Children Book Reviews

Name: Alice Drury
03 November 2025;

Genre: Family & Home

Wild Journey is a thoughtful collection of stories linked together by the migration of starlings across the globe. Starting in Egypt and travelling through Morocco, Spain, France and England, it follows the lives of five different children. In each story, the starlings inspire...

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Name: Margaret Pemberton
03 November 2025;

Genre: Friends and family

This magical tale, based on a Russian folk tale, was first published in 2023 (in hardback) but it has thankfully now arrived as a paperback, just in time to make a wonderful Christmas present for some lucky young readers. The Snow Girl is the story of young Tasha who, a...

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Name: Sue Wilsher
03 November 2025;

Genre: Adventure

It's very quiet at Hotel Flamingo as the nights are getting darker, so Anna is delighted when she is asked to arrange a hibernation party for Mrs Turpington, one of the hotel's longest residents. Finding themselves completely snowed in, however, Anna is just feeling pleased there aren't more g...

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Name: Ruth Cornish
03 November 2025;

Genre: Personal Growth

Despite its short length, The Fear by Tom Palmer manages to convey a heartwarming story with a moral, a well rounded tale with a beginning, middle and end, and an empathic narrative based in the world of youth sport, in only 63 pages. Palmer’s body of work now has yet another...

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Name: Jenny Caddick
03 November 2025;

Genre: Funny Stories

Cringe Club is a thoroughly entertaining and engaging contemporary tween/teen fiction, written in the style of whatsapp group chats and lists between the cast of characters. It is a fun, fast-paced and relatable/relevant read for its target young audience. Author Emily Jane Clark cleverly crea...

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Name: Sue Wilsher
03 November 2025;

Genre: Fantasy

Having saved Huswyvern, her magical home, from the evil machinations of her uncle, Eglantine and other members of Miss Hegotty's Secret Society of Witches are having their meetings there. But Hus is not feeling at all well and is causing chaos with every sneeze. Its undiagnosed condition is re...

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Name: Sue Wilsher
03 November 2025;

Genre: Horror

The Last Day of October is a real spine-tingler of a tale! One Hallowe'en, three friends, Cody, Sean and Duri, decide to locate the ruins of the haunted McBride House, the scene of a tragic accident, deep in the woods. Finding the house turns out to be more terrifying than they could ever have...

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Name: Tina Derry
03 November 2025;

Genre: Poetry

A recipe for a perfect way to spend a wintry afternoon: Take 1 book full of clever and witty poems. Add some facts to increase knowledge. Sprinkle liberally with wonderful illustrations…. I LOVED THIS BOOK! The latest work of much loved poet Brian Bilston is ably suppor...

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Name: Jacqueline Harris
03 November 2025;

Genre: Animals

Katie and her horse Sheriff take centre stage in this Paddock Grove episode. Katie is picked to be team captain for the inter schools riding competition. She is surprised and rather overwhelmed, suffering from lack of confidence. Strange things start to happen at the stables and Katie is sure...

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Name: Jenny CADDICK
03 November 2025;

Genre: Fantasy

The Fate of Podkin One-Ear is the finale in a stunning nine-book series that I have adored for years. As an adult reading "children's" literature, this series has been like revisiting the books of my childhood that built my love of reading. The Podkin saga is an epic, sweeping...

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