Aideen Cleary has huge problems she can’t fix. Her mam is drinking again, her best friend is ditching her and her grades are
a mess. Then she stumbles upon uptight perfectionist Meadbh Kowalska having a meltdown in the PE changing rooms about her jam-packed schedule and campaign for class president. Aideen realises this is a problem she can fix ... by pushing Meadbh down the stairs.
Many children’s books depict heroes, and one might then think about superheroes, but not in the case of Papa Penguin. This book focuses on quotidian heroism: ‘an ordinary daddy penguin’. The author evokes an image of parenthood, a warm family metaphor, through the titular Papa Penguin. The style and content of the imagery, with its smooth and delicate drawing, create a warm and safe atmosphere. The text and imagery flow well into one another: we see the drawings interact with the story, containing many clues and hints about the content to come.
This is a wonderful book – haunting and sad yet hopeful. It is the story of Boy, who lives alone in a caravan at the edge of the woods. His mother is no longer living with him and his father is in prison. Bad Men (as they are referred to within the story) come visiting and Boy learns to evade them and tell them what they need to know.
Zaynab is a twelve-year-old girl from Somaliland travelling with her father to the UK for six months. She is mourning her dead mother and barely speaking to her father. At her new school in Devon, Zaynab becomes friends with Lucas. Together they must work to convince their local community to help them take a stand against the climate-change emergency and a possibly corrupt scheme that threatens her home and people.
Following a storm at sea, a shipwrecked boy forms an unlikely friendship with a creature named Hom – the last surviving member of his kind, who inhabits an otherwise deserted island. Their days are filled with carefree play and shared learning ... until a rescue ship lands ashore. Will the draw of home be strong enough for the boy to abandon his new life and best friend?
The Short Knife by Elen Caldecott follows the misfortune of Mai, her sister Haf and their father after their home is destroyed by Saxon warriors. Mai and Haf, having grown up in isolation on their farm, must learn to live in a world created and ruled by men, and dominated by a power struggle between the Saxons and the native British peoples.
After having her heart broken by her first serious girlfriend, Saoirse has taken a vow not to get seriously involved with anyone. Enter Ruby, the prettiest girl she has ever met, who’s spending the summer with her cousin Oliver – the boy Saoirse loves to hate. Ruby challenges Saoirse to have a summer romance based on all the best bits from romantic comedies, with none of the serious stuff. It’s the summer after finishing school, and Saoirse plans to head off to Oxford in the autumn. She has nothing to lose by having a bit of fun with Ruby – or does she?
Mermaid School is a fun mix of classic school story and under-the-sea adventure, featuring a heroine with both a pink scaly tail and a school jumper. Marnie Blue is starting at mermaid school where there are friendships to navigate and seahorses in the stables to ride. She must also overcome the overhanging shadow of her aunt’s legacy. Aunt Christabel is now a famous singer, but she broke all the rules when she was at school and the teachers have not forgotten.
‘In the beginning, it was hard for me to sleep at Dad’s new apartment. I had only lived in one place before. Now it was: Different room. Different bed. Different sounds. No Mom.’
‘In this game of life, your family is your court, and the basketball is your heart.’ There are two things seventh grader Josh Bell loves most in this world, and that’s playing basketball and his family. Everything is going well for him until his twin brother starts to spend less time with him and more time with a cute new girl. At the same time, Josh is beginning to suspect that his father, a former basketball star and ‘da man’ of the family, might not be as invincible as he seems.
