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The God of Small Things
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4'They all broke the rules. They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.' This is the story of Rahel and Estha, twins growing up among the banana vats and peppercorns of their blind grandmother's factory, and amid scenes of political turbulence in Kerala. Armed only with the innocence of youth, they fashion a childhood in the shade of the wreck that is their family: their lonely, lovely mother, their beloved Uncle Chacko (pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher) and their sworn enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun, incumbent grand-aunt). Arundhati Roy's Booker Prize-winning novel was the literary sensation of the 1990s: a story anchored to anguish but fuelled by wit and magic.
Half of a Yellow Sun
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Shortlisted for the Best of the Orange Best 2010 by the Orange Prize Youth Panel. Winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007. Reviewed on Richard & Judy on Wednesday 14 March 2007. Nigeria in the 1960s and the birth of Biafra, a time of conflict and the end of colonialism. We experience this strife through the household of a university lecturer. It is a tale of class more than race, of tribal differences and of the horrors of the period. It is immensely impressive, a big novel in every sense. Highly recommended.
The Time Traveler's Wife
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4A huge book in every way. The protagonists meet each other at different times throughout their lives and you do have to accept the unusual concept but accept it you will, for it is beautifully structured. It’s a love story, pure and simple, but probably the most unusual love story you will ever read.
Atonement
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching her is Robbie Turner, her childhood friend who, like Cecilia, has come down from Cambridge. By the end of that day, the lives of all three will have been changed for ever.
The Handmaid's Tale
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs.
On Beauty
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Shortlisted for the Best of the Orange Best 2010 by the Orange Prize Youth Panel. Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction 2006. Set on both sides of the Atlantic, award-winning Zadie Smith's third novel, On Beauty, is a brilliant analysis of family life, the institution of marriage, intersections of the personal and political, and an honest look at people's deceptions. It is also, as you might expect, very funny indeed.
Of Mice and Men
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Anthony McGowan, Guest Editor June 2015 chose Of Mice and Men as one of his favourite short novels...."I can almost hear the groans now, from millions of teenagers forced to read this for their GCSE! However, despite being ‘institutionalised’ Of Mice and Men remains an incredibly powerful and heartrending story. It centres on the friendship of George (small but clever) and Lenny (strong, but simple-minded), and their struggles in the rural California of the Great Depression. It’s end is tragic, but what persists is the memory of the love between the friends. It’s something I shamelessly ripped off for my brothers, Nicky and Kenny, in Pike and Brock."
A Spell of Winter
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Shortlisted for the Best of the Orange Best 2010 by the Orange Prize Youth Panel.Winner of the 1996 Orange Prize for Fiction. This is a marvellous novel about forbidden passions and thwarted love by one of the UK's finest writers. A Spell of Winter won the prestigious Orange Prize and deservedly so given its lyrical writing without a word out of place. You'll also be completely captivated by the skilfully crafted characters and by the love story and eventual redemption.
The Great Gatsby
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Young, handsome and fabulously rich, Jay Gatsby is the bright star of the Jazz Age, but as writer Nick Carraway is drawn into the decadent orbit of his Long Island mansion, where the party never seems to end, he finds himself faced by the mystery of Gatsby's origins and desires.
Nineteen Eighty-four
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Chosen by the public through a survey to coincide with the 10th birthday celebrations of World Book Day 2007, this title is one of ‘the ten books the nation can’t live without’. Have you read them all? Below are links to each title and position on the list. 1. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 2. The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien 3. Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 4. Harry Potter JK Rowling 5. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 6. The Bible 7. Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 8. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell 9. His Dark Materials Philip Pullman10. Great Expectations Charles Dickens
Devil's Kiss
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award 2010 A fresh voice, Sawat Chadda has written a tough street story capturing the violence that is out there in most cities. Fifteen year old Billi is facing the last test before she follows her father into the Order. Once through this test, there is only the initiation. But the test is far more horrible than she had imagined and after that, it’ll be a life of violence as she fights to protect the masses from the Unholy. Billi has to choose what she really wants out of life in a harsh and violent world.
