Theme:

Fairy tales, myths and legends

Cover Reading Matters Reading Guide

Reading Matters reading guide

Published in September 2023, 'Reading Matters' sees the return of the 'best of the year' format to our annual reading guide. 

Book Cover - Impossible Creatures

Impossible Creatures

Mal is a young girl who lives on the Archipelago; she’s fiercely determined and loves nothing more than using her flying coat to soar high into the skies. Mal’s surroundings initially seem fairly ordinary until we find out that this magical land is home to many fantastical creatures, and something is happening that threatens their very existence …

Book Cover - Kòku Àkànbi and the Heart of Midnight

Kòku Àkànbi and the Heart of Midnight

Maria Motúnráyo Adébísi’s debut novel is the first in a new and exhilarating fantasy series based on West African Mythology. When thirteen-year-old orphaned protagonist, Koku, accidentally unleashes an evil demon spirit during a school trip to the British Museum, his uncle sends him away for the summer. Tired of feeling unwanted, frustratingly misunderstood and of fighting his daily battle with sickle cell anaemia, Koku arrives to the home he doesn’t remember, Olori, feeling powerless.

Book Cover - Girl, Goddess, Queen

Girl, Goddess, Queen

An unflinching feminist retelling of the Hades and Persephone myth, this is a complex story of love and duty, that challenges its readers. When Persephone runs away to the Underworld to escape an arranged marriage, the infamous ruler Hades is forced to give her refuge. Soon, a tentative friendship forms between them — one that ignites a chain of events that will alter the world entirely.

Book Cover - The Slug and the Snail

The Slug and the Snail

A pair of slug brothers travel the roads until their peace is interrupted by a crow who asks where their home is. Embarrassed, the younger slug makes himself a home he can carry on his back and starts to call himself a snail. The brothers grow apart until they meet with the crow once more and begin to realise how alike they are after all.

Book Cover - This Wicked Fate

This Wicked Fate

This Wicked Fate is the second and final book in Kalynn Bayron’s mesmerising duology that is rooted in Greek mythology. This is the ideal book for teenagers that have graduated from Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series and are looking for another series based on ancient history to sink their teeth into.

Book Cover - Cinder & Ella

Cinder & Ella

Cinder, despite her difficult homelife with her stepmother and brothers, dreams of Princess Ella, while Ella’s family seek to find her a husband and prince. Does Ella want a prince? Will Cinder and Ella have the chance to meet and fall in love? A beautiful story accompanied by eye-catching illustrations that delivers a joyous celebration of the fairytale Cinderella and of LGBTQ+ love and lives

Book Cover - Fablehouse

Fablehouse

Hidden in the hills on the outskirts of the nearby village, Selworthy, sat Fablehouse. This distance from others gave the fantastical fae an opportunity to invade, a space to amplify the magical tone. However, the setting also represents the seclusion of these young children who have been forced away from the town due to their race.

Book Cover - An Anthology of Aesop's Fables: Unwitting Wisdom

An Anthology of Aesop's Fables: Unwitting Wisdom

Have you heard of the wolf who was too clever for his own good? The fox who tried to mask his disappointment with insults? Or the tortoise who ignored expert advice? This exquisitely presented collection is the perfect way to introduce children to Aesop’s timeless tales. Indeed, there is much for all of us learn from these twelve deceptively simple fables about animals and their very human vices.

Book Cover - Gwen and Art Are Not in Love

Gwen and Art Are Not in Love

Primarily set in Camelot, England this story brings together the mystical and the modern in its tackling of themes such as familial expectations, public perception, royal legacy, and queer identity.