As you may have seen, we’re resting our usual Friday Reads over the summer while our team are busy working their way through our summer workload (which includes lots of NEW BOOKS!). As an alternative, our Librarian, Harriet, has been putting together a few brief lists of books she thinks are worthy of your attention this summer. You can find the first of these here and the second here and don’t forget: if you’re after more reading recommendations, you may find our archive of Friday Reads to be a particularly useful reference point (just here)
Summer Holiday Reads, Junior to Teen
- Orangeboy by Patrice Lawrence
This very contemporary novel has rightly received much praise and several prizes. I found it a harrowing but ultimately positive read. Parts are nail biting, as ‘Orangeboy’ finds himself getting into deeper and deeper water with the local gangs. The author launches us straight into the action, and our sympathies are quickly with the young hero; we really want it all to come right at the end!
- The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr
This ingenious novel for mid teens is warm, unusual and offers up some surprising twists and turns, particularly towards the end. Flora suffers from an unusual condition, which means she only has lasting memories up to the age of ten, and since then most things are wiped from her memory in hours. Until she is kissed by a young man. What happens after that forms the bulk of the novel, but the flashbacks are important too. A love story with a difference.
- Where the World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean
She has done it again; this author creates totally believable little worlds, this time cold and remote St Kilda, miles from the Scottish mainland, where no trees grow, and the small population scrapes a livelihood from the vast numbers of seabirds which live on the rocky cliffs. And oh Quilliam! What a hero; I would have been totally in love if I’d read this at age eleven! An exciting tale of survival, based on a true event from the 18th century.
- Evie’s Ghost by Helen Peters
A child sent to stay with an eccentric relative in an old mansion; a tragic event from centuries ago; a ghost tapping at the window. Not original ideas in themselves maybe, but this novel lifts the timeslip theme out of the ordinary, and creates an exciting and convincing story, with authentic historical details slipped in for good measure. A good satisfying read for upper juniors.
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