Pride and Prejudice
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Chosen by the public through a survey to coincide with the 10th birthday celebrations of World Book Day 2007, this title is one of ‘the ten books the nation can’t live without’. Have you read them all? Below are links to each title and position on the list. 1. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 2. The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien 3. Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 4. Harry Potter JK Rowling 5. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 6. The Bible 7. Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 8. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell 9. His Dark Materials Philip Pullman10. Great Expectations Charles Dickens
Wuthering Heights
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Chosen by the public through a survey to coincide with the 10th birthday celebrations of World Book Day 2007, this title is one of ‘the ten books the nation can’t live without’. Have you read them all? Below are links to each title and position on the list. 1. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 2. The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien 3. Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 4. Harry Potter JK Rowling 5. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 6. The Bible 7. Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 8. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell 9. His Dark Materials Philip Pullman10. Great Expectations Charles Dickens
Jane Eyre
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Chosen by the public through a survey to coincide with the 10th birthday celebrations of World Book Day 2007, this title is one of ‘the ten books the nation can’t live without’. Have you read them all? Below are links to each title and position on the list. 1. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 2. The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien 3. Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 4. Harry Potter JK Rowling 5. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 6. The Bible 7. Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 8. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell 9. His Dark Materials Philip Pullman10. Great Expectations Charles Dickens
The Catcher In The Rye
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Shortlisted for the 2009 Penguin Orange Readers' Group Book of the Year. One of our 'Must Reads'. A great teenage classic. Holden Caufield is the ultimate outsider; he is expelled from school, falls out with his friends and finally suffers a nervous breakdown. The book is a scathing attack on American society in the 1950’s seen through the eyes of one the most fascinating central characters ever created. Originally banned because of liberal use of profanity and powerful portrayal of teenage angst, The Catcher In The Rye has now been deemed essential reading for growing-up.
The Lord Of The Rings
Key Stage 3Philip Reeve, June 2012 Guest Editor: "The Lord of the Rings was my favourite book of all as a child - my mum and dad read it to me when I was about nine, and after that I read it to myself several times. I still love it for its landscapes and the music of its words. At the time, not many people seemed to have heard of it - at least, not at my school - so it was as if Middle Earth was my own private world. It prompted me to start inventing worlds of my own, and I’ve never really stopped." Charlie Higson, April 2012 Guest Editor: "This really doesn’t need a recommendation from me. I think some of you might have already read it. But it was a huge influence on me. It’s interesting that although the hobbits aren’t kids (they’re all about seventy years old!) we react to them as children. I read the books when I was fourteen and loved the feeling of being utterly immersed in another world. I’ve always loved fantasy – books that took me out of my own humdrum existence and transported me to another place, another time, another reality. I love it where Tolkien says in his introduction that ‘The tale grew in the telling’. The story starts small scale, with its social satire of the very English shire, and then just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger, so that by the end you can look back and think – my God, I’ve come all this way, what an adventure it’s been. That’s the feeling I want to get into my new adventure/horror/epic series The Enemy. It’s building into a huge multi-character saga, with touches of LOTR, Greek mythology, historical fiction and Tintin. In fact I’ve probably stolen something from every book I’ve ever read." Sally Nicholls, March 2012's Guest Editor: "I read The Lord of the Rings for the first time when I was ten, which was far too young, but I loved it even though I didn't understand all of it. I read it over and over and over again, until I knew whole sections off by heart. I loved the size of the story, and the fact that its narrators – the hobbits – were so easy for a child to relate to." The Lovereading Comment: One of our 'Must Reads'. Chosen by the public through a survey to coincide with the 10th birthday celebrations of World Book Day 2007, this title is one of ‘the ten books the nation can’t live without’. Have you read them all? Below are links to each title and position on the list. 1. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 2. The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien 3. Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 4. Harry Potter JK Rowling 5. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 6. The Bible 7. Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 8. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell 9. His Dark Materials Philip Pullman10. Great Expectations Charles Dickens
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Even 30 years on this is still a fresh and funny series of stories, whether you read them or listen to the original BBC radio shows. The anarchic, or ‘random’ to use modern parlance, plot, place settings and characters makes them more appealing than a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster!DON’T PANIC. Useful advice for Arthur Dent who is about to discover that along with his house, the Earth, is going to be destroyed by the Vogons and he is about to become embroiled in the search for the ultimate question to life the universe and everything (as we know the answer is 42). Together with his friend, Ford Prefect, the pair venture out across the galaxy on the craziest, strangest road trip of all time. William Nicholson – April 2010 Guest Editor remembers The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams: A work of comic genius, fizzing with ideas, profoundly original, and a highly dangerous influence on all imaginative writers. Read, admire, but don't attempt to copy.
