At Libraries 4 Schools we love books with wintery and Christmassy themes, so we thought we would give you our suggestions of stories to enjoy as the days get longer and darker. Come back every day in the run up to Christmas to see what tales we’re curling up with in our festive children’s book advent calendar!
Continue reading “Festive Book Advent Calendar 2023”Author: Kim
Non-Fiction November | Roots of Happiness | Book Review
Written by Susie Dent, illustrated by Harriet Hobday (Puffin Books, 2023)
Continue reading “Non-Fiction November | Roots of Happiness | Book Review”We have so many words for sad thoughts and emotions, which means it is much easier for us to moan rather than celebrate. In fact, many more positive words did once exist, but they have been left behind over the centuries, and others have been forgotten altogether.
The Clackity | Happy Halloween! Book Review
Written by Lora Senf, illustrations by Alfredo Cáceres (published by Atheneum Books, 2022)
Continue reading “The Clackity | Happy Halloween! Book Review”In the far corner of the abattoir, on the other side of the back wall below the shaft, the shadows were unnaturally dark. And they shifted and churned. Something was there. Something else was in the abattoir with my aunt.
“Des!” I screamed it. “Get out!”
I couldn’t see her face, but the terror in my aunt’s voice told me everything I needed to know. She didn’t scream at me, or even yell. Instead her voice came out as a wailing sort of moan.
“Baby. Run.”
Drawn to Change the World | Book Review
By author Emma Reynolds and various illustrators listed at the end of the review (published by HarperAlley, September 2023)
Continue reading “Drawn to Change the World | Book Review”This book is not about putting the sole responsibility on young people’s shoulders to fix this crisis. It’s about celebrating the activists who are doing incredible things, and encouraging whoever is reading this book that you can make a difference too, no matter your age. You are not too old, and you are not too young, to begin.
The Song That Sings Us | Book Review for Older Readers
By Nicola Davies (published by Firefly Press)
The sounds of hard breathing and the scrunch of footfalls enclose them as they run. There are shouts behind, voices yelling orders, more shots. Harlon gives Xeno and Ash a stream of small orders and encouragements to stop them thinking.
In Harlon’s head, her ma’s voice speaks.
When you are in danger, the most dangerous thing is to wish you weren’t. Accept the reality of danger, then you can survive it.
Climb, she tells herself. Get away.
Continue reading “The Song That Sings Us | Book Review for Older Readers”
‘The Wolves in the Walls’ | Little Angel Theatre takes on Gaiman and McKean | Play Review
“For you know what they say… If the wolves come out of the walls, then it’s all over.”
Continue reading “‘The Wolves in the Walls’ | Little Angel Theatre takes on Gaiman and McKean | Play Review”
The Song Walker | Book Review
By Zillah Bethell (published by Usborne Publishing, 2023)
Continue reading “The Song Walker | Book Review”The bottle is removed from my lips. I try calling out for it to be returned, but then a hand – wet with water – runs over my brow, cooling my forehead. It feels so good.
“Wait here,” the voice says. “I will be back soon. A few minutes. Don’t move.”
I hear feet scrunching against the dirt. Running. Away from me. I raise my arms in the air. Please don’t go, I try saying, but nothing comes out of my mouth. Please stay. Don’t leave me alone here.
Ravencave | Book Review
By Marcus Sedgwick (published by Barrington Stoke, 2023)
Continue reading “Ravencave | Book Review”Eight hundred people, eight hundred families, just like ours, without enough money coming in, with no way of knowing how to survive.
I wonder how many of those eight hundred families are dealing with it by going on holiday and wandering over the empty Yorkshire hills, going to spread their granny’s ashes on the landscape.
A landscape full of ghosts, Mum says, though she hasn’t seen one.
And strangely, it turns out it’s not her who sees a ghost first.
It’s me.
The Blue Book of Nebo | Young Adult Book Review
By Manon Steffan Ros (published by Firefly Press, 2022)
Continue reading “The Blue Book of Nebo | Young Adult Book Review”‘The Blue Book of Nebo,’ I smiled, taking the book from her. The pages were blank and wide, like a new day.
‘Eh?’ asked Mam.
‘Like The Black Book of Carmarthen, or The Red Book of Hergest. That’s how they did it in the olden days.’ I’d read about them in a book of Welsh history. ‘Important books that said something about our history. And now is a part of history, isn’t it?’
Tyger | Book Review
Written by S.F. Said, illustrated by Dave McKean (published by David Fickling Books)
Continue reading “Tyger | Book Review”‘Nothing is ordinary,’ said the tyger. ‘Everything is extraordinary. In all of infinity and eternity, that flower exists only in this world; this precise position in space and time. Everywhere else, there is a different flower, or no flower at all. And the same is true of you. Nothing special? You are miraculous beyond measure, both of you.’