Our Reviews for Showa

2008-9

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 These reviews are arranged in alphabetical order by title.  If you are looking for a certain author (by surname/family name) then please use this table:

Ten Rules for Detectives: Bats, Bushrangers & Hidden Treasure

by Kierin Meehan

Suitable for Year 4/5+ 

This is a great old-fashioned style adventure book that everyone is bound to like.  There is plenty of action and excitement that will keep you hooked on this book until the very last page.  It is good, clean fun suitable for able readers in Year 4 and up.

Boris and Kev live in a small country town in Australia.  They have set up their own detective agency and are ready for cases.  Unfortunately not much seems to happen in Jagged Nest, their town.  Until last month that is when suddenly a horse-ridding ghost and loads of bats appeared.  Several people in town start acting in a very strange manner, including their primary school teacher, Mrs. Hagley and the terrible twins, nick-named Arsenic and Awful.  Fed with lots of delicious cakes from Boris's mother, the detectives start to investigate and unwillingly get at third partner forced on them, Julia Kelly, the most annoying girl in town and elder sister of the twins.

This is a great story, very different in style from Kierin Meehan's other books, definitely worth reading!

Richie Steven

Alexandria of Africa

by Eric Walters

Suitable for Year 7+

This is a superbly written story by Canada's Eric Walters.  It has just the right balance of humour and serious issues and is written in a very easy to read style.  I whizzed through this book and loved every second of it.  It was so good that I went and hid away after a family in the bathtub to finish the book, getting into trouble - but it was well worth it!

At the start of the book we meet Alexandria Hyatt, a fabulously spoilt, egocentric brat child of a millionaire on the US West Coast, who is in court facing charges of shoplifting.  We soon learn that although this is her second time in front of a judge, she really does not understand the seriousness of the case, believing that money can buy the best lawyers and get her the right outcome.  She is very mistaken and after a very funny court scene in which Alexandria is found guilty, she is sentenced to serve time in a juvenile detention centre.  She soon discovers that it will not be a deluxe hotel style, since room stay.  While freaking out, she is given the chance to got to Africa and work for an international charity in Kenya.  Before she knows it she is living a very different life and trying to avoid building a school for the Masai.  She finds her new life a challenge but is about to learn a

lot about herself, including skills and strengths she never knew she had.  The ending in Africa, a brilliant one is one you could never guess and will leave you wet around the eyes.  Her return to America leaves you with a great feeling and really happy that you read the book.  This is one not to be missed.  It has been so popular that extra copies have been ordered from Canada.

Richie Steven

Click on the book cover to visit Eric Walter's own website!

Before I Die

by Jenny Downham

Suitable for Y9/10+

An excellent book that is very unusual and will stay on your mind for a long time after you have finished reading it.  Make sure you have plenty of tissue boxes ready before starting this book!

It is unusual in that the author does not go through the usual dying of cancer clichés: Tessa, the main character, never explains to anyone that she is dying of cancer - she is well down the line from page one; as the title suggests, she will die, even if you as the reader are hoping for some last second miracle cure.  This is a very realistic book.

Tessa comes up with a list of ten things she wants to do before she dies.  Her best friend Zoe helps her to start the list off.  Along the line, Tessa learns a lot about life, what is really important and about living.  After a bad start, she learns the importance of true love.  This is a book that will touch and impress both children and their parents.

This may make is seem as if this is a serious book:  It is not.  It is full of humour and written in a very easy to read style.  Proof of the amazing qualities of this book can be seen in that the foreign rights to the book were sold to ten countries within two weeks of being launched: a truly amazing fact as David Fickling, the original publisher, points out for a first time author!

Richie Steven 

Title: The Tomorrow Code

Author: Brian Falkner

Suitable: Year 6+ 

This is an eco-warrior/science fiction book set mostly in Auckland.  It moves at a fast pace and Book 2 (the second half) gets very exciting.  Two teenagers, Rebbecca and Tane, start getting messages from themselves in the future which help them first win The National Lottery and then warn them of the danger that both New Zealand and the rest of the world is in.  A scientist in The Bay of Islands has been doing some research into the common cold.  Her work has got out of hand producing a white fog that literally melts human it meets just leaving a pile of clothes behind.  It is up to Rebbecca and Tane to convince the New Zealand and American authorities - but who believe them?  As New Zealand settles down for Christmas and the New Year, the fog moves down and kills the wipes out the whole population of Whangarei and prepares to attack Auckland.  From their positions at the top of Sky Tower and a submarine, Tane and Rebbecca start their defence of New Zealand and the world.  But do we humans deserve to live in the world?  Have we kept the Maori promise with the world to look after it?