Boys Don't Cry
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Shortlisted for the prestigious Sheffield Children's Book Award 2011 | Best-selling author Malorie Blackman has an exceptional ability to see the world from a teenager’s angle. With his stellar A-level results in his hand, Dante has a great future mapped out for himself. But then his ex-girl friend turns up and Dante finds that he is… a dad! Blackman uses her trade mark of twin voices as Dante and his brother Adam unravel the stories from their pasts, their intense feelings for each other and their growing love for the baby. A deeply moving and convincing story which never descends into sentimentality.
Nation
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Hugely entertaining, this is a fully envisaged fantasy adventure, which makes serious points about the importance of the past from the master storyteller and author of the hugely popular Discworld series. Survival! Mau’s world is bowled over and swept away by a towering Tsunami. His past life has vanished and he must build a new life with the scraps he has left. Luckily, someone else has survived too and soon Daphne, or Trouser-Man as Mau calls her, are creating a new Nation building on the bits of knowledge from the past which won’t die away. The novel has been adapted for the stage – Olivier Theatre at The National Theatre in London - by the controversial playwright Mark Ravenhill. Nation will be the National’s family show opening in November 2009, following the success of previous family-friendly productions, His Dark Materials, Coram Boy and War Horse. Described by National Theatre Artistic Director Nicholas Hytner as “a wonderful book and, I suspect, perfect for an Olivier adaptation”, Nation is set on a desert island following a tsunami which wiped out most of the population.
Prisoner of the Inquisition
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2011 Zarita, only daughter of the town magistrate, lives a life of wealth and privilege. Indulged by her parents, she is free to spend her days as she pleases, enjoying herself in the company of an eligible young nobleman, horse riding, or leisurely studying the arts. Saulo, son of a family reduced by circumstances to begging, witnesses his father wrongfully arrested and dealt with in the most horrifying way. Hauled off to be a slave at sea and pursued by pirates he encounters the ambitious mariner explorer, Christopher Columbus. Throughout his hardships Saulo is determined to survive - for he has sworn vengeance on the magistrate and his family. As Zarita's life also undergoes harsh changes the formidable and frightening Inquisition arrives in the area, bringing menacing shadows of suspicion with acts of cruel brutality - and ultimately, amid the intrigues of the court of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand in the splendid Moorish city of Grenada, betrayal and revenge...
The Book Thief
HERE IS A SMALL FACT - YOU ARE GOING TO DIE. 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier. Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall. SOME IMPORTANT INFORMATION - THIS NOVEL IS NARRATED BY DEATH. It's a small story, about: a girl, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. ANOTHER THING YOU SHOULD KNOW - DEATH WILL VISIT THE BOOK THIEF THREE TIMES
Lord of The Flies
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Golding's best-known novel is the story of a group of boys who, after a plane crash, set up a fragile community on a previously uninhabited island. As memories of home recede and the blood from frenzied pig-hunts arouses them, the boys' childish fear turns into something deeper and more primitive.
Never Let Me Go
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewered version of contemporary England. This novel dramatises the author's attempts to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School, and with the fate that has always awaited her and her closest friends in the wider world.
The Things We Did for Love
France: February, 1944. Arianne knew Luc as a child, of course she did. Everyone in Samaroux knows each other. But he's been away, and five years really makes a difference to a boy. A young man. As they fall headily into love - first love - their world starts to crumble around them. German forces are closing in, and the village is torn between cooperating to save themselves or putting up resistance and entering unknown danger. Arianne will do anything to make Luc stay. Luc wants to prove he is a man. And Romy, who has loved Arianne all the time that Luc has been away, can see a way of removing his rival, at any cost. How far will they go to protect what they believe in? And what will they do for love?
