Rebecca Stead (Andersen Press) At age 8, Bridge was involved in a serious accident where she nearly died. Now she often feels a bit of an oddball, and despite sticking together through thick and thin, promising never to fight, she and her friends Tab and Emily are finding it harder and harder to keep that …
bullying
Apple and Rain
Sarah Crossan (Bloomsbury Children’s Books) Apple has been brought up by her rather strict Irish Catholic grandmother after her mother walked out on her one doomed Christmas morning. Since then she has not stopped hoping that one day she would return. When she eventually returns, out of the blue, it could not be at a better time: …
Klaus Vogel and the Bad Lads
David Almond, with artwork by Vladimir Stankovic (Barrington Stoke) The Bad Lads have always been more mischief makers than trouble makers, more scamps than bullies. That is until older boy Joe takes over as gang leader. He has other darker ideas, and though at first Tonto thinks he is pretty cool, he soon becomes weary …
The Julian Chapter
R.J. Palacio (Random House Children’s Books) I don’t usually review ebooks because I don’t actually read them. But The Julian Chapter is only, at the moment anyway, available as an ebook so here it is, a first on Library Mice. I loved Wonder, R.J. Palacio’s first book, and you can read my review here to give …
Jane, the Fox & Me
Fanny Britt (text) & Isabelle Arsenault (illustrations) translated from French by Christelle Morelli and Susan Ouriou (Walker Books) Hélène has a tough time at school, secluded and taunted by her former friends about her weight. At home, her mother is exhausted and overworked. She finds comfort in reading Jane Eyre, identifying with the heroine’s hardships …
Magical Mystical Australia
Lately, I have come across two beautiful little novels, both with a magical, mystical atmosphere, and both set in Australia. The Naming of Tishkin Silk Glenda Millard, with artwork by Caroline Magerl (Phoenix Yard Books) Griffin Silk is an uncommon little boy, and it becomes quite obvious to him as he soon as he starts school and …
Wonder
R.J. Palacio(Bodley Head) August Pullman is a bright, happy ten-year-old who until now has been home-schooled by his parents, in an attempt to protect him from people’s cruel reactions to his facial abnormalities. But now he is starting school for the first time at Beecher Prep and he is petrified. Will people accept him as …
The Weight of Water
Sarah Crossan(Bloomsbury Children’s Books) Kasienka’s father has left her mother and moved to England. The mother, persuaded that she can make him change his mind, uproots Kasienka’s whole life, fitting it into a suitcase and a laundry bag, and they arrive in Coventry. Forced to live in a bedsit, Kasienka and her mother must get …