reviews 10 – 14 Middle/Secondary continued


              out that the owner is involved in body snatching – digging up bodies from their graves, stealing anything they can from the body, and then selling the bodies for medical study, presents  Anna, who appears to be blind and helps her escape a beating from her father. The story ends with Georgina and the not so blind girl escaping for a new life away from London. Georgina’s


plight highlights the


      this period, and is beautifully written and produced with lovely end papers and decorations at the bottom of each page, making it a lovely book to hold. The story ends with George and Anna having to come clean about their various deceptions and builds for a sequel –hopefully! The story matter does make this for the 13+ end of this age range, and because of this would be good not  able reader too.


JF North Face 


Matt Dickinson, Vertebrate Publishing, 282pp, 978-1-9102-4046-5,£6.99 pbk


This is the second in the Everest Files series and is the story of Tashi and her family as the struggle to make a living in the high Himalayas. The story begins as 18 year old Ryan is trying  and taking with him a memento of a Nepali friend. Unfortunately whilst at base camp they are all overtaken by  Klaus is buried by the onslaught of snow. It is Tashi with her knowledge and quick thinking that enables them  worried about her brother who was up at camp 6 and decides to climb           that he can reach the summit of the mountain. But the two young people      Chinese forces who want people off the mountain. This is a well written story with a


wealth of knowledge behind it. Matt      mountaineer and has reached the summit of Everest. His knowledge and understanding of the dangers and of that part of the world are evident in the way he creates the story. However the mountaineering aspect is only part of this story, the other half revolves around the lives of Tibetans in a country that was invaded by the Chinese in the late 1950s. We are given a picture of a whole way of life being dismantled and centuries of tradition being dismissed. Of course this raises so many questions for young people and I am sure many        This is one of those stories that keeps repeating itself in your mind as you go over the events and wonder where people get the strength to overcome some of these challenges. I am sure that this will be popular with boys and girls as there are such strong


 Rugby Flyer





Gerard Siggins, O’Brien Press, 176pp, 978-1847178190, £6.99 pbk


      interest in rugby at a high, Gerard Siggins’s Rugby Flyer, the fourth in his Rugby Spirit series, is very       action – Siggins was a sports    paper – mystery and ghost story, it’s  Young Eoin Madden is a keen rugby


 the chance to train over the summer at top team Leinster. Eoin is actually a Munster supporter, but mature enough to put normal rivalries aside  best players are invited to take part in a prestigious European tournament at Twickenham no less, and Eoin makes the team. That’s where his other talent comes to the fore: as well as being a gifted young rugby player, Eoin can see ghosts. Who should he      Obolensky, whose try for England against the All Blacks in 1936 is rugby legend. Obolensky is looking for a missing piece of treasure, one half of a Fabergé egg in fact, and Eoin is able   millions, but meeting Obolensky is more satisfying by far for Eoin, who manages to recreate that famous try, snatching the ball on the right wing and using his pace to streak away from the surprised opposition before 


14+ Secondary/Adult New Talent The Island 


Olivia Levez, Rock the Boat, 9781780748597 320pp, £7.99 pbk


‘I am Medusa Girl. Cold as rock, hard as stone’. This is how Fran armours herself against a world that in her eyes offers nothing but betrayal. The only brightness in her life, her step-brother, Monkey. Then even he is taken away, and Fran  a survival boot camp in Indonesia. She doesn’t get there; instead, she is washed up on an island, the only survivor it seems when the plane crashes into the ocean. The survival novel has a long


history from Defoe to Morpurgo and Martel. Here, Olivia Levez in her debut takes familiar ingredients but through the medium of her feisty, contemporary main protagonist gives them fresh vigour. Fran is a very recognisable teenager; rebellious, intractable, unlikeable – but a survivor; she is a girl determined to beat life at its own terms whether in the city or on a deserted tropical island. And this island is as much of a character as Fran, a beguiling paradise – and a hostile battleground. Levez does not make the mistake of providing Fran with everything she needs; survival is a harsh battle. However, the reader is in no doubt that Fran


Salt to the Sea 


Ruta Sepetys, Penguin, 400pp, 978-0-1413-4740-0, £7.99 pbk


Really good sports series are thin on the ground, particularly those featuring rugby (Tom Palmer’s      descriptions of games, tactics and training in this book will thrill sports mad young readers, whether rugby is their game or not, and the background ghost and mystery story will keep everyone reading. Do google that Obolensky try too, there are clips on YouTube!


MMa


‘Suffering emerged the victor’ writes the author in a brief epilogue to this epic story set in the closing days of the Second World War. Its theme is the worst disaster in maritime history and still the least discussed. On January 30, 1945, nine thousand passengers,  thousand children, converged on the German ship Wilhelm Gustoff moored off the East Prussian coast. Sailing out grossly over-laden but still leaving many behind also desperate to escape the advancing Russian armies, it was torpedoed shortly afterwards by a Soviet submarine. Only a few survived, and in this      times these include three of the book’s main characters. Told as if from four different voices,


        young main characters pass through what must often have seemed like hell on earth. Crying unaccompanied children, bitter cold, no food supplies and constant harassment from the


can be her own worst enemy, but it is also clear that determination and imagination are all important. This would not be a teen novel without romance. And here it comes in the form of the gorgeous Rufus. Then Levez adds a twist that   and satisfying.


This right-of-passage story has a vigour that will grip the reader       on to the last. Told by Fran as she faces present dangers while remembering the circumstances leading this point, the narrative has a powerful immediacy. It will not be easy to forget Fran, and Olivia Levez is a talent to watch.


FH


air all go to make up an unforgettable picture of civilised life in melt-down. The little group that gets together at the start of the story provides some support to its members, yet each of them has a secret too shaming to share but impossible to put aside. Within all this misery and privation there are still acts of charity and kindness from a dedicated young nurse and an aged cobbler who takes one lone small child into his care. A fourth voice is provided by Alfred, a pathetic, deluded young Nazi, despised by his peers and a hero only to himself. His imaginary, self-aggrandising letters to the girl he fancied but who in fact hates him provide some black humour in this otherwise harrowing tale. But Ruta Sepetys is a good writer as


well as a dedicated researcher into what happened during those dreadful times. Her story is skilfully compiled and utterly convincing save perhaps for a couple of twists before the end. The concentration on the appalling conditions some children had to live through is sadly topical. And the message of hope, however guarded, that still gets through by the end is all the more welcome for being so very hard earned. NT


Books for Keeps No.217 March 2016 29


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32