One of my children’s favourite things is to pore over The Guinness Book of Records and read out some of the most bizarre and ridiculous things people do to make a record. They love the sports records and amazing achievements humans have made. And inevitably they pore over the Extreme bodies section and giggle and gasp.
Spud 2 takes place in 1991, when Spud is attending his second year of high school at an elite boarding school in the Natal Midlands. The book juggles between Spud’s privileged boarding school and his small stuffy suburban house in Durban, where he lives with his mom and dad.
Freak. Bully. When Miriam Fisher enters Grade 7 her life becomes unbearable. Tormented by a group of popular girls, ridiculed for having a small bust and for saying what she thinks and being a little ‘weird’, Miriam finds herself pushed to breaking point.
Livvy’s mom has suddenly started teaching her important things like how to cook, clean and deal with her brother – Isaac. Livvy doesn’t mind, it’s just, she feels like there’s something her mom’s not telling her. Mom has even given Livvy her own diaries from when she was young.
Considering he drew the designs for some of the objects we now use most often, Leonardo da Vinci is the perfect inventor/artist to introduce to your children. This beautiful book showcases six great inventions from flying machines to architecture, hydraulic power to mechanical inventions, war machines and a mechanical man.
This book is the first book in The Giver quartet, followed by Gathering Blue, Messenger and lastly Son. The Giver has been made in to a movie with the same title, which was filmed in South Africa.
YA
Guest review by Francis Hayton, Age 12, Grade 7
Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn’t believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.
Never, ever cry… She always knew she was different, but after her mother was killed in a freak accident, seventeen year old Eureka distances herself from her friends and family – except for her best friends, Brooks and Cat. But when she meets the mysterious boy with the turquoise eyes, her world is turned upside down. Her mother always loved puzzles, so when Eureka finds an ancient story, of heartbreak and sorrow, should she even be surprised?
Patrick Ness is a very unusual writer. His “Knife of Never Letting Go”, the first book in the “Chaos Walking” trilogy was startlingly original. “A Monster Calls” has become a publishing sensation since it was published in 2011. It has won numerous awards, being the first book ever to win both the Carnegie Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal. It hits with enormous power. It is about a young teenage boy trying to cope with his mother’s serious illness and then her death.
A very different “Holocaust novel” for young people, this one is really ideal for boys aged 13 – 16. It tells the story of young Karl Stern, who is taken under the wing of the champion boxer and German hero, Max Schmeling, and who works hard at re-inventing himself as a boxer to cope with the growing anti-semitic violence of Nazis both in school and on the streets of Berlin in the 1930’s.
By Sarah Dessen (Penguin)
Emaline and Luke have been together all through high school in a small beach town where everyone knows your name. It’s the summer before college and Emaline’s life is about to change. Luke does something she can’t forgive and a sophisticated New Yorker called Theo is in town to film a documentary with Emaline as his assistant.
If you haven’t heard the rave reviews of this book – you’re in for a treat. An emotional story that goes far beyond a YA title, I was pulled into the story of cancer patient Hazel and her boyfriend Augustus from the first page. Hazel has cancer in her lungs. She has to walk around with a breath contraption and sleep attached to a machine that breathes for her. Augustus is the ‘healthier’ one – his cancer took his leg but he’s now in remission.
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