The Secret of Nightingale Wood is an incredibly moving, beautifully written and sumptuously layered book by Lucy Strange. With an inter-woven prose of fairy tales, magic and mental health, the story is about a young girl called Henrietta who is – along with her mother, father and little baby sister – grieving for the loss…
Attack of the Zombees is such a fun nature-based, comic book/chapter book mash-up! Book two in Tony De Saulles Bee Boy series sees Melvin Meadly (aka a boy with weird special powers that enable him to turn into a bee and become Bee Boy!) investigate a batch of sinister honey making school children sick. Behind the…
How on Earth could such a tiny, unassuming fish like little Steve be so scary? Well, this fun, frolic of a picture book shows you how! In a neat, punchy prose style that hooks you (see what I did there?) straight in, we get to know ickle Steve. And, over the course of the first…
Bullet Catcher, by Joaquin Lowe, is one of the coolest books I’ve read for ages – it’s a YA genre-mash of wild west, steampunk and sci-fi and brings a really original twist to the old gunslinger legends. About a young down-on-her-luck girl called Imma, this desert-based tale is about how Imma decides to leave her hometown…
I’m becoming a huge fan of Benji Davies’ bold, bright and mesmerising illustration style, so was really pleased to spot Grandad’s Island, a beautiful picture book by him I hadn’t read yet. Grandad’s Island is a simple, heart-warming journey from reality to adventure and back again, in the style of Where the Wild Things Are. Except,…
Emily Barr’s The Truth and Lies of Ella Black is an incredibly good, tense, page-turner of a book! I was sucked straight into Ella Black’s world of paranoia, anxiety and confusion. The way Emily wrote this, Ella’s tumultuous and frantic thought processes didn’t let go right until the end of the story; the experience of reading this…
For those unfamiliar with Barrington Stoke books, they are a fabulous big-hearted publisher of quality, dyslexic-friendly novels for children and young adults. They are, like this one, Grave Matter, (Juno Dawson, illos by Alex T Smith) usually easy to read and have a big concept to get children who struggle to read, interested in doing…
In the second book of James Nicol’s witchy series he’s achieved that rare thing: he’s created a sequel that’s even better than The Apprentice Witch! The prose is jovial and flows like a fast-paced river, so much so I didn’t even realise that – on starting to read it – I’d got to page 180…
Published in 1905, this is a classic tale (not tail, although many of those feature in this story) of an accidental cross-breed of wolf and dog – White Fang. Although it was written over 115 years ago, this book retains is excitement levels, relevance and its punchy tenacity. There’s not many upper middle-grade books I’ve…
Penguin in Love, text and illustrations by Salina Yoon, is a heart-wrenchingly beautiful picture book about a penguin searching for love in an icy wilderness. The simple, emotional and engaging first line grabbed me by the heart-strings: “One day, Penguin was looking for love.” With bold, cute illustrations by writer-illustrator Salina Yoon, it tells the story…
Based on actual events in Anne Green’s life, Mary Hooper’s Newes from the Dead, is a fantastic, enthralling upper-MG / YA book based in and around 17th Century Oxford. It’s the grizzly tale of how one young woman came to survive the hangman’s noose. Told from two points-of-view – Anne herself and a young scholar…
Paper Wishes by Lois Sepahban is a beautiful little book is written with such brevity and precise wording that, on occasions, it’s hard to believe a writer could be so ruthless with their words. But, because Lois has been, it makes the story of Manami – a Japanese-American prisoner of war – all the…
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls, a classic American children’s book, came as a recommendation from a good friend in California. It’s a book written during the 1950s and is about a much simpler time and way of living a rural life. And this “roam amongst the forests” life is led by the…
This short, specially-written World Book Day story by David Almond is a little gem. Written in Almond’s signature poetic, ethereal prose it’s a story of a girl called Louise and her father visiting the northern island of Lindisfarne. They go every year to remember the memory of her dead mother. On the way to the…
Anthony Burt, an Upper Middle Grade Specialist reviewer for My Book Corner, selects his Best Book of 2017… Mine would easily be The Secret Keepers. The Secret Keepers by Trenton Lee Stewart is such a multi-layered, quirky, completely engrossing book about a boy wanting to escape his terrifying, dystopian life. I enjoyed this book…
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Ooh, this sounds fantastic!
Great review, thanks for posting the pictures. Really makes a difference with picture book reviews. Will order for the store…
I often hope to find interviews with Margaret Wild who fascinates me and whose work I adore. Thoroughly enjoyed this…