ACHUKAblog
Times Children’s Book of the Week, July 27 2018
“Burgess builds this world with relish and Bea is a girl to root for. There’s a thrilling final scene in which Bea must use all her powers — and trust a friend — to get her family back. Burgess is a master storyteller and this series could fly and fly.” Alex O’Connell
“Juicy, clever and beguiling. An exceptional debut novel, deftly crafted and written with style. It is the perfect book to read at the beach. But be warned: you will get a sunburn, because you won’t want to put it down.”
— Cecily von Ziegesar, author of the Gossip Girl novels
Highly Recommended – see our 5 to of 5 ACHUKAchicks review
“Clever and sophisticated, layered with fondness and emotional truth, this runaway French bestseller, in Sam Taylor’s elegant translation, is a literary tour de force.”
Imogen Russell Williams, GUARDIAN REVIEW
Five friends – the beautiful elite at their exclusive prep school – reunite a year after graduation. After a night out, they narrowly avoid a collision with a car on a deserted road. Back at the mansion belonging to one of the girls, a storm rages and a mysterious man knocks on the door, announcing something world-shattering. The friends must make a choice: one of them will live, and the rest will die.
“A book of heady and delectable strangeness.” Imogen Russell Williams, GUARDIAN REVIEW
“This moving romance, with its well-drawn working-class heroine, its examination of power and politics, and its clarion call to make courageous choices, represents all that’s best in British YA.”
Imogen Russell Williams, GUARDIAN REVIEW
Aaron Rowe walks in his sleep. He has dreams he can’t explain, and memories he can’t recover. Death doesn’t scare him – his new job with a funeral director may even be his salvation. But if he doesn’t discover the truth about his hidden past soon, he may fall asleep one night and never wake up.
“I have never read a book more gripping, nor more triumphantly alive…” John Marsden
Times Children’s Book of the Week 26.05.2108
“Likely to be the best children’s book you will read this year.” Alex O’Connell, The Times
When a man returns to his childhood home and visits the derelict tree house in which his father once chose to live, he recalls the past unravelling of his family, the unspoken strangeness of their lives, and the impact on his own adult life. Beautiful, sparse and insightful storytelling. Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant or dyslexic readers aged 14+
About the illustrator: Emma Shoard
Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week 10.06.2018
“In this dark and twisted thriller, nothing is what it seems; but Pollock’s greatest triumph is the portrait of a psyche at war with itself.” Guardian Review
“A gripping and gloriously treacherous thriller without guide ropes or safety nets. Leave all certainties by the door.” Frances Hardinge
David Almond says of this book, which chronicles a day in a boy’s life, based on the author’s own childhood memories: ‘I guess it embodies my constant astonishment at being alive in this beautiful, weird, extraordinary world.’
“A furious dystopian shoulder-shake” Guardian Review
After withdrawing from the EU, Britain is governed by a far-right nationalist party. Its flagship policy is the British Born edict, which allows only those born in Britain to live here. Everyone else is an “illegal”, subject to immediate arrest and deportation. But an election is coming soon, and all the polls point to a big loss for the ruling party.