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4This story follows the lives of two women in Afghanistan who are a generation apart and have had led quite different lives but by a twist of fate end up married to the same man. This is a novel about friendship and strength of character and is a compelling read.
Teacher's Dead
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4If the first page doesn’t make you want to read on then this isn’t the book for you. It’s violent and to the point – it’s psychological suspense at its best and provides a window into a school where respect for others doesn’t appear to exist but why? Jackson is determined to find out and investigating a teacher’s death might just do it.
Fugitive Pieces
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Winner of the Best of the Orange Best 2010, selected by the Orange Prize Youth Panel. A powerful story of suffering and the power of love. When a young holocaust survivor is found in the woods by a Greek archaeologist his life is transformed. Although haunted by the death of his family he discovers that love and respect are the greatest things that can be taught and learned. A very moving and powerful debut.
Small Island
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Shortlisted for the Best of the Orange Best 2010 by the Orange Prize Youth Panel. A novel about racism, prejudice and injustice in the post war years in London as Jamaicans, escaping economic hardship, move to the Mother Country. Told from four characters’ points of view, it deserves all the accolade and prizes it has received. Powerful yet light in touch, humorous yet high in drama, it is a most rewarding and touching read. Won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2004 and on the 25th Jan 2005 the Whitbread 2004 overall.
Code Name Verity
This is an award-winning and bestselling tale of friendship and courage. Only in wartime could a stalwart lass from Manchester rub shoulders with a Scottish aristocrat, one a pilot, the other a special operations executive. When a vital mission goes wrong, and one of the friends has to bail out of a faulty plane over France, she is captured by the Gestapo and becomes a prisoner of war. The story begins in 'Verity's' own words, as she writes her account for her captors. Truth or lies? Honour or betrayal? Everything they've ever believed in is put to the test... A remarkable book. (Daily Mail).
The Ask and the Answer
We were in the square, in the square where I'd run, holding her, carrying her, telling her to stay alive, stay alive till we got safe, till we got to Haven so I could save her - But there weren't no safety, no safety at all, there was just him and his men. Fleeing before a relentless army, Todd has carried a desperately wounded Viola right into the hands of their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss. Immediately separated from Viola and imprisoned, Todd is forced to learn the ways of the Mayor's new order. But what secrets are hiding just outside of town? And where is Viola? Is she even still alive? And who are the mysterious Answer? And then, one day, the bombs begin to explode... The Ask and the Answer is a tense, shocking and deeply moving novel of resistance under the most extreme pressure.
I'll Give You the Sun
Key Stage 4April 2015 Book of the Month A rollercoaster story that will pick all readers up and sweep them along in a story that is romantic, tragic, funny and profound. Twins Noah and Jude live their lives in the shadow of each other. They are very different and yet the details of their lives are so very close. But then suddenly they are not close at all. Noah and Jude are swept apart by love and by a tragedy that changes both of them. Jandy Nelson captures the confusion of adolescence, the power of love and the force of art in a refreshingly original and exciting way. A message from the author... Dear Reader, I’m so excited for you to meet twins Noah and Jude. Noah is this flood in a paper cup. He has a mad desire to draw, to kiss the boy next door, to peel the blue off the sky, to be the blue in the sky. And Jude. She used to surf and cliff-dive and do the talking forboth twins, but something’s happened, and now she’s gone quiet and is living with ghosts and following her grandmother’s “bible" of superstitions. These twins became so real to me that one time while in the middle of writing the novel, I went to an art exhibit and my first thought was, “It’s such a shame Noah and Jude couldn’t come with me today.” This is a story about love, crazy complicated love of all kinds: between guys and girls, guys and guys, mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, artists and their art, the living and the dead, but mostly it’s about the fierce, roller-coaster love between the twins themselves. Writing Noah and Jude’s story took three and a half years. It was the most exciting, exuberant and challenging creative experience of my life. These characters shook the ground beneath my feet. There’s a moment in the novel when Jude’s watching her stone-carving mentor Guillermo sculpt and she wonders if he’smaking the sculpture or if the sculpture is making him. That’s what writing this novel felt like. I so hope you enjoy! Jandy
Trouble
Key Stage 4Shortlisted for The Branford Boase Award 2015 - Longlisted for the 2015 CILIP Carnegie Medal - March 2014 Debut of the Month **Suitable for 14+ due to some graphic content Touching, funny and sad this is a brilliantly observed and beautifully told story of contemporary teenagers, the overwhelmingly powerful emotions in their lives and the complications that they bring. Things can’t get much more complicated than being fifteen and pregnant. But it happens. In alternating voices Hannah and Aaron tell the story of the pregnancy and all the other things that swirl around in their lives in a story that is alive and honest and un-judgmental. In addition to our Lovereading expert opinion for Trouble a small number of members were lucky enough to be invited to review this title. Here's a taster....'This book was really funny, touching and talked about friendship. Trouble is about a young girl who makes some wrong choices in her life but learns, and a kind boy who wants to forget his past.' Sarah Haywood Scroll down to read more ...
