Alan Gibbons |
Orion |
1842551795 |
September 06 |
|
Hmm. Had this one for over three weeks and I’ve just finished. (Sorry Michael) My wife suggested that this initial sentence would suffice, but on we go. |
Beast
Ally Kennen |
Marion Lloyd Books |
0439951046 |
June 2006 |
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The cover of this one put me off: textured like the skin of a dinosaur, a huge yellow eye looking out of the beast’s face. Oh gawd, I thought, not horror, not Jurassic Park, not monsters, please. |
Breathe
Cliff McNish |
Orion |
1842551108 |
July 2006 |
|
In many ways, this title is pure, traditional ghost story. It sets out to chill and it does. |
Heretic
Sarah Singleton |
Simon and Schuster |
1416904034 |
Feb 2006 |
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‘Look at me, Elizabeth. Do you think I’m wicked? Do you think I’m a devil? In my time everyone was a Catholic, because there was only one Church, but even then I was different from the others because of the shadow land. Don’t let your mind be clouded by what other people have told you. Judge me with your heart.’ |
The People of Sparks
Jeanne DuPrau |
Corgi |
0552552399 |
Feb 2006 |
|
The sequel to The City of Ember, which I haven’t read, this book does a fair job of standing by itself as a single story. |
Jabob’s Ladder
Brian Keaney |
Orchard Books |
1843627213 |
Feb 06 |
|
A teenage boy wakes up in a strange field and remembers nothing other than his name. Not where he came from, nor his parents’ faces: not even the words home or parents. In a little while a man comes to collect him and takes him by boat across a wide river to a grey settlement called Locus. Here he is allocated a uniform and a bed in a dormitory: one of hundreds of dormitories full of teenage boys and girls, all of whom have woken up in the field and come to make their lives in Locus. The days are spent picking rocks off the ground where new dormitories are to be built, the nights are for playing the ‘memory game’, when inmates share any little tiny snatches that return to them from the lives they lived before. Such nuggets are priceless, spiritual food to the inmates. |
Silent to the Bone
E.L. Konigsburg |
Walker Books |
1904442714 |
Oct 2005 |
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It is easy to pinpoint the minute when my friend Branwell began his silence. It was Wednesday, November 25, 2.43 pm, Eastern Standard Time. It was there ‘ or, I guess you could say not there ‘ on the tape of the 911 call. |
The Navigator
Eoin McNamee |
HarperCollins |
0007209762 |
February 2006 |
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The hero of this fantasy for older children/early teens is water-fearing, bullied loner Owen. Living in the shadow of his father’s apparent suicide, Owen keeps himself to himself, skives off school, and spends much free time in his den. As our story starts, on a bitter chill day, he is, as usual, out and about doing his own thing, visiting his own private places, when he encounters a tired, uniformed stranger. Moments later a strange phenomenon occurs: a dark flash in the sky, a moment of blackness across the land, and a feeling of change. The uniformed man seems to be the only other witness. It has begun, he tells the boy, grimly. |
Greater Gains
K.M. Peyton |
David Fickling Books |
1904442714 |
Oct 2005 |
|
[Yet again I must follow the ministerial code and declare an interest. K.M. Peyton very kindly helped me with my writing and with general advice when I was just getting started. I’ve always been in awe of her writing ability.]
‘ and Ellen herself is, within a few pages, to be involved in a prank that leads to her imprisonment and subsequent transportation to Australia. |
Century
Sarah Singleton |
Simon and Schuster |
1904442714 |
Oct 2005 |
|
I did say to Michael that, for obvious reasons, I wouldn’t review fellow Simon and Schuster authors (with the exception of my test review using the excellent Sea of Trolls), but having just finished Century I feel compelled to break the rule. |