newsletter
  ...o:subscribe@thebookbag.co.uk an email]. We won't bother you more than once a month, but we'll tell you about what we've been reading at Bookbag and any ...scribed as a child. If you have a child who loves to read, you should look it out.
  8 KB (1,353 words) - 16:08, 10 August 2020
• The Last Pilot by Benjamin Johncock
  ...ting plus excellent characters and dialogue enliven this debut novel about a test pilot and his family troubles during America's Space Race. ...ht Stuff'' and films like ''Apollo 13''. His protagonist, Jim Harrison, is a fictional Air Force test pilot who rubs shoulders with historical figures l
  6 KB (939 words) - 15:40, 2 September 2020
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Alan Durant
  ...Simon Rickerty]] - unfortunately we can't stop reading it, but fortunately it's super. We leapt at the opportunity to ask Alan Durant some questions. ...Simon Rickerty]] - unfortunately we can't stop reading it, but fortunately it's super. We leapt at the opportunity to ask Alan Durant some questions.
  7 KB (1,190 words) - 22:24, 9 August 2010
• Bertie: A Life of Edward VII by Jane Ridley
  |title=Bertie: A Life of Edward VII ...deaf and lame wife Alexandra, hated reading books and learning but became a first-class unofficial ambassador to courts and countries abroad, and despi
  9 KB (1,487 words) - 12:01, 26 February 2018
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Mark Burstein (editor) and Salvador Dali
  ...roll's Marmite classic gets revisited in this cherishable hardback – still it might not be to everyone's tastes whatsoever. ...ry surrealistic 105th birthday. Since getting sight of one is like seeing a flat clock in Dali's pictures, this decent hardback replication is the near
  5 KB (908 words) - 13:18, 6 April 2018
• Pirates by Geoffrey Malone
  |summary=A boy encounters modern-day pirates when on his father's freight ship. An ex ...lso quite liking the idea of a short stretch on board the boat is Lin Pao, a pirate, after the ship itself and all the goods.
  5 KB (833 words) - 13:07, 23 August 2020
• Paula Weston Talks To Bookbag About Her Dream Dinner Party
  |summary=We were very impressed by [[Shadows by Paula Weston]], a book that promises thrilling plots, chemistry between the sassy lead charac ...a dream dinner party guest list. So, to keep things simple, I'm going with a theme of angelic and not-so-angelic characters from fantasy/paranormal/dyst
  5 KB (774 words) - 13:56, 3 March 2018
• Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry by David Robertson and Bill Breen
  |summary=A study of the near-crash of LEGO in 2003 and its strategy for subsequent rec ...y of the century’, the Group announced the biggest loss in its history and it appeared to be doomed.
  5 KB (798 words) - 16:53, 3 August 2020
• Young Sherlock Holmes: Knife Edge by Andrew Lane
  ...e teenage Sherlock and his brother Mycroft try to determine whether or not a psychic who claims he can speak to dead spies is telling the truth. ...gnificantly for world peace, is the self-proclaimed psychic Ambrose Albano a fraud, or can he really find out, and thus reveal, the secrets of internati
  4 KB (682 words) - 14:34, 23 April 2018
• The Nine Day Queen by Ella March Chase
  ...always confer independence and freedom. That makes us feel better doesn't it? ...oses harshly on Jane's childhood, for history knows her as Lady Jane Grey; a name that will be written in blood.
  5 KB (787 words) - 08:59, 22 March 2018
• Life After You by Lucie Brownlee
  ...had to navigate emotional milestones and significant anniversaries to find a new life for herself and her daughter. ...: discussing flower arrangements, cremation and charity donations. How did it come to this?
  5 KB (819 words) - 12:07, 8 September 2020
• The Elephant Keepers' Children by Peter Hoeg
  ...Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow'' well worth reading. Not for those seeking a gritty realistic novel. ...ents, zany chases and brilliantly named characters. If you are looking for a gritty, realistic novel, this won't fit the bill, but for all its madcap ev
  5 KB (827 words) - 12:36, 16 March 2018
• Ribblestrop by Andy Mulligan
  ...view with the plot is the wrong approach. This book is all about the mood it creates, and especially about the seeming intent of the author – to creat ...ubble and tarpaulins for a roof but the headmaster gets as much use out of it as he can.
  5 KB (873 words) - 13:57, 19 April 2018
• Trieste by Dasa Drndic and Ellen Elias-Bursac (translator)
  ...s through her red basket of memories, travelling back to wartime Trieste. A beautifully written book, full of things you may not have known but you wil ...fe as a Catholicised Jew, before, during and after World War II in an area called Trieste.