The Hunger Games
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Jacqueline Wilson, February 2012 Guest Editor: "I don't usually go for blockbuster dystopian stories - but this trilogy is imaginatively conceived and well written and a genuine page-turner. Sixteen year old Katniss takes part in a terrifying annual televised game where teenagers fight for their lives. In our current climate of reality television shows like The X-Factor and I'm a Celebrity, Get me out of Here, this starts to ring horribly true. It's often disturbing, but it certainly will hold the attention of even the most reluctant reader. It's about to be a much-hyped film, so should attract even more attention." The Lovereading comment: The Hunger Games is a searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present. In a dark vision of the near future, The Hunger Games is set in the ruins of a place once known as North America. The cruel Capitol keeps order in its twelve outlying districts by forcing them each to send one boy and girl to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a terrifying reality TV show broadcasting a live fight to the death. Without really meaning to, 16 year old Katniss becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love. Welcome to the deadliest reality TV show ever. The Hunger Games came into the author's psyche whilst she flicked between television channels broadcasting real war coverage and reality television programmes. It is the first in a trilogy. Visit the website - www.thehungergames.co.uk/ - or visit the Facebook fan page. In addition to our Lovereading expert opinion for Hunger Games Lovereading4kids member Amrit Bunet, age 14 was invited to review this title. Here's a taster....'This roaring tale filled with love, action and darkness is one that has constant suspense. From start to finish you will not be able to put this book down.' Scroll down to read the full review... MORE NEWS: Hunger Games publisher Scholastic have created a fabulous free newpaper for teens featuring a variety of their fantastic teen titles. Click here to have a read.
Blood Red Road
Winner of the Costa Children's Book Award 2011. I ain't afeared of nuthin. Saba's twin is golden. She is his living shadow. He is strong and beautiful. She is scrawny and dark. Nothing will separate them... Raised in isolated Silverlake, Saba is ignorant of the harsh and violent world beyond her home. But when her twin is snatched by black-robed riders, red rage fills her soul. How will Saba find him in a wild, scorching and lawless land? Racing across the cruel dustlands to find him, she can spare no one. Not even the boy who saves her life. She must silence her heart to survive. Blood will spill. Every step of Saba's journey sizzles with danger in this futuristic thriller, which beats with a powerful, red-blooded heart. A shot of pure adrenalin. Exuberant, exciting and charged with emotion... If a better book for teenagers is published this year, I'll be surprised. The Times Has an elemental power, unfolding across achingly barren landscapes, full of blistering hotwinds and swirling clouds of orange dust. New York Times
The Kite Runner
Afghanistan, 1975: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return to Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption.
The Apple Tart of Hope
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Shortlisted for the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize Best Fiction for Teens Award 2015 A touching and funny story about being an outsider which is illuminated by touches of magic. Oscar and Meg are next-door-neighbours and best friends. But, when Meg moves away everything changes. Now Paloma Killealy lives next door and Oscar gets advice of a very different kind. When things begin to spiral out of control – partly because of the apple tarts - Oscar takes drastic action. Can Meg find out what has gone wrong and begin to put it right?
