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Shortlisted for The Bookseller's Book of the Year - December 2014 Mega Debut of the Month Vlogger Zoella’s fans will fall headlong into this sharply observed, super-realistic teen story. Against a background of first the ordinary ups and downs of life at school followed by an amazing fairy tale trip to New York with her wedding-planner parents and very best friend Eliot, sensible Penny records the rollercoaster emotions of being a teenager. When the going to particularly tough, Penny shares what she feels on her blog. Through responses to her posts Penny finds support for herself while also learning how much emotional strength she is giving her thousands of followers. Amy McCulloch, editorial director of Penguin Children’s, says “Zoe has an incredible voice for teens and she drew on her wealth of experience dealing with real issues like anxiety and cyber-bullying to deliver a poignant, romantic and heart-warming debut novel. The whole team was bursting with excitement at the prospect of working with Zoe, and we know her fans – and the rest of the world – are going to fall head-over-heels with her writing.” Click here to read reaction from the author that helped Zoe write Girl online.
Understanding and teaching primary grammar | As an English teacher, I am always on the lookout for a useful grammar book that I can dip in and out of, one where I can quickly check a query or confirm an idea. As the authors comment in the introduction, ‘Good grammar is often that which eliminates confusion or ambiguity’. It is so easy to think you know how something should be written and instinct often tells you where to put a comma, but it is not always easy to justify or explain. You have a feeling but cannot necessarily explain why something is what it is, which is not useful in the classroom. This book is very good at removing the myth, simplifying the rules, and clarifying things without patronising. The book is laid out very clearly, with a comprehensive glossary, useful references and a clear table explaining what grammar should be taught to what year group. Each area of grammar is clearly explained with appropriate exercises, examples, useful references, fun activities, and links to online support material. I put the glossary to the test to see if my theoretical questions could be answered and was rewarded with helpful answers on each occasion. It is a very user-friendly book and one I suspect I will regularly be dipping into. As teachers, you want reliable resources, easily available, which this certainly delivers. It is clear the book was written by teachers for teachers and is all the better for it.
A prize-winning reinvention of the familiar Cinderella story set in a richly created Japanese setting, this is a powerful and haunting novel shot through with romance. Suzume is a shadow-weaver; she can become whoever she wants except her true self. Armed with her disguises, Suzume forges her way through life. But there is one man who can see through her. Will his love triumph? This richly invented Japanese world provides a fascinating backdrop for a powerful story.
Perfect for fans of Tamora Pierce, Maggie Stiefvater and Cassandra Clare this is a literary fantasy about war, racial identity and first love, in which Frost has left her homeland to travel to the neighbouring country of Ruan in the hope of finding a deity she believes will rid her of a curse. It is a refreshing and provocative real-world take on the fantasy genre: in this world there is no magic and the setting is more akin to Northern India or Tibet than the usual Tolkien-inspired pseudo-Europe. Zoe Marriott's first novel, The Swan Kingdom, was chosen as a USBBY Outstanding International Book. Her third book, Shadows on the Moon, won the prestigious Sasakawa Prize.
Ancient Japanese gods and monsters are unleashed on modern-day London in this epic trilogy from an acclaimed fantasy writer. Great for fans of Tamora Pierce, Maggie Stiefvater and Cassandra Clare.
Fans of Cassandra Clare, L.A. Weatherly and Becca Fitzpatrick will love this, the second in The Name of the Blade series which is steeped in Japanese myth and legend. In the first in the Name of the Blade series, The Night Itself, against all odds, Mio, Jack and Shinobu defeated the terrifying Nekomata and get back to London alive. But the Underworld has spawned a worse monster in London - one carrying a devastating plague. So British-Japanese protagonist Mio, the sort of heroine the reader will aspire to be, battles to save the city but not without sacrifice.
Ancient Japanese gods and monsters are unleashed on modern-day London in this epic trilogy from an acclaimed fantasy writer. Great for fans of Tamora Pierce, Maggie Stiefvater and Cassandra Clare.
