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The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud
The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud
ACHUKA Book of the Day 21 Apr 2021 Times Children’s Book of the Week 17 Apr 2021 Waterstones Amazon Bookshop “Stroud does not compromise. Scarlett is unpleasant, hard to love; Albert is irritating, weak. Yet through skill and good writing we begin to love and understand this odd couple, mini-me John Waynes, and by the […]
Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock
Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock
ACHUKA Book of the Day 19 Apr 2021 Times Children’s Book of the Week 3 Apr 2021 Waterstones Amazon Bookshop “It’s cut like a gemstone. Turn the pages, and facets gleam.” Hiliary McKay “Each narrative underscores the suffocating social expectations unique to their small rural communities, challenging the stereotype that nothing ever happens in them. […]
The Supreme Lie by Geraldine McCaughrean
The Supreme Lie by Geraldine McCaughrean
ACHUKA Book of the Day 13 Apr 2021 Waterstones Amazon Bookshop “Have you ever wondered during the last year: Are the Government telling us everything? Are the papers trying to scare us? Are they making things up? They’re probably not. But  there have been times when statesmen told lies, when newspapers invented the facts, when […]
Drawn Across Borders: True Stories of Migration by George Butler
Drawn Across Borders: True Stories of Migration by George Butler
ACHUKA Book of the Day 12 Apr 2021 Waterstones Amazon Bookshop “George’s work gets to the essence of war and the experiences of the human beings caught up in it.” Jeremy Bowen “The Paul Nash of our era.” Michael Morpurgo “While photography is good in what it can reveal; drawing has that ability to have […]
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland
Waterstones Amazon Bookshop The Hollow sisters – Vivi, Grey and Iris – are as seductively glamorous as they are mysterious. They have black eyes and hair as white as milk. They share the same birthday, spaced exactly two years apart. The Hollow sisters don’t have friends – they don’t need them. They move through the corridors […]
Last Night At The Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Last Night At The Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Waterstones Amazon Bookshop “This standout work of historical fiction combines meticulous research with tender romance to create a riveting bildungsroman. San Francisco, “with its steep stairways and sudden glimpses of the bay between tall, narrow buildings,” is almost a character itself. Interspersed flashbacks that detail the personal histories of Lily’s parents and Aunt Judy and […]
Destination Anywhere by Sara Barnard ill. Christiane Furtges
Destination Anywhere by Sara Barnard ill. Christiane Furtges
Waterstones Amazon Bookshop After five years at secondary school spent without any friends, Peyton King starts sixth form college determined that things will be different. Whatever happens, she will make friends at any cost. When she finds the friends she’s always dreamed of, including an actual boyfriend, she’s happier than she’s ever been. But when […]
Dark Lullaby by Polly Ho-Yen
Dark Lullaby by Polly Ho-Yen
Waterstones Amazon Bookshop The world is suffering an infertility crisis, the last natural birth was over twenty years ago and now the only way to conceive is through a painful fertility treatment. Any children born are strictly monitored, and if you are deemed an unfit parent then your child is extracted. After witnessing so many […]
Pity Part by Kathleen Lane
Pity Part by Kathleen Lane
Waterstones Amazon Bookshop An uproarious grab bag of short fiction, mining and exaggerating the social anxieties that plague us all and twisting them into funny, deeply resonant, and ultimately reassuring psychological thrills. There’s a story about a mood ring that tells the absolute truth. One about social media followers who literally follow you around. And one […]
Bone Music by David Almond
Bone Music by David Almond
ACHUKA Book of the Day 2 Apr 2021 Times Children’s Book of the Week 27 Mar 2021 Waterstones Amazon Bookshop The wonderful cover illustration is by David Litchfield. Sylvia, brave-hearted and rebellious, moves out of Newcastle into wild, rural Northumberland. She feels alien in this huge, silent, seemingly empty landscape. Then she meets Gabriel, a […]
Mina and the Undead by Amy McCaw
Mina and the Undead by Amy McCaw
Waterstones Amazon Bookshop 17-year-old Mina, from England, arrives in New Orleans to visit her estranged sister, Libby. After growing up in the town that inspired Dracula, Mina loves nothing more than a creepy horror movie. She can’t wait to explore the city’s darkest secrets – vampire tours, seedy bars, spooky cemeteries, disturbing local myths… And […]
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
ACHUKA Book of the Day 31 Mar 2021 Waterstones Amazon Bookshop “The plot weaves, ducks and dives, but always convincingly and always a mixture of the beliefs and customs of the Ojibwe and of white American culture.” BfK 5 STAR review “A suspenseful tale filled with Ojibwe knowledge, hockey, and the politics of status.” KIRKUS […]
