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Showing posts from July, 2020

KS3 LRC Weekly Book Recommendation - The Fowl Twins by Eoin Colfer

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Criminal genius runs in the family... Myles and Beckett Fowl are twins but the two boys are wildly different. Beckett is blonde, messy and sulks whenever he has to wear clothes. Myles is impeccably neat, has an IQ of 170, and 3D prints a fresh suit every day - just like his older brother, Artemis Fowl. A week after their eleventh birthday the twins are left in the care of house security system, NANNI, for a single night. In that time, they befriend a troll on the run from a nefarious nobleman and an interrogating nun both of whom need the magical creature for their own gain . . . Prepare for an epic adventure in which The Fowl Twins and their new troll friend escape, get shot at, kidnapped, buried, arrested, threatened, killed (temporarily) . . . and discover that the strongest bond in the world is not the one forged by covalent electrons in adjacent atoms, but the one that exists between a pair of twins. The first book in the blockbusting new series from global bestsel

KS4 LRC Weekly Book Recommendation - Hope is our Only Wing by Rutendo Tavengerwei

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Nominated for the CILIP CARNEGIE MEDAL 2019.  A novel set in Zimbabwe about hope - and its power to heal a family, a friendship or even a nation. For fifteen-year-old Shamiso, struggling with grief and bewilderment following her father's death, hope is nothing but a leap into darkness. For Tanyaradzwa, whose life has been turned upside down by a cancer diagnosis, hope is the only reason to keep fighting. As the two of them form an unlikely friendship, Shamiso begins to confront her terrible fear of loss. In getting close to another person, particularly someone who's ill, isn't she just opening herself up to more pain? And underpinning it all - what did happen to her father, the night of that strange and implausible car crash? Rutendo Tavengerwei's extraordinary debut takes an honest look at hope, and the grit and courage it can take to hang on to it. Publisher:  Hot Key Books   ISBN:  9781471406867   Number of pages:  256  

KS5/Adult LRC Weekly Book Recommendation - Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall

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Seeing geography as a decisive factor in the course of human history can be construed as a bleak view of the world, which is why it is disliked in some intellectual circles. It suggests that nature is more powerful than man, and that we can only go so far in determining our own fate. Splitting the globe into ten distinct regions, former  Sky News  Diplomatic Editor Tim Marshall redresses our techno-centric view of the world and suggests that our key political driver continues to be our physical geography. Beginning with Russia (and its bewildering eleven time-zones), we are treated to an illuminating, border-by-border disassembly of what makes the world what it is; why, for instance, China and India will never fall into conflict (the Himalayas), or why the Ukraine is such a tactical jewel in the crown. With its panoptic view over our circumstance,  Prisoners of Geography  makes a compelling case around how the physical framework of the world itself has defined our history. It

KS5/Adult LRC Weekly Book Recommendation - Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

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A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, and Esch's father is growing concerned.  He's a hard drinker, largely absent, and it isn't often he worries about the family. Esch and her three brothers are stockpiling food, but there isn't much to save.  Lately, Esch can't keep down what food she gets; at fifteen, she has just realized that she's pregnant. Her brother Skeetah is sneaking scraps for his prized pit bull's new litter, dying one by one.  Meanwhile, brothers Randall and Junior try to stake their claim in a family long on child's play and short on parenting.  As the twelve days that make up the novel's framework yield to a dramatic conclusion, this unforgettable family - motherless children sacrificing for one another as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce - pulls itself up to face another day. Publisher:  Bloomsbury Publishing PLC   ISBN

KS4 LRC Weekly Book Recommendation - The Honeyman and the Hunter by Neil Grant

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The seas is inside his blood. Cursed, or blessed, on both sides. When sixteen-year-old Rudra Solace dredges up a long-hidden secret in his father' trawl net, his life in the sleepy fishing village of Patonga shifts dramatically. It is not long before Rudra is leaving Australia behind, bound for India on a journey of discovery and danger. A wonderfully compelling tale of belonging and loss, of saltwater and mangroves, of migration and accepting change; a story of decisions that, once made, breakthrough family histories like a cyclone swell. Publisher:  Allen & Unwin   ISBN:  9781911631552   Number of pages:  288  

KS3 LRC Weekly Book Recommendation - Louisiana's Way Home by Kate DiCamillo

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When Louisiana Elefante's granny wakes her up in the middle of the night to tell her that the day of reckoning has arrived and they have to leave home  immediately , Louisiana isn't overly worried. After all, Granny has many middle-of-the-night ideas. But this time, things are different. This time, Granny intends for them never to return. Separated from best friends Raymie and Beverly, Louisiana struggles to oppose the winds of fate (and Granny) and find a way home. But as Louisiana's life becomes entwined with the lives of the people of the small Georgia town in which they find themselves - including a surly motel owner, a walrus-like minister and a mysterious boy with a crow on his shoulder - she starts to worry that she is destined only for goodbyes. (Which could be due to the curse on Louisiana's and Granny's heads. But that is a story for another time.) Called "one of DiCamillo's most singular and arresting creations" by  The New York Time