Schools & Libraries Book Reviews

Name: Sue Wilsher
16 August 2024;

Genre: Myths & Legends

An old lady name Mariana lives alone in a hut by the sea. Although she longs to befriend them, the village children run from her. One day, after a terrible storm, Mariana finds a crab in a rock pool which she takes home. Inside, she finds a beautiful merchild and instantly loves her. The villa...

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Name: Wendy Kelly
16 August 2024;

Genre: Personal Growth

A lovely book, masquerading as a story, which is actually written to encourage you to let your inner artist out. The boy in the story is an accidental artist. He knocks paint over and is anxious about making a mess but luckily the helpful paintbrushes are on hand to encourage him to loo...

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Name: Maria Faithorn
16 August 2024;

Genre: Family & Home

The first thing that strikes you with this tale is the wonderful, colourful illustrations which are as magical as the story itself. The Night Whale is a story of dreams, imagination and touches on the concept of loss. The story begins with a child and her Nana on the h...

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Name: Natalie J McChrystal Plimmer
16 August 2024;

Genre: Environment & Nature

"Well, master explorer," Chandi says to her students towards the end of her Explorer’s Guide to Going Wild, as she congratulates them on now having the skills to go on an adventure and tasking them with setting out on their very own nature treasure hunt.  Bursting with such ac...

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Name: Sara Sumner
16 August 2024;

Genre: Representation & Inclusion

Ellie is a 10 year old looking forward to the best summer ever! Her 'one extra sparkle' is Down's syndrome. She loves hanging with Ben, her big brother, but Ellie is getting increasingly more worried about how busy his life is becoming - with football, his part time job and now their new neigh...

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Name: Jen Bevan
14 August 2024;

Genre: Friends and family

One up is a story about best friends. Best friends who fall out because they want to know who is the best turtle. They make their shells bigger and better and taller and more amazing but soon discover this does not make them happy.  This is a simple story about trying to outdo...

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Name: Jo Clarke
14 August 2024;

Genre: Mental Health & Wellbeing

Oh my! I read this in two sittings and loved it!  The Boy Who Cried Ghost is a perfect mix of humour, chills and suspense. Each chapter even has a play-on-words title with a spooky theme; 'Too Ghoul for School' , 'Spook-etti' and 'I-Scream' to...

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Name: Amanda Shipton
14 August 2024;

Genre: Fairy Tales & Folk Tales

Fancis Martin wanted to create a book which inspired children to tell their own story and the Gina Kaminski series definitely does this incredibly successfully. I would recommend reading this to a child who is already familiar with the traditional tale of Jack and the Beanstalk to ensure that...

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Name: Jen Bevan
14 August 2024;

Genre: Picture Books

Kenny is an amazing little boy but is there anyone in the world just like him? Through the pages of this book Kenny learns that there are lots of people who like and do the same things as him but there is only one Kenny. A Book of People Like Me was an instant hit in my house.</...

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Name: Luke Age 11
14 August 2024;

Genre: Dystopian

This book is the most thrill seeking book I could find - a full-on adventure of a too-good-to-be-true society.

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