Trigger warning for sexual abuse. Amelie has just moved from Sheffield, UK to the southern part of the country, her dad has a new job and she's going to university. She's leaving behind her friends and most importantly Alfie, the boy she loves. Together they've made a pact, that they will give each other space but get back together in two years. Things seem to be going ok at first, Amelie meets Hannah, a nice girl who shows her around. When she performs and wins a local music talent show, she's introduced to Reese, a student and singer in a local band. It's love at first sight, but is it? What follows is a harrowing story of abuse. Reese tells Amelie he loves her over and over again, then casually insults her in front of his friends. He insists every mean thing he says is a joke, but his "mood swings" become more and more intense and Amelie finds herself obsessed with keeping him happy, walking a dangerous tightrope as she tries to keep him from flying into a rage at something trivial. Then, to keep him happy, to save what she thinks is a normal relationship, she begins to buckle to his pressure to do other things. This is a terrifying novel, Amelie's descent into this manipulative, toxic relationship is something that is tragically all too real. This novel is like an air raid siren for the soul, a warning shot that will undoubtedly help teens navigate what is essentially a confusing and scary time in their lives. Holly Bourne is a fantastic writer who slugs you to the gut in a matter of a few pages. She knows how to write about fear, relationships and the anxiety of life with an impressive skill. I really recommend this one to teens ages 15 and up!
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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. Tom struggles with his mobility but his love of drone building helps him escape the confines of his house. He uses his drone, named Skylark, to travel up and down the countryside near where he lives. It's unique because it's something that Tom himself has built and is very proud of. Then one day he stumbles upon something sinister, a terrorist plot that puts a lot of people in danger. The problem is that nobody believes him. Help arrives when Maggie and Joel, children who are staying with their parents at Tom's aunt's cottage, join him in his quest to foil the plot. In over the heads, the kids must use all of their brains and resilience to overcome a seriously dangerous mission. I loved Spylark, it's the perfect book for students looking for a fun, full throttle escape. We all wanted to be the heroes, the kids who outsmarted the adults at their own game, Spylark does this and more, it gives voice to a great character in Tom and shows the reader the power of friendship and the importance of not giving up despite the odds. It's a fun, fast read that will go down a storm at Glenthorne High School, can't wait to get it into the hands of our students! Cole is a boy with big problems. His mum is about to lose her job at the local museum and his dad, an ex music roadie, is out of work as well. Cole's best friend is Mason, a boy whose family doesn't have to worry about money. When Cole discovers that a painting in his mum's soon to be closed museum may house a secret to a lost treasure, he becomes obsessed with finding it. Then something extraordinary happens. When a famous artist visits Cole's school. she believes that Cole's painting is a unique work of art and that Cole is an artistic genius. Suddenly thrust into the spotlight, Cole must endure mounting pressure to create a new piece of art if he's going to save his family from poverty. On the back burner is the painting's secret treasure trail. As the deadline mounts, the pressure on Cole becomes too much to bear. I flew through this novel, Cole is a flawed character that you can't help but root for. We've all been in situations where white lies have gotten out of hand and this novel takes it to a level that is thoroughly enjoyable.His immersion into a world that is completely unknown to him was a real thrill to read. I also really loved the treasure hunt the children embarked on. The Boy Who Fooled the World is a novel that is perfect for ages 10+, it has a great moral base with genuinely funny and touching moments. When she turned ten, Aniyah made a wish on a star for her mum. The wish was for her mother, but during that same day, she and her brother Noah are taken from her home and driven far away and made to live in a foster home. The only silver lining is that the foster home is run by Mrs. Iwuchukwu who is one of the best motherly fiction character from the past few years in my opinion. She is firm yet fair, loving and open. This is a character that helps restore the image of foster carers as caring, responsible people when the primary image we receive from the media are ones who prey on children's weaknesses. Throughout the novel, Mrs. Iwuchukwu becomes a character I wanted to spend more time with and I wanted to learn as much as I could about her. Aniyah is obsessed with star hunting, so when she finds out that the Royal Observatory at Greenwich is holding a contest to name a new star, she knows that the star is connected to her mother and that it must be named after her. This is when she recruits the help of some of the foster children to embark on an adventure to travel to the Observatory to tell the judges her mother's story and why the star belongs to her. A truly devastating story that will wreck you as a reader. As Aniyah's story slowly unravels, we see the true desperation behind her attempt to get to the Observatory. We see how children