The Door That Led To Where by Sally Gardner

I was a bit disappointed with this book. I've read a couple of Sally Gardner's books in the past - I loved 'Tinder' and 'I, Coriander'. This one just felt a bit of a rushed, mish-mash of a book. It's a time-travel story, but I got really confused with the characters and which time they were supposed to be living in or originally from. It was disjointed, didn't flow very well for me, and just not really Sally's usual style. It had the basics of a good storyline, but just not very well told. Sorry Sally, but a thumbs down for me.

Back to Blackbrick by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

(Review by Megan :D)

Cosmo is a teenage boy who desperately wants to try to save his Grandad from Alzheimer's, but things aren't looking too good. But one night, his Grandad gives him a mysterious key, that he says will unlock the South Gates of Blackbrick Abbey. Confused but curious, Cosmo ventures out to Blackbrick, and finds a time portal that goes all the way back to when his Grandad was 16, working as a slave at Blackbrick! Seeing the chance to get his Grandad's memory back, Cosmo stays at Blackbrick to find out some answers. He makes new friends and solves puzzles, then disaster strikes! Will things turn out all right for Cosmo and Grandad Kevin in the end?

I love the way Sarah writes this book: it's funny, mysterious, sad and clever and makes you never want to put it down! Time travel allways fascinates me, and this book uses it brilliantly! I would recommend this novel to 12+/13+ due to some bad language and other features.
A great book to me, 5 stars! 

Fortunately, the Milk.. by Neil Gaiman

Fortunately, the Milk...
by Neil Gaiman

A crazy, kooky tale of a father's trip out the house to get some milk so the kids can have their breakfast cereal. He is away for absolutely ages, and on his return his children ask where he's been. So begins an incredible story of time-travel, meeting dinosaurs, aliens in spaceships, pirates, stone-god worshipping men, and the all-important pint of milk. If the story isn't enough to keep the readers entertained, Chris Riddell's illustrations will definitely have you poring over every page, looking at the minute detail of his pictures. The father of the story bears an incredibly uncanny resemblance to Neil Gaiman himself...

A brilliant pairing of author and illustrator to create an entertaining fantasy story for young readers.

Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children
by Ransom Riggs

This is marketed as a horror book, but in our bookshop it has proved very popular with the teenagers.

Jacob gets on well with his Grandpa, even if he is a bit strange, talking of monsters and children with strange abilities, and an orphanage in Wales. Then Grandpa is savagely killed and Jacob goes to Wales to track down the orphanage and find out the truth of Grandpa's strange life. He uncovers time loops, peculiar children with abilities straight out of old-fashioned circuses, monsters, violent murders - and the truth.

The story starts out well, then loses its appeal slightly at the talk of time loops, and from there slight confusion begins. The author seems very rushed at the end to tie all the loose ends together. A slightly disappointing end to a promising start, but still worth a read.

Fever by Dee Shulman

Fever
by Dee Shulman

Quite a long story - I skimmed through quite a lot of it as I thought it was too long and was taking a while getting to the main story. Sethos is a Roman gladiator in AD152. He loves Livia, but she is betrothed to a powerful man, one not willing to let her go. Eva is a student in 2012. She is super intelligent and loves the sciences. A lecture and show by an American scientist goes drastically wrong, and Eva is unknowingly infected with a deadly virus which kills her but then immediately brings her to life again. Meanwhile, Livia and Sethos are discovered by the betrothed and both murdered, but Sethos wakes uninjured in a parallel world. He finds he can time travel, and journeys to 2012 to find the cause of a fever which killed him in the end and ended the life of many others. He bumps into Eva who looks uncannily like Livia - in fact, is her. She starts to have flashbacks of her previous life as Livia, and realises she and Sethos are destined to be together. Complicated, eh?

A Year Without Autumn by Liz Kessler

A Year Without Autumn
by Liz Kessler


A time travel story that starts really well, then gets quite complicated and long-winded, but then has a good ending. Jenni and Autumn are best friends and every year they and their families go on holiday together. Jenni discovers an old fashioned lift in the apartment block where Autumn is staying, but when she uses it to go up a level or two, she finds herself in the future by that many years. A year in the future, a terrible accident has occurred which has upset the relationship of everyone around her. Jenni tries to discover a way of stopping the accident and hence re-instating the equilibrium.

I enjoyed Liz's latest book North of Nowhere much more. Once again Liz revisits the time travel theme. Also look out for Liz's popular mermaid series for 9-12yrs Emily Windsnap.