Richie Steven 

Click on the cover to visit Brian Falkner's own website!

Blood of the Incas

by David Harris

Suitable for Y5/6+

This is the first book in a new series Time Raiders by the Australian author David Harris.  We already have his Cliffhanger series, another set of fast moving action stories.

Blood of the Incas is set in Peru and tells the true story of Hiram Bingham, an American explorer, adventurer and historian searching for the lost cities of the Incas in 1911 and 1912.  They are written in an Indiana Jones style, filled action and real page turners.  The book tells of Hirman Bingham's two expeditions in which they have to battle against the Andes, nature, cannibals and the elements as well as their own doubt if they are on the right track in their quest to find Machu Picchu.

This book is filled with action and humour, a griping historical adventure.  I look forward to the next two books in the series.

Richie Steven 

Click on the bookcover to visit David Harris's own website!

Blood Ties

by Sophie McKenzie

Suitable for Year 5/6+

This is a very exciting book that is hard to put down.  It has had rave reviews all over the web with excellent comments being written by Robert Muchamore on the cover and Caroline Lawrence on Amazon UK.  Sophie McKenzie is the author of the very popular Girl, Missing, the book that won Sakura 2008 by a landslide both in our school and across Japan.

The story is told by Theo and Rachel, taking one chapter at a time.  Theo and Rachel, living in different parts of London grow up not enjoying life as much as they could for different reasons.  Theo wants to find out about his real dad that he has never met and  through some research on the net finds out about Rachel.  Soon they discover that not only are they the results of some research but they are the targets of an extremist group, RAGE, who will stop at nothing to wipe them off the face of the earth.

This is an excellent book that you are bound to enjoy.  The story moves at a fast speed, the characters develop well and the ending is really good! 

Richie Steven

Click on the bookcover to visit Sophie McKenzie's own website!

Borderlands

by Brian McGilloway

Suitable for Y10/11+

This is a really good detective book, the first in a new series by Brian McGilloway, head of English at a secondary school in Derry.  It is set along both sides of the Tyrone/Donegal border.  I really enjoy reading this kind of book, but have rarely read one like this.  I am now very keen to buy the second one in the series, Gallows Lane, with the third book, Bleed a River Deep, to be published in the spring of 2009. 

Brian McGilloway gives us much more description than we normally get in this genre.  This does not slow the book down in any way, the story moving at a fast pace with many twists in the plot.  I found this book very hard to put down and raced to get to the end.

The body of a teenager, Angela Cashell, is found one day just before Christmas with very few clues to go on.  A few days later, a seemingly unrelated murder of a young student returned from Dublin for the Christmas holidays takes place in a car lay-by in the middle of the night.  Inspector Devlin, who works for the Irish Garda, hears the case and is drawn into a string of events that will touch just about everyone he knows.  Will he be able to stop the events - some of which will bring up memories that he himself and other members of the Gardaí would rather not remember?

This is an excellent debut novel and has deservedly received the highest praise in both the British and Irish press.  The series has now been launched in the United States to wide acclaim as well.

I picked up this book by chance at Hughes and Hughes in Dublin and I am so glad that I did.  Brian McGilloway is definitely an author to look out for in the future!

Richie Steven

Click the bookcover to visit Brian McGilloway's own website

The Boy in the Dress

by David Walliams

Suitable for Y5/6+

I absolutely loved this book even though I was quite worried when I first picked it up.  I was interested after I heard an interview with David Walliams on the BBC Radio 4 programme Go For It!  The story is written in a very easy to read style, it moves well, has a lot of humour as well as a very serious side and is further enhanced with illustrations by Quentin Blake.  By the end of the first few chapters, I was a firm fan of the book and by the end of the book, I wanted to tell everyone I knew about the book!

