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

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.

Continue reading “The Last Life of Lori Mills | Book Review”
Nine Night Mystery book cover for review
Book Reviews

The Nine Night Mystery | Book Review

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.

Continue reading “The Nine Night Mystery | Book Review”
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

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.

Continue reading “Bringing Back Kay-Kay / The Tree That Sang to Me | Double Review”
Book recommendations covers for April 2024
Book Reviews

Monthly Book Recommendations: April 2024

Welcome to our second monthly book recommendations post! April was a busy month for us and books, with so many different topics and stories passing through our hands. Here’s what we read during April 2024!

Continue reading “Monthly Book Recommendations: April 2024”
Book recommendations covers for March 2024
Book Reviews

Monthly Book Recommendations: March 2024

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”
Tokyo Ghost Café book cover for review
Book Reviews

100 Tales from the Tokyo Ghost Café | Book Review

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”
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

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”
The Song Walker book cover for review; a white ship faces us in the middle of a blue-green sea. Closer to us, a white whale leaps up on either side of the ship, while behind the mast rises a large snow tern, its wings reaching up into the dark green sky. The title is in gold, and flanked with gold lines forming a semi-circle. In the sky behind the ship, there is the shadow of a tiger's face.
Book Reviews

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”