The Year of The Rat
'Beautifully written' The Stylist 'You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll love this book' The Sun 'Lingers in the mind long after the final word has been read' Malorie Blackman, former Children's Laureate 'I always thought you'd know, somehow, if something terrible was going to happen. I thought you'd sense it, like when the air goes damp and heavy before a storm and you know you'd better hide yourself away somewhere safe until it all blows over. But it turns out it's not like that at all. There's no scary music playing in the background like in films. No warning signs. Not even a lonely magpie. One for sorrow, Mum used to say. Quick, look for another.' The world can tip at any moment ... a fact that fifteen-year-old Pearl is all too aware of when her mum dies after giving birth to her baby sister. Told across the year following her mother's death, Pearl's story is full of bittersweet humour and heartbreaking honesty about how you deal with grief that cuts you to the bone, as she tries not only to come to terms with losing her mum, but also the fact that her sister - The Rat - is a constant reminder of why her mum is no longer around... Shortlisted for the Branford Boase prize and longlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal, this breataking novel from YA bookprize shortlisted author Clare Furniss, will make you laugh, cry and hold your loved ones a little bit tighter. Perfect for fans of Jenny Downham,Meg Rosoff and Sara Barnard.
All My Secrets
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4July 2015 Book of the Month Sophie McKenzie is the master of psychological thrillers for teens, and this is a typically gripping page-turner. Everything Evie Brown has put her trust in is suddenly revealed to be false, even her parents have been lying to her. Bewildered and confused she chooses to go on a retreat for troubled teens, far away from her family. On the remote island of Lightsea however, her grasp on reality seems threatened even more dangerously. Part ghost story, party mystery, the teen compulsion to work out who you are, and what you count for, is at the heart of this engrossing novel. For many, it will be a read-in-one-sitting book. ~ Andrea Reece
I Was Here
Key Stage 4February 2015 Book of the Month Best-selling Gayle Forman’s I Was Here explores the complicated repercussions of suicide on all those who are left behind. Cody and Meg have been best friends forever. Surely they have no secrets between them? But when Cody receives an email from Meg describing the horrific way she has just taken her own life she begins a journey of discovery that shows her just how little she knew her friend. Cody travels to Meg’s university to collect all her belongings and begins to unravel small leads – including an encrypted file- which bring her to knowing and understanding her friend better.
My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Winner of the 2012 Branford Boase Award for an outstanding debut novel. The Branford Boase judges said: A very accomplished piece of writing by an author with a clear talent. The descriptions of the way the father handled his daughter’s death and a small child’s reaction to this are very well handled. Heartbreaking and funny in equal measure, 10-year-old Jamie's direct and wide-eyed account of the emotional chaos he and his family live through following the death of his sister in a terrorist attack is poignant and warm-hearted. Beginning a new life in the Lake District with his older sister and his father, who mourns his daughter through alcohol and a wild rage against her killers, Jamie knows he should feel sadder than he does. The truth is, he can hardly remember his sister; and what is happening with his new school and new friends, especially Sunya, is more urgent – as is his yearning for his absent mother. Emotionally charged, this is a wonderfully touching story which never slips into worthiness. Shortlisted for the 2012 Carnegie Medal. Shortlisted for the Galaxy Children's Book of the Year Award 2011. The eagerly awaited second book from Annabel Pitcher is out in December 2012. It’s called Ketchup Clouds and you can read an exclusive extract right now here on Lovereading4kids together with our expert opinion and that of a few lucky Lovereading members who were asked to review it. In addition to our Lovereading expert opinion abovefor My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece we have a number of reviews from Lovereading members....scroll down this page to see what they think.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Key Stage 3Mark Haddon’s best-selling story of how Christopher, a boy with Asperger's syndrome, sees the world and makes sense of it in his own particular way became a success for children and adults alike. When Christopher finds a dead dog on his neighbour's lawn he applies the principles he has learnt from Sherlock Holmes, his own literary hero, to the situation and so begins the narration of his own remarkable story. In particular, Christopher traces the mystery surrounding his mother's absence and his father's unexpected behaviour, drawing on the clues he can understand. Christopher's use of clues that help him rather than using the more familiar props of emotional recognition make this story a very special journey of discovery. John Walsh, author and Independent columnist: "Age-transcending tale, both funny and sad."
