Geek Girl - Picture Perfect
by Holly Smale
(Review by Megan, 11)
The third book in the Geek Girl series, still holds me page by page.
Harriet Manners has had the best summer ever and is planning her next few weeks of pure delight on A3 pieces of paper.... but not for long.
On the day of her exam results, Harriet returns home to find her parents hurriedly packing: they were packing for New York. Astonished but excited, she takes the move as a new experience, and looks forward to seeing the wonderful sights of America! Unfortunately, Harriet's parents made a white lie, they weren't moving to New York, but two hours away from it in a shabby American estate in Greenway. Furious, Harriet runs away to the glamorous city for a modeling job, but will things turn out alright for her in the end?
A gripping read as always from Holly Smale, still one of my favourite books! Definately recommended for 11/12- 15 yrs. GEEK OUT! :D
Dream on Amber
by Emma Shevah
(
Review by Megan, 11)
Amber is half Italian and half Japanese, so starting a new school and getting annoying texts from a-bit-too-eager-friends is just something she'll just have to get used to. As if her name isn't bad enough: AMBRA ALESSANDRA LEOLA KIMIKO MIYAMOTO.
When Amber (the English version of her name) reaches the point of total devastation and annoyance, she desperately needs someone to talk to. Due to her father leaving when she was only a baby, Amber uses her art and imagination skills to conjure up an EPIC replacement Dad to help her through the first year of secondary school.
A fantastic read for 10-12 year olds. Emma Shevah sure does know how to amaze! Blew me away, one of the best :)
The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair
by Joel Dicker
I think I may stir up something here - I wasn't that impressed with this book. I was quite desperate to read it as it's had amazing reviews, had won 3 French literary prizes, and has been plastered over nearly every broadsheet review page. Simon Mayo also tweeted that he thought it deserved Book of the Year. Not sure about that! What about the brilliant The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, Half Bad by Sally Green, Burial Rites by Hannah Kent and many more worthy nominees for such an accolade? Now, I did enjoy the story - upto a point. I read it on e-book and it was a massive 460 pages. I was looking forward to it ending, but it never seemed to! What I think is it's main downfall - ok, 2 main downfalls. Firstly, it's a translation from the French original. Some of the conversational parts are absolutely awful, the writing is dreadful, so that took away some of the enjoyment. The translator, Sam Taylor, also provided the translation for another bestseller 'HHhH'. I haven't read that, but my partner has, so I asked him what the book was like and how it read. He said it was good, he didn't notice anything about it. So perhaps conversation is quite tricky to translate into readable English...?
Secondly, the plot -good as it is - is very complex. Twists and turns in a book are plauded and encouraged, but this has so many you feel you should have drawn a diagram with arrows pointing to 'suspected' 'exonorated' 'died'.
I'm making it sound like it's the worst book ever, but it definitely isn't that. It's worth a read, especially if you like murder mysteries. The style just wasn't to my liking. One character I did love though was Marcus's Jewish mother. She was hilarious. She should have her own chat show.
Boy in the Tower
by Polly Ho-Yen
Ade (pronounced Addee) lives in a high rise block of flats with his mum in South London. He goes to the local school where he is friends with Gaia who lives in the high rise opposite. One day his mum comes home crying with a bruised and battered face and refuses to tell Ade what has happened. After that, she becomes withdrawn and asks Ade to do the shopping and the cooking, while she sleeps all day and night. Ade takes comfort in looking out of the window at life passing him by outside and down below. Then strange things start to happen in the area. A pub nearby collapses to the ground, then building workers and policemen fall down dead, and slowly all the high rise flats and houses in the town fall down, killing all those trapped inside. Many people flee the area, but still Ade's mum refuses to leave the flat. What is causing the buildings to fall, and how will Ade and his mum manage to survive? The tables are turned as a young teenage son is having to care for his mother while all around them the world is changing and disaster is creeping upon them.
This is a wonderful story of courage, determination, strength and bravery. The storytelling is simplistic but addictive, making you want to read straight from one chapter to the next.
If you like this, I also recommend P.O.D. by Stephen Wallenfels.
