A-Z Recommendation P: The Portal

Our book recommendation for the letter P is... The Portal (Tangled in Time #1)

by Kathryn Lasky 

Snr Fiction –  Currently available in only Book format 

After Rose’s mum dies suddenly in an accident, Rose is sent to live with her Grandmother Rosalinda in a fancy but rundown house in a different city.  Rose designs clothing, upcycles thrift shop buys, and writes a fashion blog and comes to the attention of the ‘mean girls’ at her new school. 

She is very unhappy in her school, finds it hard to settle in her grandmother’s mansion and feels happiest spending time with her grandmother in the amazing tudor-style greenhouse. One night she finds herself falling back in time to the 16th Century.  She finds herself at Hatfield House, the home of Princess Elizabeth, second daughter of King Henry VIII.  Elizabeth was banished to Hatfield after Henry had her mother Anne Boleyn executed.  Rose is hired to be Elizabeth’s servant and gets mixed up in the ‘politics at the palace’. 

Rose is given the gift of a golden locket containing a picture of her mother in one side, and an unidentified man (maybe her father?) in the other.  Rose sets off on a search for him, and the story moves between the 21st century with her grandmother and the 16th century looking for her father. 

Does anyone at Hatfield find out that Rose is a time-traveller?  Does Rose manage to find her father, and what century is he living in?  Can she find her way back to the 21st Century? 

A-Z Recommendation P: The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried

Our book recommendation for the letter P for YA is... 

The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried

Bit of a creepier book today. Our main character Dino is not bothered by the dead, in fact his family owns a funeral home so death is a regular occurrence for Dino. But when his ex best friend June is brought into the funeral home after dying suddenly  Dino is fulled with unanswered questions and unsolved emotions. So when Dino finds June walking, yes walking, around the funeral home he's not quite sure what to do.

With emotions running high and the two still annoyed with each other they must team up to figure out why June is up and walking around, and fast, because there is a reason bodies are buried quickly after death and June is starting to show why...

A-Z Recommendation O: Ottilie Colter and the Narroway Hunt

Our book recommendation for the letter O is... Ottilie Colter and the Narroway Hunt 

by Rhiannon Williams Snr Fiction – Available as ebook 

Ottilie’s brother Gully is kidnapped by the ‘Narroway Hunt’, a secret male-only group that train young boys to become huntsman, hunting monsters called ‘dredretches’.  

Ottilie disguises herself as a boy in order to try and rescue him.  Unfortunately they can’t get away and Ottilie has to join the hunt and train alongside Gully to become a huntsman. 

How long will she be able to hide the fact that she is a girl?  Will she be able to rescue Gully without giving away her Secret? 

This is the first book of the Narroway Trilogy. 

A-Z Recommendation O: Onyx & Ivory

Our book recommendation for the letter O for YA is... Onyx & Ivory 

This book is top on my TBR list at the moment it follows the story of Kate- nicknamed Traitor Kate after her father attempts to assassinate the King many years ago.

 After her father was sentenced to death Kate has been living on the outskirts of the town just trying to live as best she can.  She finds work as a member of the Relay, a group of highly skilled couriers that must be skilled with a bow and also be a skilled rider. 

Only the best can be Relay riders because if they are not finished by nightfall they are hunted by nightdrakes, deadly flightless dragons. 

Kate has a secret, shes a Wilder, a person gifted with magic that allows her to influence animals. Kate has to be careful as being a wilder is illegal and will insure her downfall if anyone was to figure out her secret. While on a courier run her magic leads her to the sight of a nightdrake attack. Her first thoughts are how did they attack in broad daylight but then she realizes the only survivor is Corwin, her childhood friend and first love she now has more to worry about then just the nightdrake

Kate and Corwins paths are then intertwined as they look into the daytime nightdrake attacks and discover that a much darker fate is heading towards the kingdom... 

A-Z Recommendation N: The Nothing to see Here Hotel

Our book recommendation for the letter N is... The Nothing to see Here Hotel

The Nothing to see here Hotel – Steven Butler 

Snr Fiction – Currently available in book format 

Frankie Banister lives in the ‘Nothing to see here Hotel’, on the outskirts of Brighton, with his Mum and Dad.  Frankie’s family is pretty unusual, he is a quarterling troll, his Dad is a halfling, and his Mum is a human. Frankie’s Granny Regurgita lives there with them and she is a very, very grumpy old Troll.   

