Blog

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!’

Continue reading “The Shadow Order | Book Review” →
Book recommendations covers for March 2024
Book Reviews

Monthly Book Recommendations: March 2024

Lynda

Welcome to our first monthly book recommendations post! We realised that we read SO many books that we simply don’t have time to fully review, but still want to share with the world. So going forward, we’re hoping to do a post at the start of each month, covering what we read last month. Here’s our books from March 2024!

Continue reading “Monthly Book Recommendations: March 2024” →
Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back book cover for review
Book Reviews

Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back | Review

Lynda

Written by Isabella Tree and illustrated by Angela Harding (published by Macmillan Children’s Books)

Did you know that butterflies have long tongues to drink nectar? Or that jays bury their acorns like squirrels, but forget where? Or that a single farm in Sussex reintroduced storks to the UK?

Continue reading “Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back | Review” →
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.”

Continue reading “100 Tales from the Tokyo Ghost Café | Book Review” →
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!

Continue reading “Festive Book Advent Calendar 2023” →
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.

Continue reading “Non-Fiction November | Roots of Happiness | Book Review” →
The Clackity cover for book review - image shows a tall dark house in the background, with spindly arms reaching up around it. In the top window there is a ghostly figure, bathed in orange. In the foreground there is a girl with her orange hair tied up, holding a key. The outline of wings sprout from her back.
Book Reviews

The Clackity | Happy Halloween! Book Review

Kim

Written by Lora Senf, illustrations by Alfredo Cáceres (published by Atheneum Books, 2022)

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.”

Continue reading “The Clackity | Happy Halloween! Book Review” →
Drawn to Change the World book cover for review; cover is orange, with a white circle with the title in the middle. Emanating from the circle are petal shapes, each featuring the drawing of a different youth activist. The orange background features more drawings, in a darker orange. At the bottom, the tagline says "16 Youth Climate Activists, 16 Artists".
Book Reviews

Drawn to Change the World | Book Review

Kim

By author Emma Reynolds and various illustrators listed at the end of the review (published by HarperAlley, September 2023)

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.

Continue reading “Drawn to Change the World | Book Review” →