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Scream Street – Fang of the Vampire
Scream Street is a great new horror/comedy series from up and coming author and showman, Tommy Donbavand. The first in this series is called Fang of the Vampire and deals with the arrival in Scream Street of the Watson Family. 10 year old Luke was normal until his tenth birhtday when he twice changes into a werewolf. Luke and Mrs and Mr Watson are moved by GHOUL (Government Housing of Unusual Life-Forms) to Scream Street. Its your normal community filled with vampires, werewolfs, zombies and monsters! Lukes parents hate it and Luke wants them to move back to normality but has to find six relics left behind ny the founding fathers in order to do this.
These books are literally a scream from start to finish. The humour is great, aimed smack at it target audience of 10-13 year olds. Tommy’s way with words make these books brilliant reading. The scene where Luke first encounters a zombie is real class.
I haven’t read any of the others yet (they’re always out of the library), but would recommend these books for kids of all ages. The writing flows and before you know you’re at the end. A great new addition to this genre. If you like these books check out Tommy’s website
If I Stay – Gayle Forman
This is another of what I call the misery books! A couple of years ago, you couldn’t move for all the books about people dying, usually from cancer. Don’t get me wrong, there were some really good books in the genre – notably ‘Before I Die’ and ‘Life on the Refrigerator Door’.
If I Stay is a book from the misery genre, however this book far from being morbid is full of love and hope. It follows the life and death (?) of a seventeen year old girl Mia. Through the clever and seamless use of flashbacks the book tells Mia’s story through her eyes and voice. It tells of her blossoming love for Adam, her fears of being apart from the crowd and most of all her deep family life.
As I said early this isn’t a sad book considering the tradegy in it. You come out of it feeling not that you’ve been through the mill but in a postive, uplifting way.
Killing God – Kevin Brooks
Kevin Brooks has come up with book after book of tightly written, modern writing with both feet firmly panted in the real world. Martyn Pig was a classic with its black humour. Being was almost sci-fi in its content and a real page-turning right through to its gloriously ‘up in the air’ ending. Black Rabbit Summer, nominated for this years Carnegie Medal, was deeply routed in today’s society, producing controversy when it was banned by certain schools.
Killing God is another brilliantly woven tale of modern Britain. Before anyone starts to think about banning this book however, its not an anti-religion book. It follows the story of Dawn Bundy a fifteen year old girl and she struggles to fit in. She professes to not caring what she looks like. Her dad disappeared when she was 13 and ever since then she’s blamed god.
In true Brooks fashion however, she’s using all of this to hide a terrible secret. Her mother has turned to drink and drugs as a way of coping. Dawn disappears into her own world where her only friends appear to be her two dogs, Jesus and Mary, a loner called Splodge and her music in the form of the Jesus and Mary Chain – whose lyrics grace most chapters. That is until two of the ‘coolest’ girls in school befriend her.
Once again Kevin has produced a great work of fiction. You start to run out of superlatives after a while when describing his writing. Brooks produces yet again the high standard of writing you’ve come to expect. In his catalogue there’s not one ‘bum’ book. It’s not surprising that both teenagers and adults rate him highly.
Forbidden Island – Malcolm Rose
The Kiss of Death won many awards in the past few years for Malcolm Rose and Forbidden Island is his ‘follow up’. Although its not in anyway a sequel to Kiss of Death its written in the same style and for the same audience.
The premise of the book is that a group of teenagers set out on a boat to coast the Scottish Islands. They come across an island that’s not on the GPS or the map and, yes you’ve guessed it, moor their boat to investigate the island. They discover a secret that the government and army don’t want them to reveal to the world. Its a secret that goes back over 50 years to the time of WW2.
This book is skillfully written by Malcolm and importantly keeps the reader turning those pages towards the taut and tense finish. There’s a touch of the Famous Five in there as well. Teenagers exploring on their own without their parents, although no Famous Five novel I’ve read comes close to this one in emotion. This is a must for any school library.
Malcolm’s books go down really well with both upper primary and lower secondary age levels. They lap up the Traces series as well as Kiss of Death. For me I’d love to see a return for his pair of maverick detectives Lawless and Tilley -How about it Malcolm?
The Demon’s Lexicon – Sarah Rees Brennan
Sometimes I browse through Waterstones to research stock for the library, other times it might be one of the library suppliers. However occasionally I’ll order ‘blind’ through Amazon. The last way isn’t always satisfactory, mainly down to not seeing the actual book. However when I have a recommendation I’ll tend to order this way – its cheaper! The Demon’s Lexicon is one of these ‘Amazon’ books. Recommended by one of my Y10 readers as a good book.
The Demon’s Lexiconis, in the words of the author, an urban fantasy. That is a magic rooted in the real world. It certainly starts that way with the repairing of that mundane of objects, a sink! However quickly this book introduces us to a world of magicians and demons who whilst occupy the normal society are ‘not of this world’.
The story follows two magicians, Nick and Alan, brothers and their friendship with a couple of mere mortals. It follows their quest to rid Alan of the demons mark before he’s consumed by the dark side. There’s a lot of pace to the story. It never gives up. The writing is tense and thrills the reader at every page change. And as for the Goblins Fair – I really want to go to one of those, sounds amazing!
If you enjoy fantasy fiction sited in the real world then this story will thrill you. If you were into the recent ITV series Demons then this is the sort of story that’ll leave you wanting more. Luckily for you, there’s another two to be published during the next two years. You won’t regret buying this book.
Frozen in Time – Ali Sparkes
In 1956 two children, and their dog, are put into cryonic suspension by their father. In 2009 two children find the chamber they are kept and accidentally unfreeze them. Will they be able to cope with life in the 21st century with its cars and fast food? Will their bodies cope with be frozen? Will they escape the clutches of the authorities ?
Imagine you’d been frozen for over 50 years. You’d have missed man landing on the moon, Vietnam, the miners strike and the Thatcherite years! The world would seem decidedly alien in appearance. Gone are normal wholesome eating and in comes Pot Noodles! A lot of the book is taken up with the characters finding out what’s happening in the world today.
This is a new book written by the author of the ‘Shapeshifter’ series. Although there is a sci-fi backdrop to this book, it’ll appeal to most readers because of the humour threads that run through the book.
This is an intriguing book. It’s roots in the Famous Five style novels come to the forefront and are brought bang up to date with a thrilling adventure being woven into the storyline. Recommended not just to the sci-fi community but it gives a flavour of how life has changed in Britain in the past 50 years. Has it changed for the better ? You decide.
