Oaks Park LRC

  When Mike and Gally Martin move to a cottage in Somerset, it's to make a new start. But the relationship comes under strain when Gally forms an increasingly close attachment to an old countryman, Ferney, who seems to know everything about her. What is it that draws them together? Reluctantly at first, then with more urgency as he feels time slipping away, Ferney compels Gally to understand their connection - and to face an inexplicable truth about their shared past. A passionate love story that spans the centuries, fall under the spell of Ferney. Publisher:  Simon & Schuster Ltd   ISBN:  9781471143144   Number of pages:  560  

  In a world where disease, war and crime have been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed ("gleaned") by professional scythes. Citra and Rowan are teenagers who have been selected to be scythes' apprentices, and despite wanting nothing to do with the vocation, they must learn the art of killing and understand the necessity of what they do. Only one of them will be chosen as a scythe's apprentice and as Citra and Rowan come up against a terrifyingly corrupt Scythedom, it becomes clear that the winning apprentice's first task will be to glean the loser. Publisher:  Walker Books Ltd   ISBN:  9781406379242   Number of pages:  448  

  Inspired by a true story. It's 1940, and Joseph has been packed off to stay with  Mrs F, a gruff woman with no great fondness for children. To Joseph's amazement, she owns the rundown city zoo where Joseph meets Adonis, a huge silverback gorilla. Adonis is ferociously strong and dangerous, but Joseph finds he has an affinity with the lonely beast. But when the bombs begin to fall, it is up to Joseph to guard Adonis's cage should it be damaged by a blast. Will Joseph be ready to pull the trigger if it comes to it? Publisher:  Andersen Press Ltd   ISBN:  9781783449651   Number of pages:  320  

Join Effie Kostas as she fights to become Student Council President in her new school. With a campaign team of loveable misfits, she tackles the truly important subjects: gender imbalance outdated school conventions... and good-looking boys stealing the last slice of chocolate cake at lunchtime. A laugh-out-loud rallying call for switched-on kids everywhere. Vibrant illustrations by Mirelle Ortega bring Effie and her friends to life in this joyful celebration of one girl's mission to change the world. Publisher:  Scholastic   ISBN:  9780702305726   Number of pages:  304    

  Steffi has been a selective mute for most of her life - she's been silent for so long that she feels completely invisible. But Rhys, the new boy at school, sees her. He's deaf, and her knowledge of basic sign language means that she's assigned to look after him. To Rhys it doesn't matter that Steffi doesn't talk and, as they find ways to communicate, Steffi finds that she does have a voice, and that she's falling in love with the one person who makes her feel brave enough to use it. Publisher:  Pan Macmillan   ISBN:  9781509810987   Number of pages:  320  

  Lauren and her father Niall live alone in the Highlands, in a small village surrounded by pine forest. When a woman stumbles out onto the road one Halloween night, Niall drives her back to their house in his pickup. In the morning, she's gone. In a community where daughters rebel, men quietly rage, and drinking is a means of forgetting, mysteries like these are not out of the ordinary.  Locked doors and stone circles. The disappearance of Lauren's mother a decade ago. In the shadow of the Highland forest, Francine Toon captures the wildness of rural childhood and the intensity of small-town claustrophobia. In a place that can feel like the edge of the world, she unites the chill of the modern gothic with the pulse of a thriller. It is the perfect novel for our haunted times. Publisher:  Transworld Publishers Ltd   ISBN:  9781784164829   Number of pages:  336  

  On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home? Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that one of the children will not survive the week. Hamnet  is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright. It is a story of the bond between twins, and of a marriage pushed to the brink by grief. It is also the story of a kestrel and its mistress; a flea that boards a ship in Alexandria; and a glovemaker's son who flouts convention in pursuit of the woman he loves. Above all, it is a tender and unforgettable reimagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written. Publisher:  Headline Publishing Group   ISBN:  9781472285522   Number of pages:  352  

  Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people... In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal's office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. Separated by distance - and Papi's secrets - the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered. And then, when it seems like they've lost everything of their father, they learn of each other. Publisher:  Hot Key Books   ISBN:  9781471409127   Number of pages:  432  

  I was special. I was a hero. I lost the best friend I ever had. Eleven-year-old Maggie lives in Fennis Wick, enclosed and protected from the outside world by a boundary, beyond which the Quiet War rages and the dirty, dangerous wanderers roam. Her brother Jed is an eldest, revered and special. A hero. Her younger brother is Trig - everyone loves Trig. But Maggie's just a middler; invisible and left behind. Then, one hot September day, she meets Una, a hungry wanderer girl in need of help, and everything Maggie has ever known gets turned on its head. Narrated expertly and often hilariously by Maggie, we experience the trials and frustrations of being the forgotten middle child, the child with no voice, even in her own family.  Publisher:  Nosy Crow Ltd   ISBN:  9781788003452   Number of pages:  256  

The 2020 Branford Boase Award longlist in full: Over its twenty-one-year history winners and shortlisted authors have included  Siobhan Dowd ,  Meg Rosoff ,  Mal Peet ,  Frank Cottrell Boyce  and  Patrick Ness  as well as  Frances Hardinge ,  M G Leonard  and  Philip Reeve . Uniquely, the  Branford Boase Award  also honours the editor of the winning title and highlights the importance of the editor in nurturing new talent. In another outstanding year for debuts, 59 books were submitted and by more than two dozen different publishers; 20 books have made it onto the longlist.    The Middler Author:  Kirsty Applebaum Editor:  Kirsty Stansfield Publisher:  Nosy Crow Little Badman and the Invasion of the Killer Aunties Authors:  Humza Arshad and Henry White Editors:  Holly Harris and Sharan Matharu Illustrator:  Aleksei Bitskoff Publisher:  Puffin The Space We’re In Author:  Katya Balen Editor:  Lucy Mackay-Sim Illustrator:  Laura Carlin Publisher:  Bloomsbury Asha and the Spirit Bir