Man at the Helm
by Nina Stibbe
At the moment, Nina Stibbe is better known for her first bestselling book Love Nina, a collection of letters written by her to her sister while Nina was a nanny in London. I really loved that book, it was very funny, she has a wicked sense of humour (in the literal and slang way), so I was looking forward to reading this book, her first foray into fiction. Her writing style is unchanged. She has a great way of using brackets in sentences to clear up confusion over meanings, and I have to smile every time she does it. It took me a couple of chapters to settle into the story, I seemed to be waiting for something big to happen, (but I do spend 90% of my time reading Young Adult/9-12 fiction, where you're wham bang straight into the adventure), but suddenly I couldn't put it down.
The story is recounted by 9-yr-old Lizzie. Her parents divorce after her father falls in love with someone else, and she (along with her older sister) decide to write a list of all the men they deem suitable to become the next 'man at the helm'. They then forge letters from their mother to these men, asking them to pop over for a drink, and then they wait to see what happens. What's funny is that the girls just want them to be 'intimate' enough times to have to get married. Most of these encounters don't end too well, but you find yourself laughing about it rather than thinking 'oh the poor woman/the poor children'. Of course the one man the mother falls for is not the best of characters and the children are aghast at what they've let themselves and their mother in for.
Just as your thinking 'oh this is hilarious, what on earth is going to happen to the poor family next', something either heartfelt or heartwrenchingly sad happens and you have to have a good old blubber and a moment away from the book to compose yourself and then get right back into it. (Well I did anyway, ask my daughter - she thoughtfully left the room when she saw my eyes filling up and my nose turning red, saying "I'll just leave you on your own for a bit").
Nina said in one interview last year that the book is semi-autobiographical ("it's about my mother's unorthodox style of parenting"). The mother in the story survives mostly on pills and drink, swears like a trooper, and basically just lets her children run wild, but is a natural beauty and makes all men she meets stop dead in their tracks.
I loved the book, loved all the characters and love Nina's style of writing.
If you like this, I also recommend the completely farcical Campari for Breakfast by Sara Crowe.
Murder Most Unladylike
by Robin Stevens
The year is 1934. Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are both pupils at Deepdean School for Girls, Daisy being rather clever, but also clever enough to cover it up (no-one likes a swot), and Hazel is Chinese and looks up to Daisy because of her cleverness. They set up a detective agency, with Daisy as Sherlock and Hazel as the long-suffering Watson. They soon get a juicy case to get their teeth stuck into - one of the mistresses at the school is found dead - by Hazel herself. The only problem is, by the time it takes Hazel to run and get Daisy and return to the scene of the crime, the body has disappeared. Seeing as no-one else would believe them, they start investigations on their own. As another death occurs, they soon discover that they it could be they themselves next on the list of murder victims. They must move swiftly to capture the murderer before it's too late.
The suspense is held throughout, but also with a dash of humour on each page. The sense of bullyishness of the girl pupils, the strictness of the mistresses, the no-nonsense approach of all-girls schools in the 30's are all included. Daisy is friends with Hazel, but with a bit of a mean streak - she grabs her just that little bit too tightly, enough to leave a mark, she calls her an idiot, she swiftly dismisses any logical thoughts Hazel may have on the case if they do not coincide with her own. But Hazel puts on her stiff upper lip, bears it all and is determined to prove herself.
A great, funny murder-mystery - think Enid Blyton with more mischief and wickedness!
One Wish
by Michelle Harrison
Michelle Harrison is the award winning author of The 13 Treasures trilogy. This book, One Wish, is the prequel to that trilogy. Now I haven't read The 13 Treasures, so I came to this book blind - it was brilliant! It's one of those books which you have to keep reading, you're drawn from one chapter straight into the next by the excitement, adventure and drama of the storytelling. I must admit, I didn't read The 13 Treasures when I heard it was about fairies, but I've definitely missed out there, if this book is anything to go by.
Tanya goes to stay in a holiday cottage with her mother, but as soon as they go in, Tanya starts to hear voices from under the floorboards, voices only she can hear, as she has the second sight - the ability to see and hear fairies. Now these fairies are not the type you are probably picturing right this moment. They come in all forms and shapes and sizes, and some are good, some are bad. Tanya gets to meet fairies in all of these forms during her unexpectedly eventful holiday. There are kidnappings, magic spells, near drownings, wishing trees, visits to other worlds - the story is absolutely action packed, and I highly recommend it!
