Book of the Week

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher
Recommended by Ryan Ko

My Sister Lives On The Mantelpiece is written by British writer Annabel Pitcher. It is the first and most successful of her six novels, and has been nominated for over 25 awards and won the 2012 Branford Boase Award.

The novel follows the family of ten year old Jamie after the death of his sister, Rose, who was killed in a terrorist attack and who for the most part of the book 'lives' on the mantelpiece in an urn (hence the title).

Book of the Week

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Recommended by Kian Kamshad

And Then There Were None was one of the books that I read which I couldn’t put down. I have always enjoyed Christie’s style of murder mystery, and this was no exception. The book was captivating, thrilling, and at the same time, terrifying.

One aspect of this book that really made it stand out was the plot. The main theme of this book was the poem of the Ten Little Soldier Boys. The book is about ten people on an island near Devon. Their hosts, Mr Ulick Norman Owen and his wife Mrs Una Nancy Owen have not yet arrived. When a loudspeaker accuses them all of different murders, they come the the conclusion that their host doesn’t exist, and that U.N.Owen could be abbreviated to unknown. One by one, they start dying the same way the soldier boys do, and they conclude that they are being killed and that the killer is one of them.

Book of the Week

A Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt
Reviewed by Joseph Lakatos 

A Letter for the King is a fantasy novel set in roughly the middle ages. It is about a young squire named Tiuri who is sent on a mysterious and dangerous mission to deliver a secret message to the King of Unauwen beyond the Great Mountains.

On the night before he will be knighted a stranger approaches him and leads him for help.On his mission he encounters both friend and foe but whatever happens he must not trust anyone nor tell anyone the contents of the letter.

Fist of Five: an animal's perspective

Miss McLaren

The death just before Christmas of Richard Adams, author of Watership Down, prompts our first post of the year - an entry in our occasional 'fist of five' series.  These posts pull together five books or stories linked in some way - for instance, by author (Ben Phillips's five stories by H P Lovecraft), genre (Jake Curtis's five graphic novels), theme, idea or even simply by one word (for instance, Mr Hager's five books with 'road' in the title).  Today's post focusses on books that look at the world from an animal's point of view. 

Obviously, we have to kick off with Watership Down itself.  The story of two young rabbits - Hazel and his fragile, visionary brother, Fiver - who must lead their colony on a journey to find a new home when their old warren is destroyed, is as gripping as any epic quest, and, as anyone who read the novel as a young child can probably remember, full of dangers and dark, disturbing encounters.  There's a new animated version coming from the BBC and Netflix later this year. Read the novel now to see whether they'll do it justice.