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Review: The Howling Hag Mystery
Ingredients: 1 school plagued with curses; 1 young witch who can’t do magic; 1 talking cat sleuth on holiday. Method: Place the ingredients in a big cauldron and stir well over a low fire at midnight. Dancing and chanting optional. Raven Charming has always known magic is real – she comes from a family…
Read MoreReview: Woodston – The Biography Of An English Farm
Lying on the ground at the edge of a ripe wheat field, John Lewis-Stempel describes in loving detail all the life he observes: flowers, insects, birds, a field mouse even a toad waddles past; he is mesmerised and stays there for hours. For 30 years from 1930, Lewis-Stempel’s grandparents ran Woodston farm. It was…
Read MoreStarting Secondary School?
Moving up to secondary school can come with a whole raft of conflicting emotions. Fortunately, there are some great books to help primary school leavers explore this time of change. So whether they can’t wait to get stuck in, want to reinvent themselves, or just want a straightforward guide to life in secondary school,…
Read MoreReview: The Wide, Wide Sea
The Wide, Wide Sea, written by Anna Wilson and illustrated by Jenny Løvlie, is published by Nosy Crow in collaboration with the National Trust and will make a valuable addition to any bookshelf, school library or topic box. This lyrical text explores two days in the life of a little girl enjoying the excitement…
Read MoreReview: The Book Of Trespass
Nick Hayes’ The Book Of Trespass shocks, challenges and informs our understanding and acceptance of land ownership and the law in England. William the Conqueror began the process of exclusion, defining the royal forests as spaces from which commoners were barred then parcelling up huge areas to gift to his barons who assumed ownership…
Read MoreThe 2021 Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist
The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best sci-fi novel published during the previous year. Since celebrated author Arthur C. Clarke gave a grant to establish the award in 1987, notable past winners have included Margaret Atwood, China Miéville, Colson Whitehead and Emily St. John Mandel. Always interesting and diverse,…
Read MoreReview: Peanut Jones and the Illustrated City
Rob Biddulph is an award-winning author and illustrator of picture books, but this is his first published novel and we can easily see it garnering more awards for him! Peanut Jones is miserable because her beloved artist father has gone missing but whilst looking through the collection of illustrated post-its he drew for her,…
Read MoreBooks Make Good Companions
As a social enterprise, The Bookery actively seeks to help people within our community. Many of our projects focus on health and wellbeing including reading to residents in care homes and dementia cafes, promoting national campaigns about books on health, community engagement activities and supporting individuals through employment and volunteering activities. Loneliness is seen by…
Read MoreFootball Books To Take Extra Time Over
With the country once more in the grips of football fever thanks to the Euros, now is the perfect time to seek out some of the more interesting and possible overlooked books which show the economic, social and psychological angles of our most beloved national sport. Africa United: How Football Explains Africa by Steve…
Read MoreReview: Lost Children Archive
A thrillingly ambitious novel that spotlights the cruelties and injustices of child migration from Central America to the USA. Telling the stories of one family’s road trip to the deserts of Arizona to find the homeland and memorials of the last free Apaches and the desperate train journey taken by some ‘illegal’ child migrants,…
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