This is a book about a boy called Dennis who wants to follow his dreams and finds help in the very sexy Lisa James, a few years older than him and in the same year as his elder brother, John.  Dennis misses his mother who left him, his brother and his dad a few years ago.  All reminders of her have been burnt apart from one photo Dennis kept and hid away.  Dennis longs for the warmth his mother used to give him.  He also yearns for her love of life.  He is fed up of being pushed down into misery by his depressed dad.  He loves fashion and dressing up.  Together with his best friend in school, Darvesh, he talks about how being different is good and healthy.  Lisa encourages him to explore these fantasies to the extreme on day in school where it all goes terribly wrong and he experiences the wrath of the strict headmaster, Mr. Hawtrey.  Disaster strikes big time!  The school looses their best football player just before the finals!  But help is at hand...

I am sure that everyone who reads this book will love it.  I liked it so much that I finished it in one morning!

Richie Steven

The Case of the Diamond Shadow

Sophie Masson

Suitable for Y5/6+

I absolutely loved this novel set in the 1930s in London and Paris.  It was just what I was looking for.  It was a fast moving story, filled with humour, plenty of twists and finished with a very satisfying end that was unusual, unique and left me with a big smile on my face.  I have been trying to find out if the ABC plans to publish any more similar books in the future.

Daisy Miller and George Dale have been friends for ever in their small town in England.  One day Daisy applies for a new job with the mysterious Mrs. Peabody, a rich Australian widow living in the UK.  George is jealous of Daisy who is whisked off to London on a good salary.  He manages to find his dream job working for a famous private detective, Philip Woodley-Foxe.  Both jobs are strange and lead the two friends on very different paths that eventually meet up in London with a dramatic finale.  The book just keeps on getting better and better and will not let you down.  There are plenty of unexpected twist that will keep  you on your toes.  A perfect blend of mystery, humour and romance set in the glamorous world of the 1930s' High Society,  Read it, you will love it!

Richie Steven

The Dark Beneath

by Alan Gibbons

Suitable for Y9+

This is a horrible, haunting book that at times you can't put down and at other times  you want to push away and not read any more.  It is an excellent book and really grips you until the final page.

Imogen has just finished her GCSEs and is doing a summer job to earn some money in a lovely idyllic English village.  From the very start of the novel, we follow both Imogen and a stalker who follows her, misunderstands conversations with her, falling alarmingly and madly in love with her.  Imogen at first has no idea.  Imogen on the other hand falls in love with an asylum seeker from Afghanistan which enrages the stalker but just now many stalker are actually following Imogen?  At the same time, Imogen's patience is being tired to the limit over the issue of immigration to Britain and her village.

With plenty of twists, a disturbing story line and a fast pace, this is a superb book to look out for.

Richie Steven

Click on the bookcover to visit Alan Gibbons's own website!

Diamonds are for Evil

by Andres Fusek Peters

Suitable for Y5/6+

Part two in The Skateboard Detectives series.  This is a great book and one not to be missed.  It is filled with action right from the very dramatic first chapter between two buildings up above the high street.  Every chapter ends on a cliff hanger and draws you into the next chapter before you know it.  There are many twists to the fast paced story and it never lets you down, right to the end.

The Skateboard Detectives are a group of four teenagers with extreme skills.  Together they make a very impressive team.  They take of the case of a stolen pink diamond for a friend of one of their mother's.  She has invested her life savings, putting everything into one diamond that she is later swindled out of.  The four agree to help her right the wrong and return the stone to its rightful owner.  They need all their skills plus a bit more and together with an elder brother and his college friend they are pulled into a very dangerous assignment.

Once started,you will find it really hard to put this book down and when you finally do, like me, you be wondering when the next Skateboard Detectives books will be coming out!

Richie Steven

Click on the bookcover to visit Andrew Fusek Peter's own website

Dream Land: One girl's struggle to find her true home

by Lily Hyde

Suitable for Y7+

This is a good, serious book about a family Crimean Tatars' return from Uzbekistan yers after having been forced into internal exile by Stalin as a result of The Second World War.  Safi has grown up living on tales of the past in Crimea: hearing how it runs in her veins, its is the place her family needs to return to.  She leaves a very comfortable life in Samarkand to follow her family's dream.  Having arrived in Crimea, life is not quite as rosy as in her grandfather's dreams.  Things have moved on.  This is now the Ukraine; new people moved in during the Soviet era and started their own lives.  These people do not want the Crimean Tartars back and are certainly not interested in their plight.  Having left good, respected jobs with high qualifications, the Tartars find themselves living squalid refugee tent camps with no rights, money or comforts.  The face a real institutionalized racism all around them.  Suddenly Safi is not certain if she wants this new Dream Land that is tearing her family and people apart but she knows she cannot return to her old home that has now been sold.  Will she ever feels at home here as her family once did long ago?