In a Nutshell: Brave Beauty | Menacingly magical | Feminist fairy tale A fantastical feminist reworking of Beauty and the Beast set in a fairy tale evocation of Japan, and companion to the author’s Shadows on the Moon. Hana has a gift passed to her from her grandmother. She can hear the trees. “There is a monster in the forest,” they warn, just as mothers warn their children not to venture near the Dark Wood in a bedtime story that’s all too real, for Hana’s people are cursed. They’re trapped in their valley, and trapped by their fear of being taken by the monster that's already claimed Hana’s great grandfather, grandmother and older brother. Hana blames herself for her brother's capture and wishes she’d been taken instead. And then her father goes missing. Hana finds him and carries him home, his body scratched by “claw marks from a paw wider than a man's back”. He’s alive but in an “unnatural sleep”, and can only be woken if someone kills the monster to break the curse. Driven by her strong sense of duty and familial love, only accomplished huntress Hana is prepared to brave the Dark Wood and confront the beast… The author's trademark visually lucid style (“Consciousness came back in a starburst of agony”), magnificent world-building and exquisitely formed plot make this a richly satisfying read with a smart feminist overtone: Marriott's Beauty is not the passive pawn of the original tale. Rather, Hana chooses to go to the Beast and the tables are turned - it is he who must redeem himself. ~ Joanne Owen Zoë Marriott says of Barefoot on the Wind: “We all know what the message of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ is supposed to be: love others for who they are inside. But as I got older, it began to seem more and more strange to me that in the traditional fairy tale, it is innocent Beauty who is forced to learn to love the Beast, while the Beast is rewarded for threatening Beauty’s father and taking her prisoner. And so I set out to explore the story from a feminist perspective, asking, ‘What if Beauty went after the Beast of her own free will? And how could the Beast redeem himself in order to trulydeserve her forgiveness … and her love?’”
A prize-winning reinvention of the familiar Cinderella story set in a richly created Japanese setting, this is a powerful and haunting novel shot through with romance. Suzume is a shadow-weaver; she can become whoever she wants except her true self. Armed with her disguises, Suzume forges her way through life. But there is one man who can see through her. Will his love triumph? This richly invented Japanese world provides a fascinating backdrop for a powerful story.
Shortlisted for the 2009 Marsh Award for Children’s Literature in Translation. If you read Junk by Malcolm Burgess, you were probably gripped by it but you didn’t necessarily enjoy it. Tina’s Web, however, is different in many ways but similar too. Set in both Germany and in Greece, this is a hard-hitting contemporary novel about drugs and divorce. When her parents divorce, something she never expects them to do, Tina is dumped back with her gran in Greece who doesn’t understand her, school is terrible and she gets into drugs, first for recreation but then it becomes a habit, a habit that alternates between heaven and hell. Despite all the lies her gran finds out. Together can they sort the terrible mess Tina finds herself in?Very few titles read in the UK (a mere 3%) are books read in translation and even fewer are aimed at children. In France that figure is nearer 50%. It is vital that young people have the opportunity to read books fromas wide a range of countries and cultures as possible. The publisher of Letters from Alain is one such publisher and the Marsh Award in Translation selects the best of the books in translation and this is one. Translated from Greek by John Thornley who, when not translating is a radio producer, freelance writer and arts consultant. The other titles shortlisted for the Marsh Award were Letters From Alain, My Brother Johnny, When the Snow Fell, Message in a Bottle, and Toby Alone.
This warm and powerful coming-of-age story is a sparkling debut from a brilliant fresh talent, filled with colourful characters that will stay with you long after the book is finished.
Longlisted for the UKLA 2018 Book Award | Shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2017 and awarded the Amnesty CILIP Honour | Shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2016. | A heartfelt, harrowing insight into life as a Rohingya refugee in an Australian detention centre, told through the unforgettable voice of an unforgettable boy. Subhi is one of the Limbo kids in a permanent Australian detention centre, the first to be born in the camp after his Maá and big sister Queeny fled violent persecution in Burma. While he’s only experienced life within the cruel confines of the camp, Subhi’s rich imagination has conjured a magical, solace-giving world in which the Night Sea from his Maá’s tales brings him treasures from his dad. Stories are Subhi’s lifeline. He needs them “to make my memories” and imagines a blanket of stories, a “gigantic blanket big enough to warm everyone”. A new story treasure transforms Subhi’s world in the form of Jimmie, a local girl who finds her way into the camp. She too knows heartache. She’s lost her mum, who used to tell her special tales and gave her a bone sparrow necklace that “carried the souls of all her family”. When Jimmie enters Subhi’s life, he wonders if she’s his guardian angel, though he hadn't expected an angel to have more holes in her clothes than him. And, on meeting Subhi, Jimmie realises that she’s “never had a friend she wanted to share everything with before”, and so she shares her mum’s stories with him, stories he reads to her since she’s unable to read them herself. Subhi's unique voice will weave its way into your heart and under your skin. His descriptions of life in the centre are hauntingly evocative. You feel, for example, the heat of days that get his “skin creeping” and make everything “jangly and loud and scratchy”. Through Subhi, readers experience how it might feel to have no home or voice, and how friendship can lighten the darkest of circumstances. One hopes, as Subhi’s Maá says, that “someday they see we belong.” Both elegant and raw, this is an important and timely novel that bears witness to the risks people take to make their voice heard, and to the resilience of the human spirit.
