I hope you’re all enjoying the Summer holidays! I’ve not had much time for reading recently, but I came across this on my reading list which I’d completely forgotten about, and thus I decided that I really needed to turn my attention to it… Rosalind, the lead character of Being Miss Nobody, has selective mutism. …
Patina, the second in Jason Reynolds’ middle grade Track/Run series, has just been published in the UK by the brilliant Knights Of and it’s so good I read it in one sitting. Patina is the fastest runner on the team: she is fiercely independent, sets herself high standards and she’s all about the win. Her…
I’ve unexpectedly found myself with a spare 5 mins and so I thought that I’d quickly tell you about a new sci-fi mystery novella published earlier this month. The Starlight Watchmaker tells the story of an android, Hugo, who was abandoned at an elite academy, but who luckily managed to establish himself as a watchmaker…
Catherine Doyle’s first middle grade book, the award-winning The Storm Keeper’s Island, was one of last year’s stand out reads for me, and so I couldn’t wait to read the sequel – The Lost Tide Warriors – which came out earlier this month. While I’m always a tad apprehensive about reading a sequel to a…
When it gets closer to the Summer I always find it difficult to keep up with longer-length reviews due to other commitments. To counter that this year, I thought I’d post a ‘short review’ round-up, as it would be such a shame not to share some really good books that I’ve read recently. I’m going…
I’ve long been a fan of Christopher Edge: he has a real knack for making complex scientific concepts interesting and accessible to a younger audience, weaving them into fascinating middle-grade storylines. In the past, asking which one of his previous 3 books I loved the most was like asking me to choose my favourite child.…
I seem to have focussed on adventure stories recently, and so it’s time for a bit more variety. I read Charlie Changes into a Chicken, the first in a new series by Sam Copeland, a couple of months ago and always meant to blog about it, but for some reason I just didn’t find the…
I’ve been a bit slow on the blog lately, predominantly due to it being one of the busiest times of the year on the allotment (my other passion aside from reading). However, today’s rain is a double bonus: I don’t need to water all the veggies I’ve recently planted and, as it’s too wet to…
Released at the beginning of the month, The Secret Starling is the debut Middle Grade (age 8-12) book by Judith Eagle. There’s been lots of excitement about it on Twitter, so I was keen to read it as soon as it was released. Clara lives with her mean uncle in a crumbling, old manor house,…
This is a very quick review as I’m a tad short on time at the moment; however, I wanted to make sure that I recorded my thoughts on this new book by Fleur Hitchcock, an established and accomplished writer whom some of you will know due to her dark thrillers for older children. Clifftoppers: The…