This book has been endorsed by Amnesty International, the Human Rights movement.  If you would like more information, please click on one of the links below!

Amnesty International UK: www.amnesty.org.uk

Amnesty International Australia: www.amnesty.org.au

Amnesty International New Zealand: www.amnesty.org.nz

Amnesty International Japan in English: www.secure.amnesty.or.jp/index_e.html

First Strike

By Jack Higgins and Justin Richards

Suitable: Years 5/6+

Another fast moving, action pact book from the series about the Chance twins, Jade and Rich.  In this fourth part, Jade and Rich are looking forward to travelling to the White House in Washington to meet the president as thanks for saving him in the Middle East at the end of Book Three, Sharp Shot. 

A few days before leaving London, the twins are in a cheesy dinner in London when a bottle of champagne gets sent over to them from their 'friend' Ralph.   He is trying to send them a message and a warning but just before he does he gets shot in front of their eyes.  John Chance, their father, chases the gunman and discovers that is the notorious Colonel Shu a rebel fighting for freedom for her province in China.  The Chances are surprised to meet Colonel Shu again as she tries to murder Ralph again in hospital disguised as a doctor.  She escapes in an ambulance but is pursued by the Chances in a car chase that causes millions of pounds worth of damage across London.  The Chances, with back up from London and the SAS, are thrown into an exciting, nail biting adventure that takes them first to China and then the White House on their mission to save the world, avert a possible World War lll and to protect the president of the United States.

This is a great adventure that will keep you spell bound until the very last page, never letting up or dissappointing you.  I can wait for the next part in this great series.  I hope it comes soon.

Richie Steven

Genesis Alpha: A Thriller (A Sakura High School Book 2008/9)

by Rune Michaels

Suitable for Year 7/8+

It is great to see another Sakura Book from Scandinavia, this time by an Icelandic author.  Kenneth Oppel, the well known Canadian author, describes the book as being "Dark, dangerous and utterly riveting".  It certainly is dark and dangerous: questioning good and evil and how much our lives are determined by the influences around us as we grow up or by our genes: nature versus nurture.

Rune Michaels does not waste time with long introductions and descriptions: we are thrown straight into the world of Josh and his elder brother, Max, whom Josh worships.  Max has been arrested fora  terribe crime of unspeakable proportions.  The media and the police turn Josh's world upside down: nothing will ever be the same again literally.  Josh knows that he is a designer baby: he was born to save Max who was dying of cancer.  Stem cells were harvested from his placenta after he was born to provide the miracle cure for his brother.  However the media and Max's lawyer dig up more about Josh and his reason for being born to Josh's absolute horror as the story unfolds.  The murdered girl's sister turns up and 'twists the dagger deeper in his wounds' as Josh tries to understand his own existence and who he really is.

This is a fast moving and easy to read book that will leave you thinking for quite a long while afterwards.

Richie Steven

 Click on the bookcover to visit Rune Michael's own website!

 Ghost Hunters and the Incredibly Revolting Ghost

by Cornelia Funke

Suitable from Y4+ 

This is the first part in a four part series by the very popular German author Cornelia Funke.  I was really pleased to see that The Chicken House have reprinted this series as it is really good filled with just the right amount of adventure and humour.  Everyone that I have talked to has really enjoyed the series whether in German or in English.

In the first book, Tom is sent down by his mother to get some orange juice from the cellar.  He is not keen on going down there being scared of spiders and the dark.  He is horrified to find the door closing behind him and the light bulb exploding.  He soon meets a revolting ghost, Hugo.  No one believes him except his grandmother who send him to meet Hetty Hyssop, a ghost hunter.  Together they set about tacking the case and moving a far more terrible ghost on.  At the end of the book, Hugo is able to help Tom in a great and funny way with someone who has not been that kind to Tom through out the book.

