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The Last Days of Archie Maxwell - Annabel Pitcher

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Annabel Pitcher has a track record of awards and praise, and I can understand why. I read and enjoyed her first three books, with Silence is Goldfish being particularly powerful. It was clear that The Last Days of Archie Maxwell would be a slightly different reading experience due to its narrator and probable intended audience; while Pitcher’s protagonists tend to be girls, this book tells us the story of Archie, a teenage boy who is facing a lot of confusion about his life, friends and family. The book was designed to be physically easy to read, as many people have trouble reading for various reasons. As a result, the novel is short and manageable and the font is large and clear. The pretty rain-themed headers at the start of each chapter are helpful as they break up the text and allow the reader to track their progress through the book. As for the plot, the premise is interesting: Archie’s father reveals he is gay and leaves his family. Archie and his sisters are in shock at
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The Secret Cooking Club: Confetti & Cake - Laurel Remington

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The sequel to The Secret Cooking Club , Laurel Remington’s Confetti & Cake has a pretty, colourful cover which, combined with the title, gives the impression that the book will be light-hearted and fun. The blurb adds to this idea, and so I expected an easy read that would not be particularly profound. However, I was in for a shock – Confetti & Cake is, in reality, a complex novel with real depth and some incredibly sad and heavy moments. It moved me, made me think, and never failed to surprise me. The protagonist is Scarlett, a thirteen-year-old aspiring cook whose blog becomes an unexpected success and catapults her to fame. As well as learning to live with her newfound stardom, Scarlett has to come to terms with her mother remarrying, her father’s attempts to contact her after years of silence, and the approaching anniversary of the death of her best friend’s parents. Scarlett also navigates the tricky waters of first love, and struggles to find a balance between onl
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Songs About Us - Chris Russell

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From Westlife and Take That to The Vamps and One Direction, boybands will be a familiar part of life for most millennials. Even though I am personally more interested in folk and indie music than pop, the phenomenon of boybands and how they are so deeply adored does fascinate me. I was looking forward to finding out what Chris Russell had to say on the subject in Songs About Us . The sequel to Songs About a Girl , Songs About Us centres on Charlie Bloom, a gifted teen photographer who is asked to take backstage photos for the popular fictional boyband Fire&Lights. Charlie finds herself the object of two members’ affections, and is faced with the decision of whether to stick with misunderstood Gabe or take a chance on gentle Olly. If that all sounds cheesy and fan-fiction-esque, it is. However, fortunately there is much more to this novel than the romance, and it is the other layers of plot that make Songs About Us a success. Firstly, there is an emphasis on family, and how
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Tender Earth - Sita Brahmachari

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One of my favourite series is Hilary McKay’s Casson books; I love the cosiness and chaos of everyday family life that they evoke. Since finishing the series I’ve been looking for a fictional family to fill the void the Cassons left, and now I think I’ve found them. Sita Brahmachari’s Levensons are lovable and realistic. Their third book, Tender Earth , and its narrator, Laila, offer a world to escape into that is both flawed and, at times, incredibly beautiful. Laila is the youngest child and has always been babied. When her two elder siblings leave home at the same time, she has to learn very quickly to stand on her own two feet. Once settled into secondary school, Laila begins to search for some bigger project to be part of – she considers trying dance but then, inspired by the memory of her activist Nana Josie, she decides to give campaigning a go. Considering its subject matter, it is inevitable that Tender Earth will be a somewhat political novel. Not every reader will agre
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The True Colour of Forever/The Unlikelies - Carrie Firestone

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I was new to Carrie Firestone’s books and began The True Colour of Forever (also published as The Unlikelies ) with some curiosity. The premise of a girl becoming YouTube-famous is very topical to our generation. However, the blurb on my edition of the novel is misleading – Sadie does not become some big star, she just receives a small amount of fame locally after going to the aid of a distressed baby. Once I had readjusted my expectations for the story, I did enjoy it on a superficial level. Sadie’s voice is realistic for a seventeen-year-old, the other main characters are fairly engaging and the locations – various parts of the Hamptons in New York – are vividly described. I appreciated the prominence of Sadie’s family in the novel: her father’s bizarre but intriguing backstory, and Sadie’s interactions with her two very different grandmothers. There are some nice little details of daily life that made the novel feel that bit closer to reality. However, I also had a number of
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The Girl of Glass - Holly Webb

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Holly Webb has written a number of series for children – the Puppies and Kittens series, the Rose and Lily stories – and when a novel is part of a larger series it is tempting to suspect it may lack individuality. Indeed, having read some of Webb’s animal stories when I was younger I can confirm that they tend to be very alike, though well-written. Her Venice series, however, is something else. I reviewed its first instalment, The Water Horse , for Cuckoo back in 2015 and I was impressed by how Webb succeeded in making the setting of historical Venice – with some magic thrown in – seem so appealing to young readers. The writer’s passion for the city shone from the pages and the sights, sounds and smells of the palaces and canals transported me back in time. The Girl of Glass is the fourth book in the series, and I was hoping it would match the quality of The Water Horse while also covering new territory. It did – quite literally. We are taken out of Venice proper and instea
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Run - Kody Keplinger

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Kody Keplinger is known for her excellently gritty high-school mean-girl novels, including The DUFF , which was recently made into a film. So my thoughts on beginning Run were that it would probably read along the same lines. However, to say it surprised me is an understatement. Run genuinely blew me away. Set in a small town in Kentucky, it transports the reader to an intense, beautiful but very flawed world which, as the book covers a year, we see in every season. Issues tied to the US South such as religion, family loyalty and the want for education versus a simple life are all held up to the light. Keplinger is clearly proud of being a southerner and has huge affection for her own small hometown, yet she also captures perfectly the frustration of the protagonists who just want to “get out of Mursey” and see something else of the world. Who are our protagonists? The narrative is split between Agnes, who tells the past, and Bo who brings us the present. Agnes is a kind, gentl
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