Young, Gifted and Black
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4This inspiring, illuminating, stylishly accessible anthology invites young readers to discover and celebrate phenomenal forebears and contemporary catalysts, while encouraging them to blaze their own inimitable trails. Taking its name from a Nina Simone song, and written as “a love letter to our ancestors, and to the next generation of black changemakers,” this exuberantly illustrated book presents a plethora of outstanding individuals who’ve realised amazing achievements in their respective fields. Among the fifty-two figures we meet are household names from contemporary culture (Michelle and Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Beyoncé, for example), and hugely important historical heroes and heroines. While some will be familiar – Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and Rosa Parks, for example – lesser-known pioneers are also presented, among them Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmental activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman to travel in space. In their introduction, the author and illustrator issue an emboldening statement about the importance of representation – “all children deserve to see themselves represented positively in stories”. And, with such a dazzling diversity of talents portrayed here (from writers, musicians, dancers and visual artists, to sports people, scientists and politicians), this book has much to inspire a real range of young readers.
Rebecca
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…” is probably one of the most famous first lines from a novel and captures the readers interest immediately. What is Manderley? Why is our narrator dreaming about it? The story is relayed to us by the second Mrs de Winter who is not even given a name throughout the novel, as if to emphasise how insignificant she is compared to her predecessor, Rebecca. This book is haunting, chilling and packed full of intrigue. Who was Rebecca, why did people love her so much, was she good or evil? The narrator is constantly searching for answers to questions that no-one seems to want to answer but the truth that has been hidden for years is about to be revealed. A true classic.
When I Was Joe
When Ty witnesses a stabbing, his own life is in danger from the criminals he's named, and he and his mum have to go into police protection. Ty has a new name, a new look and a cool new image - life as Joe is good, especially when he gets talent spotted as a potential athletics star, special training from an attractive local celebrity and a lot of female attention. But his mum can't cope with her new life, and the gangsters will stop at nothing to flush them from hiding. Joe's cracking under extreme pressure, and then he meets a girl with dark secrets of her own. This wonderfully gripping and intelligent novel depicts Ty/Joe's confused sense of identity in a moving and funny story that teenage boys and girls will identify with - a remarkable debut from a great new writing talent.
Out of Shadows
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4A Lovereading4kids 'Great Read' you may have missed 2011 selection. A memorable, moving and disturbing coming-of-age story about how different individuals react to the political changes around them and, especially, to the changing power structure between blacks and whites under the new rule of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe in 1980s. Robert Jacklin, newly arrived from England, is encouraged by his father to see the new regime as the start of a hopeful future for racial tolerance, but his friendship with the seemingly all powerful Ivan casts doubts over that possibility. Ivan will stop at nothing to prevent the overthrow of white supremacy. Against a background of increasingly terrifying violence, a generation of schoolboys grow up in a country where the hope for change is quickly extinguished. This is definitely a novel for 14+ and not younger. Winner of the Costa Children's Book of the Year Award 2010. Shortlisted for the Teenage Book Prize 2010. Shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2011. The Costa Children's Book Award Judges said: "A stunning debut novel without a false note. Accomplished and powerful, it changes the way you think... For us, this extraordinary debut novel was a unanimous winner. This compelling portrayal of a nation in crisis gripped us from start to finish and has stayed with us since.” A message from the author on hearing Out of Shadows had been shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book of the Year Award 2010: As both reader and writer I’m always striving for certain key ingredients in a book, and so I felt a tremendous tingle of excitement on the day I believed I’d found a strong storyline and memorable characters that could be set against a backdrop that means so much to me. That Out of Shadows should be enjoyed by others and recognised with such a prestigious shortlist nomination is a deeply moving and humbling reward, and has rendered this author (hopefully temporarily) wordless. Winner of the Branford Boase Award 2011. As Branford Boase Award chair of judges, Julia Eccleshare says: ‘The 2011 shortlist was an extremely strong one and any of the titles would have made a worthy winner. However, the quality of the writing in Out of Shadows really impressed the judging panel. It is an important story and one told with great nuance and subtlety. Titles shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award 2011: I am the Blade Out of Shadows Tall Story The Crowfield Curse Unhooking the Moon When I was Joe