This is not the usual hotel, it’s a special one where magical creatures can come to stay. Humans are not welcome, and they wouldn’t want to stay there anyway!   In such an unusual hotel of course they have some very strange staff members, Nancy the cook who is a giant black spider and Ooof the handyman is an Ogre.  

You will meet some cool characters in this book; The Molar Sisters (tooth fairy triplets), trolls and ogres, mermaids and werepoodles, goblins and pirates.  

One day a messenger flies in to tell them that a VIP guest, The Goblin Prince Grogbah, is due to arrive.  The Prince is not a good guy and is very demanding.  His arrival brings in a lot of very unwelcome guests and a lot of chaos and destruction follows! 

Check out other books by Steven Butler; The Wrong Pong Series, The Diary of Dennis the Menace. 

A-Z Recommendation N: The Nethergrim

Our book recommendation for the letter N for YA is... The Nethergrim

Set in the middle ages, The Nethergrim is full of magic, wizards, quests and strange disappearances. When children start disappearing from town some of the town folk cant help but notice that this has happened before many decades ago when the Nethergrim caused havoc! Could it be that its come back? Even after he was meant to have been slayed decades ago?

Edmund, the young son of the village innkeeper, is amazed by all things magic and wizards. He spends his free time reading and studying books of magic hoping to master whats inside.

This story takes Edmund and his friends on a grand adventure to figure out whats happening with all these strange disappearances, they will explore new places, fight for their lives and learn a lot on the way .

Great for fans of Eragon and Narnia

A-Z Recommendation M: Mortal Engines

Our book recommendation for the letter M for YA is... Mortal Engines

The earth has ceased to exist as we know it, towns and small communities now live on what they call traction cities. These cities are amazing feats of engineering with towns built on top of powerful tracks that carry them along the earth. Large traction cities pray on smaller traction cities to 'collect' (steal) their resources. 

Our main protagonist, hooded in a black scarf is foiled in her attempts to assassinate Thaddeus Valentine, head historian and famous archaeologist. She is forced to flee the city but with all available routes blocked by guards her only choice is to flee to the Out Country- the muddy remains of earth that is now nothing but traction tracks, but she is not alone. Tom the young middle class boy that foiled her attempted assassination has also ended up there, and wants to know why shes so determined to kill a man like Thaddeus, but she has her reasons, good reasons. 

But little does she know there is so much more happening in the seedy underbelly of this new world and everyone plays a much bigger part in it then they could ever realize.

A-Z Recommendation M: The Midnight Gang

Our book recommendation for the letter M is... The Midnight Gang

The midnight gang – David Walliams 

Snr Fiction – Available as book and eBook 

This is another hugely popular David Walliams book.  We have three ebook copies on our catalogue, and the book book version has been issued 86 times!! 

The Midnight Gang is set in a crumbly old London hospital called the Lord Funt Hospital, which is run by a cruel old Matron (think  Miss Trunchbull in Matilda!). 

The Midnight Gang are all patients in the children’s ward at the hospital.  There is Amber, George, Robin and Sally. When Tom is bonked on the head by a cricket ball at his very posh school, he also sent to the hospital. 

When Big Ben strikes 12 the children (except for Sally, who is very sick) set off on adventures around the hospital, assisted by The Porter, who has lived at the hospital all his life.  Amber is the leader of the Midnight Gang, but Tom helps out with things the others can’t (or won’t) do. 

Read the book to find out about the magical and naughty adventures the group have in the dead of night! 

Some other great David Walliams books are; The beast of Buckingham Palace, Grandpa’s great escape and The ice monster. 

Some interesting facts about The midnight gang – we have 3 ebook versions of this book and 4 books.  The books have so far been issued 86 times! 

A-Z Recommendation L: The Letter for the King

Our book recommendation for the letter L for YA is... The Letter for the King

This book was original published in 1962! and has recently been republished and given its time in the limelight with a new Netflix series based off it. Being hailed as "Game of Thrones of the younger age" this book is getting some great praise!

Tiuri is a knight in training, and is in the middle of his final test when a desperate man pleads with him to deliver a letter to King Unauwen. King Unauwen's castle it located over great mountains, treacherous rivers, menacing castles and unusual towns. Other fierce enemies are also after the letter and if this man couldn't make the journey to King Unauwen's castle how is he a seventeen year old boy who isn't even a knight yet going to make it?

Tiuri is going to need all the help he can get to deliver the letter and lucky for readers there are some brilliant characters on their way... and not all are on his side.