What we’ve been reading and enjoying recently. A huge thank you to guest reviewer, Ava, age 13 from London. Freeze, written and illustrated by Chris Priestley (suggestion for ages (+9), reviewed by Ava. Maya’s regular English teacher is absent today, and supply Mr Kumar is......
Why We Fly by Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal It is senior year and the friendship between Eleanor and Chanel is changing. They have always been inseparable with a clear plan for their futures, but outside factors are changing their view of each other. Cheerleading......
Empress & Aniya by Candice Carty-Williams Alison Palmer reviews the first YA novel from the bestselling author of Queenie. What if there were people who actually looked out for you and cared enough to find out why you might be cross and angry about stuff?......
Mini Book Club – Year 7 Transition has been a resounding success. We teamed up with Hachette and Speakers for Schools to offer this free exciting activity for children as they move to secondary school. We wanted to provide a club to help build their confidence as readers and give......
National Teen Book Club delivers book clubs to young people from all over the UK, and so far, over 1,000 young people have taken part. We partner with Speakers for Schools to run the clubs, and we launched the first club together in June 2020. ......
We are extremely proud to support the work of The Diverse Book Awards by being the headline sponsor of the YA category. And what a collection of cracking reads to make the longlist. Follow the awards ceremony on the 21 October. to find out the......
Settle down with one of these great reads, suitable for ages 9 and over, 13 and over, and 16 and above. What have you been reading? Let us know The Great (Food) Bank Heist by Onjali Q.Rauf, illustrated by Elisa Paganelli (suggestion for ages 9+),......
When The Sky Falls by Phil Earle, reviewed by Alison Palmer This is a beautifully written story of Joseph finding his forever home in the confusion and chaos of the Second World War. Abandoned by his mother, with his father fighting in France, Joseph is......
Crown of Crowns by Clara Loveman, reviewed by Tami Wylie “In a kingdom where the ruling and lower classes live and die apart by law, a noblewoman and a commoner make a fatal mistake: they fall in love.” Crown of Crowns, the debut novel by......
Wonderland by Juno Dawson, reviewed by Alison Palmer This is a story told through the eyes of Alice, a trans pansexual girl who is always on the outside of things at her very posh London school, St Agnes. After she spends a night with the......
Love Frankie by Jacqueline Wilson, reviewed by Katy Donnelly Frankie is having a hard time. At home, her parents have split up and she quarrels with her older sister. Her mother has recently been diagnosed with MS and is struggling to cope with her job......
Run, Rebel by Manjeet Mann, reviewed by Graine Milner Amber runs. Her life isn’t easy – her father, tightly controlling, a drinker and abusive, doesn’t want Amber to do anything that might in any way bring shame to the family; her mother, illiterate, works hard......
The annual Reflecting Realities report by CLPE shows just how underrepresented black, Asian and minority ethnic protagonists are in children’s books. A mere 7% of the children’s books published in the UK over the last three years feature characters of colour. Compare this with the......
The Great Godden by Meg Rosoff, reviewed by Dymphna Flynn Every summer in a holiday house by the English seaside our unnamed narrator and their family fill their days with games, laughter, wholesome outdoor activities, and this year, they’re planning a wedding. But this year......
Sofia, a Sixth Former, at St Albans School wrote about running a Book Club for pupils at Beech Hyde Primary School. Our Book Clubs in Schools model works for secondary schools to run within a single school, but also for state or independent secondary schools......
This month’s glimpse into what we’re reading now. Do get in touch if you – or a young person you know – would like to write a review. Arctic Star by Tom Palmer (suggestion for ages 9+) ‘You do know that some men who go......
We’ve teamed up with Hachette and Speakers for Schools to offer this free exciting activity for children transitioning into Year 7. We know that this year it will be particularly important to support pupils during the summer and that being a confident reader is vital......
This month, we have three very different but equally arresting books. What are your current recommended reads? Featherlight by Peter Bunzl (suggestion for ages 9+) This is a beautiful tale that evokes the stories of the real heroines like Grace Darling and Ida Lewis who......
National Teen Book Club is a free UK-wide virtual book club for teenagers launched by Book Clubs in Schools and educational equality charity Speakers for Schools. Schools and individual pupils can register here National Teen Book Club aims to make reading and discussing a book......
Jane Austen Investigates is a new series of books by award-winning author Julia Golding. The book arrived in a beautiful parcel with a letter, tea and chocolate – a perfect package. The Abbey Mystery is part glorious historical fiction and part gothic mystery. Add a......
SLS-UK is a collective of Schools Library Services covering the length and breadth of the UK. Through our subscriptions, consultancy and librarian services, we work with schools to help them develop hubs for learning, exploration and self-development. In London, our aim is to offer every......
Jane Smiley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist whose latest novel The Strays of Paris is hard to pin down genre-wise. An animal adventure story, it reads like a fable and is perfect for readers aged eleven and over. Paras is a spirited young racehorse who......
Our friends at the Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation run the most amazing adventure story competition for young people up to 21 years old, and they have kindly written a blog about it. Last year’s winners are featured in the pictures. The closing date this......
Book leaders going a chosing a book at a bookshop, ...
Here’s our latest pick of books to escape with. For ages nine and over to 16 plus. The Humiliations of Welton Blake by Alex Wheatle (suggestion for ages 9+) This book made me laugh out loud. It follows the trials and tribulations of Welton Blake.......