  5 KB (793 words) - 13:10, 29 September 2020
• The Bay at Midnight by Diane Chamberlain
  |summary= A who-dunnit story with many twists and turns along the way. It's narrated from various perspectives which gives the story depth and variat ...l never be the same again. Apparently, the wrong person was convicted for a murder. Moreover, the writer of this letter appears to know who did commit
  5 KB (913 words) - 10:03, 15 March 2018
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Clementine Beauvais and Sarah Horne
  Clementine Beauvais: The jury of the Nobel Prize, of course, but also a flock of primary school children running around the playground in search fo * '''BB: When you first created the character of Sesame, did you have a mental image of her? If so, how close is that to Sarah’s drawings of her?
  7 KB (1,162 words) - 14:30, 2 April 2014
• Kushiel's Scion by Jacqueline Carey
  ...lternative time line fantasy set in medieval Europe that grips the reader. It could be shocking in places if unprepared for the erotic nature of the Kush ...and to find his true place in the world, when all he has known before was a lie.
  10 KB (1,760 words) - 08:22, 6 September 2020
• Girls Who Lie by Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir and Victoria Cribb (translator)
  |summary=A drama that parallels one person's very dark thoughts with a murder investigation, but one that doesn't have the vim or characterisation ...Meanwhile, this narrative is interrupted by a confessional monologue from a mother who found herself with heavy post-natal depression, and very little
  5 KB (984 words) - 10:21, 30 March 2024
• The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer
  ...rom her is about to send them on an adventure that they will never forget: a trip to the enchanting Land of Stories. ...ry revolves around the twins’ quest to find several items needed to create a wishing spell that will send them back home. Unfortunately, they are not th
  4 KB (746 words) - 14:44, 26 September 2020
• The Tail by Paul Marshall
  ...iew of new government's educational agenda in which school children become a commodity to which value can be added in the production ( education) stage, ...ecomes very tedious as it reads likes a monologue extolling the virtues of a political manifesto. In all honesty, I would have really preferred this wit
  12 KB (2,085 words) - 13:01, 14 April 2018
• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
  A dystopian parable with lots to say about womanhood, that is rightly deservi '''A ''Times Educational Supplement'' Teachers' Top 100 Book'''
  6 KB (968 words) - 16:41, 10 August 2020
• The Forbidden Stone (The Copernicus Legacy) by Tony Abbott
  |summary=Wade Kaplan and his three friends expect to enjoy a relaxing spring break at home—but within hours they are chasing across th ...oaring, scare-a-minute thriller, and also, for more reflective readers, as a prompt to further investigation.
  4 KB (656 words) - 15:11, 23 April 2018
• You're a Bad Man, Mr Gum! by Andy Stanton
  |title=You're a Bad Man, Mr Gum! ...reats to a fully entertaining level of odd. It and its sequels would make a lovely gift set.
  5 KB (923 words) - 07:38, 20 April 2018
• Lucky Me: My Life With - And Without - My Mom, Shirley MacLaine by Sachi Parker with Frederick Stroppel
  ...really like as the only child of a Hollywood legend. Truly eye-opening and a definite must-read. ...mper and a Hollywood icon for a mother and you have enough stories to fill a book.
  5 KB (892 words) - 14:09, 7 April 2018
• The Lore of the Playground: The Children's World - Then and Now by Steve Roud
  |summary=A detailed and longitudinal view of games and rhymes in the playground. Metic ...'' by Iona and Peter Opie (1959), you might find this book adds little for a general readership. For the specialist, I'm sure this book will take its ri
  5 KB (811 words) - 11:59, 13 April 2018
• Bella Broomstick by Lou Kuenzler and Kyan Cheng
  ...ges, twists and spells as young Bella (not your usual kind of witch) finds a home, friends, herself and adventure. ...lla discovers otherwise and soon finds herself loved and much wanted – and a style of magic all of her own.
  4 KB (755 words) - 10:01, 25 August 2020
• November 2014 Newsletter
  ...o:subscribe@thebookbag.co.uk an email]. We won't bother you more than once a month, but we'll tell you about what we've been reading at Bookbag and any ...We at Bookbag are all for anything that tries to inspire all people to be a little bit kinder to each other and so we'd like to add our voice to the ch
  8 KB (1,321 words) - 15:13, 22 August 2020
• Corrag by Susan Fletcher
  ...of the area, a reflection of our current pre-occupations, but mostly just a beautifully written tale. ...er called her ''witch'' before she named her. Her given name Corrag – was a corruption: for Cora (her mother) and Hag (which she'd get as used to as Co
  8 KB (1,433 words) - 12:36, 22 February 2018
• Travelling Light by Tove Jansson
  ...y light, surprisingly thought-provoking and ultimately uplifting. As ever a pure joy to read. ''Tove Jansson was a genius''.
