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Welcome to Young Writers - Young Writer's Recommended Reads

Each month we’ll bring you our recommendations of books that we hope will be of interest to you. If you would like to provide a review, as a reader, for any of these titles please email us at youngwriters@forwardpress.co.uk with 'Reader's Book Review' in the subject line.


March 2010 Celebrate World Book Day on March 4th 2010 by reading one of these fantastic books. Send us your review and you could feature in either Scribbler! or Wordsmith magazines, or even be published on our website!

The Rascally Cake by Jeanne Willis (Author) and Korky Paul (Illustrator) Published by Andersen Press Ltd Available now RRP £5.99 hardcover ISBN 978-1842707173 The ghastly Mr Skumskins O’Parsley's favourite dishes include worm cast butties, squashed tadpoles on toast and bogey burgers. O’Parsley decides one day to bake an extra special cake, with more revolting ingredients than you can possibly imagine. However, when the cake decides to eat him, he realises it is time to mend his ways. The fantastic rhymes are accompanied by Korky Paul’s brilliant illustrations. Recommended for readers 5+

Boom by Mark Haddon Published by David Fickling Books Available now RRP £10.99 hardback ISBN 978-0385616294 From the moment that Jim and his best friend Charlie bug the staffroom and overhear two of their teachers speaking to each other in a secret language, they know there’s an adventure on its way. But what does ‘spudvetch’ mean, and why do Mr Kidd’s eyes flicker with fluorescent blue light when Charlie says it to him? Perhaps Kidd and Pearce are bank robbers talking in code. Perhaps they’re spies. Perhaps they’re aliens. Whatever they are, Jimbo and Charlie are determined to find out. There really is an adventure on its way. A nuclear-powered, one hundred-ton adventure with reclining seats and a buffet car. And as it gathers speed and begins to spin out of control, it can only end in one way ...with a boom! Recommended for readers aged 7+

The Pickle King by Rebecca Promitzer Published by Chicken House Available now RRP £6.99 ISBN 978-1906427016 Recipe Ingredients: A small town called Elbow; rain; five misfit kids; one bad dog; a jar of Herman’s Devil Tongue Chilli. Bring ingredients together, add a real-life dead body and a missing eyeball, and have yourself one crazy, red-hot adventure. The Pickle King is about that wonderful belief children have in finding something extraordinary behind even the most boring. It’s a terrific, highly original, sometimes scary, deadpan funny read. It stars a gang of unlikely friends thrown together one wet summer in the small town of Elbow, famous for only two things: chilli pickle and rain. Already bored, they hope something will turn up, but what none of them expect is a real-life dead body with a missing eyeball! Soon the mystery of who killed Herman, owner of the giant pickle factory, becomes a crazy adventure. Recommended for readers 9+

The Medusa Project: The Thief by Sophie McKenzie and Walking the Walls by Chris Higgins – special World Book Day 2010 edition Published by Hodder Children’s Books / Simon & Schuster; World Book Day edition Available from 4th March 2010 RRP £5.00 ISBN 978-0956287793 Two great authors and two brilliant stories can only equal one great read this World Book Day. This special edition is being released on World Book Day 2010 for the amazing price of £5. *The Thief* - Fourteen years ago, four babies were implanted with the Medusa gene - a gene for psychic abilities. Now teenagers, Nico, Ketty, Ed and Dylan have been brought together by government agents to create a secret crime-fighting force - The Medusa Project. On their way to a distant boot camp, the four teens are attacked and forced to carry out a high-risk diamond theft... *Walking the Walls* - Felix is not scared to be different - but his fellow pupils find him confusing. Felix doesn't care, but everyone around him seems to have something to say about how he’s living his life ... Why can't they just let him be Felix … ? Recommended for readers 12+

Children’s Classic

The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, first published in 1912. Published by many different publishers as is widely available online and in the high street. A land before time and a journey beyond belief. Unlucky in love, but desperate to prove himself in an adventure, journalist Ed Malone is sent to test the infamous and hot-tempered Professor Challenger on his bizarre South American expedition findings - not least his sketches of a strange plateau and the monstrous creatures that appear to live there. But rather than being angry at his questions, Challenger invites him along on his next field trip. Malone is delighted: until it becomes clear that the Professor was telling the truth about the terrible lost world he has discovered. Will they all survive the terrifying creatures on the island? And will anyone ever believe what they saw there? This novel has been adapted into film 4 times, firstly in 1925, then in 1960, 1992 and 1998. It has been adapted for radio, had mini TV series spin offs and even had a film sequel Return to the Lost World released in 1992 also. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is probably most famous for his fictional character creation, Sherlock Holmes, though The Lost World too is an excellent work of fiction.

Don’t forget, it’s World Book Day on March 4th, what better excuse do you need to get reading! If you read a great book, then send us your book review to youngwriters@forwardpress.co.uk with ‘Online Book Review’ in the subject line. << \| 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 \| 5 \| 6 \| 7 \| 8 \| 9 \| 10 \| >>

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