Sami is a typical teen, he like to play football with his friends and relax on the Playstation. When a bomb destroys a mall near his home in Syria, it's the final straw for his parents. They make the fateful decision to try and make the voyage to the UK. What follows is a harrowing trip with Turkish smugglers, deadly sea trips and eventually an immigration prison. Along the way Sami witnesses extreme poverty, racism, madness but also hope and generosity. Boy, Everywhere should be required reading in secondary schools. It hits with a tidal wave like force, bringing the plight of refugees to the forefront in a nuanced way that is subtle and shocking at the same time. Sami, dealing with not only the physical dangers of being a refugee, also has to cope with the psychological torture he endures on a daily basis. He blames himself for a lot of what has happened to his family. He sees his father withering away, his sister stops speaking after witnessing the horrors in the shopping mall and his mother is left frayed and despondent. The reality of what refugees have to go through is much more than what we're told and what we think they go through. This novel brings it home, it's an important read that deserves all of the attention it's getting. Ages 11+.
0 Comments
Maggie is 11 and lives with her family in Fennis Wick. They are cut off from the rest of society. This protects them, they're told, from the dangerous Wanderers, people who roam the countryside, burning down villages and taking what they want. In Fennis Wick there is a rule, the eldest child of every family must be sent to fight in the Quiet War when they turn 14. They're sent to Camp, then they're never seen again. This is the rule, and Maggie's brother Jed is the eldest child. Maggie often feels invisible being the middle child, Trig, her younger brother, is full of charm and energy and Jed is the strong backbone, the fighter, the one everyone adores. When a chance encounter puts Maggie face to face with Una, a Wanderer, she is torn as to what to do. Does she report her to the mayor? Does she help her? Una is asking Maggie for antibiotics for her father. Una says he has a bad wound on his leg and needs help, but everyone knows that Wanderers are liars. What Maggie does will change Fennis Wick forever. I loved this novel, Maggie is a smart, razor sharp protagonist who quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) fights for what she believes in. It's a dreamy and smart dystopian adventure. I recommend it for ages 11 up, great writing! Makepeace is 12 years old and has the ability to harbour ghosts within her body. The problem is, she doesn't know it. It's a secret her mother has been keeping from her throughout her life. When she's separated from her mother, she inadvertently inherits the spirit of a recently deceased bear. It is wild and angry, hungry and confused and it's in her brain and trying to control her body. After a series of devastating events, Makepeace is sent to live with her father's ancestors. They are a strange group of people who have secret powers. They see Makepeace as a troublesome girl with only one use, a use that won't be revealed to Makepeace until much later therefore I won't spoil it here. What Makepeace does know is that she needs to escape the clutches of these people. What follows is an epic adventure where Makepeace must befriend ghosts and those of the living whom she doesn't really trust. The country is engaged in a civil war, it's the 17th century and Makepeace must gather every ally she can if she is going to survive. I really loved this novel, there are multiple plot twists and side adventures to keep readers of fantasy fiction with some history thrown in engaged for hours. Makepeace and Bear are an unlikely yet amazing duo, and with each turn for the weird, I was on board. You'll really fall in love with Makepeace and be rooting for her every step of the way, she is defiant, brave, clever and cunning, yet she is honest and honourable throughout. The villains in this tale are many, and they are truly evil and disturbing. Makepeace's father's ancestors are about as dastardly and dark as they get, they have harnessed a power that has made them mad-drunk and desperate at the same time. They will stop at nothing to secure their name in the history books, this makes them very dangerous, as many characters in the novel find out the hard way. Another triumph from Frances Hardinge, I really recommend it! When a new boy named Ahmet joins the school, people initially think he's strange because he doesn't speak or join the other children on the playground during break times. They soon learn that Ahmet is a very special student because he's come to the UK from Syria. He has a foster mother who is taking care of him as he was separated from his parents when he arrived. As the students learn more and more about Ahmet, a group of clever and resourceful friends hatch a plan to reunite Ahmet with his parents. It might just be the greatest plan ever devised, or it might completely backfire and cause a lot more trouble than the students are prepared for. I