being sent to foster homes cope on a daily basis, how children are so, so resilient when it comes to traumatic events and how powerful kindness and empathy can be. Another blockbuster from Onjali, this will be another book I'll need several copies of to keep the students happy, don't miss this amazing story. Holly is fourteen and her best friend Amy has just moved from the UK to Canada. Upset, she turns to a group chat with students from her school to try and fill the void left behind after Amy left. Through the students in her school, she meets a boy named Jay. Jay doesn't go to Holly's school and she's never met him in person, but Holly feels like he really gets her. They are very similar in so many ways, same age, they both have parents who seem too busy to pay attention to them, they both are looking for a connection. It only takes Holly a few days to be nearly completely smitten with Jay. They chat online through the night and Holly finds herself nearly sleep deprived and desperate to be on her phone twenty four hours a day just to talk to him. Sometimes Jay gets impatient when she doesn't respond, when she's visiting with her grandmother or when she's trying to sleep or be with her other friends. Sometimes Jay sounds jealous, but Holly convinces herself it's because he loves her and there's nothing wrong with a guy being protective, is there? They've known each other a couple of weeks and already Holly is envisioning her life with Jay. Jay gets her, not like her parents, Holly thinks. He also starts to tell Holly to skip school, and when she gets detentions, to skip those too. He tells her to ignore her parents, ignore her teachers and only listen to him. Holly believes it's for the best, and when Jay asks to meet under the pier at Brighton, she agrees. Always Here For You is terrifying, it's a must read for any teen using social media, and let's be honest, that's almost every teen out there As the noose tightens, it becomes a book that is nearly impossible to put down, it's a true nightmare scenario that every teenager should read. I recommend it for ages 12+! Cosmo is a golden retriever, hisbest friend is Max. The trouble is, Max's parent's fight constantly. They fight so much that Max often covers his ears or buries his head in Cosmo's fur so he can soften the blow of the voices that echo beyond the door every day. When Max discovers a dog based competition in his hometown, he enrols himself and Cosmo in it. Cosmo takes part despite his aching bones and pain in his hips and legs. Desperate to help Max, Cosmo tries his best to make it all work, to do his best and help bring his family together. Written from Cosmo's perspective, this beautiful novel is often funny, touching and sad all rolled into one. Cosmo is such an endearing character, he's someone you want to follow along for a very long time. Max's situation at home will strike a nerve with anyone battling domestic issues, students will especially find comfort in how Max and Cosmo navigate this treacherous world. I loved Cosmo and you and your children or students will too, check it out today! Clea has trouble getting her brain to stay concentrated. She's smart, loves chess and wants to do well at school but when it comes to sitting down and getting the job done she always seems to fall short. What is infuriating to her is that she knows she can do the work, she knows the answers to the tests and the homework but she simply can't get this to translate from her mind to the page. Her friends start to notice, as do her parents, and it becomes an issue for everyone. When her parents take her to a psychologist and she's eventually diagnosed with ADHD, things start to become clearer for her but it doesn't help that she feels ashamed, embarrassed and angry. When her parents threaten to take her school chess program away, she becomes even more withdrawn. Then her best friend abandons her, fed up with her outbursts and erratic behaviour. Everything seems to be falling apart for Clea, the question is, will she take the advice of those around her or will she follow her gut and try to forge on as she has before? I really loved FOCUSED by Alyson Gerber. Not only does it educate the reader about ADHD, it does in a way that isn't heavy handed or preachy. Clea's personality leaps off the page, you are rooting for her every step of the way, even when she does the wrong thing which everyone does occasionally. Also, you learn a ton about chess which I thoroughly enjoyed reading, Gerber has created a truly believable setting that tackles an important and often overlooked and wrongly dismissed topic. Can't recommend this el enough, get it into the hands of students ages 11+ today! 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+ Owen feels like there's nobody he can talk to, life at home is hard. His mum isn't doing too well and Owen isn't himself at school. When he discovers a stone soldier on a bench in the park, Owen finally finds someone he can talk to, someone who really listens. Then the town council announces that they're removing the soldier. It's old, it's cracking, it's an eyesore they say. Owen knows the soldier is important, he just needs to find the right words to make everyone else see it the way he does. This is a really touching story about loss and friendship. Anyone who has ever found it hard to do the right thing, stand up for yourself and what you believe in will connect with this little gem immediately. I can't wait to get this into the hands of our students at Glenthorne, there's a lot here to discuss, highly recommend it. |
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