Children's Fiction Recent Picks
July 2008
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Some featured items are linked via a book cover to enable you to read more reviews.
Broken glass by Sally Grindley.
"When two brothers find themselves homeless in the big city, things are much harder than they could ever have imagined. With the help of some other children, the brothers learn how to survive on the street. They start to work as glass collectors and soon things don't seem so very bad - until one day Suresh realises that his younger brother Sandeep isn't coping as well as he thought. Suresh has to think very hard about how to save Sandeep, and himself, from terrible fate."
Flightsend by Linda Newbery.
"Flightsend is Charlie's new home, whether she likes it or not. Her mother sees it as an end to all that's gone tragically wrong, a chance for a fresh start. Although Charlie believes that her mother is intent on making disastrous mistakes, she can only offer support - but who will support Charlie, with Sean cut out of their lives? And she's certain that the move to a remote, ramshackle cottage will just make things worse."
Ways to live forever by Sally Nicholls.
"My name is Sam. I am eleven years old. I collect stories and fantastic facts. By the time you read this, I will probably be dead. Sam loves facts. He wants to know about UFOs and horror movies and airships and ghosts and scientists and how it feels to kiss a girl. And because he has leukaemia he wants to know the facts about dying. Sam needs answers to the questions nobody will answer."
Free Lance by Paul Stewart.
"Trouble has a way of tracking Free Lance down. A knight with a lance and a horse called Jed, Free Lance stumbles into all kinds of challenging situations."
The faceless fiend by Howard Whitehouse.
"It's the autumn of 1894 at eccentric Aunt Lucy's house in Yorkshire, England. Fourteen-year-old aviatrix Emmaline Cayley; 'indestructible' co-pilot Robert 'Rubberbones' Burns; and Princess Purnah of Chiligrit, recent escapee from St. Grimelda's School for the Young Ladies, are merrily jumping off the roof at the request of their new tutor, the nutty American inventor Professor Bellbuckle. But trouble is on the horizon for this madcap crew: St. Grimelda's wants Purnah back, the government wants her to return to the school and, worst of all, a terrifying master criminal known as the Faceless Fiend wants to kidnap her."
Then by Morris Gleitzman.
"I had a plan for me and Zelda ... pretend to be someone else, find new parents, be safe forever. Then the Nazis came..."
Stefania's dancing slippers by Jennifer Beck.
"Stefania is allowed to take one thing that is most precious to her to take with her. Her choice helps bring her comfort through the years of hardship, separation, and a journey of thousands of miles. Set in the backgrounds of war, this is a story of courage and love."
Mahtab's story by Libby Gleeson.
"Mahtab was empty. She felt hungry... for water, for her father, for her grandmother, her aunts and uncles, the trees in the back yard, the cabinet on the wall, the silver and glass objects so lovingly collected, for her mountains, the jagged peaks that cut the sky. Her father was dead. She felt sure of it. She was just a speck of dirt on the floor, drifting through the gap between boards, falling to the ground. Mahtab and her family are forced to leave their home in Heart and journey secretly through the rocky mountains to Parkistan and them faraway Austrailia. Months go by, months of waiting, months of dread. Will they ever be reunited with their father, will they ever find a home?"
Wanted! The hundred-mile-an-hour dog by Jeremy Strong.
"Here comes Streaker, the fastest dog in the world! Streaker is in trouble again. She's stealing food and Trevor, her owner, has no idea why. But the police are on her trail and this time they've been joined by a ruthless dogcatcher. Wanted posters are going up all around the town - how long can Streaker stay out of the dog pound?"
Chicken feathers by Joy Cowley.
"Josh is a worrier - and for a good reason. A brother or sister is about to be born, but his mother is in hospital with something called 'complications'. As if that's not bad enough, Grandma has arrived to run the household while Josh's dad is busy with their chicken farm. And then there's Semolina, Josh's cantankerous but extraordinary pet hen. In return for prawn crackers and the odd beer she'll tell Josh all the animal gossip. But no one else believes Semolina can talk, and Josh's warning about a fox on the loose in the chicken house in laughed at - until it is too late."
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