Author: Kim

Book cover for review shows a dark-haired girl with her hood up and wearing a dark green cloak riding a pale horse. Behind her sits another young girl with long blond curls and a red cape flowing behind them. She's looking back over her shoulder, with her arms clasped around the girl in front. The background is green with floating leaves, the title 'Not for the Faint of Heart' written above them in gold.
Book Reviews

Not for the Faint of Heart | Young Adult Book Review

Kim

By Lex Croucher (Bloomsbury, 2024)

‘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.’

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Book cover for review shows a stream flowing through a green forest, the trees dappled with gold. Along the bank three children walk, their aims outstretched for balance. In the middle, over the stream between the trees on either bank, the title 'The Worlds We Leave Behind' is picked out in gold.
Book Reviews

The Worlds We Leave Behind | Book Review

Kim

Written by A. F. Harrold and illustrated by Levi Pinfold (pub. Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2024)

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.

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Book cover for review shows a girl standing in a room as the wall in front of her explodes into pixelated darkness, with the title 'The Last Life of Lori Mills' in multicoloured print in the centre.
Book Reviews

The Last Life of Lori Mills | Book Review

Kim

By Max Boucherat (pub. HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2024)

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.

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Nine Night Mystery book cover for review
Book Reviews

The Nine Night Mystery | Book Review

Kim

By Sharna Jackson (pub. Puffin Books, 2024)

I’m at our neighbour Rachel’s house in her room. I just dropped a paintbrush she asked me for on her floor, and she didn’t do or say anything when it rolled under the bed.

Not because she’s asleep or lazy.

But because she’s dead.

Rachel Kohl. Dead in her bed.

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Bringing Back Kay-Kay / The Tree That Sang to Me book covers for double review
Book Reviews

Bringing Back Kay-Kay / The Tree That Sang to Me | Double Review

Kim

This month’s review brings together two books that have a similar theme: both are from the perspective of a younger sibling dealing with an older sibling who is missing from their life, though the circumstances around it, and how they deal with it, are approached very differently.

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The Shadow Order book cover for review
Book Reviews

The Shadow Order | Book Review

Kim

By Rebecca F. John (pub. Firefly Press, 2022)

Throwing out her arms and tossing back her head, she shouts again. ‘I know what happened! If anyone can hear me, listen carefully. It’s a game. It’s the Unified Government’s game. They’re playing with our lives. They shifted the shadows. I can prove it. I can prove it and they’ll kill me for it. Listen!’ Her voice catches as she strains to bellow as loudly as possible. Effie feels an ache in her own throat, imagining the woman’s vocal chords stretching and snapping. ‘LISTEN! Find the orrery!’

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Tokyo Ghost Café book cover for review
Book Reviews

100 Tales from the Tokyo Ghost Café | Book Review

Kim

By Julian Sedgwick and Chie Kutsuwada (published by Guppy Books, 2023)

“You think you can decide what is real and what is imaginary, what is alive and what is dead. But who is to decide who is alive and who is merely dreamed into existence? I listen to you lot argue about whether ghosts or fox spirits exist, and you forget to check how real you are.”

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Blog

Festive Book Advent Calendar 2023

Kim

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!

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Cover of Roots of Happiness for review. Image shows a tree, with multicoloured leaves and swirling roots. Amongst the branches and roots there are words. At the base of the tree, a greyhound digs a hole, while a young boy flies a kite.
Book Reviews

Non-Fiction November | Roots of Happiness | Book Review

Kim

Written by Susie Dent, illustrated by Harriet Hobday (Puffin Books, 2023)

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.

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