I'm very excited to be a part of the Blog Tour for Ian Eagleton's new novel, The Woodcutter and the Snow Prince! This is a beautifully illustrated novel with LGBTQ+ themes that should be on every school library shelf! Kai is a woodcutter, but he's lonely, every Christmas eve he carves a wooden statue for anyone who passes him by. However, people rarely do. Then, one fateful Christmas Eve night, he's met by the Snow Prince. The Prince helps Kai with his loneliness but himself is struggling. The Prince is feared by many people, but Kai sees him as someone not to be feared, but to be respected. Then, the Prince freezes once more, sealed in his icy prison because of a terrible curse that has been bestowed upon him. Now, it's up to Kai to try and break the curse, but is he going to be too late? This is a really beautiful action-adventure filled with magic and wonder. A classic-retelling of the Snow Queen fairy tale, it's full of gorgeous illustrations and realistic characters. I highly recommend this novel, perfect for a cold winter evening!
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This is an important graphic novel that should be on every school library shelf. Aiden is at summer camp, in September he will be starting high school. He's not excited, he's terrified. He knows he's not gay but that doesn't stop others from talking about, pointing fingers, calling him names, casually yelling out homophobic slurs at him. In his head he knows he's not gay, he just knows it...does he? At camp he can find some solace, he's got some real friends there, at least he thinks he does. He learns archery with Elias, a boy that has wiggled his way into Aiden's brain and won't leave. He writes to his best friend, a girl he doesn't get to see very much. Even so, Aiden tells her everything. Aiden's home life isn't very good, his parents seem to do nothing but scream at each other. Aiden has something burning inside of him that he can't seem to grapple with, the story itself moves at a rapid, burning pace in a way that will make you go back and appreciate the haunting, powerful artwork. As life for Aiden becomes unbearable, he begins to feel that nothing will stop the hate being thrown at him, nothing will stop his parents from fighting, nothing will stop the feeling that he's wrong. This is a powerful story that should be in the hands of every student ages 15+, it's one that will stick with you for a very long time. I'm very excited to be part of the Federation of Children's Book Groups Children's Book Award blog tour. I will be highlighting the amazing On The Come Up by Angie Thomas! Use the hashtag #FCBGCBA2020 on social media to follow the tour and find out about these amazing books! Bri Jackson has a plan. That plan is to become a rapper, someone who shines a light on the situation she and her family endures on a daily basis in Garden Heights. Her mother, Jay, is a recovering addict, someone Bri doesn't fully trust. Her brother Jay works at a pizza shop, he's smart, headstrong and stays out of trouble. If only Bri could follow his lead. She sells candy, a banned item in her school, to those who are craving sugar. When she gets caught, the authorities grossly overreact by throwing her to the ground and pinning her there. It's a moment that will stick with Bri throughout the novel, a lightning bolt that sets many different events into action. Rumours start to spread, primarily that it wasn't candy in her bag, that it was drugs. Bri has a choice, does she ignore this nonsense and try to carry on, or does she act the way society expects her to act, to lash out, to be angry on both the inside and outside. Her status as a rapper gains huge credibility when she destroys a boy, the son of Supreme, her late father's manager, in a rap battle. When Bri decides to make another song, one that makes her out to be someone she isn't, her community takes notice. This puts Bri, her aunt Pooh and her friends in a dangerous position. As the pressure mounts and the lights and the gas gets cut in her home and she suspects her mother of using again, Bri has to make some really tough choices, choices no teenager should make, On the Come Up is a raw, devastating look at what it's like to claw at a dream that everyone tells you is just that, a dream. Bri is tough, quick to fly off the handle yet sensitive, someone who loves video games and comic books and hanging out with her friends. Thomas has once again developed a fully formed character that screws up just like every teen, except for Bri the consequences are much heavier compared to most. It's an honest look at stereotypes, racism, white privilege and how we project our fears and expectations on African American youth. I think On The Come Up should be required reading, loved it. America is in a post-apocalyptic nightmare where the dead have risen. Peter, his father and a small community have forged a life on tiny islands in a national park. The problem? When winter descends and the ice freezes, there's nothing from stopping the dead from the walking to their homes on stilts and running riot. I love this idea. Also, a national park is the first place I'd try to forge a new life when things go sour. It makes sense and Charlton puts you into that world brilliantly, the cold seeps through the pages and into your bones. The protagonist, Peter, has always known he wasn't as tough as his father, or Bud, the father of Cooper, the boy he likes who lives on the other side of the lake. One day, Peter allows a stranger to approach the shore in his canoe, this breaks all the rules and Peter nearly pays for his life because of it. As punishment, he's forced to go onto the mainland to learn how to wrangle the dead and help the rest of the crew survive. What follows is a series of misadventures where Peter discovers dark secrets about the place he calls home. These are secrets that will test Peter's willpower, grit and love for those around him. Wranglestone is a great read, it's full throttle action with a lot of clever twists and scenes that will make your skin crawl. Peter and Cooper's dynamic is great, as is Peter's relationship with his father, proof that love can exist in the face of terror and showing