absolutely loved The Boy At the Back of the Class. We don't know the narrator's gender or name for the majority of the novel and it really woks, having that kept a secret as their identity is slowly revealed. The novel tackles some serious issues including the refugee crisis of course but also home grown casual racism that in my opinion is rampant in UK society. There are cruel students who are mimicking their parents' bigotry and apathetic teachers who allow bullying to occur under their watch. It also sheds light on the generosity and kindness that will hopefully prevail in the end. It's an important book that I think should be required reading in Year 6 or 7! It's 1944 and Jakob is hiding from the Nazis in a horse stable in Austria. When they come to investigate the possibility that Jakob's guardian is harbouring a Jewish boy, the SS officer is angered that he can't locate him. To compensate, he shoots and kills one of the guardian's acclaimed Lipizzaner horses. Fearing they will return, Jakob and his guardian escape in the night with the remaining horses. Their goal is to reach a village across the mountains where they feel it will be safer. Along the way they meet Kizzy, a Roma who has her own tragic story to tell. Kizzy is an adept rider and great at hunting and fishing and makes a valuable companion. To reach safety, the trio must enter Nazi held territory and areas crawling with Nazi sympathisers. To make matters worse, they aren't even sure what will be waiting for them on the other side of the mountains. Flight is a harrowing tale of survival, cunning and adventure. Jakob and Kizzy make a great pair as they try to outwit and out-manoeuver the many threats to their safety. When Jakob's guardian becomes seriously injured, the hope of saving the horses becomes even smaller. It's a story of desperation and grit that any 10 year old will love. Fans of WWII, horses and friendship will really sink their teeth into it! Shif and Bini are best friends. They challenge each other to chess, excel at school and stand up for each other. Neither boy has a father in their lives, their mothers work and take care of them the best they can. When soldiers start arriving in their town, Shif's mother knows what's about to happen. The boys are going to be "recruited" to military school - a loose code word for forced labour and confinement. Desperate to save Shif, his mother tries to smuggle him out of the country but fails. Shif and Bini then find themselves locked in a shipping container in the desert with other poor souls the military deems to be dangerous. The conditions are horrendous, freezing at night and boiling hot during the day, they are allowed out only for a short walk around the camp. Anyone who speaks up or acts against the soldiers' orders is beaten or taken to the dreaded punishment container. Exhausted, malnourished and terrified, the boys hatch a plan to escape with the help of the older men in their container. They know the border is only a few kilometres away, they know that if they can reach the border their chances of survival rise from 0% to "just slightly above zero." With the certainty that they won't see their families again, Shif and Bini decide to escape the containers and make a run for it. What follows is a gruelling survival story. We're never told what country Boy 87 takes place in, but it's a refugee story that many people endure. Shif's tale is devastating, and Fountain tackles the grief and guilt he suffers through with simple yet brilliant writing. If you're a fan of Refugee by Alan Gratz or the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas or The Bone Sparrow, this is the book for you, I highly recommend it for ages 10 and up! Muzna Saleem wants to be a novelist. Her parents want her to become a doctor and are oblivious to Muzna's actual dreams. When she moves to a new school, Muzna's low self esteem is thrown into overdrive. She feels she is too big, too ugly and will never become popular. However, when high school heartthrob Arif starts up a relationship with her, Muzna begins to think that all of her self doubt was for nought. Muzna becomes completely devoted to Arif, and when Arif's strange and serious brother becomes involved in their relationship, a tiny worm of doubt begins to wriggle into Muzna's brain. She's right, not only is Arif harbouring a very dark secret, his brother is hiding an even more sinister one. As Muzna finds herself tangled into a dangerous web of lies and deceit, she begins to wonder if she can make it out of this nightmare alive. I've never read a book like this, coming from rural Canada, this is not the perspective I grew up with or learned about. Working in a Library in South London, I have been fortunate to meet students and staff from all races and religions which is why I was very happy to see a book focusing on this topic. I'm being wary because I don't want to spoil anything. What I can say is that I learned a lot reading this novel, specifically the pressure that teen Muslims face on a daily basis. Not to mention the every day struggle of being a teen. Throw in casual