The Not-So Great Escape is an excellent example of how there is always more behind titles. First assumptions had this reviewer imagining a funny adventure, a buddy comedy full of shenanigans, perfect for younger readers. This itself would have been highly enjoyable, but instead The Not-So Great Escape is a much more complex story.
This unusual wee tale is visually stunning, with graphic novel-esque art, and a brevity that means that the images are what stick in the reader’s mind. From its arresting cover – complete with lightning bolts, crow, and Mat himself, trapped in a large hourglass floating in a stormy sea, to the sight of the ‘Deil’ (Scots for ‘devil’) spinning the decks at a house party, this book has much to offer. The text is a poem, short but skilfully wrought, which retells the Burns’ poem Tam o’ Shanter in a modern context, complete with bikes, mobile phones, and treacherous train lines.
Poison Tides is beautifully choreographed. It has a rhythm and flow that echoes the journeys of its principle characters. In this sequel to Blood Flowers, the story is told in individual chapters from the perspective of the three protagonists; Bear, Felix and Meya, where they give a topographical sense of the places that they inhabit.
Ghost Boys is a graphic novel with a message and a mission. An adaptation of the book of the same name by Parker Rhodes, it is narrated by the ghost of a twelve-year-old Black boy, Jerome, who’s body we see lying dead in the opening pages, shot in the back by a cop. Jerome is one of many ‘Ghost Boys,’ – an innocent victim (he was playing with a toy gun) of white racism, ignorance and negligence. The book teases out Jerome’s story through alternating ‘dead’ and ‘alive’ segments, and connects it to those of America’s racist past.
Control Alter Delete is a bold, thought-provoking addition to the YA science fiction and dystopian genre, set in a world that feels both dazzlingly futuristic and uncomfortably familiar.
This final instalment in the Paper Dragons trilogy offers a satisfying conclusion to Zhi Ging’s quest. With the realm in peril from the greed-fueled ambitions of C’yo B’Ahon Ami, Zhi Ging and her friends must race to stop her from advancing self-serving plans and endangering others. At the same time, Zhi Ging must try to complete her transformation into a full Cyo B’Ahon, succeeding in challenges set by her teachers in Hok Woh.
Adam and Leila are a musically-talented brother and sister who live with their loving parents and grandmother in the Stone City. The charm of the ancient sunlit cobbled streets, jostling marketplace, and chattering parakeets is tempered by the heavy police presence in the public spaces. The police enforce the social stratification of this society, which divides residents into Permitted and Nons.
Ghost is the story of three girls across time, and the supernatural entity that connects them. Aine, a Celt taken as a Roman slave, Sarah, an 18th century healer, and Marie, a present day art school drop-out with a gift for seeing through the veil that couldn’t be taught by any college.
Eleven-year-old Pip and his mother are eagerly awaiting ‘swanfall’, when all the migrating swans come back to the estuary. A keen nature lover, Pip helps Mum care for the birds, and his greatest joy is watching for the arrival of their favourite swans, Silver, Midnight and Moonshadow.
From Carnegie Medal-winning author Katya Balens comes this emotionally rich story of a boy’s life-transforming friendship with an elderly neighbour and his pigeons. Con’s dad has left, leaving him consumed by grief and guilt which he struggles to express except as violent anger. Con’s outbursts hurt and alienate friends and teachers, and worry his hard-working, long-suffering mother, but he seems powerless against their force.