This is a wonderful series and I strongly recommend it to everyone!

Richie Steven

Click on the bookcover to visit Cornelia Funke's own website in English!

Richie Steven

Hugging the Rock

by Susan Taylor Brown

Year 6+

Arm yourself with a box of tissues for this one!  When I first read a review of this book I thought the content looked really interesting but I was not sure about the format.  A story told through poems often does not work for me.  However this book turned out to be a real winner.  As I have often said there are far too few books that show fathers facing the challenge of bringing up a family and keeping a job after his wife has upped and walked on him and the children.  As we can see in schools across the world fathers can and do live up to this challenge!  This book makes a very welcome addition to our school collection.

Before leaving, Rachel's mum tells her that her dad is a real rock, someone to cling to and trust through thick and thin.  She finds this hard to believe as he is such as emotionally distant father.  However over the next few months she get to know and understand both her father and her absent mother.  This wonderful would be destroyed if I were to give too many details here.... read it yourself and enjoy it!  I would recommend reading it one reading.  WHen you get to the end you will see why and appreciate it even more!  It builds up to a wonderful ending.

Richie Steven

Click on the cover to visit Susan Taylor Brown's own website!

Ice Dreams

by Grace Wells

Suitable for Y4+

Another fantastic book from the O'Brien Press in Dublin by Grace Wells who won The Bisto Book of the Year Award in 2003.  I really enjoyed this books and read it in one go, not wanting to put it down.  This is great story of people pulling together with a wonderful ending that will leave you feeling lovely, warm and happy and leave you with a smile on your face.

The story is set on an idyllic little Greek island in the sleepy village of Moutsouna. It is told by Nina Papadopolos about her family: her twin brother, Alex, her parents and her grandfather.  Nina and Alex often help their mother make the most fantastic ice cream in her old churn.  The whole village, which is very small, is kept going by the ice factory that emplys most of them.  Every Friday, Alex goes along to the ice factory to pick up some ice shavings for the churn.  One Friday, all the workers are called to a meeting when tehy are told the fishing company does need the factory anymore and wants to get rid of it.  At first all the workers get very depressed until the twins and their mother start trying to put things right.

The story is a wonderful, positive tale reinforcing how important it is for everyone to work together.  I would thoroughly recommend this books to anyone in Year 4 or above.

Richie Steven

Joel and Cat Set the Story Straight (A Sakura Book 2008/9)

by Nick Earls and Rebecca Sparrow

Suitable for Y7+

This books is pure Aussie gold!  Full of humour, a really great book that everyone will like!  I thoroughly enjoyed it, found it easy to read and great entertainment.  I stayed up late at night because I really wanted to finish it. loving every page from the beginning to the end.

Joel and Cat are both taking Extension English at school.  On his way to class one day, Joel's ink pen leaks which means he arrives late and is told to sit next to Cat, the best friend of his ex-girl friend.  To his horror he hears that their teacher has just come back from an inset course and has decided that they are going to have to write a story in tandem without any spoken communication. just through e-mails and it will be done with a partner they would not normally work with.  Joel and Cat get pared together.  At the same time both their families are going through parent related problems and the three strands of the story get linked together in a very clever way which leads to loads of funny, cringe situations and a great story.

This books is well worth reading and one definitely not to be missed!

Richie Steven

Click on the bookcover to read an interview with the two authors about writing this book in tandem!

Kaspar: Prince of Cats

by Michael Morpurgo

Suitable for Y4+

Another superb tale from Michael Morpurgo, further enriched with the beautiful illustrations of Michael Foreman.  Michael Morpurgo's picture chapter books are all worth reading, bring various different times in history to life and this book is no exception.

Johnny Trott, a bell boy at The Savoy Hotel in London, meets a rich Russian countess and her cat.  He is asked to look after kaspar while the countess, an opera singer, is practising and performing.  Unfortunately the countess one day is suddenly killed by a tram in London and Johnny decides to keep Kaspar even though it is against the rules for employees to have pets.  The along comes an American family: mother, father and rather spoilt daughter.  After several harrowing rescues. Johnny and Lizziebeth become good friends leading Johnny to follow the family across the Atlantic to New York on the brand new, incredible, unsinkable ship The Titanic.