racism, ignorance and societal and religious expectations and you have all the ingredients for a mental health catastrophe. I feel like this novel opened my eyes up to what many of the students I interact with may very well be going through. Reading makes you a more empathetic person, and I Am Thunder is evidence that this statement rings very true. If you'd like to learn more about the novel you can join us on Twitter on Thurs 26 April at 8pm GMT when the author, Muhammad Khan, will be discussing it with anyone who wants to join in. Just follow #OHYABOOKCLUB to take part! I'll be giving away 2 copies of the novel that evening as well, hope to see you there! Three children, all from different time periods, all trying to escape the horror of war. This is refugee, a meticulously researched historical fiction about Josef, a boy escaping Nazi Germany with his family, Isabel, a girl escaping Castor's Cuba for Miami in a makeshift boat and Mahmoud, a Syrian refugee desperately trying to get to Germany through whatever means necessary. Each story is woven against the backdrop of brutal confrontations and callous, uncaring governments more concerned with political manoeuvring than the plight of people who have reached complete rock bottom. Each story is connected, separated only by a few decades. This is an important read, one that forces you to see the plight of refugees from their perspective. Through this novel we see the desperation, fear, shame and hopelessness that they face on a daily basis. I'm excited to promote this in the library, I plan on purchasing several copies to ensure my book club gets their hands on it, highly recommended! It's going to get dusty in whatever room you're reading Pax in right now. When his family is killed as a kit, he's rescued and raised by a boy named Peter. When Peter's father enlists in the army he forces him to live with his grandfather and abandon Pax in the forest. Wracked with guilt, Peter runs away from his grandfather's home and starts to make the trek back to where left Pax - more than three hundred miles away. Along the way Peter gets injured and is helped by Vola, a recluse living in the woods. One-legged and eccentric, Vola teaches Peter to stand up for himself, to listen to his heart and to fight for what he believes is right. In turn, Peter teaches Vola a few things about forgiveness and moving on. The novel alternates between Peter's story and Pax's. Pax encounters Bristle & Runt, two sibling foxes trying to survive in the war torn area in which they live. Pax, having never lived in the wild, is on the brink of starvation and must rely on the help of other foxes in order to live. on top of this, Pax must not stray too far from where "his boy" left him because in his heart he knows that he will see him again one day. Pax is a powerful novel, it's anti-war message with humans who are "war-sick" ravaging the natural beauty of the world is a recurring theme. Peter's story of redemption and coming of age with the equally damaged and self-loathing Vola was, in my opinion, a great read. Pax's encounters with other animals and their style of communication wasn't clunky or forced, Pennypacker made it come across as natural and urgent. You can tell she has done her research on red foxes. I'm late to the game with Pax but it's definitely a modern classic that can be revisited over and over again. Don't miss it. The future sound of London is an air raid siren. Lex lives on The Strip. No not the area of Las Vegas which according to everyone who goes there "has been ruined since the mob left". The Strip is what's left of London after a series of brutal wars between the government and an organisation known as The Corps. To the government, The Corps are terrorists, plain and simple. To those in The Corps, the government's 24-hour drone surveillance, lies and disorder has left them no choice but to fight back. Lex's father is a member of The Corps, and therefore a target. Their family does their best to survive in an anxious, bombed-out reality. Lex wants to do something meaningful with his life, but he doesn't know what that means yet. Alan is climbing the government ladder, he controls a surveillance drone and watches Lex's father for any suspicious activity. Alan lives with his mother, who disapproves of his career choice. Alan's plan is to make enough money to move out and never see his mother again. Although Lex and Alan never meet in person, their lives are tied together through government policy and fear and the horrible nightmare that is everyday life in The Strip. We See Everything is a tight thriller that is all-too real given the current climate in the United States and around the world. It's a book about choosing which side you're on when you don't really want to choose a side at all. It's about trying to survive the ignorance of those who hold power in our world and it's about protecting those that are important to you. I really enjoyed this novel, check it out! |
Categories
All
Follow These Guys: 100 Scope Notes No Flying No Tights Pretty Books Reading Rants! Sophisticated Dorkiness Teen Librarian |