The Football Trials: All Out Attack & Game Changer John Hickman

The Football Trials: All Out Attack & Game Changer - 
John Hickman

Book three & four in the Football Trials series, these books see Jackson face two more challenges.

In Game Changer, his father turns up out of the blue and Jackson has to decide what he will do.  Does he want to help him and is all as it seems?

In All Out Attack, Jackson is at the top of his game when his grandfather falls ill and is taken into hospital.  Will he be ok?

O's opinion.
 I loved that the plot was easy to follow and not complicated as it helped me understand the characters more. I also liked how Jackson was very determined to continue and succeed in his footballing career.
It wasn't just the plot that I loved: I really liked Lauren as she was there for Jackson when he needed her most and she never gave up on him. She is my favourite character.
Even though we started on book three, I already feel like I know Jackson and his family. A great read.

K's opinion.
This is a great market to capture: designed for the 12+ age range but catering for those with a reading age of 9+, the books don't patronise their readers.  The issues are relevant to the age-group, the stories are portrayed in a way that will appeal and they tackle some tricky issues well (illness of a grandparent, the return of a parent, decisions about the future).  The concise style will also appeal to children as I often find that reluctant readers are put off by weightier tomes.  The yellow tint and careful font choice are also thoughtful touches.  There is a glossary at the back and a bonus section with questions to aid comprehension.  
All in all, a great choice for those reluctant readers in the classroom.

The House With Chicken Legs

The House With Chicken Legs - Sophie Anderson

Marinka's grandmother is a Yaga which means she guides the dead towards The Gate and helps them on towards the stars.  So that humans don't grow suspicious, Marinka and her grandmother are forced to move around a lot, albeit in a most unusually way: when it's time to move on, their house grows a set of chicken legs and walks (or runs) them to their new destination!  It is the house that is in charge of this and Marinka and her grandmother often wake up to discover a new landscape outside their windows.  Whilst this sounds exciting, Marinka is incredibly lonely; she longs to stay in one place long enough to make friends and go to school and to live a 'normal' childhood.  However, she is destined to become the next Yaga when her grandmother passes through The Gate. 

What will happen if she doesn't want to follow the path set out for her?  How will she cope with life without her grandmother?  Will the house survive if nobody is there to guide the dying through The gate?

O's opinion:
I loved Marinka and the way she wants to be free of her destiny. The way she was independent from the house and her grandmother when she wanted to be and how she had lots of adventures when she felt like it, made me want to be like her. I loved watching her on her adventures and how she dealt with things. Marinka makes me want to walk out of the door and have an adventure like hers. This book is such a good read, I would recommend it to anybody who wants an adventure.

K's opinion:
This is such an unusual idea for a book and is tackled so cleverly.  Told almost like a traditional tale, the story weaves its way around you and into your heart before you even realise it!  Whilst Marinka is undoubtedly the main character (and a feisty, determined one at that), the house deserves mention as a character in its own right.  Its human qualities and the way it communicates it feelings and desires is simply magical and you cannot help but warm to it as if it were human.  It may actually steal the show!

This is a story of growing-up and of self-discovery.  Marinka learns a lot about herself on her journey through this book (both in terms of who she wants to be as well as who she doesn't want to be); however, it's also a story of loss and acceptance - accepting what we have and appreciating the things we have whilst they are still there for us to enjoy them.

Beautifully written (and illustrated), this is a book that will warm your heart and will leave the characters (both human and non-human) with you long after you've read the final page.

The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day - Christopher Edge

The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day - Christopher Edge

Maisie already has her GCSEs, A-levels and is studying for a degree in mathematics and physics.  Today is her birthday ... her 10th birthday and all she wants is the equipment to build a nuclear reactor in her garage!  The book tells us about Maisie's day seen from two alternate realities: one in which she wakes to find her parents downstairs and her dad making banana pancakes; the other where she wakes to find herself alone with a never-ending darkness outside her house which is slowly creeping her way...