This book is so well written that you just slide through the text, smooth as silk.  I enjoyed it so much that I read it between my station and school while walking.  I was so caught up in the text that I did notice a lamp post and walked straight into it!

I loved this book, both the text andt he illustrations and I am sure you will too.  Don't forget to read Michael Morpurgo's explanation of why he wrote the book which appears at the very end.

Richie Steven

Click on the book cover to visit Michael Morpurgo's own website

The Last Leopard

by Lauren St. John

Suitable: Year 4/5+

The third part in this excellent series by Lauren St. John takes Martine with her grandmother and her best friends Ben to the Matobo Hills in Zimbabwe where the author herself grew up.  Martine had been looking forward to a great holiday with her beloved white giraffe, Jemmy, and Ben but suddenly her grandmother gets a phone call from a good friend who needs help running a hotel in Zimbabwe.  Gwyn Thomas decides immediately to go  up and help her taking Martine and Ben with her.  Before she leaves Grace gives Martine strange warnings of what might happen to her and a huge, giant, deadly leopard.  Tendai makes sure she keeps her survival belt with her at all times.  Soon they find out that the leopard, Khan, is in great danger from poachers, fortune hunters and a crooked game-keeper next door, Mr. Ratcliffe or Rat as Martine calls him.  It is up to Ben and Martine to save Khan and to help Gwyn's friend's hhotel get back on its feet.

This is another exciting and well written story that I thoroughly recommend.  If you enjoyed the first two books, you will love this one too for sure.  If you have not read any yet, do start with 'The White Giraffe' first to understand what has happened to Martine, get to know the characters and to find out about Martine' special powers.  This is a book not to miss and I am already looking forward to part four, 'The Elephant's Tale', which is due to be published next summer, 2009!

Richie Steven

Click on the book cover to visit Lauren St. John's own website

Matter (Sakura High School Book 2008/9)

by Iain M. Banks

Suitable: Y9+

Matter is a welcome return to the universe of the 'Culture', where some of Banks' best sci-fi has been written.  The story and plot centred on the troubles of the Sarl Royal family; King Hausk is murdered by one of his generals and this crime is witnessed by the king's son Ferbin, who also should have died but was in hiding.  Ferbin takes off to find help against he usurper, eventually finding his sister, who had left years previously to join the Culture's Special Cirucmstances section, a sort of intergalactic CIA.

Overlaying the plot are a couple of important themes; the most important of these are the nature of godhood and intervention.  The universe in which the books is set has many different species which are at different stages of development.  The Culture is an 'optimae' or at the top of the ladder, whilst the warlike Sarl are at a level of Earth in the 1900s.  The Sarl are looked after by a species slightly higher up the ladder, who in turn also have controllers who themselves are finally answereable to an optimae civilisation.  'God' in this books centres on the Sarl's Worldgod, who lives at the centre of their hollow planet - a slightly dotty alien having a long sleep.  Who is correct?

The setting up of the protagonists for the finale takes most of the book whilst the ending itself unfortunately feels a little brief and rushed.  However it is well written, violent, funny, savage and keeps you  interested all the way through.  An excellent read to get you thinking.

Justin Bowdidge, Human Resources Manager in the Business Centre

Click on the book cover to visit Iain M. Bank's own website. 

Message from Mia

by Sandra Glover

Suitable Y6+

Don't be fooled by the thinness of this book and the large font - this is not a little child's book by any means.  It is a great book for upper primary and lower secondary.  You can read it quite quickly and enjoy the story as it unfolds. 

Jack, Mia's younger brother, is haunted by the fact that his last words to his sister on the morning of her terrible accident were "Drop Dead, Mia!"  De did not mean it.  It was just the normal sibling stuff that most brothers and sisters can go through.  Now his sister is lying in a coma in hospital.  To make matters worse, he starts receiving texts from Mia that vanish when he tries to show anyone.  No one will believe him.  Recluctantly he starts to investigate Mia's accident and finds out a lot about his elder sister and her class mates, often far more than he wishes to know and much more than they want anyone to know about their real characters.  Not everyone is as helpful as they could be and some people stand to loose a lot if the real truth comes out.

A great little read for a train/plane journey or a wet, cold winter's weekend!

Richie Steven

Click on the book cover to visit Sandra Glover's own website!

