Book recommendations covers for Oct 2024
Book Reviews

Monthly Book Recommendations: October 2024

Welcome to our monthly book recommendations post for October! There are still a few spooky titles in our list from last month, but we were also looking forward to non-fiction November.

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Book cover for review shows a young boy in a shabby black suit standing amongst a crowd of people against a light blue background. The people are silhouetted in blue, green, and white, with no facial details, causing the boy to stand out. Above is the title 'The Boy in the Suit' in large letters.
Book Reviews

The Boy in the Suit | Book Review

By James Fox (Scholastic, 2024)

I pulled again on Morag’s wrist, so hard I felt my veins popping out of my forehead. Why couldn’t they just let her go? I wished Morag and I had the power to turn invisible. I wanted us to run away and forget all about this stupid funeral.

That’s when the camera flashed. Bright white, right in our faces. “Oh dear,” a man’s voice sneered. It was the newspaper photographer from earlier. “What’s going on here, then?”

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Book recommendations covers for Sep 2024
Book Reviews

Monthly Book Recommendations: September 2024

Welcome to our monthly book recommendations post for September! Last month we read some very spooky books, some not-so-spooky books, and some that aren’t really spooky at all. And we enjoyed each and every one of them!

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Book cover for review shows a dark-haired girl with her hood up and wearing a dark green cloak riding a pale horse. Behind her sits another young girl with long blond curls and a red cape flowing behind them. She's looking back over her shoulder, with her arms clasped around the girl in front. The background is green with floating leaves, the title 'Not for the Faint of Heart' written above them in gold.
Book Reviews

Not for the Faint of Heart | Young Adult Book Review

By Lex Croucher (Bloomsbury, 2024)

‘It wasn’t meant to be violent,’ Mariel said reluctantly.
‘What?’
‘The kidnapping,’ Mariel snapped. ‘I may have been overzealous with my instructions. It was just meant to be…fast.’
‘Ah, yes. A nice clean abduction, with proper attention paid to the procedures.’
‘Stop being so dramatic. You’re just on loan.’
‘You shouldn’t kidnap innocent people, Captain,’ Clem said sharply. ‘People might get the wrong idea about you and your merry mates.’

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Book cover for review shows a stream flowing through a green forest, the trees dappled with gold. Along the bank three children walk, their aims outstretched for balance. In the middle, over the stream between the trees on either bank, the title 'The Worlds We Leave Behind' is picked out in gold.
Book Reviews

The Worlds We Leave Behind | Book Review

Written by A. F. Harrold and illustrated by Levi Pinfold (pub. Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2024)

And only now did he really wonder at the oddness of everything.
Only now?
This woman who spoke so strangely.
This cottage in a clearing that couldn’t possibly fit in the woods he knew.
The rain that was drumming on the windows from heavy dark clouds that hadn’t been there twenty minutes earlier.
Oddness held the door open for fear to step in.
‘I think I’d best get going,’ he said.

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Book cover for review shows a girl standing in a room as the wall in front of her explodes into pixelated darkness, with the title 'The Last Life of Lori Mills' in multicoloured print in the centre.
Book Reviews

The Last Life of Lori Mills | Book Review

By Max Boucherat (pub. HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2024)

I am sure, I am certain, I am one million per cent certain: the last time I played, that door wasn’t there. I would have noticed it. ANY player would notice if their bedroom door randomly appeared in Voxminer.

And it IS my bedroom door.

Not RoaryCat11’s bedroom door from her castle in Kittentopia, but a perfect copy of my actual door in actual real life.

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Nine Night Mystery book cover for review
Book Reviews

The Nine Night Mystery | Book Review

By Sharna Jackson (pub. Puffin Books, 2024)

I’m at our neighbour Rachel’s house in her room. I just dropped a paintbrush she asked me for on her floor, and she didn’t do or say anything when it rolled under the bed.

Not because she’s asleep or lazy.

But because she’s dead.

Rachel Kohl. Dead in her bed.

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Bringing Back Kay-Kay / The Tree That Sang to Me book covers for double review
Book Reviews

Bringing Back Kay-Kay / The Tree That Sang to Me | Double Review

This month’s review brings together two books that have a similar theme: both are from the perspective of a younger sibling dealing with an older sibling who is missing from their life, though the circumstances around it, and how they deal with it, are approached very differently.

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Book recommendations covers for April 2024
Book Reviews

Monthly Book Recommendations: April 2024

Welcome to our second monthly book recommendations post! April was a busy month for us and books, with so many different topics and stories passing through our hands. Here’s what we read during April 2024!

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