Schools & Libraries Book Reviews
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Cuckoo Summer
Name: Jacqueline Harris
29 July 2022;Genre: Historical Fiction
It is the summer of 1940 and Tommy and his friend, the evacuee Sally, are in the Lake District. Despite the remoteness of the place, war has touched them is several ways and Tommy's dad is missing in action. Then a German plane is brought down over the village and the navigator is not there an...
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The Secret of Ragnar's Gold
Name: Carol Wright
27 July 2022;Genre: Mystery & Detective
Lucy, Max, Joe and Charlie - The After School Detective Club - are back for another thrilling adventure in The Secret of Ragnar's Gold. Ufford Castle, Suffolk, is the setting for a treasure hunt when the gang find a mysterious box containing a gold coin and a secret code. Will...
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Cuckoo Summer
Name: Louisa Farrow
17 July 2022;Genre: Historical Fiction
I began Cuckoo Summer with limited expectations. The blurb sounded suspiciously like Robert Westall's masterpiece, the Machine Gunners, and I wondered doubtfully whether it would measure up. Within a dozen pages, I'd been won over, and found myself totally engrossed in a rattl...
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The Secret Wild
Name: Donna Burkert
17 July 2022;Genre: Environment & Nature
Life for Fern is not like other girls' lives, her parents are botanists, and she has grown up travelling the world as they find and study rare plants. It's the only life Fern has ever known. She loves plants, she talks to plants, and she dearly hopes that one day, plants will communicate with...
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An Imaginary Menagerie
Name: Wendy Kelly
15 July 2022;Genre: Poetry
Veteran poet Roger McGough has written and illustrated this quick little collection of poems which will appeal to fluent junior readers (ages 9+). The poems feature real and imagined creatures for every letter from A to Z and are humorous - such as the hairy canary who's been eating steroids -...
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The Mermaid Call
Name: Sue Wilsher
12 July 2022;Genre: Friends and family
Lake Splendour is a seaside town built around the myth of Lake Mermaid and the 'Mermaid Girls'. Vivian lives with her grandmother at a tourist shop called Enchanted Tails, one of many businesses which benefit from the story, like those of her friends Erik and Eleni. When some children at her s...
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The Mermaid Call
Name: Sharon Porter
11 July 2022;Genre: Friends and family
Want a great summer read which will keep you turning pages, wanting to know more? Then The Mermaid Call is the book for you. It's a cracking tale of intrigue, suffrage and being true to yourself. The characters ebb and flow (pardon the watery pun!) and how the theme of reinven...
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The Extraordinary Voyage of Katy Willacott
Name: Sam Green
09 July 2022;Genre: Adventure
The Extraordinary Voyage of Katy Willacott takes us back in time to the end of the Victorian era, when the Natural History Museum first opened and voyages of exploration were still bringing new plants back to Kew Gardens to record and study. Katy Willacott's parents bo...
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Some Sunny Day
Name: Jacqueline Harris
08 July 2022;Genre: Family & Home
Cymbeline Igloo, the boy with the best name in children's literature, is back, in this his fourth outing. Some Sunny Day takes place during the pandemic, in the early days of the first lockdown. Cymbeline has online lessons and is missing his friends. His mother is completely...
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Birdsong
Name: Kelly Buxton
07 July 2022;Genre: Bereavement
Birdsong is a solemn read about a girl whose life is splintered into tiny pieces when she and her mum are involved in a car crash. The crash leaves the girl with a scarred arm, resulting in the shattering of her promising flute career. The story follows a melody of grief: for...
