Book recommendations covers for May 2024
Book Reviews

Monthly Book Recommendations: May 2024

Welcome to our third monthly book recommendations post! For some reason, last month was picture book heavy, though with a good mix of non-fiction and fiction – and many of them carry important messages we can all benefit from. Here’s what we read during May 2024!

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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!

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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!

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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.”

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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

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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The Song Walker book cover for review shows an orange desert under a harsh sun. Two girls are walking - on the left, a white girl in a black dress carrying a metal case. On the right, a black girl in dungarees pointing off and leading the way. In the centre of the image is a green bird, with the book title around it in blue.
Book Reviews

The Song Walker | Book Review

By Zillah Bethell (published by Usborne Publishing, 2023)

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.

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Ravencave book cover, showing a landscape in dark blues and purples with a waterfall splashing into a pool of water in the centre.
Book Reviews

Ravencave | Book Review

By Marcus Sedgwick (published by Barrington Stoke, 2023)

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.

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Stone Age Fiction review book covers
Book Reviews

Stone Age Fiction Review Round-Up

Recently we’ve read three books with a Stone Age/Late Neolithic setting that we think would be ideal for adding fiction texts to your teaching topic, especially as fiction based in this time period is relatively rare. Each one focuses on journeys into unknown lands.

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