Guard your Heart by Sue Divin
Guard your Heart by Sue Divin
Waterstones Amazon Bookshop “Profoundly powerful, subtle and effective, this superb debut evokes the deep-rooted mistrust, anger and antagonism lingering in the wake of the Troubles, as well as a new, tentative flowering of hope and love.” GUARDIAN Derry. Summer 2016. Aidan and Iona, now eighteen, were both born on the day of the Northern Ireland […]
The Girl Who by Andreina Cordani
The Girl Who by Andreina Cordani
Waterstones Amazon Bookshop Leah is the perfect survivor. She was seven years old when she saw her mother and sister killed by a troubled gang member. Her case hit the headlines and her bravery made her a national sweetheart: strong, courageous and forgiving. But Leah is hiding a secret about their deaths. And now, ten years […]
Smashed by Andy Robb
Smashed by Andy Robb
Waterstones Amazon Bookshop “This is a bleak and moving book but with an injection of hope at the end: help is there if only you look to your friends.” BfK 5 STAR review When his dad moves out, Jamie tries to fill his shoes feeling a need to become head of the household. With his […]
We Played With Fire by Catherine Barter
We Played With Fire by Catherine Barter
Waterstones Amazon Bookshop “A truly exciting work of historical fiction” BfK 5 STAR review “Barter’s second novel is atmospheric, genuinely unsettling and laced with acute political and feminist observation.” GUARDIAN Maggie has witnessed impossible things. But no one believes her, and now her family has taken her away to spend the winter upstate in a […]
Tsunami Girl by Julian Sedgwick ill. Chie Kutsuwada
Tsunami Girl by Julian Sedgwick ill. Chie Kutsuwada
ACHUKA Book of the Day 16 Mar 2021 Waterstones Amazon Bookshop Fifteen-year-old Yuki is struggling at school with her confidence, and goes to Japan to stay with her grandfather, a well-known manga artist with whom she is very close. But during her visit, the 2011 East Coast Earthquake and Tsunami take place and her beloved […]
Shades Of Scarlet by Anne Fine
Shades Of Scarlet by Anne Fine
ACHUKA Book of the Day 11 Mar 2021 Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week 7 Mar 2021 Waterstones Amazon Bookshop ‘After a lifetime of admiration as an editor, it is an especial thrill for me and David Fickling Books to be publishing the wonderful Anne Fine. She is one of our wisest, funniest, most […]
Yolk by Mary H. K. Choi
Yolk by Mary H. K. Choi
ACHUKA Book of the Day 9 Mar 2021 Waterstones Amazon Bookshop “an appreciably personal-feeling narrative about cultural identity, mental and physical health, and siblinghood’s complications” Publishers Weekly “An absorbing coming-of-age story told with great empathy and unvarnished honesty, Yolk is one of those precious books that makes you feel bereft as soon as you turn […]
The Lake by Natasha Preston
The Lake by Natasha Preston
Waterstones Amazon Bookshop “An eerie thriller reminiscent of summer horror movies that will keep readers on edge.” KIRKUS Esme and Kayla were once campers at Camp Pine Lake. They’re excited to be back this year as CITs (counselors in training). Esme loves the little girls in her cabin and thinks it’s funny how scared they […]
The Hill by Ali Bryan
The Hill by Ali Bryan
Waterstones Amazon Bookshop “Hits all the right apocalyptic notes. A great pick for forward-thinking feminist teens.” BOOKLIST “Lyrical writing and deep worldbuilding make for an immersive reading experience.”KIRKUS REVIEWS In the near future, a group of girls survive by their own wits and follow the laws of the Manual on the Hill, a reclaimed garbage […]
Future Girl by Asphyxia
Future Girl by Asphyxia
Waterstones Amazon Bookshop “The range of emotions Piper feels in relation to her deafness is huge, and all these emotions are convincingly displayed. Two of the other characters in the book are also disabled. One is deaf and the other is a wheelchair user. They both exert a truly positive influence on Piper’s life. She […]
One In A Hundred Thousand by Linni Ingemundsen
One In A Hundred Thousand by Linni Ingemundsen
ACHUKA Book of the Day 3 Mar 2021 Waterstones Amazon Bookshop The author is well-travelled but originally from Norway. She writes a very clean prose with occasional Americanisms such as ‘gotten’. Fifteen year old Sander wishes he was like everyone else. But he has Silver-Russell syndrome, a condition that affects one in a hundred thousand. […]
The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe
The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe
ACHUKA Book of the Day 25 Feb 2021 Waterstones Amazon Bookshop “A captivating, explosive, and satisfyingly queer thriller.” KIRKUS Meet Nora. Also known as Rebecca, Samantha, Haley, Katie and Ashley – the girls she’s been. Soon to be a Netflix film starring Stranger Things‘ Millie Bobby Brown, this must-read psychological thriller, perfect for fans of […]
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