Young Adult Book Reviews

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  • She Will Soar: Bright, brave poems about freedom by women

    Name: Eileen Armstrong
    11 October 2020;

    Genre: Poetry

    We know that reading 'gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are' and never has that been more true than in these unusual covid-times. Fortunately for all of us, the brilliant people at Pan Macmillan have published this timely, themed anthology of 130 bright, brave poems about w...

  • The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker

    Name: Beverley Somerset
    01 October 2020;

    Genre: Supernatural

    Harriet Stoker visits derelict Mulcture Hall to take photographs for a college project. While exploring, she trips and falls to her death. She 'awakes' to find that she is a ghost, and is surrounded by the ghosts of other young people who have all previously died in the building. Harriet befri...

  • The Forest of Ghosts and Bones

    Name: Linda Brown
    12 September 2020;

    Genre: Fantasy

    This fantasy story, which has been inspired by Hungarian myths and legends, does not disappoint. From the enticing front cover the reader is drawn in and then plunged into a world where magic is discouraged, mags are put to death; and a haunted castle is forever surrounded with poisonous rain......

  • Number 10

    Name: Abbi McInnes
    11 September 2020;

    Genre: Suspense & Thrillers

    Gray Langtry longs to be a normal teenager. However, that is pretty impossible when your Mum is the Prime Minister, and home is Number 10 Downing Street. The book starts with Gray at a party: she has lied to her mum about where she is. Leaving the party, she is pursued by paparazzi, and has to be...

  • Kicking Off: Dick, Kerr Girls

    Name: Beverley Somerset
    03 September 2020;

    Genre: Historical Fiction

    I have categorised this lovely book as historical fiction, but it covers so many themes - family, friendship and sport among others.Kicking Off: Dick, Kerr Girls begins in 1917, during the First world War. Hettie Blakeford is 15, she lives with her mother, father a...

  • I, Ada: Ada Lovelace: Rebel. Genius. Visionary

    Name: Kimberley Lawson
    03 September 2020;

    Genre: Historical Fiction

    I, Ada is a fascinating fictionalised biography about a remarkable woman whose achievements are only in recent years becoming recognised, nearly 170 years after her death.Ada narrates her own story, from the ages of 5 to 21. In many ways, her story echoes the frust...

  • I, Ada: Ada Lovelace: Rebel. Genius. Visionary

    Name: Ruth Cornish
    03 September 2020;

    Genre: Historical Fiction

    A part fictionalised, part factual account of the childhood and teenage years of the daughter of Lord and Lady Byron, Ada (later Lady Lovelace who became the first computer programmer in the 1800's).Ada has a very strict upbringing yet is very privileged. She is a fascinating girl,...

  • Punching the Air

    Name: Lucy Georgeson
    01 September 2020;

    Genre: Representation & Inclusion

    One fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighbourhood escalates into tragedy. 'Boys just being boys' turns out to be true only when those boys are white.  Suddenly, at just 16 years old, Amal Shahid's bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn't commit and sent to...

  • Challenge Everything: An Extinction Rebellion Youth guide to saving the planet

    Name: Julie Broadbent
    27 August 2020;

    Genre: Environment & Nature

    Challenge Everything - An Extinction Rebellion Youth Guide to saving the planet is written by the young activist Blue Sandford. She was named by The Times as a 'British Greta Thunberg' and one of the UK's most impressive youth activists. It is the only official youth handbook from Extinction R...

  • Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know

    Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know

    Name: Lucy Georgeson
    27 August 2020;

    Genre: Historical Fiction

    It is August in Paris and budding art historian Khayyam should be having the time of her life - but even in the City of Lights she can't stop worrying about the mess she left back home in Chicago. Only when she meets a cute young Parisian - who happens to have the same name and be a distant re...