Encounters by Jason Wallace

Encounters by Jason Wallace (Andersen) is a story of layers and discovery. Each chapter covers the same time period told from the point of view of different characters. Their stories overlap and as a reader you learn more details as you see events from different perspectives. It raises the question of reliable witnesses and trustworthy storytellers...

Like Other Girls by Claire Hennessy

'Here's what Lauren knows: she's not like other girls. She also knows it's problematic to say that - what's wrong with girls? She's even fancied some in the past. But if you were stuck in St Agnes, her posh all-girls school, you'd feel like that too. Here everyone's expected to be Perfect Young Ladies, it's even a song...

Who Runs the World?

I love books for the way they can drop a question into your mind, light a spark and leave you to examine it. Who Runs the World? by Virginia Bergin (Macmillan) is a book that does just that. It's a book that makes you think and, above all, question. What would it be like? What would I do? What...

Flight of a Starling

You know when a book looks into your soul and says 'I know you'? Flight of a Starling by Lisa Heathfield (Electric Monkey) got me like that. 'Rita and Lo, sisters and best friends, have spent their lives on the wing - flying through the air in their trapeze act, never staying in one place for...

I Have No Secrets

'Jemma knows who did the murder. She knows because he told her. And she can't tell anyone. Fourteen-year-old Jemma has severe cerebral palsy. Unable to communicate or move, she relies on her family and carer for everything. She has a sharp brain and inquisitive nature, and knows all sorts of things about everyone. But when she is...

Imaginative play with the owl and the pussycat

I love picture books that inspire children’s imagination. I love it when a book echoes children’s play and suggests ways for them to explore a story and create their own adventures. The Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat by Coral Rumble and Charlotte Cooke (WackyBee Books) is a delicious re-imagining of the well-known rhyme...

My London: Colour, Draw, Explore

My London: Colour, Draw, Explore by Majel van der Meulen is a fabulously fun and funky colouring book/activity book/finding out book, perfect for taking along on a trip to London. 'Follow the river Thames on a unique trip through London. From Big Ben to Tower Bridge, explore all the famous landmarks and spot things you've never...

Girlhood by Cat Clarke

I loved this book for it's complicated friendships, ominous relationships and the sense of being pulled further in to a web. It was compulsive reading and I sat up until the early hours of the morning unable to put it down. It's exactly the kind of book to disappear into on a gloomy, rainy day....

Build and discover with the Natural History Museum

Build A... Butterfly and Build A... T-rex are the first books in a new range from Frances Lincoln Children's Books and the Natural History Museum.  These beautiful and sturdy non-fiction activity books invite you to uncover the inner workings of the world's most beautiful insect and ferocious dinosaur. Each spread contains simple facts and step by step instructions...

Countless by Karen Gregory

I inhaled this book. I was emotionally involved from the very start and couldn't bear to put it down.  'When Hedda discovers she is pregnant, she doesn't believe she could ever look after a baby. The numbers just don't add up. She is young, and still in the grip of an eating disorder that controls...