how it's even more important when things go as bad as they do in Wranglestone. This is sharp writing with great characters and a great twist on the zombie genre, I really recommend it when it arrives in the UK in Feb! Kiera Johnson has a secret that is getting harder and harder to keep. By day she's an ace student and one of the only black teens at Jefferson Academy but at night she's the creator of a massively popular online role playing game called SLAY. SLAY is a haven for gamers who for years have endured racist abuse in other online formats. Kiera keeps the fact that she's the game's creator hidden from her parents, her sister, her friends and even her boyfriend Malcolm, who is passionate about fighting white oppression, one of those tools being, in his opinion, video games. However, disaster strikes when a teen in Kansas is murdered over the game's built-in coin system. The boy's family and the media demands a response from the game's elusive creator. Not to mention the fact that SLAY is labelled racist, dangerous and responsible for generating gang-like mentality amongst its players. Lawsuits are brought up, prison sentences are mentioned. Kiera is consumed with dread and panic. Kiera's only solace is her friend Cicada, one of the game mods who lives in Paris. Kiera has never met her but finds a kindred spirit and a calming presence while talking to her. As the walls start closing in and Kiera finds herself loosing a grip on her sanity, she must make an impossible choice: reveal herself to the world and lose the only escape she's ever had in her life or try a last ditch effort to save the game she and hundreds of thousands of others love. SLAY is a brilliant new novel for fans of gaming and for anyone struggling to be themselves, struggling to live up to the expectations of others. Kiera is someone who feels like she has to apologise for who she is, someone who intimidates her white classmates just because of the colour of her skin. Her white friends come to her for advice on how not to appropriate black culture which is exhausting, as if Kiera is the last word on everything that revolves around black history and culture in general. I loved the supporting characters, Malcolm, her boyfriend, starts out as a passionate yet angry man who studies white oppression and black culture fervently. This passion eventually descends into something troubling for Kiera, and she must make hard choices when it comes to her love of SLAY and her love of Malcolm. Her sister Steph and her parents are supportive, tough, annoying and worried about her. In short, they are very well written. Morris has created a very unique and believable gaming atmosphere in my opinion. Many moons ago I was a fan of Everquest and played it often. SLAY opened my eyes up to the racism, sexism and overall toxicity of online gaming culture. I did not experience this in Everquest but this is down to two things, I am a straight white male and I wasn't that huge of a player, it didn't consume my life. Reading SLAY prompted me to do some research into this and I see it is a huge problem. This is an atmosphere that teens I work with in the library are dealing with, some of them on a daily basis. It really brought something I should have known more about to the forefront and i'm grateful for it. I highly recommend this novel to ages 14+ Eighteen months ago Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. The Tox, as they call it, started in the woods on their isolated little island. The trees and other plants started growing at a phenomenal rate, then it got into the teachers, then the students. It turned their bodies into something bizarre, extra spines, two heartbeats, everyone gets affected differently. What they all suffer is an eventual death, slow and painful. Hetty is infected, she lost her eye to the Tox. With her friend Byatt, they wait for a cure to come from the mainland. When Hetty is given the coveted boat shift, the opportunity to go out beyond the fence and pick up the supplies provided from those on the mainland, she learns a dark secret. A secret she can't contain. Soon. Raxter starts to fall apart, and when Byatt goes missing, Hetty embarks on a mission to find her friend before the Tox destroys everything she knows. I really got into the world of Wilder Girls, it's dark and at times terrifying and Rory Power's writing is at times razor sharp. I have no idea if a sequel is being written but there definitely could be one, or a prequel for that matter. I know i'd definitely read it. I loved Hetty and thought she was a very strong character right to the last page. I've already got a few students in mind that I know will want to pick this up, great dystopia thriller! This is the 4th book in my sponsored read in memory of my brother. For all of the details about this fundraising event, you can click here. Cameron Post has just lost her parents in a tragic accident. Just prior to this, she was kissing a girl for the first time. Her first feeling is one of relief, knowing her parents will never discover her secret. Then she's moved to Miles City, Montana to live with her aunt Ruth and her grandmother. Ruth is conservative, religious and misguided in her intentions for Cameron. Cameron learns to survive the boredom of a small town and the depression, anxiety and ruin that her loss has left her. When Coley moves to town, something in Cameron ignites, she's never met someone like Coley, a beautiful girl who seems perfect in every way. Her and Coley become friends and just as their bond becomes close, Ruth decides to send Cameron to an ultra-religious camp in order to "fix" her homosexuality. In the camp, Cameron meets some teens who are genuinely on board for their "fixing" and others who see the camp for what it is, a denial of the basic human rights of the people who are forced to go there. Together, Cameron and her friends hatch a plan, one that will bring them closer together or potentially tear them apart. This is a beautiful novel that touches upon loss, grief, depression, substance abuse, the dangers of forcing religious beliefs onto others and so much more. Cameron wants to be herself, but she's not really sure who that is. I strongly