  8 KB (1,321 words) - 16:28, 29 August 2020
• Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
  |summary=Beautifully written with not a word wasted, Great Expectations meets tropical island in this look at the l ...Papua Guinea, the New Guinean government employed Sandline International, a mercenary group, and the ensuing scandal brought down the administration. B
  5 KB (787 words) - 11:00, 24 February 2018
• Princess Hannah and the Little Black Kitten (Tiara Club) by Vivian French
  ...dering the total saccharine princess overkill topped with an appearance of a little fluffy animal; Bookbag wouldn't bother - unless your daughter refuse ...can laugh all the way to the bank, and if the children are reading, isn't it better than if they are not??
  5 KB (817 words) - 11:55, 25 August 2020
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Angela Young
  ...t compelling pictures of mental illness which she'd read. There was quite a lot to talk about when author Angela Young popped into Bookbag Towers to ch ...t compelling pictures of mental illness which she'd read. There was quite a lot to talk about when author Angela Young popped into Bookbag Towers to ch
  10 KB (1,839 words) - 10:39, 4 November 2013
• Sucker by Mark Lingane
  ...ective noir/fantasy/sf also raising suspicions that he's the literary love child of Dashiell Hammett and Neil Gaiman. ...ld lead, the brutally bloodied body count he would uncover and the link to a recurring childhood nightmare that materialises, then he may have refused.
  5 KB (840 words) - 12:58, 5 March 2018
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Susie Day
  ...s the absolutely outstanding [[Pea's Book of Best Friends by Susie Day]] – a definite modern classic! We were thrilled to interview Susie. ...s the absolutely outstanding [[Pea's Book of Best Friends by Susie Day]] – a definite modern classic! We were thrilled to interview Susie.
  8 KB (1,441 words) - 13:47, 7 July 2012
• Super Sons: The PolarShield Project by Ridley Pearson and Ile Gonzalez
  ...tart to this series of full-length comic books for the under-twelves. With a new on-going series launching every month of 2019 after this, the future lo ...he climate, can it? Four young children begin to piece together clues that it can…
  5 KB (920 words) - 12:36, 6 October 2020
• Sadie the Airmail Pilot by Kellie Strom
  ...Bookbag's heart was torn, but ultimately we can't recommend this book but it is worth borrowing for the artwork. ...n fact, I still am as I am writing this review. It's rarely that one meets a picture book in which the contrast between the picture part and the text pa
  8 KB (1,298 words) - 11:04, 6 May 2018
• Skin Game (Dresden Files) by Jim Butcher
  ...Knight and ex-PI Harry Dresden is back. In book 15 he's in the middle of a heist on the wrong side of good. JB's writing, on the other hand, shows no ...The liberator is Queen Mab who wants Harry to do a bit of robbery beside a former arch enemy of his. If he refuses, the parasite will kill him and th
  5 KB (800 words) - 13:44, 19 February 2018
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Leigh Hodgkinson
  ...released in close proximity, we couldn't resist the opportunity to ask her a few questions. ...released in close proximity, we couldn't resist the opportunity to ask her a few questions.
  8 KB (1,447 words) - 21:51, 13 September 2010
• Top Ten Women's Fiction 2015
  We've been looking for intelligent women's fiction that provides a good read and we think that we've found some crackers. Here they are, in a ...to the children about their fears, their theories, their understanding of it all, rather than just glossing over the details?
  7 KB (1,229 words) - 12:00, 3 February 2024
• The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick
  ...sroman, bitter love, sex and youth culture. Fantasy punk, if there is such a thing. Highly recommended. ...sy Masterwork series and very deservedly so. It's an excellent novel, with a powerful, almost brutal vision and quality of writing transcending the conf
  6 KB (979 words) - 10:11, 11 May 2018
• November 2016 Newsletter
  ...o:subscribe@thebookbag.co.uk an email]. We won't bother you more than once a month, but we'll tell you about what we've been reading at Bookbag and any ...ightly of late, hasn't it? Brexit has sent us all into a spin and there is a great deal of anger about. Our hope, in this November newsletter, is to bri
  8 KB (1,385 words) - 15:11, 22 August 2020
• The Interview: Bookbag Talks To David Gatward
  ...of gore. So, naturally, we enjoyed asking David Gatward all about writing it. ...of gore. So, naaturally, we enjoyed asking David Gatward all about writing it.
  8 KB (1,522 words) - 16:36, 14 July 2010
• I Am David by Anne Holm
  ...nd his plight are incredibly engaging and the book gives its young readers a chance to test their values and beliefs. ...with him. The Man has provided him with a compass, a bottle of water, and a bar of soap, David himself has only his name to bring.
  8 KB (1,515 words) - 19:03, 10 April 2018

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