O's opinion:
At the start I found the book a bit confusing but I found it on the whole quite an enjoyable read as I began to understand the concepts more. I loved the way Maisie helps her sister and the relationship they form. This book made me feel all the emotions and more; with all of the fright, terror and excitement, I couldn't stop crying and laughing! This is a truly amazing book and should be read all over the country.

K's opinion:
I loved so much about this book I'm not certain where to begin! 

Maisie is a science geek (think of a young, female Big Bang Theory character!  There's even mention of Steven Hawking!) who isn't into 'normal girly things' - I love that! However, I also like the fact that she isn't always as strong as she first appears: in both realities, she has fears and doubts and that makes her human and will help readers relate to her.  

I love the idea of the different realities being told in alternate chapters.  I frequently found myself at the end of a chapter with a hundred unanswered questions and desperate to know what was going to happen next, only to find that the next chapter took you to the other reality!  It kept me up reading for more than one evening!

I'm really pleased that Christopher is making science cool and directed towards girls as well as boys.  I have to admit that I'm no scientist and the concepts blew my mind a little!  However, he weaves this into the plot perfectly and in a way that helps children to understand some complicated ideas and theories.

I love the sense of family that runs through the book, especially the relationship between Maisie and her sister.  It was this relationship that brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion!  With an emotional and completely unpredictable ending, it kept my gripped until the very last page (although I've yet to work out the binary message on the last page!)

All in all, this is a great book and I guarantee that it will fly out the door when it goes into my classroom on Monday morning - there have already been mutterings about it whilst I was reading it!

Well done, Christopher Edge! (or should I say 
01010111  01100101  01101100  01101100  00100000  01100100  01101111  01101110? - I had to use a binary translator to get this!)

The Colour of the Sun - David Almond

The Colour of the Sun - David Almond.

“The day is long, the world is wide, you're young and free.”

"Walk on in peace, son."

Set in Felling, in Tyneside, this is the story of Davie.  His dad has just died and he wakes up on this hot, sunny summer's day and is sent out for a wander by his mam.  Meeting his friend, Gosh, he discovers that Jimmy Killen has been killed and he thinks he knows who killed him; however, instead of hanging around to find out what happens, he wanders off away from the town, away from the trouble and towards some answers.

O's opinion.

This is basically a book about how Davie finds Jimmy dead and goes for a walk but it is told so superbly that it makes you feel like you are walking alongside him and you can see everything he sees and smell everything he smells. I found it such an interesting read and I would read it again and again.

The first chapter was my favourite because it takes Davie on a tour of his past, visiting times when he loved to play outdoors and times when he loved to colour in. I loved this part of the book because it helped me find the real Davie before the book started so I felt like I knew who I was following on his walk. A truly amazing read, this book should be on wish-lists in every house all over the country.

K's opinion.

This is a beautifully written book... 

I could leave my part of the review there and would feel that I’d told you everything you need to know!  However, I won't ...

Although the main event in the story is the murder of a boy, the book has a calmness to it. To me, the main event is Davie's wandering up the  hills above Felling and not the murder.  

The story is set over just one day. It begins when Davie gets up and ends as the sun sets.  Nothing happens and yet everything happens at the same time, and it's Almond's skill as a storyteller that draws the reader in, that compels you to read on and to empathise with Davie.  Written with the Geordie accent audible in the characters' voices, the story wends it’s way leisurely through the day and through Davie's thoughts and encounters. The heat of the summer's day reflecting the pace of the story perfectly.

This is a story of finding the light from the darkness, of loss and discovering how to accept that loss and learn to live again. It's s story of friendship, relationships, acceptance.

Although you never know exactly when the story's set, I imagine it begin set in the 70s, a time when children were sent off in the morning and told not to return until tea-time.  There's a real feeling of nostalgia running through the book (or perhaps that's just me showing my age).  As such, I feel that adults will appreciate this book just as much, if not more than children, but probably for very different reasons.