By Peter Burns (pub. Farshore, June 2025)
Continue reading “Shadow Thieves | Book Review”It looked like a scrap of paper, tucked behind one of the roof tiles beside him. He pulled it free. It was a small rectangle of thick cream card, on which was printed in fine copperplate type:
Wanted: the clever, the cunning and the fearless.
Must be willing to risk death daily.
Fortunes available for the most daring and capable.
No one over 18.
Orphans preferred.
By Patrice Lawrence (pub. Scholastic, 2025)
Continue reading “People Like Stars | Book Review”On clear nights, we saw swirls of stars above the trees. I asked Ari how big the sky must be to fit in all those stars. She said that they looked close together to us down on Earth, but really they were far, far apart from each other.
Maybe all these people are like stars. It seems like they’re together, but really they’re alone like me.
Written by Dan Smith and illustrated by Luke Brookes (pub. Barrington Stoke)
Continue reading “The Deadsoul Project | Book Review”“What’s wrong with you?” Mam insisted. “Give him a hug.”
“I don’t want to.” Lauren’s voice started to crack as she fought back tears.
“Just leave her,” Kyle said, putting a hand on his mam’s arm. “She’s scared.”
“Scared of what?” Mam glared at him. “There’s nothing to be –”
“Stay away from me.”
Connor’s words were quiet and menacing.
He was staring right at Lauren with a dark and hungry look. An ugly sound rattled deep in his throat, and his pupils were so large that his eyes seemed completely black.
Written by Sarah Merrett, illustrated by Ewa Beniak-Haremska (pub. Everything With Words, 2024)
‘There!’ Grandma’s face lit up. ‘Tell me you heard that!’ She ran to the machine and flung herself in the chair.
Reuben’s limbs locked tight. He stared, his mind running wild. The machine had never made a sound like it. He knew it wasn’t from this world.
He listened, waiting, holding his breath.
The machine remained silent, but he knew those few strange sounds had changed everything.
Continue reading “The Others | Book Review”
Written by Eva Frantz, illustrated by Elin Sandström (pub. Pushkin Press, 2023)
Continue reading “The Secret of Helmersbruk Manor: A Christmas Mystery | Review”‘It’s her!’
The white thing disappeared too quickly for Flora to see what it was, but for a few horrible moments she thought she had seen a pale face peering in at her and whispering.
But the room was on the first floor, so surely no one could be peeking in up there?
Flora lingered in the doorway, dead still.
Did she dare go over to the window and look?
Written by Eilish Fisher, illustrated by Dermot Flynn (pub. Puffin Books, 2024)
Continue reading “Fia and the Last Snow Deer | Book Review”Suddenly I know what I have to do
to keep Solas safe.
The prophecy says the sacrifice must be given
freely,
gladly,
with hope.
Nothing about
blood sadness despair.
By James Fox (Scholastic, 2024)
Continue reading “The Boy in the Suit | Book Review”I pulled again on Morag’s wrist, so hard I felt my veins popping out of my forehead. Why couldn’t they just let her go? I wished Morag and I had the power to turn invisible. I wanted us to run away and forget all about this stupid funeral.
That’s when the camera flashed. Bright white, right in our faces. “Oh dear,” a man’s voice sneered. It was the newspaper photographer from earlier. “What’s going on here, then?”
By Lex Croucher (Bloomsbury, 2024)
Continue reading “Not for the Faint of Heart | Young Adult Book Review”‘It wasn’t meant to be violent,’ Mariel said reluctantly.
‘What?’
‘The kidnapping,’ Mariel snapped. ‘I may have been overzealous with my instructions. It was just meant to be…fast.’
‘Ah, yes. A nice clean abduction, with proper attention paid to the procedures.’
‘Stop being so dramatic. You’re just on loan.’
‘You shouldn’t kidnap innocent people, Captain,’ Clem said sharply. ‘People might get the wrong idea about you and your merry mates.’
Written by A. F. Harrold and illustrated by Levi Pinfold (pub. Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2024)
Continue reading “The Worlds We Leave Behind | Book Review”And only now did he really wonder at the oddness of everything.
Only now?
This woman who spoke so strangely.
This cottage in a clearing that couldn’t possibly fit in the woods he knew.
The rain that was drumming on the windows from heavy dark clouds that hadn’t been there twenty minutes earlier.
Oddness held the door open for fear to step in.
‘I think I’d best get going,’ he said.
By Max Boucherat (pub. HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2024)
Continue reading “The Last Life of Lori Mills | Book Review”I am sure, I am certain, I am one million per cent certain: the last time I played, that door wasn’t there. I would have noticed it. ANY player would notice if their bedroom door randomly appeared in Voxminer.
And it IS my bedroom door.
Not RoaryCat11’s bedroom door from her castle in Kittentopia, but a perfect copy of my actual door in actual real life.