Mistik Lake

by Martha Brooks

Suitable: Y9/10+

Described as "a rich, delicious read", this book follows a few years in the life of Odella, a Canadian of Icelandic decent, as her family copes with her mother running off with a famous Icelandic film director to Reykjavík, leaving Odella to bring up her younger sisters with her father.  As the story builds up, Odella is haunted by family secrets from all sides of her family some from before she was born.  She has an unreasonable amount of responsibility tobear and difficult decisions to make.  An intereesting read and a good coming-of-age novel.

Richie Steven

Click on the book cover to visit Linwood Barclay's own website.

No Time for Goodbye

by Linwood Barclay

Suitable Y9/10+

This book is dangerously good!  Too good to stop reading!  It quickly suck you in nad keeps you gripped until the very last page and even then you will not be able to put it down as you will be thinking about the end!  It is a fantastic mix of fast paced action, humour, horror, excitement and cliff hangers that lead you on into the next chapter and before you know it a few hours have passed by. 

The prologue drops you right into the thick of the story.  It is set twenty five years before the main part of the narration starts.  After Cynthia's dad has brought her home drunk from a date with Vince, an unsuitable choice in her parent's eyes, she runs up to her room screaming that she wished her parents were dead.  The next morning she wakes to find her home deserted: her parents and younger brother Todd have mysteriously vanished off the face of the earth.  She spends every day of the next twenty five years wondering and tearing herself to bits wondering what happened and if something terrible did happen, why was she then spared?  As she delves deeper trying to find some answers bringing in a local television programme and a private detective, she unknowingly puts her husband and daughter as herself in danger.  Forces, so evil that they are hard to udnerstand, are out there and closing in on them.

I read this book until I noticed the dawn chorus and realised I had not been to bed at all that night.  I am lucky to have such a patient wife and that is was half-term week.  It really gripped me with such incredible power.  I t has made me want to read Lindwood Barclay's next book, Too Close to Home, due out in 2009.

Richie Steven

Click on the book cover to visit Linwood Barclay's own website

Numbers

by David Poulsen

Suitable: Y9/10+

This is an excellent Young Adult fiction book from Canada that I would thoroughly recommend.  While handling a very serious topic in a way that I have not read about before it ialso has a healthy amount of humour through out the book.  From the very beginning of hte book, every single incident has a reason for being there leading to the very plausible and believable ending.  This is a well crafted book, an excellent read, a good story and a thought provoking novel that will stay with you for a long time afterwards.

Fifteen-year-old Andy Crockett goes to an average school, Parkerville Comprehensive, in an average small town.  The one thing that does tsick out fom the averageness of everything is his new teacher in Social (Social Studies: History and Geography).  Mr. Retzlaff, or Mr. R., a he is called is very cool.  Everyone wants him to like them, they can't wait for their next lesson with him.  He really makes them want to learn.  He knows everyone's name.  The probnelms all start for Andy as hte content of Mr. R's lessons on the Holocaust turns out to be anything but cool.  Very soon Andy begins to notice that Mr. R.'s version of history does not seem to match everyone else's.

Mr. R. is constantly encouraging them to turn their backs on popular belief and to think for themselves.  Will Andy be strong enough to do that before it is too late?  How many people will suffer in order for them to please Mr. R. and his warped beliefs?

This books will have you gripped until the very last page.  The pace of the book keeps going leading to a realistic, not fairy-tale ending.  The main problem in this books is one that unfortunatley does exist and one we all need to be aware of thoughtout life.

I am really pleased that I was able to read this book and would thoroughly recommend it to everyone.  This is my favourite type of serious book.  Don't miss it!

Richie Steven

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Updated: Friday, 12th June 2009

Guardian

by Julius Lester

Suitable Year 10/11+

This is an excellent book.  A very strong and dramatic book describing the events around a lynching in one of the Southern States in 1945.  It is seen through the eyes of fourteen year old Ansel,  the son of the store owner.  These are tough times and the way the men treat both the local black population and women is truly shocking.  The events told in this book are brutal and terrible.  Don't give up half way through this, keep on going until the end and you will be rewarded.  The book finishes with an excellent author's note and then a completely numbing Appendix.  This book would be excellent for anyone reading 'Of Mice and Men'.  This is probably the best book I have read this year!