Schools & Libraries Book Reviews

Name: Ruth Cornish
10 November 2025;

Genre: Myths & Legends

Swanfall is a great adventure story that mixes mystery with folklore and ecology with friendship. It starts with the much-anticipated return of the winter flock of Arctic swans, the annual event beloved by the main character, Pip. Then together with best friend Tommo, and scho...

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Name: Sue Wilsher
10 November 2025;

Genre: Fairy Tales & Folk Tales

When a shoemaker discovers a tiny girl in the toe of a boot, he raises her with love and care. Having named her 'Evangeline' - a name that spoke of possibilities - he shares with her his dreams of exploration and adventure. His wife, on the other hand, feels that there is something unnatural a...

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Name: Rachel Bolton
07 November 2025;

Genre: Animals

It's difficult not to wish fiction was reality when reading this gorgeous story about a rescued lion cub, snatched from a South African game reserve. The Lion Cub's Secret is the second book in the "White Giraffe" series (although it isn't necessary to have re...

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Name: Louisa Farrow
05 November 2025;

Genre: Friends and family

Sophie Anderson conjures up magic by recasting traditional folklore into absorbing stories that feel fresh and modern, yet timeless. This glittering story joins the ranks of beautiful art, music and writing inspired by the Russian fairy tale of the Snow Maiden, or Snegurochka....

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Name: Jenny CADDICK
04 November 2025;

Genre: Representation & Inclusion

Elle McNicoll simply excels in her books featuring young neurodiverse female characters. Her books grip the reader and lay bare the neurodiverse experience and reality of young people's lives, which she both celebrates and explores through her narrative. The neurodiverse inner mind faces an of...

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Name: Jacqueline Harris
03 November 2025;

Genre: Mystery & Detective

Brooke is starting a new school, doubly difficult because it is the end of a term and she is neurodiverse. But just as she joinns, the head teacher is murdered and Brooke, along with her new friends from the Neurokind Club at the school, decide to crack the case. As Brooke and her mothe...

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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: 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: 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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