identified with her struggles in her small town. The boredom, the toxic masculinity, the gossip, all of it were things that were to be overcome otherwise they would swallow you up. Cameron doesn't let it swallow her up, she takes things head on and pays a price for it but in my opinion it's a price worth paying. Cameron is someone I wish existed in my town, I think she would have been a great friend. This novel has received tons of accolades already so I'm not writing anything new here, but check it out if you haven't already. I'd happily give it to a Year 10 or 11 students at Glenthorne. This is the second book in my sponsored read. I'm reading one YA book a week that tackles mental health, depression, substance abuse and other issues. I'm doing this in memory of my brother Matt who passed away in August 2018. I'm hoping to raise money for a charity close to him and our family. For more details, and to donate, you can go here: https://bit.ly/2NeAetH THE BOXER by Nikesh Shukla is about 17 year old Sunny. After a racist attack at a train station, he's left bloody, beaten and filled with PTSD and anxiety. After some convincing, he decides to join a boxing gym. Over time he becomes more confident and makes new friends. One of them is Keir, a boy with a troubled past but a kind heart. However, when Sunny learns that Keir's brother and father are hardcore racists, he becomes angry, frightened and confused. When another incident incites racial tensions to rise in their home city of Bristol, Keir and Sunny find themselves at opposite ends of the argument. This culminates in Sunny facing off against Keir in a boxing match, one that Keir claims will end Sunny's hopes of ever boxing again. THE BOXER is told in alternate chapters, with Sunny & Keir facing off in the ring and the other chapters flashing back to the incidents leading up to the match. It's masterful storytelling and highlights the deep racial issues that are prevalent in the UK. Sunny is a boy with deep problems, he's suffering from the trauma of the attack and grappling with the reality that his father is going to die. He and his father have a difficult and complicated relationship, which makes visiting him in the hospital tricky, it also makes talking about his feelings even harder for Sunny. I also learned a lot about the sport of boxing, and how it can have therapeutic qualities. Sunny's depression, anxiety and social awkwardness cuts to the bone in a very honest way. I feel like Nikesh was able to express how someone dealing with these issues on top of being attacked for having darker skin in a very nuanced way. The pace of this novel is fast and it's loaded with discussion points for students, which I love. I know it's going to be in the hands of lots of students next year and I can't wait. This is the first book in my sponsored read. I am reading one YA book a week in memory of my brother, Matt, who passed away in August 2018. I am raising money for a charity close to him and our family. More details can be found here: https://bit.ly/2NeAetH or on social media using #ReadingForMatt Darius Kellner is about to take his first trip to Iran to see his grandparents and other members of his extended family. His grandfather is suffering from a brain tumour, Darius has only met him over Skype. Darius, along with his father, are also struggling with diagnosed depression and take medication for this. Darius feels guilty because, as he said, "nothing bad has ever happened to me", he just knows his brain sometimes tells him things he shouldn't think. When he gets to Iran he meets a boy named Sohrab, who calls him Darioush. Sohrab is like no one Darius has ever met, he doesn't make fun of him, he is respectful and thoughtful. Sohrab is dealing with a major family trauma in that his father was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Together they play soccer, eat delicious Persian food and keep each other afloat. Darius also learns to communicate with his father, Darius feels his father wishes he was more "normal" and would just "snap out of it" even though he takes medication for his own depression. As Darius tries to navigate his own depression and his family, the looming date to leave Iran and Sohrab is closing in. Darius must decide who he wants to be and try to learn to be happy in this world. I really loved this novel, I connected with it on many levels - down to playing Rook with my friends, trying to communicate with different members of my family and living with a family member who was depressed, restless and out of place. It's the prefect novel for anyone who feels like they don't belong & I'm very glad I chose it for my first book in this sponsored read! Ruby West's world is about to change forever. The Traditional Party, or Trads as they are called, have been voted in. Their political stance is hardcore, they want to "clean" up society using fascist methods. Ruby and her family belong to the Core Party, who are eventually rounded up in the middle of the night and brought to an unused army barracks in what has become a makeshift concentration camp. Confused, stunned and hungry, Ruby, her sister, her mother and her step father are thrust into a living nightmare. At first, they tell themselves that they'll be let out soon, that the Trads can't possibly keep them there against their will. But then more buses arrive with more Core supporters, then the food rations start to dwindle, then the guards get more violent and the prisoners more desperate. Ruby's fate is intertwined with the rest of the camp as she and her family tries to endure the unthinkable. I Am Not A Number gets dark, and then it gets darker. I was completely engrossed in this tale of terror featuring fascist politics, propaganda and the desire to control populations at all costs. In today's fragmented political climate, it's a potent reminder of the horrors of the past and of what could be our future if we allow alt-right parties to continue to spew their garbage online and in the streets. I Am Not A Number will undoubtedly be a huge hit at Glenthorne High School and I really look forward to getting it into the hands of our teens! |
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