Children Book Reviews

Name: Nikki Stiles
22 November 2019;

Genre: Adventure

A beautiful retelling of the sweetest classic tale. Jeanne Willis has so fantastically retold the tale of a young orphan named Heidi, who is taken to live with her grumpy grandpa in the Swiss Alps. Heidi's grandpa was used to living alone and quite stubborn in his ways, he doesn't much like peopl...

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Name: Emily Marcuccilli
18 November 2019;

Genre: Adventure

I needed no encouragement to return to the world of Eva Ibbotson's classic story, The Secret of Platform 13. Nine years have passed and the Island of Mist, home to magical creatures like hags and harpies, finds itself beseiged. Odge Gribble has fled into hiding and decides to journey to Vienna,...

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Name: Lizi Backhouse
15 November 2019;

Genre: Adventure

A fantastic non-fiction book! Gut Garden is a journey into your microbiome, it explains the digestive process and explores the ecosystem that lives within us. Written and illustrated by Katie Brosnan, the book introduces proper terminology in child-friendly ways. It's visually stunning and ex...

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Name: Jenny Caddick
11 November 2019;

Genre: Adventure

This is the touchingly moving story of young Ben and his butterfly-loving Grandpa. At the start of the story , we find Grandpa's love of life, nature and his beloved butterflies is dulled by his grief at the loss of his wife. This gentle and emotional story follows Ben's earnest, loving attempts...

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Name: Daniel Katz
06 November 2019;

Genre: Adventure

A huge wall divides the land of the Yellow people from the land of the Blue people. The government preaches hatred and fear of the 'other side', and to attempt to cross, climb or damage the wall is treason. A Yellow boy lives a sad life in the shadow of this wall until one day, he discovers a hol...

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Name: Hayley Summerfield
01 November 2019;

Genre: Adventure

Cathryn Constables's new novel The Pearl in the Ice is a spell-binding, adventurous tale. It takes us on a voyage of discovery from a branch in the garden of her father's house in Hampstead, London, across the dark, cold seas to the very North of Pechorin Island. The main character, Marina, is se...

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Name: Lauren Maidman
29 October 2019;

Genre: Adventure

Beats Feast is the brilliant story about a Beast and 'Dinner', aka a little boy. When the beast finds his 'Dinner' he sends out a letter to all his beast friends, inviting them to the Beast Feast! As each beast replies, the boy teaches him something new to make the recipe for 'Dinner' even better...

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Name: Kelly Buxton
28 October 2019;

Genre: Adventure

The second in a series of hilarious, lough out loud books from author Matt Brown. Dreary Inkling Primary School is once again under attack, but not the kind of attack the school ever imagined. When the headmistress buys some vending machines, she never imagined that an electrical storm would tur...

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Name: Sue Wilsher
27 October 2019;

Genre: Adventure

The Dam starts as a father wakes his daughter, Kathryn, at dawn, telling her to bring her fiddle. He leads her to the valley where the dam is almost complete and starts sharing memories of the places they pass. Pulling the boards from a doorway, they enter a deserted cottage where her father tell...

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Name: Janet Fisher
21 October 2019;

Genre: Historical Fiction

Set in the Somerset Levels in 1616, and based on the actual event of a tsunami in January 1607, Emma Carroll's The Somerset Tsunami tells of a girl, named Fortune, living in a village of women but for one male, her brother Jem. But these are difficult times and the Protestants...

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