For as long as she can remember, Utterly has felt drawn to the sea. As a baby, she was found along the shores of the Autumn Isles by Andrewe Dark, her caretaker and the Watcher of Wildsea. Strange things happen there. At night, Utterly swears that she can hear the waves calling out her name. However no one seems to believe her when she talks about it. Or perhaps they simply don’t want to.
Peadar O’Guilin possesses that rare literary talent, a gift for creating characters and images so visceral, so real, that they remain with you years later. I reviewed The Inferior for Inis over a decade ago – and I’m still describing it and recommending it to anyone interested in genre bending sci-fi.
A gloriously on-point book about judging people for imagined differences before you even meet them.
New neighbours have moved into the tower block. The bunnies are super excited, but what will the other residents think? As the residents descend the stairs, gathering old neighbours with them, they also descend into imagined horrors, fears, rumours, Chinese whispers and (cough) fake news. Not a phrase I thought I would be using in a picturebook review.
Daphne Blakeway is accosted at the train station on her first day at ‘St Rita’s School for Spirited Girls’ and asked to return a book to the school library. Following a bank robbery in town and a break in at the school, Daphne realises this book is hot property and someone will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. With the help of schoolgirl librarian Emily Lime and scruffy George (St Rita’s sole male pupil) Daphne sets about tracking down the culprit.
Would you like to meet such famous people from history as George Washington, Frida Kahlo and William Wallace? Of course, the main obstacle is the fact that they are all dead. However, that’s a mere formality in this entertaining history comic where notable figures from the past rise from the grave to be interviewed by a cheery presenter.
Kept a prisoner by her brutal aunt and uncle, a young orphan named Clementine dreams of escaping the Great Black City to seek out a magic place that she only knows of from her dreams.
The first thing to say about The Magic Place is that it is an absolutely gorgeous looking book. From the front cover to the author’s own illustrations, Chris Wormell has fashioned an absolute visual delight, with each and every page a thing of beauty.
In the second volume of Philip Pullman’s Book of Dust trilogy – the follow-up to the multi-award winning His Dark Materials – Lyra is now a young woman. Her relationship with her daemon, Pantalaimon, has deteriorated; partly due to the effects of their separation in His Dark Materials, but now exacerbated by Pan’s ire at her perceived loss of imagination and her increasing reverence with the intellectual ‘reasonists’ of the day.
A rip-roaring story overflowing with heart, Nic Stone’s debut middle-grade novel uses a traditional road trip narrative as a vehicle to explore complicated ideas about race and colourism in America.
The story begins when William (a.k.a Scoob) embarks on an intergenerational adventure during Spring Break with his G’ma in her newly acquired R.V. Scoob’s initial relief at escaping his dad’s punishment after an incident at school sours over time as his G’ma begins to act strangely and dodges his questions about where they’re going and the purpose of the trip.
When Scarlet’s parents separate, all she gets is a few days’ notice and a pretty scarlet notebook. The notebook is a gift in which Scarlet can write about her ‘brand- new life’, but she vows to write only the harsh truth about her selfish mother and useless father. Of course, the truth is never quite so simple.
‘Stories are about transformation, about starting as one thing and ending as another. And in the middle, when you don’t know what’s going to happen, all you have is hope.’