Annexed
Key Stage 3A Lovereading4kids 'Great Read' you may have missed 2011 selection. The Diary of Anne Frank is one of the most treasured children’s books of the last fifty years. Anne’s account of the years she spent in hiding from the Nazi’s in Amsterdam during the Second World War vividly tells much about how she feels about the experience and something about how she views those in hiding with her including Peter, a young man only a few years older than her. In Annexed, for which there was a considerable amount of media controversy in the lead up to publication, Sharon Dogar sensitively explores Peter’s story; what he feels about the experience of being in hiding, about being a Jew and, in particular, about what he feels about Anne. Initially irritated by what he sees as a rather silly young girl, Peter soon finds himself falling in love with Anne’s vivacity, intelligence and strength of purpose. Looking back from his deathbed in a Nazi concentration camp, Peter’s diary is touching and sensitive. In speculating and embellishing from some known facts and asking many ‘what if’ questions, Sharon Dogar has taken on a difficult task through which she has created a fascinating and inspiring story. It's a story rooted firmly in history and it asks a question of us all: Are we listening? 'Is anybody there?' Peter cries from the depths of his despair in the camps. Read it, and you will be. From the author, Sharon Dogar: 'Annexed is an imaginary tale, based on history, in which I try to imagine what it might have beel like to actuallly have lived with Anne Frank; to have become the target of her love; and to be so cruelly torn apart from her'. Shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book of the Year Award 2010. Shortlisted for the prestigious Sheffield Children's Book Award 2011.
When You Reach Me
Key Stage 3A Lovereading4kids 'Great Read' you may have missed 2011 selection. Winner of the 2010 Newbery Medal, shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2011, this is a brilliantly fresh and original story with a puzzle at its heart. When Miranda’s best friend Sal is punched in the stomach by another boy for no apparent reason everything begins to unravel. Where the threads lead and how Miranda follows them is beautifully and simply told despite the fact that the story they tell is complex and thought-provoking. This is a great book.
Stolen
Sixteen year old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back? The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don't exist \- almost.
A Little in Love
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4One of our Books of the Year 2014 - One of the Lovereading4kids Readers' Choice Books of the Year 2014 - October 2014 MEGA Debut of the Month Eponine tells the heart wrenching story of her own life of suffering and cruelty in this emotional roller coaster taken from Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. Brought up in poverty, from the youngest age possible Eponine has been sent out to steal and to lie and to cheat. But somehow, deep inside her, she knows there are better ways of living a life and higher human values to hold onto. Eponine’s encounters with Cosette and Marius unlock the best emotions in her. Can she change despite the great cost to herself? A spell-binding story about one girl’s search for inner peace. A Piece of Passion from Publisher, Barry Cunningham Les Misérables literally takes your breath away. The passion and the peril in this massive story has inspired plays, TV shows, films and songs through the years. But sometimes it’s good to find the simple heart in the greatest works, which is exactly what Susan Fletcher does here with shy tragedy and hauntingly romantic beauty. It’s a simple, moving and brilliant retelling, showing what Victor Hugo himself said of his original novel – a progress from evil to good. A Note from the Author, Susan Fletcher ‘A Little in Love is my first novel aiming to appeal to both adults and young adults. But Eponine's story contains many themes I've always been interested in as an adult fiction writer – identity, survival, solitude, the natural world, different forms of love and the brevity of life – all told by a feisty protagonist. To write of these themes – and of Eponine herself – for a wider readership was a sheer delight.'
The Art of Being Normal
Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4One of our Books of the Year 2016 | Shortlisted for The Branford Boase Award 2016. Winner of the Older Fiction category of The Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2016. This is a sensitive, often funny and thoroughly engaging story of teenagers coming to terms with who they are. It’s easy to think in these liberal times that anything goes, but teens will be quick to point out that growing up is as difficult as it’s ever been. It’s particularly hard for David, one of the two central characters in this assured debut. David has known since the age of eight that he wants to be a girl. Teased as a freak at school, he feels he can’t even tell his family. New boy Leo seems to have problems too and when the two become friends they discover they have more in common than they ever thought. This ultra-readable, highly entertaining story could also provide readers with some much needed reassurance that normal is as normal does. ~ Andrea Reece
